Plushenko takes Silver, not Gold!
Skating Rivals
By Davin Colten
There were two big surprises this Thursday night while watching the long program in the men’s free skate finals. One, by having Evan Lysacek win gold without doing a quad. That is preposterous. Two, Johnny Weir never skated better in his life, and he was horribly underscored in both the short and long program. So what does all this mean, figure skating like so many other events in the Olympics, are poorly judged. Unfair is an understatement!
Never do a sport that has to be judged by others, only do a sport that is judged by time; otherwise, you leave your fate in the hands of judges who are blind!
This also goes for snowboarding halfpipe. Shaun White was the best and deserved gold, but Louie Vito did an excellent two runs and was poorly scored, and missed getting a medal because of the judges. The same for Weir, who skated incredible in both the short and long programs, skating so smooth, hitting every jump, with such artistic creativity, he got a standing ovation by the crowd. He was robbed. The low scores dumbfounded even his coach after a perfectly flawless skate. Weir should have gotten a bronze if not silver for his beautiful performance.
Then you have Russian gold medallist Evgeni Plushenko who was first after the short program and then last to skate for the long program. He seemed a bit nervous, but landed every jump including the quad, and should have been rewarded with the gold medal and not the silver. How do you win a medal without doing a quad? He too was robbed. His performance was exciting, getting the crowd into it, commanding your full attention as he skated with perfection.
And then you have Evan Lysacek, who did skate well, but his performance lacked inspiration. Sure his jumps were smooth, but his performance lacked anything exciting, almost like a robot. He did not do a quad like Plushenko, his artistic creativity was less than Weir, but still he won the gold medal. He scored an incredibly high score in the short program, that was shocking, and then he scored an even higher score in the free skate long program, that shocked everyone. Sure his performance was good, but nowhere near Plushenko, and that is where the judges and the scoring system come into play.
After watching the horrible outcome, seeing Johnny Weir skate perfectly and not even get a medal, and watching Plushenko lose the gold, I turned off the television, and have lost complete interest in watching anymore of the Olympics. I need not watch the mundane commentary anymore that keeps cutting into an event, instead of showing it in its entirety. And without Weir and Vito getting the medals they deserved, some fans are crying, some are smiling, and some like me, have wasted enough of their time!
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If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas
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Plushenko had shaky landings and crooked jumps. Spins were nowhere near Lycasek’s caliber. Footwork ok. Lycasek had one shaky landing on a triple axel and did more jumps. It is a 4 minute 40 second program not one second which is more than what it takes for a quad. Plushenko has disgraced himself and his country. I do agree that Johnny Weir skated beautiful, but was downgraded on overall difficulty.
If the execution of quads should guarantee a medal, shouldn’t Tim Goebel have gotten the gold in 2002 having landed 3 quads — two different?????
I understand what you were saying and in the case with Weir and Vito I fully agree with you on they were robbed of any medal. I don’t believe the bronze medal should of went to the Takahashi Daisuke, who in turn actually had a fall if I remember right. Weir had a “Perfect” performance and according to Hamilton he should of had a spot on the medal stand. Vito had like you said not just one great run but two or them and never received the marks which would of put him in the medals.
However, Evgeni Plushenko’s performance even though he did land the Quad was not clean and impressive as you have stated in your article. In most of his landings he was off centered and he landed them by means which in my opinion were lucky. If it wasn’t for his ability to recover, he would of probably been on the ice on two occasions, one being the Quad. He received the the score for his difficulty of the jump in the means which he deserved by scoring 14.80 for his Quad while Lysacek’s highest jump value was his triple Lutz + Triple Toe receiving only 11.40.
You stated technically Plushenko skated a better program when in reality they were exactly the same with both having a score of 82.80. Plushenko my have had one difficult Quad which he landed not perfect but his other jumps were just not impressive and even though his base value was .1 higher, when you factored in the GOE for each of the different jumps and elements (Plushenko one having “3″ higher then 1, and Lysacek having “6″ of them) this gave the Gold medal to Lysacek with a executed Elements score of 84.57 to Plushenko’s 82.71. Yes humans gave the points in this manner but if Plushenko would of had a perfect program like he had in the past this wouldn’t be a factor, but this night he wasn’t perfect and Lysacek did what he needed to win his gold skate a perfect program. Didn’t stumple on his footwork and landed his landings perfectly. This was a big factor in the judging because for transistions/Linking Footwork Plushenko received 7.25 to 7.95 for Lysacek.
With these areas of concern and actually watching the event and the comments from Hamilton and others on the competition, the Gold when to the better skater that night and even though you are a great skater, it doesn’t always mean you are going to get the Gold. you still have to skate the perfect program because someone else is going to skate it and slip you to second or worse.
Don’tyouknowthatEvanLysacek’sdadboughtit.Evan’sfatherisaceoofNBC.Herunsit.Thatiswhyhewon.JohnnyandPlushenkodon’thavethat.
You are completely right! I agree Plushenko should have won and even as a Canadian I think Chan should have been under Weir.
Judging has never been more unfair in figure skating.
They really need to boost the marks for quads to make sure they are rewarded correctly!
Pluchenko GOLD!!!!
Thank you Mr.Colten for a nice article.
I felt that they didn’t just rob Plushenko and Wier of their rightful marks. They robbed me of my time and joy of seeing fairness in the Olympics.
They want me to believe that Plushenko’s short program-superior in every way- was worth as much as Lysacek’s and placed him only .55 away from Lasacek!!! Remember the 2002 Olympics in which people whose program was inferior were placed way behind those who could do the quad?
Johnny Weir’s program didn’t have the quad so how in the world was he placed only 6th? His I actually enjoyed more than Lysacek’s…