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

[Andrew MacIan]

Greetings from Andrew!

When a sport isn't....
--- cindysphynx <cindysphynx at home.com> wrote:
{snip}

> The bottom line for me is that you have to have risk
> in a sport.  Not 
> risk that someone will be hurt or killed.  Just risk
> that something 
> could go wrong.  Risk is there in all of the other
> judged sports:  
> diving, gymnastics, aerial skiing.  That's where the
> suspense comes 
> from for me.  Ice dancers don't fall or even make
> many mistakes 
> (except for that one couple who fell in the long
> program at worlds 
> and *won anyway*).

Let me take a step or six back and offer a rather
radical proposal:  Any 'sport' that requires external
judging, where that judging awards/affects points
should NOT be an Olympic sport.  That they are
athletic in nature is a given.  But when the
subjective nature of the judging is integral to the
placements of the finishers, then the contest is not
only between the open competitors but also
amongst/between the judges...and the nations the
judges really represent.

Let's take the sports I played way back when, in my
own university days.  I fenced and lifted weights.  In
both sports, points are scored, and in both there is
an element of danger. But in neither one is there
*interactive* judging of how well the competitors'
form held, or how perfectly the point was scored. 
True, in both there is an element of judging of
legality (that is, in the case of lifting, whether or
not the lift was legally completed), but that judging
is binary:  You locked the lift, or scored the
hit...or you didn't.

> 
> Now that judging corruption is out in the open, it
> does give me pause 
> about other results over the years.  I wonder how
> Nancy Kerrigan is 
> feeling these days?
> 

Does the term 'seriously pissed off' mean anything to
you?

> Actually, I'm sufficiently cranky tonight that I'd
> like to show the 
> door to several other Olympic sports.  Synchronized
> swimming.  
> Rhythym gymnastics.  Ballroom dancing (did they ever
> allow this 
> in?).  Outta here!

Concur.  Also, sadly, dressage competition and the
dressage portion of three-day, and most forms of
gymnastics and diving would now be history as well.

Ah, well...nice to think of restoring something like
the original purity of the Games, wasn't it?

Cheers,

Drieux


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