venting

[Melissa \'01]

sorry. just needed to state somewhere that olympic judges are DAMN stupid. after the rediculous decision of the judges in the figure skating competition I hope that the Canadian team absolutely creams, in fact demolishes, the damn russians. ugggh. i am SO pissed. stupid stupid judges. Thank god hockey isn't so damn subjective. Bring on olympic hockey.

[rsafploc 03]

My sentiments exactly.. everyone watching the telecast with me couldn't believe the judges...

Sounded like the crowd (although prob largely canadian) didn't approve of the results as well... :-(

[judy]

the crowd could've been some americans too...after all, canadians, americans....whatever... ;-)  i was cheering for canada though. wanted to hear 'o canada' played...

and then I switched over to CNBC to see what was on after hockey...curling! US and Canada....gee, who knew, the US has a curling team...   ::laugh::

[rhovorka]

They had US-Sweden curling on late this afternoon on MSNBC.  The US defeated the defending world champion Swedes in an upset about as big as the German upset of Slovakia in ice hockey, the announcers said.

[jtwcornell91]

Well, this does lend credence to the opinion of my Canadian colleague that any sports which require judging rather than being settled according to objective criteria should be removed from the Olympics.

Of course, I'm just bummed that the Swiss got eliminated in men's hockey. :-/ In the late game I started off rooting for a tie to preserve Switzerland's incredibly slim chance of advancing, then decided to go for France because their goalie at least plays in Switzerland.  But in the end both Olympic matches and both Beanpot games turned out the wrong way. :-(

[Will \'01]

while I feel bad for the two nice Canadian lads, they must be used to it...figure skating is not a sport, it's artistic performance like dancing...sorry, this has been a part of this gig ever since it started...as for Canada thumping Russia in hockey...i don't know, eh...:-) ...the russians are going to  skate all over the cocky canucks with alex kovalev putting on a show...just my two cents...and no, i am not russian... O Canada at lynah always brought chills to my spine, i love it as much as the next Sloan fan....but unfortunately Canada will have to wait another four years for the gold...LGR!!!

[Greg Berge]

I'm very glad I didn't read this before seeing the competition.  Please, please ,please people -- some of us are on the left coast.  Title as "Olympic spoiler" or something.

To risk everybody's wrath (and I preface this by saying that Jamie Sale will someday be the mother of my children.  Yeah, I know -- I'm working on it.)  I thought the Russian's program was much more difficult, and it was a toss-up.

I was hoping that the Chinese would land the quad, that might have split the tech judges 1/3 and reordered the result for the Canadians.

Come on, the Russian chick had a skateblade through her head a la Steve Martin.  I can't get too mad at her.

[jtwcornell91]

Ah yes, NBC's prime time stupidity.  At least the CNBC and MSNBC coverage is live in all continental time zones.

[Melissa \'01]

I do apologize. I honestly thought that since it was being broacast at 10:30 on the eat coast it would be being broadcast live on the west.....otherwise is just plain foolish!!!

[judy]

otherwise is just plain foolish!!!

you forget that there are many fools who live in this country and that many of them run large companies...

[Will \'01]

Hopefully, they won't screw Sarah HUghes over...the media sure does seem biased towards Sasha though. Plus, we all know the judges have a thing against Kwan...they should really institute a bunch of marglars as judges, instead of the bitter apes they use. LGR, Team Latvia and Team Russia!!

[CUlater \'89]

It doesn't matter if the media is biased, it only matters if the judges are.

In any event, I wouldn't say the media is biased toward Sasha in the sense of saying she is the best skater.  There is some focus on her now because she's an interesting story that hasn't been told a thousand times (like Kwan) or a couple of dozen times (like Hughes) and she seized the moment well when the President sat with her at the Opening Ceremonies.

But you're right about the bias against Kwan -- it's as if no matter how difficult her program might be, the judges always rate her behind a number of other skaters in the technical category.

[CUlater \'89]

I watched part of the Canada-US match, the first significant amount of curling I've seen for many, many years.  It was actually pretty interesting to watch, for the same reasons baseball or soccer are -- the strategy.  IMHO, it really should be interesting to just about anyone who played shuffleboard or pool or bocce somewhat seriously (i.e. not just fooling around but actually trying to win).

I watched the US guy, throwing his last stone, manage to knock two of the Canadian stones out of the target, not just once but twice, to stay alive when one point would have clinched it for Canada.  The strategy is interesting, in building to the last throw, and the execution takes a good deal of skill.  Like baseball, it's a good sport to watch while you're doing something else.

[Greg Berge]

Interesting story on CNN this morning.  According to the guest, a writer for International Skating Magazine, the fix was in last night before the skaters got on the ice.  The French judge pushed the Russian pairs to first place.  In exchange, the Russian judge will push the French ice dancers to first.

No idea whether the interviewee had an axe to grind, but it did seem a pretty abrupt thing to say on the air for a journalist who covers the sport.

I'll keep my opinion of Kwan to myself and leave it that I hope the woman with the closest ties to Cornell hockey wins the singles.

[CUlater \'89]

Even though she is considering going to Harvard?