<p>The ladies’ short program was such a treat! Felt sorry for the little Julia who fell doing a jump she could do with her eyes closed in practice. She is such a gorgeous spinner! And poor Japanese girl. :(</p>
<p>So sad for Mao Asada who dedicated the short program to her mother who passed away too young. Can’t imagine her heartbreak. Hoping that she can recover and have a free skate that she can be proud of.</p>
<p>I dont know how you choose between the top two female figure skaters. They were both fantastic.</p>
<p>More figure skating judging controversy.</p>
<p>And Canada/U.S.A women are in OT for the gold medal! </p>
<p>Exciting hockey game.</p>
<p>Interactive graph on women’s free skate. Hover over the dots and you can see what each jump in every performance scored. </p>
<p><a href=“Every Women’s Figure Skating Jump, on One Page - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/02/20/sports/olympics/womens-figure-skating-jumps.html</a></p>
<p>Canadian comeback with two late goals. Now in OT with Canada on the power play.</p>
<p>and they win the gold medal. </p>
<p>The hockey game was fantastic. Sorry it is over. Congrats to Canada.</p>
<p>I think the right skater won the gold medal. Great chart from the NY Times. Thanks emilybee.</p>
<p>I think the order was okay but the bronze medalist was perhaps underscored and the gold-medalist overscored.
Oh Canada!</p>
<p>I’m glad it didn’t go to a shootout. But since when is Olympic overtime 4-on-4? Is that new this Olympics?</p>
<p>Very happy for Carolina Kostner.</p>
<p>They all skated beautifully and since I’m no expert have no idea if the scoring can be questioned. I did prefer the Russian (I also loved her dress.) There was a spark she had that I just didn’t see in Kim. V happy for Carolina. </p>
<p><a href=“Brennan: Skating insiders question Sochi judging”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/brennan/2014/02/20/winter-olympics-games-sochi-figure-skating-women-yuna-kim-gracie-gold/5643143/</a></p>
<p>Crazy.</p>
<p>Great day for the Canadian ladies winning gold in hockey and curling! </p>
<p>Have been neglecting Sochi for the last two days, but tomorrow through Sunday is jam packed with events.</p>
<p>Perpetual figure skating judging controversies - one more reason why I can’t take seriously any sport that is subjectively judged. If the outcome can’t be determined by a stopwatch or by numbers of goals scored it’s not a legitimate sport. Trying to guess and then deliver “what the judges are looking for” is not a sound basis for awarding Olympic medals. </p>
<p>I haven’t seen the women’s long program yet but I’m dismayed about bad judging allegations. First of all, even if the judging is anonymous to us (the viewers), why is it not transparent to the judging body and it’s regulators? How can they judge the judges without that?</p>
<p>Second of all, why aren’t judges that are caught “selling or fixing their vote” banished for life? I don’t intend to sound medieval here but we’re not talking about the death penalty, just about removing the corruptible ones who have already proven to be corrupted. </p>
<p>And please raise the minimum age of the contestants to 18. I don’t want to see a teeny-bopper skating to some femme fatale theme like Carmen ever again. </p>
<p>Anyone else disappointed in the speed skating. Now that the suits seemed to be ruled out, I guess they are questioning where they trained. The other day Bonnie Blair hinted that maybe they trained at the wrong altitude.</p>
<p>So do these “allegations” have any basis? I’m pretty unconvinced that anything fishy was going on.</p>
<p>I think the point about “allegations” is they are easy to make, given the old history and the idea people have about how the judging actually works. They rely on the image of a person deciding on 5.6 or 5.4. The actuality is far more complicated. I suggest reading about it. I gave a short description.</p>
<p>As I’ve noted, we don’t even know which judge’s scores are counted because 7 are selected at random. And judges assign scores that are then applied to levels assigned to each element by a technical panel that uses slow motion to check edges, rotations, etc. </p>