Halls of the Dark Muse

Haha

It may seem that way, but it depends a lot on the difficulty of the routine. There's a difficulty factor that gets lowered and increased by the GOE, grade of execution, for a move, which ranges from -3 to +3. If you fall there's a one point deduction, and you get a -3 GOE on that move. That means if you're doing something very difficult with a base difficulty factor of 6.5, if you fall you lose 1 point overall and end up with 3.5 points for attempting the move. If you're doing a very difficult routine you can usually afford a few mistakes and come out on top of a flawless, yet easy, routine.

One thing that does bother me about the pairs is the Russian and Chinese podium domination for the last 20 years. I was routing for the Germans to break the trend, a really talented pair that I'm glad got the bronze.

Edit: Also, half of the points come from the factored components, like clean footwork and synchronicity. This is the part that the Chinese excel in and gain their outstanding leads from.

I do not care how difficult a routine is, if someone does a less technically difficult routine but doesn't clean up the ice on their rear they should win over someone who puts in a few harder moves, but does a belly flop on the ice.

If you fall no matter how difficult the rest of your routine is, than you should be out.

You do not deserve to win a medal in the Olympics if you eat the ice.

Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I do not care how difficult a routine is, if someone does a less technically difficult routine but doesn't clean up the ice on their rear they should win over someone who puts in a few harder moves, but does a belly flop on the ice.

If you fall no matter how difficult the rest of your routine is, than you should be out.

You do not deserve to win a medal in the Olympics if you eat the ice.

Almost everyone falls in figure skating though, it takes a lot more talent to keep synchronized and pull off those dangerous moves (and they are dangerous) than to do an easy clean routine.
Losing 4 points for messing up a jump is a lot anyway, usually the margin of victory is only 2-3 points. A fall can easily lose a competition if you don't ace the rest of the routine.

It is simply part of the sport that the pairs try to push their ability to the limits, when you push the limits you fall sometimes, but for the most part they ace those difficult jumps and they deserve their medals.

The two Chinese teams that got gold and silver were flawless anyway.

The major problem with the figure skating judging is the major subjective elements. Your choreography, interpretation, skating skill counts for so much. The technical elements points aren't all that far apart usually, the 10th place Americans had about 60pts versus the first place Chines with 67pts, it's not a huge difference. The big difference comes in those factored elements. It's a bit of a silly imprecise sport.

Falling factors in a lot more in the ice dance event. The infamous ice dance event that has been plagued with judging scandals, like the Russian/French bribery in 2002.

And I cannot help but think that perhaps there would be less falling if the skaters exepcted that a fall would have more of an impact on thier getting a medal. As it is they know even if they fall they can still walk away with a gold. Falling is not rewarded in any other Olympic event.

Besides it seems that there is a lot more lieancy toward a couple that has a lot of publicty than for a lesser known or debut couple who may skate a more flawless routine.

Personally I think that the whole judging system in ice skating is corupt acorss the bored.

Oh are you talking about that couple where the girl fell and yetr they weren't penalized as much as the annoucers thought she should be? I saw that. The announcers were surprised as well. I'm no expert, so i can't really say. Perhaps this set of judges are overly forgiving.

But I have to disagree with you. I think figure skating is incredibly difficult.

Reputation probably plays an unconscious part in the judging decisions, but those reputations are built on the world circuit anyway. Couples debuting at the Olympics may be new to the casual watcher of figure skating, but by the time they qualify for the Olympics they are more than familiar to the judges. You don't get a reputation for excellence simply through hype, it's earned by the performances at world championships and on the national circuits.

Originally Posted by Virgil

Oh are you talking about that couple where the girl fell and yetr they weren't penalized as much as the annoucers thought she should be? I saw that. The announcers were surprised as well. I'm no expert, so i can't really say. Perhaps this set of judges are overly forgiving.

But I have to disagree with you. I think figure skating is incredibly difficult.

I never said that it was not difficult I just find it boring to watch, which is not saying it isn't difficult to do, and I just think that expectations in the Olympics should set the bar higher than falling on the ice.

They are professionasl it is thier job not to fall, that is what they dedicated thier life to train and do so they should be rewarded only for preforming to the best possible ability.

Well the men's short program is going on now, and in this case hitting the podium pretty much requires no falls. The American skaters are still to go up, so it's anybodies game. Although, none of them are trying the quad, so they have to be flawless to match the Russians and Japanese who have much better jumpers.