Question about retrospective scoring

[brennele]

Here is something I am wondering about. First, I am glad the new scoring system makes the judging more objective. Under the old 6.0 system, there was too much room for favoritism and subjective scoring. Thinking back to 1980, with all the hype about the Lake Placid Ladies Figure Skating Gold Medal results, brings up a question - to me at least. Is it possible to watch videos of SP and FS of the two skaters - Fratianne and Poesch (spelling?) and score them using today's criteria? Not that it matters, in any way, but for all the controversy it generated, wouldn't the results of such an endeavor be, at least, interesting? Probably lots of folks posting here were not even born then. I was 30, at the time, watching the 1980 event with my family and I have very fond memories of that night. Members of my family had come over to my house to watched the Ladies free skate. We all gathered in my TV room that evening and had a wonderful time together, watching the Olympics. I remember my Dad was furious that Poesch won; he thought it was a fix. Me? Well I thought she was ever so slightly better than Fratianne. Virtually all of my family members - at that time, all alive, well and happy as we enjoyed each other's company - are long gone now. That memory of such a pleasant evening together is very dear to me. So then, is such a thing as scoring based on past videos even possible?

 

[skatingguy]

There are websites where you can score at home, and I suppose you could apply the system to the championships of the past. I don't know how fulfilling that would be because the elements just wouldn't meet the technical standards to achieve levels and GOE that the system lays out.

 

[brennele]

skatingguy, you make a valid point. I am glad that we now have more objective standards to grade and judge the skaters today. Otherwise it gets down to an issue of you like peach ice cream and I like strawberry. If they are both well made and high quality, who is to say which is better? On the flip side, we now have less artistry and more technical jumping; the latter seems to have taken the lead. Either way, it is inexcusable that past episodes of skating corruption did exist. It totally ruins the sport, no matter what the system. During the whole 2002 scandal, I was reading where the French corrupt judge got a 5 year ban from judging. Five years? It should have been a lifetime ban. If a person has been proven to be corrupt, who would want that person to judge again. How could you ever trust such a person. It would be like saying a person who was convicted of embezzling got a five year ban from ever handling a corporation's finances. What corporation would ever hire that person after the five years were up? People warrant second chances within the context of being members of society, at large, but some crimes are so serious that they don't warrant any second chances in that same field.