Judges Made a Mockery of Figure Skating: Elvis Stojko

Is the risk level at the Vancouver Olympics acceptable? It seems it will be impossible to please everyone.

The death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili highlighted the potential hazards of the Whistler sliding course, also shared by the athletes performing in bobsled and skeleton events. Olympic officials blamed the accident on driver error, and claimed adjustments made near the bottom of the course were purely for the psychological benefit of athletes. On the other hand, they did move the starting points for both men and women further down the course, and the committee in charge of the next Winter Olympics in London have been warned to build a slower course.

In sharp contrast, Canadian skating champion Elvis Stojko was heavily critical of Thursday's competition because Evan Lysacek had to "hold back in order to win." Stojko called the judges' scoring ridiculous, said "[t]here are junior skaters who can skate that same program." The champion, a strongly athletic performer who was the first to land a quadruple-double combination, spoke passionately in his blog about Russian Evgeni Plushenko's quad toe triple toe, and was angered that Lysacek didn't even attempt a quadruple jump.

Stojko feels other figure skaters were cheated too: Daisuke Takahashi; Johnny Weir; Takahiko Kozuka. "[W]hen you compare performances and have an outcome like this, the sport is going backward . . . [T]he judges made a mockery of it by giving Lysacek the gold," said Stojko, who blames the International Skating Union and not the skaters themselves. "Figure skating gets no respect because of outcomes like this. More feathers, head-flinging and so-called step sequences done at walking speed - that's what the system wants."

Hockey Emerges as a Common Ground for Olympic Critics

After Kamaritashvili's death one commentator remarked that it seemed hockey was turning out to be one of the safer sports at the Vancouver 2010 Games. Ironically Stojko sees hockey as a "real sport," one "where athletes are allowed to push the envelope."

Perhaps hockey does represent a halfway point between the more artistic and generally less risky figure skating, and the always dangerous sliding sports. While this is no great surprise to anyone who has ever watched the sports, it does provide a reminder that in any sport the supervising body does influence the direction the sport takes more than the athletes who are actively competing in it.

Olympics No Longer Amateur Sport?

It was the inclusion of professional hockey players in an amateur sport that turned some fans off the Olympics. While Olympic hockey remains popular today, we do have to ask ourselves whether what we want is to win at all costs - or to celebrate amateur sport. And if it is to be amateur sport, do we let the athletes themselves determine the level of risk they are prepared to take and what direction they want the sport to take? Or do we allow coaches, committees and corporations to shape the sport to suit themselves?

What would de Coubertin think?

Source:

"The night they killed figure skating" Elvis Stojko (Yahoo! Sports)