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Hmmm... that link may not work Try this one:

http://www.canoe.ca/2002GamesFigureSkat ... su-cp.html[/URL]

I remember several years ago, figure skating again -- Paul Wylie, US, was flawless, and Victor Petrenko, Russia, goofed up. Badly. Petrenko got the gold and Wylie got the silver. And like someone on here pointed out about the Russian girl last night -- it was the same with Petrenko, his expression showed that he knew it was all wrong. I can't remember what year this was...but it's been going on forever

I also think that the Canadians should've won, but do the judges have slo-mo playback?

I'm not sure if the Olympic judges have replay (they do have laptops and other electronic devices at their station, although I do not know exactly what they are for), but the fact of the matter is that they're professional judges. Presumably, they're experts at evaluating ice skating and are regulated by the International Skaters Union. You would think that the judges that the ISU sends to the Olympics, arguably the highest-profile event in the sport, that they would know when someone does or does not mess up. The analysts comment during the performance when someone slips, so you would think that the judges would notice the small things too.

The problem for ice skating is that the allegations of medal fixing, bloc alignment, and vote trading are nothing new. You know what they say about stuff like this: first time's an accident, second time's a coincidence, third time's a problem. Corruption in ice skating is endemic to the sport at all levels and it's about time someone . . . anyone . . . raised a stink about it.

I am amazed at the class Sale and Pelletier have displayed. If this had happened to me, I would be livid. They would throw me out of the sport for criticising the judges and bring in Paul Tagliabue to calculate my fine. I would be severely tempted to go Marty McSorley on the judges, too.

Perhaps it's because they realise that the high road is a much better place to be and that the fact that they were screwed is so obvious, that if they complain it will only make them look whiney. They've also got all of Canada (plus everyone around the world who saw them get robbed) on their side, so it's much easier to be gracious in defeat.

Marty McSorely?

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Marty McSorely?

A hockey player well known for fighting.his most recent newsmaking act was hitting another player in the head with a hockey stick for which he received a very long suspension

Marty McSorley didn't just hit a guy; he nearly took Donald Brashear's head off. McSorley was suspended for the remainder of the 2000 season and I think he's now retired.

A hockey player. Humph. I shoulda figured. You never see that sort of thing in more civilized sports like pairs ice skating. There, they only knock the wind out of each other during warm up....

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
A hockey player. Humph. I shoulda figured. You never see that sort of thing in more civilized sports like pairs ice skating. There, they only knock the wind out of each other during warm up....

You dont see that sort of thing in the ladies skating either. Perhaps HLD should have said....."tempted to go Tonya Harding on the judges"

Originally posted by McBane
"tempted to go Tonya Harding on the judges"

Tonya had to pay/coerce/con her ex-boyfriend Jeff Gillooly into whacking Nancy with the lead pipe. At least McSorley was man enough to club the other guy himself.

I think if you put just about any Canadian ice skating fan in a room with a salmon/lead pipe and the five judges who put the Russians in first place, there would be one hella "come to Jesus" meeting.

the situation worsens

With headlines such as "Robbed!" and "Gold Heist" appearing all over Canadian media, authorities in Ottawa fought with rioters who were marching on the French, Chinese, Russian, Polish, and Ukranian embassies in response to the "Skategate" incident at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. No one has been seriously injured, although although one staffer at the French embassy reported being struck by a half-empty beer bottle.

"It's absolutely criminal," one Canadian man said. "Who would throw half a beer away? Good God, man, this isn't Cleveland!"

Tensions overflowed last night as the Canadian Cultural Ministry unleashed one of its super-secret Cold War programs on the Russians, Chinese, French, Ukranian and Polish people in retaliation. Codenamed "Weapon S", NORAD broke through broadcast channels and bombarded the airwaves first in China and Russia, then in the other countries, with the sights and sounds of William Shatner singing hits from his album The Transformed Man.

"France and Poland collapsed almost instantly," said one Canadian general, who declined to be named. "There aren't a lot of TVs or radios in China or the Ukraine, so we're running into some difficulties there. We're slowly breaking the Russians, though."

The Russian ambassador, who had earlier been the target of an alleged assassination plot involving a youth from Toronto wielding a freshwater salmon, had this comment, "We are outraged! This 'Weapon S' is an abomination! Its use is strictly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions. We demand this humanitarian onslaught cease at once."

The International Red Cross has also called for the Weapon S deployment to end and is offering counseling to those affected. When asked how the Russians were countering Weapon S, the ambassador said, "Luckily we managed to interrupt the broadcast for a short time . . . The Lenningrad Cowboys are playing on Russian radios right now, and the news show where the hosts slowly strip is on TV. I have a direct feed set up in the embassy."

Earlier Tuesday, the International Skaters Union tried to dissuade violent protests in Canada by calling for an "internal assessment" of the judging currently going on at the Winter Olympics. If allegations of vote fixing are proven, it is likely the judges will be discplined, but unlikely that the Russian figure skating pair of Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaya will be stripped of their gold medals and awarded silver.

The Canadian public, which is regarded as one of the most polite, peaceful and deferrential in the world, reacted first with bewilderment, then anger, then open hostility.

"My heart breaks; it does not want to go on," said a sobbing Celine Dion from her mansion in Las Vegas. "But if I saw one of those judges in public I would rip their head off."

"I . . . am truly . . . honored . . . to have been a part . . . of the . . . Weapon S . . . program," William Shatner said in a televised CBC interview. "When . . . the project . . . was conceived . . . I was afraid . . . that it might . . . be used . . . irresponsibly. Now . . . those behind . . . this travesty . . . will be forced to . . . pay."

Shatner also said that when he first saw the results he felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. Later, it was revealed that at the same moment, his personal assistant had been tightening Shatner's corset. The assistant added, "He was still pretty shaken by the judging, though."

"I've seen better calls in the East Coast Hockey League," claimed Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time.

Going into the second full day of unrest, Canadian officials say that the rioting is dying down, although reports of widespread looting are coming out of Vancouver.

"We think this is unrelated to the Olympics," a spokesman for the RCMP said. "Apparently a number of people accidently rented Glitter thinking it was porn and were driven crazy."

ROFL!

Where are you getting this stuff? LOL

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
ROFL!

Where are you getting this stuff? LOL

I'm bored at work and I've been reading too much from The Onion and Satirewire.com too long.

HLD, ROFL!

Don Cherry (a notorious hockey commentator in Canada) called Sale and told her that the "body check" she gave the russian before during practice was the best check he saw in his career.

Another Olympic judge (one that is a figure skating one, but didn't do the pairs) was interviewed on CBC last night. She watched replays of both the Russian program and Canadian program, while going over the flaws and moves they did. She finished in saying that the Canadians won by a mile.

I saw the coverage last night, and I was appalled that the Canadians didn't win Ok, so the judges may not have instant replay, but frankly they didn't need it to see that Sale and Pelletier were the best.

The BBC commentators said that the same thing happened in 1994 to Torvil and Dean, and similarly an inquiry was held. Even if the inquiry finds any faults, it's very unlikely that the medal decisions would be changed - the aim is to prevent the same thing happening in the future. That's what they said in 1994.

More victims

I saw on ESPN.com that the Canadians have petitioned for co-gold medals for Salle and Pelletier if allegations of corruption and vote-swapping are proven.

So the Russian skaters are unfairly victimised as being the beneficiaries of corrupt judges. In addition, the French ice dancers Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat may be victimised by not winning a medal they deserve. Before Monday night, they were the ice dancing favourites. Let's say they perform flawlessly or even at a level comparable to the other entrants. If they win the gold medal, it will be tainted by allegations of vote-trading. If they come close to medal contention and lose, they will say the judges denied them a medal because of fears of adding to the vote-trading scandal. It's an ugly situation all around.