Most Controversial Judging Decisions Ever

[Orm Irian]

Yeah papadakis/cizeron. They placed 13th at worlds in 2014 and then 1st in 2015. It was quite the jump. There were a lot of factors involved though such as them changing coaches, many of the teams sitting out the year after the olympics and some of their biggest competitors making errors in the FD.

They not only changed coaches at that point (well, they stayed with Romain but added Marie-France and Patrice), but more importantly changed locations from France to Canada, which meant that they were no longer forced to train at times like 5am and 8pm so they could get rink access while also studying, could focus the majority of their time on training, had more resources and better support structures around them, and most importantly were insulated by distance from DG and his persistent and destructive attempts to meddle with their careers (eg that time he forbade one of their French coaches from accompanying them to their first Europeans one week before the event, a moment actually caught on camera during filming for a documentary*). It's amazing how apparently superficial things like that can make a huge difference in a team's performance - and there was a marked evolution in their performances between 2014 Worlds and 2015 Worlds.

*Or at least the moment when they heard about it was, and their absolute resignation to having DG pull stunts like that on them so early in their careers is kind of heartbreaking to watch.

 

[Deleted member 221]

No need to judge this under COP to find it controversial. It is controversial under 6.0 !

The ISU used it as an example of poor program construction in an instructional video not even 1.5 years later. It was shocking (and telling) that out of all of the examples to choose from, the ISU chose an Olympic gold medallist and a program to which the majority of judges gave 5.9s! Whoever made that choice had cojones, or maybe was enacting revenge.

Jill Trenary briefly did commentary during the 1993-94 season, and I thought she was quite good. She said she loved Oksana, but she had outgrown this program; that someone who was developing rapidly (and she was) needed new material to keep up with her development. Whatever you think of her, Baiul was a captivating skater with some excellent qualities. I've wondered if the judges mentally saw the program she could have skated (or the one they wanted her to skate) v. the one she did skate. It was easy to be captivated by her and to want her to do well, not just because of her story but because of her skating quality. In the short program, Baiul showed extreme elegance and sophistication; I wonder if that halo carried over into the free skate presentation marks.

 

[Japanfan]

And for EVERY legitimate reason. Well look at it this way, shall we? Who was the better skater (by MILES) between Jamie Sale-ing Tears and Elena Berez.... No competition AT ALL. Zero question. And yes Pelletier was a VERY strong male pairs skater, but Anton was probably the best male pair skater since Grinkov, and I think even much better. So we have teary whiny Jamie who couldn't even compete in Canada as a "has been" (her words, and she was....). Sorry. Nope. The new judging system was put into place so that a Jamie with all her crocodile tears will never so long as a strong Canadian commentator on US tv can not EVER influence an Olympics. Scott Hamilton screams out like a chihuahua in heat (do they ever get into heat or do they just bark so damn annoyingly? Hamilton has no balls, figuratively wrt US skating, though, probably the wrong thing to say? whups. Sandra had a four pair for them both)

I thought some posters might feel deep within their bones a need to once again hate on Jamie Sale, since it's proven to be so therapeutic.

BTW - you do know that Jamie's tears were not the reason the second gold medal was awarded? You are aware that there was the small matter of judging misconduct, yes?

If tears could produce medals, Nobunari Oda would have a host of World and Olympic titles.

 

[floskate]

Ooooh fun!! Glad someone posted P&G versus S&S in 1970. I had read about this but when I finally got to see the competition I was so shocked at the blatant difference in the level of skating with S&S clearly light years ahead. And that it was the British judge, Mollie Phillips who voted against them, When questioned about her decision - because this did cause a furore among the skating press at the time - she said Jim Sladky's bum had stuck out

Some oldies for the list:

1938 Worlds ladies event. Megan Taylor controversially won over Cecilia Colledge by one ordinal despite Cecilia having gained more total points. It led to a huge press fall out in the UK with accuasations of Colledge and her Mother storming out of the banquet in tears and Cecilia cancelling a host of exhibitions etc. They did not speak to each other until the following British championships when Cecilia's mother invited Megan for tea so the two could make up.

1973 Worlds men's event - John Curry missing out on the bronze medal to Jan Hoffmann due to being placed SEVENTH in the free after this performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=LVTP8bDOD3c
Placed ahead of him were Toller Cranston (who fell after his tryst with Ondrej Nepela the night before ) and Jan Hoffmann who landed one triple and had no where near John's ability in basics or spinning or footwork. Istill can't get my head around this.

1980 Olympics - I'm shocked this hasn't been mentioned. The dead horse to flog all dead horses but Anett Poetszch's placement in the short program was a travesty. And I'll just leave that there..
Men's event in Lake Placid - It's not controversial because politically, for the sport, the right person won. Robin was without doubt the best free skater of that quad and from a media point of view his win was hugely popular. But.....Jan at his best was the most consistent skater across figures, short and free skating of the 1970's. He rarely made mistakes under pressure. And in 1980 he had clearly gone all out to create a free skate that tried to address his weakness in artistry. Jan skated the performance of his life. Robin biffed his triple loop and only had three clean triples (two toe's and a sal) to Jan's five (lutz, loop, sal, two toe's). Had the factored placement system brought in for the 1980/81 season been used in Lake Placid, Jan would have been the Olympic champion.

1983 Worlds pairs event. I cannot for the life of me understand how the reigning world champions Sabine Baess & Tassilo Thierbach who skated a clean program with triple twist, sbs double axels, throw triple loop and toe loop lost to a flawed Valova & Vassiliev who made significant errors despite landing sbs triple toes and of course having some unique choreo. There used to be a video fo teh US broadcast online showing Kitty & Peter Carruthers watching in the crowd after they had skated and when the marks were in for V&V she can be heard very loudly exclaiming;
"They're head of Tassilo and Sabine? But that's crazy. CRAZY!"

 

[Inessence]

Kwan versus Lipinsky in '98 was equally controversial, if it hasn't been mentioned

Both silver medalist gave measured, wooden performances. Hence, the gold went to the joyful and inspired 16-year olds with nothing to lose. Only school figures ever prevented this from eventuality.

 

[kwanette]

Both silver medalist gave measured, wooden performances. Hence, the gold went to the joyful and inspired 16-year olds with nothing to lose. Only school figures ever prevented this from eventuality.

Tara was 15 for the record. As far as Michelle's being "wooden", urban legend. The whole "tentative" thingy came about after the competition..but..beating that "dead horse" would be akin to animal cruelty.

 

[allezfred]

Yeah papadakis/cizeron. They placed 13th at worlds in 2014 and then 1st in 2015. It was quite the jump. There were a lot of factors involved though such as them changing coaches, many of the teams sitting out the year after the olympics and some of their biggest competitors making errors in the FD.

The main factor was that they shouldn't have been scored 13th at 2014 Worlds.

Sure the 2002 Olympics must have been mentioned somewhere.

2001 Worlds. Do keep up.

 

[bardtoob]

She said she loved Oksana, but she had outgrown this program; that someone who was developing rapidly (and she was) needed new material to keep up with her development.

Puke ... Because Oksana said she loved Jill in fluff pieces ... And both said the women skated like men because of their content.

Jill was bitter about the death of figures (probably rightfully so) and 3Lp, 3F, and 3Lz attempts becoming required for marks above 5.0. Oksana was inconsistent and had similar do overs as Tonya over the course of her short amateur career. (See Euros SP 1993)

 

[Seerek]

Regoczy and Sallay losing to Linichuk and Karponosov by 1 judge at the 1980 Olympics?

 

[Scrufflet]

Totally condescending, presumptive, patronizing, and arrogant like most Canadian skating fans. I can already guarantee you are Canadian. Most of the rest you said is garbage and easily refuted but you arent even worth the effort. I will put it simple for you, start a poll who should have won the 2012 worlds Takahashi and Chan, and another who should have won the 2013 worlds Ten or Chan. See if Chan even gets 25% of the votes in either.

Oh puleeze! I'm sure there are many "totally condescending, presumptive, patronizing and arrogant" people in your country, wherever that is! You left out fun, passionate and positive. There are a lot of us in every country. I am Canadian, by the way, and lots of people like being around me.

 

[annie_mg]

Ice-dance at 2001 Worlds. F-P/M might have had the "wow" factor with their Romeo and Juliet free and Beethoven's Last Night was not A/P's strongest programme, but no way does Margaglio's two-foot ice-skating compare to the French.

 

[nuge]

Ice-dance at 2001 Worlds. F-P/M might have had the "wow" factor with their Romeo and Juliet free and Beethoven's Last Night was not A/P's strongest programme, but no way does Margaglio's two-foot ice-skating compare to the French.

Yes they were fast and wow on the night' but A/P had worked on BLN since the Euros disaster and as you say not one of their best FDs. They skated it great though it was so much more polished and Marina's face on the podium said it all

 

[gk_891]

I think all of the results at the 1994 Olympics were considered controversial by many with various arguments going back and forth over what the results should have been or should not have been.

There was a lot of North American outrage over the ice dance results in Nagano in regards to Bourne & Kraatz. But I don't see why as they made multiple errors in both compulsory dances, they had the easiest OD out of all the couples in the top 10, and their free dance was skated entirely side by side. I think the more questionable result was Punsulan & Swallow not placing higher, especially in their free dance.

It was mentioned already the 2001 and 2002 ice dance results. Fusar-Poli and Margaglio gave a very confident and assured performance but the content was very weak. A&P's performance wasn't as confidently delivered but the content was far above what the Italians put out. As for 2002, I'm not a huge fan of D&V but they are ridiculously better than C&S. In fact, I might've put D&V first in the FD but that might well be my own biases talking as I preferred them to both B&K and L&A.

I think there was some controversy over Irina Slutskaya placing over Maria Butyrskaya at the 2000 NHK event. I'm not sure how big that controversy was though. There was also some talk over B&S beating S&Z at the 1999 Worlds in spite of a fall. I haven't watched that competition in over a decade though so I wouldn't be able to say how I felt about the results.

ETA - Sorry, didn't notice that tripleflutz already mentioned the 2000 NHK result concerning Maria and Irina.

 

[gk_891]

I have a list I’m working on.

At the very top would probably be Zagorska/Siudek winning bronze at 99 Worlds over Petrova/Tikhonov.

I had completely forgotten about Petrova & Tikhonov at the 99 Worlds. They definitely should've been on the podium.

And some others I've remembered (sorry if these were already mentioned but I missed them)

Blumberg & Seibert not medalling at the 1984 Olympics. I had the second in the free dance.
Tonya Harding's placement at the 1989 U.S Nationals
Krylova & Fedorov placing 3rd at the 1993 Worlds over Rahkamo & Kokko (I also thought K&F should've finished behind M&L)
I thought the Duchesnays should've have been off the podium at not only the 1992 Olympics (which was already mentioned in this thread) but also the 1989 Worlds. Their 1989 FD was super-interesting artistically but that Charleston OD was badly off the mark and they made a big error in the Argentine Tango CD (that somehow managed to place 3rd).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeS-CTmfHNk

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Kwan versus Lipinsky in '98 was equally controversial, if it hasn't been mentioned

As a Kwan uber I don't find 98 controversial. Tara went out there and skated with fire and had amazing jumps and combos. Kwan was conservative like she would be again in 02. Kwan was always amazing at a Worlds but tight at an Olys.

Tara was also there as reigning World Champion so I never saw any controversy in the Oly placements.

I wanted Kwan but Tara won fair.

I kind of always imagined their thought bubbles to be right before their frees.....

Michelle.. " OK, this is it. The Olympic free program. Reign it in."

Tara .... " This is it. My Olympic free program. Go hog wild. "

 

[attyfan]

IMO, Kwan v. Lipinski (and, at '96 Worlds, Kwan v Chen) are perfect examples of "reasonable minds can differ". So far, "controversial" seems to be equated more with "wtf?" than merely differing opinions, so they don't qualify.

 

[bardtoob]

As a Kwan uber I don't find 98 controversial. Tara went out there and skated with fire and had amazing jumps and combos. Kwan was conservative like she would be again in 02. Kwan was always amazing at a Worlds but tight at an Olys.

Tara was also there as reigning World Champion so I never saw any controversy in the Oly placements.

I wanted Kwan but Tara won fair.

I kind of always imagined their thought bubbles to be right before their frees.....

Michelle.. " OK, this is it. The Olympic free program. Reign it in."

Tara .... " This is it. My Olympic free program. Go hog wild. "

Weren't Tara and Angela Nikodinov close friends?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Weren't Tara and Angela Nikodinov close friends?

Yup,

Angela admired Tara's skating.

There is a picture I remember of the two of them, on the beaches here in LA from back in the day.

Let me find it....

http://skating.bplaced.net/Persons/Nikodinov/Tara-Angela_People99.jpg

If I remember correctly I think this is from People magazine.

 

[giselle23]

As for P/C There must have been something great about Mozart to jump from 13th to first .Never been done before.

Tara Lipinski jumped from 15th in 1996 to 1st in 1997.

 

[sharsk8s]

Tara Lipinski jumped from 15th in 1996 to 1st in 1997.

I think the poster was referring to ice dance. I think it is more common to make big jumps in singles because someone can place 10th at one competition with bad skates and 1st at the next with clean programs. In ice dance since there are no super risky elements (other then the twizzles) it is much harder to move up the hierarchy.

 

[floskate]

Regoczy and Sallay losing to Linichuk and Karponosov by 1 judge at the 1980 Olympics?

Oooh yes definitely. Linichuk & Karponosov had wonderful compulsories. But their OSD was.....strange for a foxtrot, and the free dance is just hard to watch. Shallow edges, loads of two foot skating, scratchy and two visible errors.

 

[Marco]

I think all of the results at the 1994 Olympics were considered controversial by many with various arguments going back and forth over what the results should have been or should not have been.

Was the men's result that controversial? It was 8:1, not that close. Alexei easily won the short over Elvis when both were clean in the short, so I see no controversy when he did again in the free skate when artistry is even more valued.

The ISU used it as an example of poor program construction in an instructional video not even 1.5 years later. It was shocking (and telling) that out of all of the examples to choose from, the ISU chose an Olympic gold medallist and a program to which the majority of judges gave 5.9s!

Speaking of not withstanding the test of time... Baiul's program was objectively lacking in almost all areas. Looking back, I wish the judges had the guts to mark Sato and Chen ahead of both.

 

[gk_891]

Was the men's result that controversial? It was 8:1, not that close. Alexei easily won the short over Elvis when both were clean in the short, so I see no controversy when he did again in the free skate when artistry is even more valued.

By some, at least here in Canada. But since it was Elvis that was the one that lost, I guess that's to be expected. I was indifferent to the results but I do know some here didn't care for the results. But you're right in that it was nowhere near as hotly debated as the pairs, ice dance, and ladies results were.

 

[gk_891]

Oooh yes definitely. Linichuk & Karponosov had wonderful compulsories. But their OSD was.....strange for a foxtrot, and the free dance is just hard to watch. Shallow edges, loads of two foot skating, scratchy and two visible errors.

L&K were a major chore to watch when it came to the free dance. All of them were very cookie-cutter and they weren't very good at phrasing the music which made all of their free dances look almost exactly the same. I'm not all that crazy about the rest of the teams that were on the podium even though both R&S and M&M are much more interesting to watch than L&K. Call me crazy but I actually kind of liked the couple that finished fourth (Rehakova & Drastich).

I saw some footage of the medal ceremony and I found it interesting that R&S shook hands and congratulated L&K but there was no acknowledgement between L&K and M&M. I wonder if there was any bad blood there.

 

[Triple loop]

Here's one to analyze, which is rarely talked about, if ever.
And I suppose no one brings it up to be perceived as bashing a beloved skater.

Scott Hamilton's Sarajevo win would be my entry although it was never considered 'controversial'

Short program: easy combo (2L+3T), very average spins and his camel-change-camel was novice level, judged 2nd place
Long program: 3Z, 1F, 3T, 3T+2T, 2A, 2A, 2S, 2Z, 1A, 2S not at all impressive compared to what the guys were doing even at that time. Only 2 different triples completed. Judged 2nd in the free.

Many guys doing lutz combo in the short and also many doing 4-5 triples including 3F, 3Z, 3A. Way overscored.


I totally agree with this controversy. Judging at the 1984 Olympics was quite political. Nobody could really see how well or bad the skaters were doing in figures. Katarina Witt deserved to win. I don't feel that Rosalyn Sumners nor Kira Ivanova should've received their silver and bronze medals. Roz doubled triples and singled double axels. Her scores were so high. The rest of the field was weak but the two other Americans Tiffany Chin and Elaine Zayak should've won silver and bronze medals. Both skated wonderful short and long programs and should've been rewarded. If they skated in the current scoring system, that would've happened.

 

[VGThuy]

I know a lot of people like to crap on Roz Sumners, especially as she's seen as some USFSA promoted ice princess vs. Elaine Zayak's more athletic antidote to that who wasn't given her due. In the SP and LP maybe both Zayak and Chin should have won medals, but I can't help but watch Sumner's 1984 LP despite all the mistakes (it helps that I don't really know the jumping standards at the time) and think what a gorgeous program and skater she was.

 

[floskate]

L&K were a major chore to watch when it came to the free dance. All of them were very cookie-cutter and they weren't very good at phrasing the music which made all of their free dances look almost exactly the same. I'm not all that crazy about the rest of the teams that were on the podium even though both R&S and M&M are much more interesting to watch than L&K. Call me crazy but I actually kind of liked the couple that finished fourth (Rehakova & Drastich).

I saw some footage of the medal ceremony and I found it interesting that R&S shook hands and congratulated L&K but there was no acknowledgement between L&K and M&M. I wonder if there was any bad blood there.

I wouldn't be surprised I re-watched 1978 Worlds FD last night and it is shocking how awful the soviet free dances were and how much two foot skating there is, staccato movements all over everything and just poor choreography - well from Tchaikovskaya's teams anyway. Zoueva & Vitman were absolutely horrible yet only the US judge had the guts to call it as it was (5.0/4.9) while everyone else is in the 5.5 range. At least Tarasova created material that was watcheable, if not very difficult (Min & Mo). I'm still amazed that a skater as brilliant as Ludmilla Pakhomova could have been trained by Tchaikovskaya. Gorshkov on the other hand.....

 

[Japanfan]

2001 Worlds. Do keep up.

I know that 2001 Worlds was mentioned, but am not sure whether the 2002 Olympics were.

 

[Japanfan]

I wanted Kwan but Tara won fair.

I kind of always imagined their thought bubbles to be right before their frees.....

Michelle.. " OK, this is it. The Olympic free program. Reign it in."

Tara .... " This is it. My Olympic free program. Go hog wild. "

1998 was the first year I watched all the Olympic FS coverage. I was therefore in no position to have an informed opinion as to whether I agreed or disagreed with the result.

However, I did vastly prefer Kwan. I've never rewatched the competition because I dislike Tara and don't want to hear her squealing.

 

[mikeko]

Mao Asada beating Akiko Suzuki at 2012 NHK Trophy.