Retrospective: The 1964 Olympics

[skatesindreams]

Here is an article about Scott Ethan Allen at the 1964 Olympics.
He's featured in the second half:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...5661/index.htm

[Judge Dred]

Unbelievable that Calmat came second with all those falls

[Vagabond]

He came in fifth in the Free Skate.

[Judge Dred]

He came in fifth in the Free Skate.

I thought Calmat should have been like 10th in the FS. He was 3rd in the figures..

Agreed. About 10th for a FS like that

[Vagabond]

Agreed. About 10th for a FS like that

So, tell us, Judge Dred, who were the nine or so men you would have put ahead of Calmat and what, specifically, did they do so much better than he?



For the record, of the nine judges, one had him thirteenth in the Free Skate, one had him tied for seventh, and the others had him fifth or higher. So it's not completely absurd to rank him tenth if you've actually watched the skates, but it is if you don't know how the others skated.

[Judge Dred]

So, tell us, Judge Dred, who were the nine or so men you would have put ahead of Calmat and what, specifically, did they do so much better than he?



For the record, of the nine judges, one had him thirteenth in the Free Skate, one had him tied for seventh, and the others had him fifth or higher. So it's not completely absurd to rank him tenth if you've actually watched the skates, but it is if you don't know how the others skated.

So, tell us, Vagabond, what, specifically, did Calmat do so much better than those he beat in the FS whilst he was not landing on his rear end from multiple falls and being booed by the crowd for silly scores?



The same question can be asked of both of us. What I do know is that when somebody falls 3 times, skates what Doris describes as a disjointed FS due to the falls, and gets booed, 5th was

[Vagabond]

What I do know is that when somebody falls 3 times, skates what Doris calls a disjointed FS as a result, and gets booed, 5th was

For all you and I know, everyone ranked below Calmat had even more disjointed programs and fell three or more times or, at any rate, didn't land as many jumps as he did.

Given that Calmat won his World Championship the following year without even attempting any triple jumps (while getting technical marks that were, with one exception, all 5.8's and 5.9's), it seems unlikely that the there were a whole bunch of skaters with significantly better technical content finishing behind him in the Free Skate.

As for the audience reaction, back in those days it often had something to do with the fact that the audience hadn't watched the Compulsories and was reacting emotionally to the overall placement, not the specific result in the Free Skate.

Not so very different from certain posters on FSU, if you ask me.

[Judge Dred]

Not so very different from certain posters on FSU, if you ask me.

Well, look who is getting emotional now........

We will just have to agree to disagree.

I thought Calmat should have been like 10th in the FS. He was 3rd in the figures.

You saw the event at the time, Doris, why do you think 10th or thereabouts?

[sbanet]

Perhaps the ISU should just add a little *asterisk that designates "complete splat-fest" to certain comps in their historical records....

[Vagabond]

I keep hearing about this but can never pin down the exact details, which is muy frustrating.

Maofan7 just posted a link to a video of Wood's Free Skate that shows the marks being posted. The Artistic Impression marks made me go because when they first flash on the screen, the mark from the French judge starts out as 5.0, but it then rises to 5.8.

I've never seen anything like that before, and I wonder if this might be the source of the stories about a judge making a mistake with the marks.

By the way, I checked on Wikipedia, and that French judge was not a young Marie-Reine Le Gougne.

And, for anyone who's interested, here some other Men's Free Skates from the 1968 Olympics:

Wolfgang Schwarz
Emmerich Danzer
John Misha Petkevich
Sergei Chetverukhin
Jan Hoffmann, aged 12

ETA: And a link to a longer video of the Free Skate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPMngw7uVEA

Petkevich probably could have jumped over Hoffmann's head!

[Vagabond]

Someone posted just a link to an interview with Tim Wood in another thread, and it contains an explanation of what happened in 1968:

I heard you should have won the 1968 Winter Olympics, but there was a clerical error with the scores. Can you tell me what happened?:

The Canadian judge wanted to put me in first, and it was his mark that would make the difference in whether I placed first or second. He put the wrong mark down by accident, and in those days, once the wrong mark was on paper, there was no way a mistake could be changed. I ended up with a silver medal in 1968 instead of gold due to that error.

http://figureskating.about.com/od/fa...n-Tim-Wood.htm

[kwanfan1818]

John Misha Petkevich

I love Petkevich

Someone posted just a link to an interview with Tim Wood in another thread, and it contains an explanation of what happened in 1968:

I heard you should have won the 1968 Winter Olympics, but there was a clerical error with the scores. Can you tell me what happened?:

The Canadian judge wanted to put me in first, and it was his mark that would make the difference in whether I placed first or second. He put the wrong mark down by accident, and in those days, once the wrong mark was on paper, there was no way a mistake could be changed. I ended up with a silver medal in 1968 instead of gold due to that error.

That must be the underlying cosmic reason that Canadian Men keep winning silver medals.

[skatesindreams]

Someone posted just a link to an interview with Tim Wood in another thread, and it contains an explanation of what happened in 1968:



http://figureskating.about.com/od/fa...n-Tim-Wood.htm

Tim Wood, bless him, has handled the "loss" with class, always.