February 22, 2002

10:43 AM

Russians Challenging Hughes Skating Gold Russian Olympic officials lodged an official protest, demanding that Olympic Silver Medalist Irina Slutskaya be awarded a gold medal, accusing the ladies figure skating judges of being biased against the russian skater. This is the biggest batch of sour grapes I have ever seen in sports.
posted by Lanternjmk (45 comments total)

This is the biggest batch of sour grapes I have ever seen in sports.

And the biggest and most enlightening insight into international amateur sports I have ever seen. What a cesspool.
posted by UncleFes at 10:53 AM on February 22, 2002

It would be interesting to know what specifically the Russians are claiming in their protest. I would think anyone would be hard pressed to make a case that Slutskaya skated a better program than Hughes last night.
posted by anapestic at 10:57 AM on February 22, 2002

I would think anyone would be hard pressed to make a case that Slutskaya skated a better program than Hughes last night.

That's exactly what they are claiming.
posted by jewishbuddha at 11:01 AM on February 22, 2002

Yeah, but the gold medal is for both the long and short program, and no one contested the short program.
posted by bob bisquick at 11:02 AM on February 22, 2002

Yeah, but the gold medal is for both the long and short program, and no one contested the short program.
posted by bob bisquick at 11:03 AM on February 22, 2002

Actually, to be precise, they are claiming that Slutskaya performed as well as, if not better than Hughes, leaving the door open for a tie. The Russian spokesman said they do not want to take Hughes's medal away, they just believe that Slutskaya deserves gold as well.

Who knew you could tie in the Olympics?

Pretty soon they'll stop judging completely and just give everyone a nice participation trophy like I got in little league.
posted by jewishbuddha at 11:05 AM on February 22, 2002

Aw, heck, let's give everyone a shiny gold medal and a hug for doing such a good job, just like the Special Olympics, and then they can all go out for ice cream later.

(no knock intended on the Special Olympics)
posted by briank at 11:07 AM on February 22, 2002

Russia can suck it. I can't beleive how much people bitch and moan. So much for the Olympics bringing nations together.
posted by aj100 at 11:08 AM on February 22, 2002

And people wonder why I don't enjoy figure skating. This year has gone a long way to cement my aversion to it and my contention that anything that has artistic and subjective scoring shouldn't be considered a sport. I do, however, recognize the incredible athletic abilities the skaters must have, but then again, ballet dancers have incredible athletic ability as well.
posted by trox at 11:09 AM on February 22, 2002

guidelines for a better olympics:

1) No judged sports. Isn't the olympic motto "Stronger, Faster, Higher" or something like that?

2) No sports where you can be a world champion before puberty.
posted by halcyon at 11:13 AM on February 22, 2002

Does this mean we can finally stop hearing about how the Canadians are supposed to be a bunch of whiners?
posted by Orkboi at 11:19 AM on February 22, 2002

Maybe I'm seeing things, but it looked to me, on all the endless replays, that Slutskaya didn't have as clean a program as Hughes and that the South Korean skater did cut Ohno off. If nothing else, look at Slutskaya's reaction when she finished skating. Even she knew her program wasn't perfect.

While the motto, "Stronger, Faster, Higher", may be a goal for atheletes to strive for, I take it also as a reminder that there's always someone "Stronger, Faster, Higher" than you are.
posted by onhazier at 11:27 AM on February 22, 2002

I just like the fact that her name begins with Slut.
posted by Mach3avelli at 11:28 AM on February 22, 2002

Mach, yeah, imagine her experience had she gone to school in an english speaking country like the US.
posted by tiaka at 11:38 AM on February 22, 2002

I don't know much about skating, but from my layman's point of view, Hughes took it. She was amazing to the point of practically seeming inhuman.

I only tuned in to look at the legs, and ended up with an elevated spirit and an appreciation for the sport, as well as motivation to be more disciplined in my own work. Hallelujah.
posted by bingo at 11:38 AM on February 22, 2002

The athletes are great and show great dedication, but the federations and clubs and cliques have destroyed the 'spirit' of the olympics; they are a snivvling bunch of cheats and I have lost interest.
posted by Mack Twain at 12:25 PM on February 22, 2002

This is the IOC's fault for giving the Canadian pairs skaters a gold last week. They gave the impression or bowing to public pressure and this is the result of it. They should have either left it alone or taken away the gold from the Russian pair. It goes against the spirit of competition to award 2 golds for an event.

They just showed that they have as much back bone as the UN in my opinion.
posted by a3matrix at 12:32 PM on February 22, 2002

briank:

Participants at the Special Olympics compete against each other in every sense. Only one gold, etc. It's not one big pizza party.
posted by argybarg at 12:33 PM on February 22, 2002

I only tuned in to look at the legs

Uh, you do know many of them are only sixteen years old? Save the gawking for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and keep the prying eyes off the skating toddlers from Belarus.
posted by mathowie at 12:37 PM on February 22, 2002

Participants at the Special Olympics compete against each other in every sense. Only one gold, etc. It's not one big pizza party.

So at least somebody has the right idea. Maybe the Russians didn't read all the brochures?
posted by briank at 12:49 PM on February 22, 2002

Medal disputes aside, here's what I got out of the whole thing. It's an obvious observation, but it's a nice stark example:

It's easier to perform when there's no pressure. Hughes skated without any expectations of winning. She was relaxed and just skated to do her best. Slutskaya and especially Kwan had all the pressure of the world on them to win. It ruined them. I enjoyed watching Hughes skate because she looked like she was actually having fun.
posted by billder at 1:28 PM on February 22, 2002

Actually, to be precise, they are claiming that Slutskaya performed as well as, if not better than Hughes, leaving the door open for a tie.

But according to those pesky rules a tie is broken by the artistic score, in which case Sarah Hughes would win.
posted by jennak at 1:32 PM on February 22, 2002

mathowie: Sixteen, shmixteen. Next you'll be telling me I'm not supposed to look at high-school cheerleaders at football games.

OK, fine. Let 'em wear pants like the men do. Meanwhile, if they're going to dress in typical skating outfits, well, athletic women in short skirts look very fetching to the hetero male eye.

It was an adolescent crush on Dorothy Hamill in '76 that got me to notice women's figure skating in the first place -- and since then I've ...grown...uh, I mean I've come....Uh, that is, I find that nowadays I really enjoy watching because it's graceful and beautiful to see when done well. But yeah, I think Irina is a terminal hottie and little Sarah is pretty cute too. So sue me.
posted by alumshubby at 1:38 PM on February 22, 2002

They're disagreeing with the judges' decision. That's not enough. Absent any wrongdoing by the judges — and this is the key point — they have no case. To paraphrase Terry Bisson, they are all full of shit and they should fuck off.
posted by mcwetboy at 1:41 PM on February 22, 2002

I don't know much about skating, but from my layman's point of view, Hughes took it. She was amazing to the point of practically seeming inhuman.

My favorite part in watching Hughes last night was when she did the final triple near the end of her program. When she successfully lands, she lets out a squeal of delight. My wife and I rewound the tivo a few times to make sure that it wasn't some random noise; it seemed pretty genuine. Lest the Russians forget, Hughes was also the first woman in history to land two triple-triple combinations in the event. Hughes was a clear winner - nary a stumble or falter as she glided from triple to triple.
posted by warhol at 2:41 PM on February 22, 2002

Mach, tiaka: Used to work at a company where one of the managers was named Laura Ann Slutkowski. (Name munged slightly to protect the innocent.) The login ID policy was first letter of the first and middle names, first four letters of the last name.

You got it. LASLUT. Doesn't it just start ZZ Top running in your head? Fortunately she was the kind of person who could laugh it off.

a3matrix: sure, the IOC caved to public pressure. It wasn't like a judge practically confessed to fraud in open court and signed a deposition backed up by several others ... oh, wait, yes -- it was exactly like that.
posted by dhartung at 2:48 PM on February 22, 2002

That reminds me of a guy I knew with the last name Shitaye, whose username thus became shit0002. He thought it was pretty funny. The University didn't seem to mind either.

I was very impressed with Sasha Cohen's fierceness last night. You could see it in her face as she started and several times throughout -- she wanted that damn gold and she was ready to fight for it. Too bad gravity and speed prevented that event from occurring, but boy did I enjoy watching her skate.
posted by evixir at 3:11 PM on February 22, 2002

Dhartung: I hear you, and that is exactly why they should have taken a firm stance on the issue at that moment. They should have let the medals stand as awarded, or they should have changed the standings. They should not have handed out a 2nd set of gold medals for an event. Come to think of it, where did they get them from? There should not be extra gold medals, ever.
A lack of cajones on their part, and it opened up a big can of crying for all other to try and get their gold medals.
It is really sad that it came to this.
posted by a3matrix at 3:17 PM on February 22, 2002

There should not be extra gold medals, ever.

Of course there should be. In some sports a tie is theoretically possible. It's far better to have a few extra than to not have enough and make some winners wait.
posted by kindall at 3:24 PM on February 22, 2002

The IOC is reaping what they sowed. Whatever the merits of the Russian protest (and I make no comment on that), surely the IOC should have realised the consequences of awarding the Canadian pair a gold?
posted by salmacis at 4:22 PM on February 22, 2002

Skating is definitely woman's professional wrestling.

I predict that in the next Winter Olympics, a new top medal, Platinum, will be introduced.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:28 PM on February 22, 2002

Slutskaya and Hughes did tie, actually.

No, really. They tied in the factored placements.

Hughes: 4th in short, 1st in long: 2+1=3
Slutskaya: 2nd in short, 2nd in long: 1+2 = 3
Kwan: 1st in short, 3rd in long: .5+3=3.5

Hughes and Slutskaya had the same score, but the long program is the tiebreaker. Hughes won the long.

Here's the interesting thing. Had Irina won the long, it would have knocked Sarah back to third (remember, the short program has impact here). Here's what would have happened then:

Slutskaya: 2nd in short, 1st in long: 1+1 = 2
Kwan: 1st in short, 3rd in long: .5+3=3.5
Hughes: 4th in short, 2nd in long: 2+2=4

I am glad it didn't happen that way, because the screams from the fair-weather skating fans would have been deafening.

The only way that Hughes could jump from 4th to 1st was for someone else to beat Kwan. Which did happen, though, really, Kwan beat herself.
posted by litlnemo at 5:04 PM on February 22, 2002

It was really fun watching Sarah Hughes keep jumping like a frisky antleope. Who but a bouncy teenager could pull that style off? Can't imagine anyone skating her program on a regular basis at age 35, except the folks who skateboard to bicycle messenger jobs and do extreme sports all weekend. For my tastes, the Russian pair and Sasha Cohen had such lovely movements they deserved medals. It was like comparing apples and oranges, and if the Russians are upset, how can anyone be surprised? I'm no figure skater, but it seems like it's almost time for two different sorts of competitions- one more artistic, one more technical.
posted by sheauga at 7:01 PM on February 22, 2002

A couple of my co-workers suggested that the Olympics combine figure skating with curling to make it more interesting -- imagine the delectable (and 23-year-old, I might add, mathowie) Irina Slutskaya dodging 42-pound rocks as she lands a double-axel -- but I think it's plenty interesting (in a bad but entertaining way) as it is. Hughes kicked butt last night, and if the Russian officials can't see that, it's because they don't want to.

And thanks for the explanation, Litlnemo. I've never understood how the scoring works, but I have a better idea now.
posted by diddlegnome at 7:51 PM on February 22, 2002

This is the biggest batch of sour grapes I have ever seen in sports.

...since the Canadians.

Who knew you could tie in the Olympics?

...the Canadians.

Absent any wrongdoing by the judges — and this is the key point — they have no case.

...wrongdoing doesn't have anything to do with it - as the Canadians have shown us.
posted by alethe at 9:51 PM on February 22, 2002

But according to those pesky rules a tie is broken by the artistic score

I enjoy watching figure skating as much as the next person, possibly more, but I also find it silly that anything with a component subject to the whim of judges is in the Olympics. Long before the Russians protested about her results, Slutskaya said that all through her career judges have given her lesser marks for artistry because her reputation was not that of an artistic skater -- I'm not saying that's what happened here, but the fact that it could've happened to her or anyone else... Well.
posted by lia at 9:53 PM on February 22, 2002

Well, there's judges and there's judges. Even sports such as speed skating and hockey are somewhat subject to the interpretation of fallible people. But yeah, given what's going on in Salt Lake, the presence of sports like figure skating, gymnastics and boxing (nobody's judging a boxer's artistry, but judges do determine the outcome if both fighters are standing at the end) in the Olympics looks like a worse idea every day. But good luck kicking out such traditional parts of the Games.
posted by diddlegnome at 10:05 PM on February 22, 2002

If only the special olympics got the TV coverage they deserved the participants accomplishments would be better understood and appreciated.
posted by Eric Lloyd NYC at 11:12 PM on February 22, 2002

Back to what Billder said earlier, about no pressure being important to winning: the Russian singles winner (whose name now escapes me) seemed to be having fun every time he stepped on the ice. With some of the others (Kwan, Slutskaya), it seems like they're there to do a job. I'm glad to see the two people that seem to really enjoy the sport win.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 12:30 AM on February 23, 2002

Slutskaya said that all through her career judges have given her lesser marks for artistry because her reputation was not that of an artistic skater

Slutskaya gets lesser marks for presentation because her presentation isn't very good, at least in comparison to a skater like Kwan, whose strength is in presentation. Irina may think she is being hosed by the judging, but she, like most skaters, probably thinks her presentation is better than it is.
posted by litlnemo at 3:15 AM on February 23, 2002

God. Where do I start?

Kwan was there for personal reasons, but she was also there to represent more than America. She was there to represent the sponsors and investors who helped get her there. She had a heavy burden which affected her when it came to crunch time. My guess is most of the other skaters had similar pressures, which is what caused them to be stiff and unable to attain the gold. However, after watching Kwan perform to the song "Fields of Gold" during the exhibition last night, I hope one day she wakes up and discovers that she had the gold all along, and didn't need a handful of shifty judges to tell her that. As one of the commentators said, success is not always measured by medals. I'm won over. I'm a fan. She's got a lot of fans.

Hughes knows that success is not always measured by medals, and she's only sixteen. There are few times when someone so young has her head on so straight. She was fourth in the short. She could do the math. Someone else would have to fail for her to win. So achieving a medal was effectively out of her hands. All she could do was her best, which is what she knows she does every time she hits the ice anyway, be it practice, exhibition or competition. She is young enough to have not forgotten why she started skating in the first place: because she loves it.

I understand where Mathowie is coming from. Lusting after someone as young as Hughes would be like eating a green banana. Just wait awhile and let it ripen. Come 2006 she's gonna be a babe. Right now she's just really really cute. What a brain though. What an attitude. Quite a remarkable young woman. Or old girl, depending on your perspective.

The special olympics know that success is not always measured by medals. Living with physical and mental challenges is an ordeal that deserves a gold medal every day. The families of mentally challenged children are champions, as are the children themselves. I agree it's a shame that television doesn't cover the special olympics, but there's too many people on the planet who make fun of retarded children because they haven't learned what mentally challenged children already know. So. Who's the retards now?

The situation between Slutskaya and Hughes is not the same as what happened in the pairs competition. During that competition, the french judge committed a public admission of subjectivity. She was ruled unfit to judge after the competition was over and her marks were removed. Without the french judge's marks, they had an even number of judges and therefore a tie. They would have either had to start the finals over with a new judge, or just give the two pairs gold. They opted for the latter.

With the ladies competition, there was no question of subjectivity among the judges. In fact those judges were being watched like they were in Cuba's Camp X-Ray, so the russians can't claim judge subjectivity. The judges couldn't get away with it right now if they wanted to.

Slutskaya's performance was impressive. She had technical success and also artistic prowess, but both were stiff and uninspired. She's more experienced and perhaps even more talented than Hughes, but that night her performance simply didn't exceed Hughes. Slutskaya's performance exceeded Kwan and Cohen because she didn't fall on her butt, but the stress on her is what kept her tethered.

Hughes didn't think she could win. So she went out there and just enjoyed her experience. She wasn't trying to prove anything to anybody but maybe herself, and that's what made all the difference. Hughes knows why the Olympics really matter. She has single-handedly saved the spirit of the Olympics for me. She won because she was the best. Both the best that she could be and the best of all those who were supposed to perform to the best of their ability.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:14 AM on February 23, 2002

Perhaps they should move the Olympics to MTV, ditch the judges and just have online voting decide the victors. Now there's a debacle for discussion:TRLolympics!

Carson, I voted for the Russian chick because she's a hottie and I totally want to see her short program again if you know what I'm sayin'!

posted by ooklah at 9:32 AM on February 23, 2002

I was disappointed at Kwan's parent's reactions to her program. They looked so destroyed. I'm guessing they didn't give her two hallmark cards before the competition.
posted by mecran01 at 11:21 AM on February 23, 2002

You can't blame them for looking sad. They knew Michelle was hurting.
posted by litlnemo at 6:10 PM on February 23, 2002

Oh man, I can't tell which was the funnier comment... the "totally wanna see her short program again if you know what I'm sayin!" or the hallmark cards reference. Bravo!

Her sister and brother looked crushed, but that was to be expected. Kwan was crushed too, as was Timothy Goebel (whom they showed later on, in tears after Kwan's skate). What I really liked was the absolutely shocked expressions on Peggy Fleming and Kristi Yamaguchi's faces. They looked pretty much exactly how I felt at the whole ordeal.

All I could think of while watching Hughes do her exhibition performance was finally she will redeem Nancy Kerrigan in the eyes of Disney Worlds everywhere. Made-for-NBC muppet was a right-on assessment. She skated flawlessly, but ugh. Something about her irks the hell out of me. Maybe it's the coif.

Boy, am I catty when it comes to figure skaters.
posted by evixir at 6:38 PM on February 23, 2002