Olympic figure skating 2014: Ladies freeskate
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are officially over, and it's always a mixture of happy and sad. We really haven't had any truly contentious results in figure skating at the Olympics in quite a while, so the final standings in the ladies event was something of a shock, and it wasn't the note that I would have preferred to end Olympic skating on. The skating itself was thrilling and we saw some wonderful performances. But the judging was a total clusterf***, unfortunately.
Even in the short I thought Adelina Sotnikova was given way too high of marks, but in the freeskate it was just crazy. Yes, she landed seven triples, but so did Carolina Kostner, who was better in every other way, yet her marks were lower. And don't give me that 'Adelina created a moment' nonsense, because there were many skaters that night who created spectacular moments, it's just that Adelina had a home crowd who were going nuts for anyone Russian, no matter what they did. A silver or bronze would have been a perfectly acceptable reward for where she is at this point in her career, since her jumps are the only thing about her skating that's worthy of note, or emulation by younger skaters. Every other girl in the final group is a better skater than her from the standpoint not just of artistry, but in actual technique itself. Actually, the second to last group are mostly better than her in that regard, too. Even Polina Edmunds in 9th has more understanding of music, more graceful movements, better extension and lines in her skating than Sotnikova. So does Yu-Na Kim, obviously, and Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner. And Akiko Suzuki. And Yulia Lipnitskaya. (And Mao Asada, who had a beautiful freeskate despite her disastrous short program.)
Yulia, Akiko, and Gracie all fell on one jump or other, so their being behind a skater who went clean isn't surprising or wrong. But Yu-Na, Carolina and Ashley all skated amazing, solid, clean programs, so how did Sotnikova end up with such a huge lead? And it's not even the fact that she won that's really troubling, but that she won by SO MANY POINTS. WHERE DID THOSE POINTS COME FROM? Yes, she had a higher technical base value for her jumps, but those were the only things she could have picked up extra GOE levels for. The rest of her skating is clearly below that of the rest of the field, so I would have expected the points gap to be much, much closer, if indeed she matched them at all, seeing as her components scores ought to have been the lowest of all the last two groups of ladies. I don't mean to sound like I'm being hard on her, since I wanted every skater to do well, and I'm glad that she had such a good skate at the Olympics, everyone deserves to achieve that. But I am questioning the wisdom and motivations of the judges for awarding a gold medal so easily to a skater who is really only beginning to reach the top level rather than already there. Will her skating improve now that they've handed her gold? I don't know. I hope so, I think she's young and has a lot of talent, but she has so much farther to go before she really attains the level that constitutes a champion, let alone that of a legendary skater like Yu-Na Kim. I hope she continues to strive to take her skating to the next level instead of resting on her new golden laurels.
Most of all I hope that this doesn't signal a return to the old days of a jumping contest deciding titles without regard to any other aspect of skating. Because yes, jumps are important, and when two skaters, or several skaters, are evenly matched in every other way, the deciding factor should be who accomplished the greater technical feats. But when jumps alone are enough to vanquish a field of skaters who are all 'the complete package' that figure skating is all about, we have reason to worry. Figure skating should never be a jumping contest, pure and simple. If you want to see that, go watch pole-vaulting. Figure skating is the combination of athleticism and artistry. Maybe that makes it harder for the average sports fan to understand, but figure skating isn't an average sport. What makes it different makes it harder, but it also makes it better. Yu-Na Kim brought tears to my eyes in her short program, just from the sheer beauty of how she moved across that ice. Show me another sport that can do that. Yes, I would have been happier had the result been different. But am I going to throw my hands up in disgust and say I won't watch figure skating anymore because it didn't go the way I wanted? Hell no. Am I going to turn my back on the skaters I love just because some judge didn't see how good they were? Of course not, that wouldn't even make sense! These fair-weather fans truly puzzle me, but if all they care about is the medals, they're missing out on the true beauty of figure skating anyway.
Do I think they should re-evaluate the judging system so that this sort of thing is less likely to happen? Yes. I've said it since 2002, and I say it again: The judges need to be a separate entity from the national skating federations, so that politics won't be the primary concern on judges minds, and they won't be answerable to angry officials when they get home; and make it a mandatory lifetime ban for any judge found guilty of any wrongdoing, with no possibility of reinstatement.
I don't think the results in the ladies event were right, but I don't think anyone should sit around harping on it. It happened, it won't change, we shouldn't try to change it. Let's just change the way the judges operate, and then we can get back to focusing on skating, and keep moving on. The Olympic games were exciting, they were an emotional roller-coaster filled with moments we'll never forget. They're larger than life, they're magical, they mark epochs in the figure skating world, but the Olympics are still just one event in the season. The World Championships are still ahead of us, and I, for one, can't wait to see them.
Even in the short I thought Adelina Sotnikova was given way too high of marks, but in the freeskate it was just crazy. Yes, she landed seven triples, but so did Carolina Kostner, who was better in every other way, yet her marks were lower. And don't give me that 'Adelina created a moment' nonsense, because there were many skaters that night who created spectacular moments, it's just that Adelina had a home crowd who were going nuts for anyone Russian, no matter what they did. A silver or bronze would have been a perfectly acceptable reward for where she is at this point in her career, since her jumps are the only thing about her skating that's worthy of note, or emulation by younger skaters. Every other girl in the final group is a better skater than her from the standpoint not just of artistry, but in actual technique itself. Actually, the second to last group are mostly better than her in that regard, too. Even Polina Edmunds in 9th has more understanding of music, more graceful movements, better extension and lines in her skating than Sotnikova. So does Yu-Na Kim, obviously, and Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner. And Akiko Suzuki. And Yulia Lipnitskaya. (And Mao Asada, who had a beautiful freeskate despite her disastrous short program.)
Yulia, Akiko, and Gracie all fell on one jump or other, so their being behind a skater who went clean isn't surprising or wrong. But Yu-Na, Carolina and Ashley all skated amazing, solid, clean programs, so how did Sotnikova end up with such a huge lead? And it's not even the fact that she won that's really troubling, but that she won by SO MANY POINTS. WHERE DID THOSE POINTS COME FROM? Yes, she had a higher technical base value for her jumps, but those were the only things she could have picked up extra GOE levels for. The rest of her skating is clearly below that of the rest of the field, so I would have expected the points gap to be much, much closer, if indeed she matched them at all, seeing as her components scores ought to have been the lowest of all the last two groups of ladies. I don't mean to sound like I'm being hard on her, since I wanted every skater to do well, and I'm glad that she had such a good skate at the Olympics, everyone deserves to achieve that. But I am questioning the wisdom and motivations of the judges for awarding a gold medal so easily to a skater who is really only beginning to reach the top level rather than already there. Will her skating improve now that they've handed her gold? I don't know. I hope so, I think she's young and has a lot of talent, but she has so much farther to go before she really attains the level that constitutes a champion, let alone that of a legendary skater like Yu-Na Kim. I hope she continues to strive to take her skating to the next level instead of resting on her new golden laurels.
Most of all I hope that this doesn't signal a return to the old days of a jumping contest deciding titles without regard to any other aspect of skating. Because yes, jumps are important, and when two skaters, or several skaters, are evenly matched in every other way, the deciding factor should be who accomplished the greater technical feats. But when jumps alone are enough to vanquish a field of skaters who are all 'the complete package' that figure skating is all about, we have reason to worry. Figure skating should never be a jumping contest, pure and simple. If you want to see that, go watch pole-vaulting. Figure skating is the combination of athleticism and artistry. Maybe that makes it harder for the average sports fan to understand, but figure skating isn't an average sport. What makes it different makes it harder, but it also makes it better. Yu-Na Kim brought tears to my eyes in her short program, just from the sheer beauty of how she moved across that ice. Show me another sport that can do that. Yes, I would have been happier had the result been different. But am I going to throw my hands up in disgust and say I won't watch figure skating anymore because it didn't go the way I wanted? Hell no. Am I going to turn my back on the skaters I love just because some judge didn't see how good they were? Of course not, that wouldn't even make sense! These fair-weather fans truly puzzle me, but if all they care about is the medals, they're missing out on the true beauty of figure skating anyway.
Do I think they should re-evaluate the judging system so that this sort of thing is less likely to happen? Yes. I've said it since 2002, and I say it again: The judges need to be a separate entity from the national skating federations, so that politics won't be the primary concern on judges minds, and they won't be answerable to angry officials when they get home; and make it a mandatory lifetime ban for any judge found guilty of any wrongdoing, with no possibility of reinstatement.
I don't think the results in the ladies event were right, but I don't think anyone should sit around harping on it. It happened, it won't change, we shouldn't try to change it. Let's just change the way the judges operate, and then we can get back to focusing on skating, and keep moving on. The Olympic games were exciting, they were an emotional roller-coaster filled with moments we'll never forget. They're larger than life, they're magical, they mark epochs in the figure skating world, but the Olympics are still just one event in the season. The World Championships are still ahead of us, and I, for one, can't wait to see them.