The Sochi Olympics

[Jester]

Lycra's a brand name for spandex, I believe.

You are correct. Once again proving that I really am an idiot.

[fireheart]

Fun olympic factoid of the day: women were not allowed to wear trousers on the ice until around 2004. Men are actually not allowed to wear tights, but it's not as heavily enforced (mostly owing to tight pants)

And on that note, for some bizarre reason, while artistic gymnasts (particularly the female ones) are not allowed to have see-through components on their leotards, rhythmic gymnasts can. (Ie flesh coloured parts)

[Jester]

Bizarre admission: while I never really got rhythmic gymnastics (probably due to not being an Eastern European), the last Summer Olympics I found myself strangely drawn to watching them when they were on tv (probably due to being descended from Eastern Europeans).

[mathnerd]

That would have nothing to do with petite, fit women wearing skimpy leotards, would it?

[Gravekeeper]

You clearly are a bigger fan of figure skating than I am. That being said, when I'm not sure, I'll go with the experts, and the experts I heard comment on this said that, while Sotnikova was overscored, they still agreed with the final results.

The experts are not in agreement on this though. Weir and Lipinski both played it safe with their comments once they realized there was a shit storm brewing. Weir's initial comments were:

"You have to think being in Russia in front of a Russian audience has definitely helped. She skated well, I don’t know if she was eight points ahead of Carolina Kostner." and that the judges were "very, very, very generous" to her.

Katrina Witt meanwhile called bullshit outright. Along with Michael Weiss.

You talk about the world record score as if it's a huge deal, but the current scoring system has not been in place all that long, as you surely know.

The new system has been in place since 2006 after that shit storm in Salt Lake. Kim holds the world record in all 3 ladies categories from the 2010 Olympics.

Athletes have had the performance of their lives in key moments before, outdoing anything they've done before by leaps and bounds, and it's caused huge upsets.

Yes, they do. However, again, looking at the scorecards:

Judge #2 awarded Sotnikova an average of 4.32 points more than the other 7 judges and awarded Kim 5.93 points less than the average of the other 7 judges.

Judge #7 awarded Sotnikova an average of 3.32 points more than the other 7 judges and awarded Kim 4.43 points less than the average of the other 7 judges.

And we know that one judge is a Ukrainian with close ties to Russian figure skating who was caught red handed fixing scores in Nagano ( this earned him all of a 1 year ban ). And another is married to the president of the Russian figure skating association. Which is a pretty massive conflict of interest that should have kept her off the judging panel.

There are technical aspects in Sotnikovas routine where 7 judges awarded her below average to decent, and one judge awarded her absolutely perfect.

And it's not as if Sotnikova was some journeywoman who trapped lightning in a bottle one time.....she'd been a major player on the European scene for some years.

Theres no doubt shes a great skater in her own right and one of the best Russia has and has more than a few tidy medals around Russian and European championships. But jumping up 20 points in the span of 3 weeks to world record level with the same routine is eyebrow raising.

Especially given that she does worse in world level events as compared to home turf events. Her previous two big world events prior to the Olympics she finished 9th and 5th. She was actually left off of Russia's Olympic skating team and only inserted for this one event.

But this neatly encapsulates the entire problem with figure skating and why they step off the ice looking like they're in line for the firing squad. Even if she did legitimately pull off a world record miracle in a couple of weeks of training, the judging has no integrity left on the world stage.

Every Winter Olympics since 1998 has had a figure skating judging scandal. It likely goes back further but 98 was when they really starting getting caught. -.-

As opposed to, say.....HOCKEY?

Hey! Hockey makes....sense....kind of.

I suspect the whole reason we gave you basketball is because it made too much sense.

[Jester]

That would have nothing to do with petite, fit women wearing skimpy leotards, would it?

If I'm gonna be honest? Surprisingly, no.

As much as I love that body type for women (and make no mistake, I DO), I honestly found myself drawn in by their athletic and gymnastic ability. Their looks were nice, but just as with the lugers and skeleton riders, that thought was secondary. And to be fair, I didn't find all of said petite, fit women all that attractive. MOST of them, yes. But not all.

(Gravekeeper's analysis of the scoring)

As I already said, you are clearly a bigger fan than me.

But to address one of your points, Weir and Lipinski may have played it safe. They may have done so because they were in Russia or because they were working for NBC. The first one seems possible, especially if they were worried about Russian backlash against them, especially considering Weir's status as very openly gay. The second scenario seems less plausible, as various NBC commentators disagreed with various results throughout the games, sometimes vociferously. Or, perhaps, the two just felt as I said they seemed to feel: Sotnikova was overscored, but still deserved the gold. I don't know, nor do I claim to know. Just offering some possibilities.

But this neatly encapsulates the entire problem with figure skating and why they step off the ice looking like they're in line for the firing squad. Even if she did legitimately pull off a world record miracle in a couple of weeks of training, the judging has no integrity left on the world stage.

Every Winter Olympics since 1998 has had a figure skating judging scandal. It likely goes back further but 98 was when they really starting getting caught.

And people wonder why so many people who love sports, myself included, don't really consider figure skating much of a sport. Don't get me wrong, I would never say that figure skaters aren't athletes. They are. But a subjective sport rife with judging scandals is going to suffer in the eyes of sports fans. That's just a simple fact.

Hey! Hockey makes....sense....kind of.

I suspect the whole reason we gave you basketball is because it made too much sense.

I wasn't referencing hockey as a sport that didn't make sense to non-Canadians. I was referencing it as something Canadians are good at, to counter your suggestions that Canadians created curling "to have something we were good at."

[dalesys]

Hey! Hockey makes....sense....kind of...

Now if it started with a jump puck...

[Jetfire]

One of my coworkers at my job in Ottawa was a curling. His team would go play every week, sometimes more.

We were constantly joking that curling was a sport where you throw a rock, then drink a beer. Throw another rock, then drink another beer. Repeat until the beer or the rocks run out.

(My aunt and uncle are big curlers too, and drink just as much during their games.