‘I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to win in Salt Lake City’: Russian skating icon Irina Slutskaya on lost victory at 2002 Games

[UGG]

From what I remember if Irina had received one more first place ordinal she would have won. If MK had one more 2nd place she would have won and I think someone even had Sarah in 4th. Sarah definitely did not run away with this competition. Before Irina skated, MK was in 1st and Sarah was in 2nd. I think that’s why Sarah’s win was so dramatic. She was never in 1st until the end lol.

 

[tony]

From what I remember if Irina had received one more first place ordinal she would have won. If MK had one more 2nd place she would have won and I think someone even had Sarah in 4th. Sarah definitely did not run away with this competition. Before Irina skated, MK was in 1st and Sarah was in 2nd. I think that’s why Sarah’s win was so dramatic. She was never in 1st until the end lol.

But the thing is that the judges probably had their own agendas, which is what I briefly suggested in my first post in the thread. The judges knew the math situation. They knew that the ordinal they gave Irina had all the impact on the final results. Enough of them may have thought there's no way in hell Kwan could get 2nd in the long and the overall title with that skate, and I'm sure some of them were team Irina and thought there's no way in hell Hughes could be the OGM. And I'm sure there were a few that still wanted Kwan to win with an Irina 3rd place LP. I honestly believe that's what happened-- her ordinals were just a placeholder for what the judges really wanted to happen, with 2nd in the long being the odd ordinal for Irina, giving her just 2 of them.

This whole 'needing help from others' thing is actually a significant part of why I like IJS better. It doesn't matter how everyone else skates in that regard.