Well, I know the Olympics are here because the talk of scandals has already started.
The Games haven’t even begun which means that people don’t have quite enough to do.
A case in point:
I was asked if I would be willing to comment about the surfacing of an email written by American Joe Inman to judging colleagues about judging what they see.at the Games. Apparently, and I have not seen this myself, but Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko talked about his lack of transitions for both he and Brian Joubert and the fact that they get rewarded frequently in this area regardless. Let me say first of all, both skaters do have transitions in their program, in my opinion they are simply weak but weak is still worth (some) points.
The brouhaha: Could this be the “priming of the pump” for North American skaters?
Hmmm…let’s think about this one. Last time I looked, there were more than North American contenders in the men’s event. Names like Stephane Lambiel, Tomas Verner, Nobunari Oda, Samuel Contesti and Daisuke Takahashi to name a few in addition to the North American names of Abbott, Lysacek and Chan.
It is true that the technical elements are much easier to identify and therefore quantify and I think we would all agree that the judging of the technical side of skating has a high degree of accuracy. The five program component scores, which include the transitions score is definitely more difficult to judge and when you know how many things that a judge is trying to assess simultaneousy, you can really see why. I have been watching skating a very long time and I can still sometimes get bamboozled by a lot of speed, technical prowess and execution and I know what I am looking at. The assessment of the PCS isn’t perfect yet and I think that the powers that be realize this as there is a big push towards more education in exactly this area.
I think you can talk to anyone in any sport where human perspective is involved with all of the nerves and andrenaline associated with an event and then add on the necessity for immediate decisions and you will find a difference of opinion.
I wonder if hockey referees and short track referees have ever wondered if they made a weird call? Bet they have. I’ll bet, if in their shoes, you might wonder too.