Article about worlds champs 2010 in Turin

Hello everybody! I'm a big fan of figure skating and Mao Asada is one of my favourite skaters. I'm from Europe (Poland) and want to share with you my- and not only mine- point of view. Here you can find an article aboout world champs in 2010
http://www.rp.pl/artykul/75669,453422_Mao_Asada_detronizuje_koreanska_krolowa.html
it's a Polish article but I tried to translate it into english for you. This article was released on 28 of March- the day of free program in Turin:

<"Mao dethroned Korean queen

19 years old Japanese Mao Asada won the Word title second time In her career. She defeated current Olympic champion Korean Yu Na Kim. The bronze medal was won by Laura Lepisto from Finland.

Mao Asada showed in Turin face of “Ninja warrior”. There wasn’t an explosion of (her) joy after her superb performance in free skate. One moment when she looked up on a roof reflected her gorgeous deed. “I did everything I could, now we will see what judges will do” Japanese seemed to think meanwhile she was waiting on her notes. Yesterday she was happy of her program to early, because 3A which any other woman except her can do, was downgraded and it was a big surprise for her. Today situation was similar. Only one of two 3 axels was considered to be done correctly. In Turin this “quarth” of spin didn’t prevent her from winning the gold. She did it thanks to Yu Na Kim, who was skating in Italy like on “rollercoaster ride”

Young Japanese showed her character in defiance of everything. In defiance of scoring system which rewards security and assurance and in defiance of judges who fall on their knees in front of Korean. She made past historical revolutions (3A) became something normal. Something such normal, that unappreciated.
Even though Japanese will go home from Turin with the gold in her pocket, she lost her free program to Kim, even though she (Kim) made 2 serious mistakes. Even though final performance of Korean was better than her completely unsuccessful short program, it was easy to see that Korean star was “out of air” (it’s an idiom- I didn’t know how to translate it. It means she was brilliant before but now she’s not). After the fall after 3 Salchow there was an impression that she didn’t want to skate her program anymore. We can blame an Olympic season for her attitude, but we can also wonder how much there is a fault of judges, who systematically give her inconceivable world records. Kim is a great champion, but still only a human. She doesn’t talk about her future. After winning an Olympic gold and contracts which gave her many millions she has to find motivation again because she won everything she could. Not only in sport but also in a world of commercialism, which is strongly connected with a sport. Brian Orser promises that his ward not only will follow Katarina Witt and win the second gold medal, but also will learn 3A. The first thing is possible, but it’s seems impossible that Kim will try to do such difficult element like 3A in her program. Even without 3A, with the fall and without one jump she’s able to beat pefect-quality performance.

Hopefully Kim and Asada will delight us with their rivalry many times. IT’s seems possible that they will be caught up by Mirai Nagasu, who was unexpected winner of a short program. Unfortunately it was too much pressure for her. However it’s seems possible that she will be able to win a medal in next season.

Hopefully these puzzling scores of skaters didn’t discourage an audience from figure skating. Hopefully they didn’t discourage competitors from trying to do new elements and gaining new skills. Figure skating is a spectacle which should stimulate imagination. It should make people be willing of exceeding their limits- it shouldn’t make that an audience look at scoring board with disbelief, because no one can believe scores.">

I know my english isn't perfect but I hope it didn't prevent you from understanding everything. I totally agree with an author of an article. Both Mao and Yuna are gorgeous, but scores of Yuna are inadequately high. Watching the worlds I couldn't believe Yuna got 130 points for performance with a fall and without 2A. Of course I think she's a wonderful skater and she deserved every title she won, but her scores are inexplicable. That;s not only my opinion but also opinion of commentators from Polish Eurosport who were as outraged as me (and even more than commentator of british eurosport. if any of you is able to find video of world champs from polish eurosport I can translate it)

Thanks for the translation, europeanfan! It's good to know what the Polish media thought about that competition. We certainly share the same sentiments.

thaank you soo much it's always nice to know what other people from other countries thought about worlds... and once again it's nice to see that people realise that kim's score have been to high and that she has been overrated the last two seasons...

I almost forget about that , the next season Mao will face work with a new coach, new rules, and that stupid judges again. And yuna until worlds, you know she is super good in her first competition, but I wonder about her coach situation, because we all have recognize that brian is a smart coach and known to yuna better that anyone.

Thank you europeanfan for sharing with us that article. About the score thing, I'm sure many of us could agree that Yu-na was ridiculously overscored there. Same with Olympics, because I can't believe that the margin between Mao and Yuna is 20 POINTS. Of course, people just say that it's because of the GOE and the quality that places Yuna above Mao but still...

Thank you so much for sharing, europeanfan!
I agree with the article, especially in this part.

Quote :

Hopefully these puzzling scores of skaters didn’t discourage an audience from figure skating. Hopefully they didn’t discourage competitors from trying to do new elements and gaining new skills. Figure skating is a spectacle which should stimulate imagination. It should make people be willing of exceeding their limits- it shouldn’t make that an audience look at scoring board with disbelief, because no one can believe scores.

I hope judges will give impartial scores to every skaters in this season...

mingming wrote:

Thank you so much for sharing, europeanfan!
I agree with the article, especially in this part.

Quote :

Hopefully these puzzling scores of skaters didn’t discourage an audience from figure skating. Hopefully they didn’t discourage competitors from trying to do new elements and gaining new skills. Figure skating is a spectacle which should stimulate imagination. It should make people be willing of exceeding their limits- it shouldn’t make that an audience look at scoring board with disbelief, because no one can believe scores.

I hope judges will give impartial scores to every skaters in this season...

If only, if only
It's hard for me to read this article again since i had tried to ultimately forget worlds and how Mao was cheated. It doesn't matter if she won over all. She lost the LP to a horrible performance by Yuna. And as much as i love Yuna, that program was just bad.
In an ideal world the scores will someday reflect the programs, until then it will reflect the bias...

i feel happy someone actually felt the same as me abt the scoring system. i feel that kim yuna is like totally overscored. seriously.

I would've understood as well if Yuna had a very clean skate on her LP. But for her to skate that horribly--because it really was horrible--and still finish first in LP was just unfathomable. Where did they base those marks? Because if we're also looking at her expressions there, we can see that Yuna just seems so tired and stressed--we cannot pull out the "she has moved the audience with her performance" card here either.

Worse, this situation only added fuel to the fires of some crazy fans out there who are now boasting that Yuna, even in her worst state, can defeat anyone in her best. This is not only rude but this is also affecting the sport in general--if someone who does not perform well STILL get to medal, then why the effort of improving the craft? And this does not go to Yuna Kim alone, for all skaters who perform badly and yet still score that high.

I really just wish that judges be more "quantitative" with their scores. Something with a purely objective basis. They could make ranges or levels per skill or whatever, but they just have to assess every performance objectively, for the sake of this sport.

This is my point of view: I've noticed that Yuna's scores 'some how' started to rise from the 4cc 2009. It just kept going up and up until the Oly where she got an even higher score than some men. So base on what she scored in the FP of Oly (was that something like 150 pts?) , if you deduct the mistakes she's made in World 2010, her score was still over 130.

Btw, this is happening to Patty Chan as well this season. His score will rise and rise until the day they will understand that it was a mistake...watch out !

Speedy is messing up with all his stupid rules!