Maofan7
02-14-2012, 11:55 PM
Interesting article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/10-years-later-figure-skating-still-feeling-effects-of-judging-scandal-at-salt-lake-olympics/2012/02/14/gIQAtMRbDR_story.html) in the Washington Post which marks the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Olympic Judging scandal.
Article reads:-
Ten years after the pairs judging scandal rocked the Salt Lake City Olympics, some say figure skating has yet to recover. Interest in skating in the United States has faded, and critics say a judging system adopted to prevent cheating has not only failed but has stripped the beauty from the sport. “I really don’t think it was that worth it, all the hubbub after Salt Lake City,” Johnny Weir said...Critics say the current system has flaws. There is room to manipulate marks or prop skaters up through the component scores, largely still a matter of personal opinion even with established criteria to judge the individual components. A judge with a music background, for example, may view a skater’s interpretation of “Tosca” very differently than someone without, and it’s hard to challenge their interpretations. Another criticism is that the points system doesn’t penalize mistakes enough. Reigning world champion Patrick Chan had to put both hands down on a quadruple toe loop in the short program at Four Continents last Thursday, but it wasn’t counted as a fall so he didn’t receive a one-point deduction off his total score. He did get the maximum negative execution scores for the element, but the 7.30 points he received for the quad were still a point higher than Ross Miner got for a clean triple flip. “To get more points, the skaters execute elements beyond their capabilities. As a consequence, the programs are filled with errors and falls which, of course, damage the general presentation,” Sonia Bianchetti, a former Olympic-level judge and the first woman elected to an ISU office, said in an email. “Is it better to see a beautiful program, with a good choreography, skated to the music with good speed and flow and maybe an easier jump or jump combination, less-intricate footwork or more simple spins? Or rather programs with two or three falls on quads or triple-triple combinations, with travelled, slow and ugly spins or step sequences? “To make the sport too difficult and demanding means that in a field of 30 skaters, let’s say, maybe only a couple can do a decent program. The rest of the event is a falling contest,” she added. “Is this good for our sport?” Fans also have struggled to grasp what are good scores and what are not. Under the old system, even the most casual of fans knew that the closer a skater was to 6.0, the better the program was. Now, even the die-hards don’t always know what to make of a 200 — a near-record for the women or pairs, not even good enough for a man to crack the top 10. That complexity, in a sport once known for its simple beauty, coupled with the lack of a female American star, has been blamed by many for the drop in interest in skating in the U.S. Ten years after “Champions On Ice” alone had a schedule of 90-plus shows, “Stars on Ice” is the only U.S. tour left and has just 10 dates, beginning Saturday in Salt Lake City. Stars also will do 12 shows in Canada. At last month’s U.S. championships, there were empty seats for most of the sessions, even with portions of the arena curtained off. NBC’s prime-time coverage of the women’s final Saturday drew a 2.4 rating and 3.7 million viewers. The men’s final on Sunday afternoon had a 1.8 rating and 2.8 million viewers. “The perception of skating, it changed a lot,” Pelletier said. “It had such a bad rap and I think it was well-deserved, the bad rap. I think it could have been avoided. “But at the same time, skating was never as bad as what people made it seem. Every sport has its problems,” Pelletier added, pointing to concussions in hockey and football and an entire era of baseball tainted by performance-enhancing drugs. “The ISU did the best they could to clean whatever they thought the mess did. It’s not my place to say if they did it the right way.”
So, has the medicine done more damage than the original disease and is it time for COP/IJS to go?
Article reads:-
Ten years after the pairs judging scandal rocked the Salt Lake City Olympics, some say figure skating has yet to recover. Interest in skating in the United States has faded, and critics say a judging system adopted to prevent cheating has not only failed but has stripped the beauty from the sport. “I really don’t think it was that worth it, all the hubbub after Salt Lake City,” Johnny Weir said...Critics say the current system has flaws. There is room to manipulate marks or prop skaters up through the component scores, largely still a matter of personal opinion even with established criteria to judge the individual components. A judge with a music background, for example, may view a skater’s interpretation of “Tosca” very differently than someone without, and it’s hard to challenge their interpretations. Another criticism is that the points system doesn’t penalize mistakes enough. Reigning world champion Patrick Chan had to put both hands down on a quadruple toe loop in the short program at Four Continents last Thursday, but it wasn’t counted as a fall so he didn’t receive a one-point deduction off his total score. He did get the maximum negative execution scores for the element, but the 7.30 points he received for the quad were still a point higher than Ross Miner got for a clean triple flip. “To get more points, the skaters execute elements beyond their capabilities. As a consequence, the programs are filled with errors and falls which, of course, damage the general presentation,” Sonia Bianchetti, a former Olympic-level judge and the first woman elected to an ISU office, said in an email. “Is it better to see a beautiful program, with a good choreography, skated to the music with good speed and flow and maybe an easier jump or jump combination, less-intricate footwork or more simple spins? Or rather programs with two or three falls on quads or triple-triple combinations, with travelled, slow and ugly spins or step sequences? “To make the sport too difficult and demanding means that in a field of 30 skaters, let’s say, maybe only a couple can do a decent program. The rest of the event is a falling contest,” she added. “Is this good for our sport?” Fans also have struggled to grasp what are good scores and what are not. Under the old system, even the most casual of fans knew that the closer a skater was to 6.0, the better the program was. Now, even the die-hards don’t always know what to make of a 200 — a near-record for the women or pairs, not even good enough for a man to crack the top 10. That complexity, in a sport once known for its simple beauty, coupled with the lack of a female American star, has been blamed by many for the drop in interest in skating in the U.S. Ten years after “Champions On Ice” alone had a schedule of 90-plus shows, “Stars on Ice” is the only U.S. tour left and has just 10 dates, beginning Saturday in Salt Lake City. Stars also will do 12 shows in Canada. At last month’s U.S. championships, there were empty seats for most of the sessions, even with portions of the arena curtained off. NBC’s prime-time coverage of the women’s final Saturday drew a 2.4 rating and 3.7 million viewers. The men’s final on Sunday afternoon had a 1.8 rating and 2.8 million viewers. “The perception of skating, it changed a lot,” Pelletier said. “It had such a bad rap and I think it was well-deserved, the bad rap. I think it could have been avoided. “But at the same time, skating was never as bad as what people made it seem. Every sport has its problems,” Pelletier added, pointing to concussions in hockey and football and an entire era of baseball tainted by performance-enhancing drugs. “The ISU did the best they could to clean whatever they thought the mess did. It’s not my place to say if they did it the right way.”
So, has the medicine done more damage than the original disease and is it time for COP/IJS to go?