News: Pressed Journalist Accuses Judges of Fixing Competition.

liberalmusiclover

Quote:

The Canadians’ score in the free dance was 114.66; the Americans’ was 116.63. Coupled with the short program scores from Sunday night — with a new world record set by Davis and White, though they were out of sync in the crucial Finnstep compulsory sequence — Virtue and Moir finished at 190.99 overall. Davis and White came in at 195.52.

There was simply not a nearly five-point difference in the quality of their respective two skates.
Congratulations are in order for Davis and White, who’ve been skating together since they were 8-year-olds. I do not begrudge these wonderful athletes the first Olympic ice dance gold ever won by the U.S. They are superb skaters with a style all their own and particular strengths. Four years ago in Vancouver, they were silver and the Canadians were golden. In the free dance, their Scheherazade routine was more energetic and, I think, more attractive than the Petit Adagio performed by Virtue and Moir. All the programs were created and choreographed by the teams’ co-coach, Marina Zoueva.

But it’s a devious sport, ice dancing. Scores inflated just a smidge can make all the difference. That’s the reality of this venal “discipline”, which historically is more guilty of score-massaging than singles or pairs. Most people watching don’t know what they’re looking at and can respond only viscerally to what they see.

The skaters know, though. They have come up the ranks inside this system and learn early to accept what they cannot change, which is why they talk incessantly about skating for themselves and taking heart from the performances that just feel special, that become affixed in their memory albums. The rest is beyond their ken. That’s true for all subjectively scored sports but especially so — in its chronic and brazen partiality — in ice dance.

Read more here.

Thoughts???

Mezik

I agree that the Short Dance I had no understanding why Canada got second, but the Free Skate the results were good. I'm just happy they won a medal.

Goosey

Figure skating and ice dancing are the most corrupt and cheaty sports in the entire Olympics. This was already predicted and look, it came true.

"L’Equipe, the French sports magazine, quoted on Friday an anonymous senior Russian coach who says Russia and the United States have set up a “proposed barter” to help each other at the Sochi Olympic figure skating events.

[...] the United States would help Russia win the team gold event, while Russia would reciprocate by supporting U.S. ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White win gold over defending Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the L’Equipe source said."

Vote-swapping has been done before, and during the Cold War the West would all vote for Western skaters, and the East for Eastern skaters... totally bogus.

If I was president of the IOC I'd remove both of these sports from the roster.