Lysacek didn't do a Quad jump in his program, but Yevgeny Plushenko did do one, and in his opinion (as well as many others), if you don't do a quad, you don't deserve a gold medal. Of course Plushenko, who came in second, felt he deserved the gold, and not the silver.
What a joke.
But they don't always have a good day.
If you watched Wednesday night, I can't see how you could judge Plushenko's routine as a solid one. He had a technically difficult routine, but he didn't look graceful throughout. In short, he wasn't "on" and his landings often had a slight off-balance look to them.
Plushenko did his quad at the beginning of his routine when he was the most confident he could make it, and his landing wasn't particularly good - not bad - but not very solid looking. So in the end, he just didn't earn the points necessary throughout his routine, even with the quad, to beat the excellent job that Lysacek did throughout his routine, with a near perfect looking execution of his triple-triple at the end of his program, and that overall skill out scored Plulshenko's.
So it's completely frustrating to hear people say - skilled and knowledgeable skaters - that if you don't do a quad, you don't deserve to win. In this case, and in the case of ANY sport, it came down to the number of points scored, and the winner was the individual who scored the most points.
Period.
Can you imagine soccer, football, baseball, hockey, or any other point based sport be judged in such a manner? "Well, you scored more points, but the other team showed more technical skill throughout, and they tried more difficult shots/plays/pitches (whatever), so we've awarded them the match.
Really. Give me a break.
Go home and have some cheese with your whine.
Photo Credits:
1. Slate: Is Figure Skating Fixed?
http://www.slate.com/id/2244277/
2. About.com: Figure Skating
http://figureskating.about.com/od/profilesoffamousskaters/p/lysacek.htm
