[CFrance]

I do follow figure skating all the time and understand the scoring. I have to disagree with your feeling that the scoring should be just for ability. In skating, it's always been not only about what you do, but how you do it. Any time you put a sport to music, artistic merit comes into play. If it were just about ability, they wouldn't have scrapped the figure 8 competition long ago. That was extremely boring to watch. There wouldn't be nearly the interest in the sport if it were run as you suggested. The same with gymnastics and the floor programs.

The addition of bonus points for putting jumps in late in the program was done to beef up the ratings, so to speak. Before that, all the jumps were at the beginning, and the rest of the program was merely what you called arm waving, and thus boring. Another reason for the change was to try to take some of the politics out of the judging, which has been scandal-ridden for decades.

The Russian girl did skate a fantastic program. However, she was not flawless in her execution. I felt Yuna Kim's artistic merit was just as good, and so she should have won on her execution.

But like I said before, politics has always played a big part of the judging, and they were in Russia, so... there you have it.