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Count on figure skating to deliver an Olympic fuss
By Doug Robinson
Deseret News columnist
Now that the judging system for figure skating has faltered once again, what do we do?
Toss a coin? Poll the crowd like Regis? Instant replay and further review? Sudden death — first skater to fall loses? Send the votes to Florida for a recount? What about a coaches poll, a la the BCS? Are Jeff Sagarin and the other computer geeks available? How was David Pelletier and Jamie Sale's strength of schedule?
Anyway, congratulations are in order, Salt Lake City. Finally, this is a real Olympics. Here we were, five days into the Games and, try as people might, they couldn't generate a genuine Olympian controversy. The media tried to stir things up over a few wise-guy type remarks by Bob Costas, but that didn't fly. Traffic problems? What traffic problems? Security? — and your options are . . .
You can always count on good old figure skating to deliver.
Is it just me or did you give up on figure skating as a legitimate sport a long time ago. When it comes to ethics and fair results, it falls somewhere between pro wrestling and boxing. Who runs this sport, Don King? The BCS? One suggestion: Any sport in which a spectator can't determine the winner with his own eyes is out.
Here's the short version of what happened in pairs skating this week (in case you were one of the smart ones and didn't watch): The Canadians skated perfectly and wowed the crowd with a performance Hollywood couldn't have pulled off any better with camera tricks. The Russians came out and survived, which is to say they didn't fall, but almost.
The judges picked the Russians.
Everyone else had a Salchow, man.
The crowd booed. The next day's headlines in both the Ottawa Sun and Winnipeg Free Press said simply, "Robbed!" The latter paper wrote that "the decision was not only unpopular — it was downright nefarious."
The Globe and Mail ran a Web site poll asking if judged events should be banned from the Olympics — and 71 percent said yes. NBC's Sandra Bezic told viewers, "I'm embarrassed for our sport right now."
A million North Americans were calling TV repairmen the next day to remove the shoe from their tubes. The figure skating union quickly announced that it will investigate.
Note to union: Don't bother. Sorry, but I get a little cynical anytime someone says he's going to investigate himself. (Please see the IOC.) Ask yourself this: Is it asking too much to expect judges from different sides of the ocean to get along and play fairly? Oh, by the way, the judges who placed the Russians first are from Russia and two former Soviet Bloc neighbors — Poland and Ukraine — along with China and France. The judges who placed the Canadians first are from the USA, Canada, Germany and Japan.
What a shock.
Maybe the Cold War is over, but not old loyalties. Was it a coincidence that the voting was divided among fast friends and neighbors? The West no longer fights the old Eastern Bloc countries over land or politics, but maybe they still fight over tiny ice skaters.
Judging controversies in figure skating are as much a part of the Games as the torch run. The biggest offender is ice dancing, which has been rife with judging controversies since it became an Olympic sport in 1976. It came to a head after the 1998 Games, when Jean Senft, a Canadian judge, accused Ukrainian judge Yury Balkov of trading votes. She recorded a conversation in which Balkov told her the order of the finish before the free dance had even taken place. The International Skating Union, after listening to the recording, suspended Senft and Balkov. Since then, Senft has been assigned to judge minor league competitions, and Balkov judges international events.
Weary of the continual judging scandals, Richard Pound, a longtime IOC member from Canada, asked that ice dancing be dropped from the Olympic schedule after the 1998 Games. He said it again in December.
The judging fun might not be over in Salt Lake City. Earlier this month it was reported that a number of sources believe that the outcome for the ice dancing competition has already been determined.
I guess this means we don't need to watch.
E-mail: drob@desnews.com
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February 13, 2002
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