Most poorly judged competitions

[shady82]

Which major competitions do you think were the most poorly judged?

Two competitions come to mind for me: 2001 Worlds, and 2002 Olympics.

The 2001 Worlds' pairs and ice dance competition results were blatantly incorrect, in my opinion. Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze and Anissina/Peizerat should have almost unanimously won in place of Sale/Pelletier and Fusar-Poli/Margaglio. Hughes placing over Butyrskaya also was not the best judging, but I didn't think it was that big of a difference.

In the 2002 Olympics, the pairs' competition was a source of controversy. I thought both B/S and S/P were roughly equal that night, so it could have gone either way. But giving two sets of gold medals seriously discredited the sport and the scoring system, which I like a lot more than the current one. Maybe that has nothing to do with judging and could be irrelevant.

The ice dance, in my opinion, had the biggest 'scandal'. There was no doubt in my mind that Drobiazko/Vanagas should have been at least 3rd, with Bourne/Kraatz 4th and Fusar-Poli/Margaglio 5th. The ladies' competition was also poorly judged, although a lot of people might disagree with me about who should have won. I would have had Slutskaya the overall winner, since she should have had the best short program and 2nd best freeskate. Hughes was also overmarked in the short.

[Jenna]

Here are some recent examples that I think contained "poor judgments" but I don't think the entire competition was poorly judged.

2008 US Nationals, Men
2009 US Nationals, Women
2010 US Nationals, Women
2010 Olympic Games, Dance
2011 US Nationals, Men
2011 NHK, Women
2011 TEB, Women
2011 Worlds, Men (not Chan, lol)

[pollyanna]

1994 Olympics

[Aussie Willy]

Poorly judged usually depends whether your favourite wins or not.

However in relation to your question over 2001 Worlds, A&P probably had two of their poorest programs that year. Frankly they were pretty crap and were no where good as they had been 12 months previously. As much as I personally didn't like F-P&M, they skated really well and I thought their OD that year was really good. They probably captured the latin flavour better than any other team. It was a case of F-P&M were the best of a bad bunch.

As for the 2002 Olympic Pairs, the decision to award the two teams the gold had nothing to do with judging and everything to try and appease the IOC (and to try and save the sport from getting kicked out the Olympics). The result that led to that happening was indeed questionable. But again it depended on which team you preferred and personally I preferred the Russians. So I didn't have a problem with the result. But overall that was a pretty good pairs event for an Olympics.

As for the dance event in 2002 Olympics, overall it was pretty crap anyway (although not as bad as Turin) and in the end I really didn't care for it much.

[RumbleFish]

1999 Worlds pairs result comes to mind.
B/S made mistakes but were awarded gold over S/Z who skated 2 clean programs. At the time, S/P were not even in the picture and S/Z were considered closest rivals of B/S.

[museksk8r]

2011 Men's US Nationals and Bradley's gold medal where BOTH of his quads were ratified.

2010 Ladies' Olympic SP results with Ando's UR 3flip being ratified along with Flatt's atrocious Lutz attempt. Nagasu, and even Kostner with fully rotated jumps, albeit a hand down on the Lutz, should have been ahead of both of them in the SP, IMO.

2010 Men's Olympic SP results with Lysacek beating Takahashi when Dai I believe should have been ahead of him by a few points. I would have had Evan behind both Dai and Evgeny by a few points in the short. Reputation judging rears its ugly head again.

2010 Men's Skate Canada SP & LP: Don't even get me started!

There are many more cases, but these are more recent and I'm too lazy to think of more right now.

[briancoogaert]

Poorly judged usually depends whether your favourite wins or not.

However in relation to your question over 2001 Worlds, A&P probably had two of their poorest programs that year. Frankly they were pretty crap and were no where good as they had been 12 months previously. As much as I personally didn't like F-P&M, they skated really well and I thought their OD that year was really good. They probably captured the latin flavour better than any other team. It was a case of F-P&M were the best of a bad bunch.

We can try to stay objective. And even if their programs were not the best of their career, Anissina&Peizerat were technically and artistically superior to FP&M. So, I don't see how clean A&P can finish behind FP&M.

[Jaana]

2010 Men's Olympic SP results with Lysacek beating Takahashi when Dai I believe should have been ahead of him by a few points. I would have had Evan behind both Dai and Evgeny by a few points in the short. Reputation judging rears its ugly head again.

I agree about reputation judging!!! Plushenko definetely should not have gotten such high PCS marks for transitions (8.75-5.00), choreography (9.00-6.00) and interpretation (9.25-7.50). Well, he did interprete, but not the music that was playing ...

In final results Takahashi should have won silver, in my opinion.

[Proustable]

1994 Olympics

It does seem that 1994 was a textbook example where all four gold medalists were vociferously debated.

[blue_idealist]

Which major competitions do you think were the most poorly judged?

Two competitions come to mind for me: 2001 Worlds, and 2002 Olympics.

The 2001 Worlds' pairs and ice dance competition results were blatantly incorrect, in my opinion. Berezhnaya/Sikharulidze and Anissina/Peizerat should have almost unanimously won in place of Sale/Pelletier and Fusar-Poli/Margaglio. Hughes placing over Butyrskaya also was not the best judging, but I didn't think it was that big of a difference.

In the 2002 Olympics, the pairs' competition was a source of controversy. I thought both B/S and S/P were roughly equal that night, so it could have gone either way. But giving two sets of gold medals seriously discredited the sport and the scoring system, which I like a lot more than the current one. Maybe that has nothing to do with judging and could be irrelevant.

The ice dance, in my opinion, had the biggest 'scandal'. There was no doubt in my mind that Drobiazko/Vanagas should have been at least 3rd, with Bourne/Kraatz 4th and Fusar-Poli/Margaglio 5th. The ladies' competition was also poorly judged, although a lot of people might disagree with me about who should have won. I would have had Slutskaya the overall winner, since she should have had the best short program and 2nd best freeskate. Hughes was also overmarked in the short.

I agree about the dance in 2001. I don't remember exactly what the pairs did in their programs, but as someone who thought B/S were overmarked quite often, I'm thinking I probably WOULDN'T agree.

I also agree about the dance in 2002. The pairs really could have gone either way. At the time I thought it was disgraceful that S/P didn't win, but watching the programs again a few years later I don't think Anton's bobbled jump in the LP was as major as I thought it was in 2002, and yeah, it could have gone either way. In the dance there was no way FP/M should have won the bronze medal with Maurizio's face plant - well, it was sort of a side plant but anyway a plant. I've seen all the programs and I would have been fine, objectively speaking, with the bronze going to either B/K or D/V, both teams skated very well, but subjectively speaking I wanted B/K to get the bronze at the time since they're favourites of mine and lost out on the bronze in 1998 (I still can't decide if THAT was fair or not - A/P were good in '98 but not strikingly superior to B/K as they would be later on).

[blue_idealist]

Here are some recent examples that I think contained "poor judgments" but I don't think the entire competition was poorly judged.

2008 US Nationals, Men
2009 US Nationals, Women
2010 US Nationals, Women
2010 Olympic Games, Dance
2011 US Nationals, Men
2011 NHK, Women
2011 TEB, Women
2011 Worlds, Men (not Chan, lol)

ITA about the 2010 Olympics in dance. I'm not sure specifically what placements you're referring to, but I think Belbin and Agosto definitely deserved the bronze medal after the lackluster free performance that Domnina and Shabalin gave. I know D&S had a good compulsory dance but their OD was just freaky and not really any better than B&A's, and their FD was clearly inferior. I did agree with the other podium placements though.

[blue_idealist]

1999 Worlds pairs result comes to mind.
B/S made mistakes but were awarded gold over S/Z who skated 2 clean programs. At the time, S/P were not even in the picture and S/Z were considered closest rivals of B/S.

Yeah, I forgot about this until now but I was pissed about this at the time. This brings to mind the 1990 Worlds - I have only seen the LPs, but I found the performances of Brasseur/Eisler, Mishkutenok/Dmitriev, and even Selezneva/Makarov superior to that of Gordeeva/Grinkov in that segment at least. Even the announcers were dubious if G/G were going to win. G/G were of course excellent and deserved most of the medals they won, but this one I'm not so sure about.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Yukari Nakano's placement at 2008 Worlds is still, IMO, the biggest robbery in the COP-era that I can think of. Not to say that there haven't been other close calls or wrong decisions, but I think Nakano's case takes the cake.

One can make all sorts of justifications for her placement with the IJS, but simply watching her performance and comparing it with the three medalists just make me scratch my head and even feel a bit disgusted.

[Jenya]

However in relation to your question over 2001 Worlds, A&P probably had two of their poorest programs that year. Frankly they were pretty crap and were no where good as they had been 12 months previously. As much as I personally didn't like F-P&M, they skated really well and I thought their OD that year was really good. They probably captured the latin flavour better than any other team. It was a case of F-P&M were the best of a bad bunch.

The Latin ODs were in 2000 - not 2001, when Fusar-Poli & Margaglio won Worlds. I agree with you that Fusar-Poli & Margaglio had the best Latin OD, but that year they were 2nd overall to Anissina & Peizerat at Worlds. I don't think Anissina & Peizerat were at their best in 2001, although I do think they were the better team in general, and I felt that Fusar-Poli & Margaglio had a stronger set of programs overall. I mean, who doesn't love chest bumps in a FD?

[Mafke]

Yukari Nakano's placement at 2008 Worlds is still, IMO, the biggest robbery in the COP-era that I can think of. Not to say that there haven't been other close calls or wrong decisions, but I think Nakano's case takes the cake.
One can make all sorts of justifications for her placement with the IJS, but simply watching her performance and comparing it with the three medalists just make me scratch my head and even feel a bit disgusted.

This.

[rudi]

2001 Worlds (Men)
I love Yagudin's skating, but the judges gave him a gift that year with the silver medal. He should have gotten the bronze, and Todd should have gotten the silver.

[Jenna]

Yukari Nakano's placement at 2008 Worlds is still, IMO, the biggest robbery in the COP-era that I can think of. Not to say that there haven't been other close calls or wrong decisions, but I think Nakano's case takes the cake.

One can make all sorts of justifications for her placement with the IJS, but simply watching her performance and comparing it with the three medalists just make me scratch my head and even feel a bit disgusted.

Yeah I agree, but back then the downgrade penalty was way more severe and her 3A and 3F were downgraded. Still, I thought she should have won a medal.

[Moka-Ananas]

2002 Europeans Men: Abt should've won!
2002 Olympics Pairs and Ladies: B/S and Slutskaya should've won.
2003 Europeans Ladies: Slutskaya was sooooo gifted. Sokolova had the better LP:
2003 Worlds Ladies and Ice Dance: I preferred Sokolova and L/A.
2004 Worlds Men: OK, Worlds were in Germany but I still think Stéphane Lambiel was better than Stefan Lindemann that night.
2005 (?) Russian Nationals Men: Alexander Uspenski was robbed of a medal, Griazev and Lezin were seriously gifted.
2005 Europeans Ladies: Pöykiö should've won. Slutskaya was extremely gifted.
2006 Olympics Ladies: Cohen was gifted, should've been 3rd or 4th.
2010 Olympics Men: Lysacek's OGM is a big joke.
2011 Worlds Ice Dance: Shibs in 3rd?!

[eurodance2001]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ladies event at the 1998 Worlds.. Maybe the overall results were ok, but some of the judges placements and scores were just one of those "huh?" moments for the entire ladies competition..

[Jenna]

ITA about the 2010 Olympics in dance. I'm not sure specifically what placements you're referring to, but I think Belbin and Agosto definitely deserved the bronze medal after the lackluster free performance that Domnina and Shabalin gave. I know D&S had a good compulsory dance but their OD was just freaky and not really any better than B&A's, and their FD was clearly inferior. I did agree with the other podium placements though.

Yes, I was referring to the bronze. Compulsories by D/S were great, but OD, FD were inferior!