Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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I agree that the artistic component of these types of sports makes them more interesting to watch, but to me when that aspect is emphasized, they cease to be sports. Most sports are very quantifiable. One golfer takes 70 strokes another takes 69. The one that takes 69 wins. It doesn't matter that the one who shot 70 has a prettier swing or hit all of the fairways and greens and that the one who shot 69 scrambled to make pars and chipped in for birdies. Whichever baseball team scores the most runs wins, period. It doesn't matter if one team manufactures runs by bunting, and stealing bases and the other hits big powerful fun to watch home runs. I all sports except figure skating and some gymnastics how you do it makes no difference. If one gets more goals, baskets, runs, touchdowns or points, they win. Style has nothing to do with sports. There's a saying in golf. "There's no place on the scorecard to draw pictures." In other words, a perfect drive, a second shot to two feet and a short putt is three. A drive in the rough, a second shot that misses the green and a chip in is also three.
Also in sports, there is very little judging when it comes to scoring. True, baseball umpires call balls and strikes and whether a runner is safe or out, and football referees call penalties which can have a effect on the eventual outcome of the game, but no one determines at the end of the game that the team with fewer points won because they looked prettier doing it.
That's why personally, I consider figure skating and gymnastics to be quasi sports. They are more show business than sport. Great entertainment and certainly require great physical and athletic ability but so do the performers in Cirque du Soleil.