Olympics: Another judging fiasco in figure skating

I used to love to watch figure skating, especially during the Olympics.

It started back in the late '60s with Peggy Fleming. Then there also was Dorothy Hamill, Janet Lynn, Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Brian Orser, and the awesome Russian pairs team of Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergie Grinkov.

They were all my favorites.

The last few years though, my taste for the sport has started to dwindle. Politics and, seemingly, pre-judged winners of competitions, have taken the enjoyment out of the sport for me.

I absolutely hate to watch a skater, dance team, or pairs team skate better than any of their competitors, but, because they are "new" or because they are "unknown," then they "can't win now." They have to earn their way.

The sport of figure skating can never seem to have an upset winner, unless the favorites fall and break a leg or something, because the judges already know in their minds who they are going to vote for to win the medals.

What I dislike even more is when a skater or a skating team skate has a great performance, yet the judges give them scores that make you wonder if they actually watched them skate.

On Monday night, the latest figure skating judging fiasco took place.

The Canadian pairs team of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were -- flat out -- robbed of the gold medal.

The winners were the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who are, without question, a great skating team. However, in their long program on Monday, they bobbled badly once and had a few other minor slips.

Following them on the ice was Sale and Pelletier, who, seemingly, skated a near flawless program. They looked better technically, and their "artistry" and choreography were wonderful.

The drama was heightened even more by the accidental warmup skating collision between Sikharulidze and Sale, which sent Sale to the ice on her knees.

But, after coming into the final program in second place after the first night of competition, Sale and Pelletier skated a glorious program -- a gold medal performance.

When they finished, the crowd went wild, giving them a standing ovation.

The NBC announcers were sure they had won the gold.

The crowd was sure they had won.

I'm sure the majority of people watching on television were sure they had won.

Sale and Pelletier seemed sure they had won.

When the first set of scores came up, the cheering got even louder.

Then, as everyone waited for the second set of marks, you could feel the tension and excitement mounting. The crowd was ready to explode.

And explode they did -- in boos.

The second set of scores left everyone in shock.

Pelletier just waved his hand in disgust, as if to push them away, while Sale held back the tears that would flow later in the night.

On NBC, the announcers were incredulous, with Hamilton exclaiming -- "How did that happen. (They) won that program, there's not a doubt for anyone in the place, except for maybe a few judges."

And that was the problem -- the judges.

The vote looked definitely political as the American, Canadian, Japanese and German judge voted for Sale and Pelletier, while the Russia, Chinese, Polish, and Ukrainian judge voted for Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze.

The difference was the French judge, who voted for the Russian pair.

Interestingly, as reported on NBC nightly news on Tuesday night, there was such an outcry after this event, that the International Skating Union is going to open an inquiry to see if "the fix was in" for the event.

Also talked about during that same report were examples of previous judging fixes in skating competitions, so it has happened before.

Definitely, something happened on Monday night, but even so, even if "the fix was in," it doesn't matter now. The event was ruined.

For Sale and Pelletier, who skated the performance of their lifetimes on Monday night and are happy in the knowledge that they did their best, their Olympic dream was stolen.

For Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, a great story in itself as Berezhnaya had comeback after almost being killed accidentally a few years ago, you could see they were not even comfortable receiving their gold medals. Even they seemed to know they weren't the rightful winners.

Finally, the biggest loser in all of this is the sport of figure skating, which should be embarrassed and ashamed of itself because of what happened.

How can fans "get into a sport," invest their time and energy to watch an event, see a grand performance, then watch a bunch of stuck-up, stodgy, "think-they-are-better-than-anyone-else-expert" judges, vote for whoever they have already preordained as the winner of the event.

For fans of the sport, it is just not worth it.

Figure skating needs to clean up its act. A new way to determine winners needs to be created. The subjectiveness and potential for "fixing" needs to be removed from the sport.

What that is, I don't know. That's not my job, it's theirs and they need to figure it out.

In time, more travesties like Monday night's Olympic pairs figure skating competition will destroy the sport, no question about it.

Sale and Pelletier were robbed, but were professional and gracious in accepting their silver medal. They could have complained, they could have whined, but they didn't.

Kudos to them for that. It might just have been the ultimate gold medal performance of the event.

Taking nothing away from Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze -- they did nothing wrong and skated as best they could -- but, Sale and Pelletier were the rightful Olympic figure skating pairs gold medallists in Salt Lake City.

It is a shame that the Olympic history books will never show it.

Interesting side note: As I am finishisg up this article on Tuesday night while the Olympics are on NBC, Bob Costas just announced the results of an online poll on the Olympic website about the Olympic figure skating pairs competition. The results: 96 percent of the respondents believe that Sale and Pelletier should have won the gold medal. Wow, now that's a majority vote!