Welcome to the WWF’s Figure Skating Program! You thought that only professional wrestling was obviously fixed, and that the noble Olympics were far above that sort of thing – and how wrong you were! Or perhaps you thought that the old system of political block voting was a thing of the Cold War past – wrong again!
Everyone in the stadium thought that Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had won the Olympic gold medal in pairs figure skating on Monday night after their Russian competition committed some obvious mistakes – but everyone was wrong! Although it appeared that normal scoring procedures would clearly favor the Canadian team, judges from Russia, China, Poland, the Ukraine, and France picked the Russian team, while judges from the United States, Canada, Germany, and Japan placed the Canadians in first place.
Allegations were rife that the French judge, Marie Reine Le Gougne, had made a deal with the Russian judges to trade votes in the ice-dancing competition. Outraged commentators from around the globe, a number of them former professional ice-skaters, confirmed that there was a long tradition of vote trading in the figure skating events.
The Chinese judge who favored the Russian team in the tiebreaker withdrew from judging last night’s men’s short program “due to illness”.
Of course its fixed, there are people making judements. What else do you expect?
If you have to keep score it’s a game.
If you need a judge it’s a pastime.
If you need several judges it’s a sham.
The winners are the one’s that the judges pick, not the ones that the crowd loves, or the ones that sleep with Bob Costas and Scott Hamilton.
Get over it.
John
I neither watched nor cared. A “sport” that requires the “opinion’ of judges to determine winners is just looking for this sort of trouble.
A sport ought to have scoring as an intrinsic part of ots structure.
It was a disgrace. We have
seen it before. They should
be awarded the gold….
Just another example of the French disconnection.
Who cares…?
Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were the obvious winners. What a shame to have to accept silver when you KNOW that you won gold.
This isn’t the first time.I think it was in 96 that the pair from the
UK (Torville and Dean) had the same thing happen to them.
They clearly won but they said they did an illegal move and they
ended up with silver.I have also seen this with boxing in the
olympics.I don’t know what year but an italian won the fight
clearly and ended up with silver.This is not right what is going
on.The countries that pull these stunts only make themselves
look pathetic.
What do you think,, BIG MONEY and politics,nothing is sacred
any longer.. It is shameful on all of humanity, we can do any thing
that is fair !
Unfortunately, I’m not a judge – my opinion doesn’t count. Maybe we should have the viewers cast votes via the internet? It would probably be more rational that having the state appointed judges vote!
Canada purely won. I am from the city (Edmonton) where they train and it is the rage on all the talk shows here. What stands out above everything else is the class of the skaters themselves. They said they did all they could do and are just trying to live above all the corruption. It is a shame the Olympics are like this but nothing can take away from the outstanding performance of these two awesome skaters.
Clearly fixed, and although soon to be addressed, the damage is done. The Emperor has no clothes.
Now I’ve read the numerous comments made by some others. My wife and I enjoy watching these competitions and have watched the Olympics since ’90 together, and both watched separately before that. The amount of work, skill and artistry that goes into the performances is why we enjoy this event. We admire excellence and no matter what the judges contrive to do, the beauty of their performances will always be a part of our memory. Comments posted here such as ‘Get over it!’ convey such arrogant insensitivity as to join the judges in their callous disregard of the training required to even step on the ice in these events.
There was no fix, the only error made by the russians was a single step out of an double axle jump which was reflected in the scores for technicality, but where it mattered was the presentation and there the Russian duo scored massively over their opponents and in my mind deserved their win.
I love ice skating, and this is not the first time this has happened. They need to get rid of those judges and start over again. The gold should be given to the Canadian pair. A person would have to be blind not to know that!
IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT IT WAS FIXED BECAUSE EVEN AN AMATEUR CAN TELL THAT THE CANADIANS OUT SKATED THE RUSSIANS.
The Ccanadians won hands down. Perhaps we should withdraw from future meets until the rules and ethics are fixed.
You are rightit was a fix.and all judges involved shoul be disqualified.
The gold the russians (won)
Is worthless in my mind .Because from what I saw the Canadiens won!!!!!!
I watch the skating and i was outraged because it was very
clear the Canadians had won. This is another example of
what is going on in this world. The evil is all around us and
we need to stamp it out as soon as we can. These other
countries hate for what the free world stands for and
that is FREEDOM. Everybody is crying for it.Freedom Freedom
everywhere. Could you imagine.
Canada won………….
I could not believe what I saw. The judges that are doing this need to dealt with in a very swift manner. Boot them out!!!!!
I watched as the world watched and was very disappointed when the decision was made. The system is flawed. It hasn’t been but a couple of years ago that the Olympic site committee was caught taking bribes so why should we be supprised when the judges are also corrupt.
Enough of the Olympic hype and the out of control costs.
It was “no contest”. The Canadians won by a bunch.
I believe the Olympic games have always been rigged.
I also know that United Nations is a group of thieves and liars.
The United States should make it perfectly clear we won’t tolerate corruption, which is hard to do since we have a governor in Florida that was convicted of banking fraud. The same crime as Enron, which can be traced back to his brother in the White House, George “W” Bush.
The Canadians should have won with their perfect performance,
while the Russians had several serious flaws. We now know
that the French judge was “influenced” while those other countries
are obviously Anti-West. The right result is for the gold medal
to be returned by the Russians (they should do it voluntarily)
and to be given to the Canadians.
The obvious winners were the canadians. Even a bat would have seen this. We as americans cannot allow for this kind of favortism on our soil. This would be the same if the roles we reversed. the judges should be dismissed and new judges picked and review the tapes to make a new judgement.
These judges are an outrageous joke. They are making a mockery of the Olympics and the hard work all of these athletes go through to get to this level. They should put the Russian and French judge in jail.
I’ve heard the judges Are Saying Yes the Canadians were better technically however the Russian skaters interpreted the music so much better and were much more stylish. I wonder if these same judges have met Toller Cranston who for years won the free skate routine yet never won a gold medal, because his figures were not as technical as whatever flavor of Russian skater was the gold medal winner at that time.
Who cares? There are bigger fish to fry. I could careless about the Olympics, let alone whether judging is fixed!!
I, like most, watched the ice skating event and feel the Canadians won, it was obvious. I have lost interest in watching the olympics. Isn’t there any honesty left
Hmmmmm, I still think the Canadians are going to cash in big with endorsements, interviews, quest appearances,
and most hopefully the girl in a Playboy spread.
No, I didn’t watch the competition. I was downstairs working on the computer when I heard the yelling from upstairs. I’m sure that the people in the next county heard it. I saw the replays, who could miss them. I agree with the suggestion that Nance Napcat made about judges from the country of the competetor not being allowed to participate. I would also like to point out that athelets are made to jump through hoops to prove that they are not cheating, shouldn’t the judges have their own hoops. I would like to go Bernard Levy one better, not only should the medals be returned voluntarily, they should never have been accepted in the first place. I would consider it an embarrassment to claim as mine an award which I didn’t earn.