[HPFGU-OTChatter] Defending ice dancing, the ISU and judging

[Kathryn]

I think actually the poster you refer too was dissing figure skating generally (but I may be remembering that from another list I'm on where this is the topic of the moment too) IMO the camerawork doesn't always help matters focussing on closeups (above the waist) when the skaters aren't doing anything dramatic thus making most people think they're just coasting when they're often doing intricate footwork.
I notice (or rather Barry Davies did) that the only reason the French judge's marks stood out was the others voted along east/west lines (who says the cold war ended?), Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and China voted for the Russians while UK, US, Canada and Germany I think, voted for the Canadians, with the French judge voting the "wrong" way. I think the implication was it was in return for someone (don't know who but presumably Russia) voting for the French couple in the Ice Dancing, which was why it was so important to sort it out beore the Ice Dancing started.
And yeah I remember a lot more falls than normal at Nagano too - the German commentator I heard was wondering if the ice was extra slippery !?
And Bolero was Sarajevo in '82 I think, Albertville was their comeback when they should have won gold with Let's Face the Music. (Jane Torville's one of the 'experts' on the coverage over here, which explains my detailed knowledge)

K
If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.
http://minievil.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: moongirlk 
  To: HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 5:18 AM
  Subject: [HPFGU-OTChatter] Defending ice dancing, the ISU and judging


  I so love whatever moderator came up with the idea for OT chatter - 
  how else would we get to discuss figure skating on an HP list?  YAY!

  I have to leap to the defense of Ice Dancing as somebody (I honestly 
  meant to remember who so I could go back and find the quote) said 
  they thought it ought to be dropped from the olympics due to the 
  judging problems and that it's barely a sport, or something to that 
  effect.

  I used to feel the same way.  Until I saw Torvil and Dean do their 
  stuff at Albertville - I think it was Albertville - is that when they 
  came out of retirement or whatever they call it?  I don't remember 
  much about T&D from before, other than a vague impression that they 
  wore a lot of purple, but when I watched them there I finally 
  appreciated having one branch of the sport that didn't revolve around 
  jumps.  Dude - have you ever seen their "Bolero" number?  Hubba hubba 
  wow!  Now they're not the sexiest looking couple of people in the 
  world, and off ice they seemed very sort of mundane, but when they 
  did Bolero... dear heavens - it was sex on ice!  I've never seen a 
  program, and hardly ever even a love scene in a movie, that was more 
  convincingly sexually charged, and yet at the same time it was 
  *definitely* a sport.  I've decided that the thing with ice dancing 
  is that without the jumps, you have to be really really *good* at all 
  of the foundational parts of skating, and you have to do tons more 
  *other* hard stuff.  When there are 7 or more jumps in a program, the 
  skater spends a good chunk of time doing simple crossovers building 
  up speed and setting up for the jumps, plus takes "breathers", as the 
  commentators call them, where they do nothing in particular, except 
  maybe waving their arms around dramatically (which drives me nuts).  
  Without the jumps, they have to pack every moment of the program with 
  intricate footwork and edge-work and... well, other nifty stuff I 
  don't know the names of.  

  That's not to take away from singles and regular pairs, just to say 
  that ice dance is way cool too, and not usually as scary since people 
  don't fall down as much, which I honestly think ought to be a 
  prerequisite for being in the olympics - don't do a jump unless you 
  can land it in practice more than occasionally.  Sorry, that's really 
  a peeve from the last Olympics, not this one.  At least not yet.  

  As for the judging thing... I honestly think the cheating has been 
  going on for decades, and that it's a well-know if not well-
  publicized fact to insiders.  Did anyone else get the feeling that 
  the ISU president still isn't taking the problem seriously?  In fact 
  I feel sorry for the French judge - she's the only one who's admitted 
  to doing anything wrong, but I'd pool my last galleon with Fred and 
  George to bet that there are several others who are at least as 
  guilty.  Seems like they just want to scapegoat her and sweep it all 
  under the rug, but clearly the implication is that she was supposed 
  to vote for the Russians *in return* for something, so she can't 
  possibly have been the only one involved.  I'd be digging up judges 
  from Estonia, Morrocco, Uzbekistan, Jamaica... anywhere to find a few 
  that didn't have any skaters in the top 10 or so and get them to do 
  the judging, then as soon as the Olympics were over I'd wipe out the 
  judging sytem completely and start from scratch.  Maybe then a skater 
  with a unique artistic style could catch a break, too.  Seems like 
  current judges still think if there's no opera music or melodrama 
  it's not sufficiently artistic.  Oh, pardon my rant.  Ahem.  I'd 
  better shut up now.

  Except to say that I was actually pretty happy with the men's results 
  too, and was very touched by both Yagudin's performance and his open 
  weeping afterward.  He's grown on me a lot over the last year or so.

  kimberly
  done ranting about skating for now, but still hoping they'll put 
  sweet Scotty in charge of the ISU someday.


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