I dont understand the scoring in figure skating and what it is I am actually suppose to be looing at. If someone falls, I figure its not good! With all the controversy that has followed figure skating over the years, nothing is really that surprising. It wouldnt have shocked me either way they went in awarding the gold medal.

I was too young to really remember the 1972 gold medal hoops game live, but from the High lights I seem to remember the Soviet Union got three chances in the closing seconds to win that game at the end (US thought they had won the game twice)...third time was the charm...to this day US members of that team have refused to pick up their silver medals. It was a total disgrace.



-- Modified on 2/19/2010 11:33:28 AM

Plushenko needs to pull his head out of his ass. He knows damned good and well how the scoring works. Just doing a quad then fucking off for the remaining 4 min 27 seconds doesn't cut it, and he knows it. He knows that jumps performed after the halfway mark get a bonus, but he front loaded all of his jumps, then spent the remaining portion of his program on the technical aspects where he does NOT shine, and never has.

Furthermore, if he doesn't understand that laziness is not rewarded, then he isn't the skater he thinks he is. He lost ground on every single jump not just because he had trouble landing several of his jumps, but also on the jumps he DID land well, not one time did he make even a half assed attempt at following through. Not once did he increase his point value by transitioning to his next move.

Lysachek on the other hand, choreographed his performance from top to bottom for maximum point value. His triple combo coming late in the program was worth FAR more than Pluchenko's quad combo simply because it was in the bonus portion, and a triple combo versus a double. Also, Lysachek is by far the better technical skater, and took advantage of that by including tons of extras before and after his jumps that gave him extra points. Then of course there is the fact that Lysachek executed absolutely flawlessly throughout his entire routine. His final double combo, he wavered very briefly on his landing, but still got full credit for the combo. He lost a tiny bit on grade of execution, but no biggie. The rest of his performance was letter perfect.

Lysachek simply outperformed Pluchenko on every level. He earned his gold medal throughout every second of his performance. Being able to nail a quad helps, but it doesn't guarantee anything, nor should it.

Throw an ash tray it the TV lucky it bounced off the corner of the TV and didn’t go thought the screen.

The Russians have nothing to bitch about Lysacek was the better skater last night.