I enjoy the Olympics despite the scores

[jducoeur]

One observation from last night: it reminded me, once again, that I find the judging and scoring to be my one real beef with the figure skating.

This time, there was a skater (didn't catch where from) whose routine was based on Gene Kelly's classic number from An American in Paris. For my money, it was brilliant: not just good skating, but good nods to the original routine peppered throughout. He actually managed to get a bunch of little nuances of Kelly's movement idiom in there -- not easy when you're moving on teeny little blades at high speed.

Of course, the commentators were full of, "Oh, it's not very hard; it won't score well; blah blah blah". And that proved true -- from a scoring POV, it was mediocre. Which is a damned shame, because from a purely artistic POV (as opposed to an athletic one), I thought it completely stole the show.

This seems to happen about once in each Winter Olympics for me. Sometimes it's a solo, sometimes a pair, but there's always *somebody* who just clearly gets the idea of Skating As Dance, and as Art, far better than the rest of the field. And they *never*, ever, win...

Comments

[ulfhirtha.livejournal.com]

Figure skating (at least they don't show those darn "school figure" sessions anymore) is hardly the only Olympic *competition* like this - judging is in the moguls, snowboarding,diving, gymnastics and so on. Technical skill and athleticism are a worthy part of competition, beyond sheer racing or who can land (by what measure?) the most twisty jump. I asgree it is more satisfying (and understandable to the layman) to say "Skier X made it down the fastest - they win", but adding more subjective athletic contests only enriches the event for me. It is not enough to do X, you must do it WELL.

As I have heard said, and agree with, about last night's skating, the Russian landed the bigger jump (shakily) but the American's was cleaner (and supposedly other elements were more difficult as well). I thought Weir did an excellent job, but perhaps in terms of technical elements it wasn't as demanding as others. Similarly, I liked the Chaplin-based performance, partly for showing what Peggy Fleming was saying about earlier and less-seasoned skaters and the need to find your own artistic voice.

At least we don't see quite so much of the blatant bias like the old "and the scores...4.6, 4.3, and a 2.6 from the Russian judge" ;-)

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am not saying that non-sports have no place in the olympics - I after all prefer arts to sports. I just think that the differentiation is worth making.