<p>^^I’m amazed that you can read the judge’s minds well enough to know that there was a reputation bump but also be absolutely certain there was no sympathy bump. </p>
<p>If, as you say, the judges are influenced by factors other than the actual performances they are judging, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that they are immune to human emotion, or popular sentiment, or what the crowd loves, or the local hometown darling, or a great human interest story of overcoming adversity that sells the sport on TV, or as in this case all of these things combined into one.</p>
<p>coureur–I guess I’m wondering what your figure skating background is (mine is pretty extensive). I am not Canadian and I have no axe to grind and no particular favorites here, but it is clear that Rochette skated really really well in the short program and that her skating quality was very high in the long program (along with two relatively minor jump mistakes). The judges have always given higher marks to skaters with better reputations, whether under the new system or the old–that’s just the way that judging has evolved and it’s one of the reasons that some people dislike the judging in the sport.</p>
<p>Rochette skated well and received marks commensurate with both her skating and her previous reputation. Overall, all of the women’s marks were somewhat inflated, but to give you a sense of Rochette’s previous artistic marks, at the World Championships last year in the short program her mark was 30.40, at Skate Canada this past Nov., her mark was 31.60 and at the Olympics, it was 32.16 (and it was arguably the best short program she ever skated). By comparison, Yu Na Kim’s marks were 32.72 at Worlds and 33.80 at the Olympics and Nagasu’s marks were 24.80 at Cup of China in Nov. and 26.76 at the Olympics.</p>
<p>Since Rochette’s marks seem well within the range that would be expected without a “sympathy bump”, why are you assuming the judges gave her some huge advantage because of her mother’s death and that she was judged unfairly vis-a-vis Nagasu? There is simply no evidence of this.</p>
<p>I dont think they purposely whip anyone around in ice skating. They sometimes do that in an exibition like Holiday on Ice, at the end when all the skaters are in a line. However, Roller Derby does that sometimes, to knock out the exhibition, I believe. Thats a scary sport.</p>
<p>Big rant about NBC!!! Why did we have to see so many fat men in tights while only 4 figure skaters were shown? Ahrrgh!!! I hate NBC! Where are Mirai and Rachel???</p>
<p>I agree that it would have been nice to see a little more ice skating last night. For those of you who are interested, if you go to the nbc olympics website and you search for the individual skaters you can see their gala performances.</p>
<p>You mean last night? Probably because last night the men in tights were still competing for medals, but the figure skaters were merely putting on a post-competition exhibition show. The Olympics are supposed to be about competitions you know. Personally, I don’t care that much for bobsled racing (or a dozen other winter events for that matter), but I applaud NBC for focusing on real competitions over fluff. This is a rare instance of them having their priorities right.</p>
<p>The clear evidence for this is that she finished ahead of someone who clearly outskated her and made no mistakes in the long program, which makes up a large majority of the total scoring. </p>
<p>You keep saying that her marks were in line with her reputation. To me it looks like her marks were in line with boost given to a local favorite with a compelling emotional story in order to get the result they wanted. Canuckguy, who is Canadian, saw the same thing (post #928). And figure skating judging has a long and shameful history corruption and rigged results that is more than sufficient to raise doubts. Trouble is neither you nor I can read the judges minds to know what they were really thinking. I’m afraid we’re are going to have to agree to disagree on this one.</p>
<p>Coureur–I guess facts don’t particularly matter to you, which is a little disappointing. I have shown that Rochette’s historical short program second mark (i.e., artistry) are in line with what she got at the Olympics and that, in fact, Nagasu got a bigger bump in that mark at the Olympics. In addition, if you look at the long program scores, the highest international mark that Nagasu had previously received was 48.80, whereas at the Olympics, she received 60.56 (even at US Nationals, where scores are traditionally hugely inflated, Nagasu only had a 61.78). By contrast, Rochette’s previous year’s world score was 62.86, her Canadian National score was 69.14 and her Olympics score was 68.48</p>
<p>I don’t think you understand how judging works and how judges have traditionally had a hierarchy for skaters. Nagasu (who skated great) went up 12 points from her previous international best–that is huge and reflected the fact that the judges really liked the performance. Rochette and Asada both had scores that were about 6 points higher than previous bests–that reflected both skating quality and the fact that they were already considered top notch international skaters who had won their national championships, whereas Mirai had come in second in hers. I will repeat that objectively, there is no evidence of a sympathy bump, versus the typical bump for reputation.</p>
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<p>Well, I guess that trumps my objective facts, doesn’t it.</p>
<p>It seemed like almost all the figure skaters got personal bests in scoring. In timed sports in the Olympics, we see some personal bests, but not every single swimmer or runner gets a personal best at the Olympics; some do, and some don’t. That makes me believe for some reason the skating judges were giving out higher scores to all skaters. Is this because of the new scoring system, or were these judges just generous scorers?</p>
<p>[On edit] I didn’t even watch the women’s figure skating, so I have no opinion about the alleged scoring controversy there, but what could possibly be a justification to give any scoring weight at all to reputation? I accept that the judges do give higher scores to skaters who have performed better in the past, but how is this defensible?</p>
<p>In some other Olympics, the gala included top 5 or 6, not just the medalists. NBC showed just 4 or 5 of the medalists. There was so much fluff shown last night (Apolo interviews, Lindsey interviews, replays of Bode wiping out, etc.), NBC could have easily carved out more time for figure skates AND complete bobsled coverage (which I found interesting to watch despite the spandex :)). I should have directed my rant to the fluff. Sorry men in tights!</p>
<p>Yesterday’s Gala included top 5 places in all the categories(I just saw pictures taken by a Russian blogger at the event). More skating, less interviewing would have been great.</p>
<p>Bunsen - you forgot my homegirl Cathy Turner, who won back to back golds in the 500m in short track in the 90s - she still coaches here in Rochester…</p>