skatingforums
Watching the Zamboni => Spectator Skating Discussions => Topic started by: Query on January 25, 2016, 11:42:46 AM
-
WARNING: THIS THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS!
-
NBC didn't use words like "sports fixing" and "conspiracy" in its coverage of the 2016 USFS Championships, Men's singles events.
But they came very close, essentially implying that the judges communicated with each other, and deliberately mis-scored the results.
Is it possible, if true, that members of the USFS judging panel for the event could be charged under U.S. law for those crimes?
Also, is there any significant probability that the USFS (sometimes called USFSA, in legal documents) would re-score the event after-the-fact, or that ISU could take disciplinary action against the USFS?
Or is this just another minor dust-up that will be forgotten a few days from now?
Note that I'm not asking whether or not the NBC sportscasters were right. There are fan forums where things like that are debated at length. I'm only asking about possible consequences, if it were found to be the case.
-
The NBC commentators had no idea what they wanted to see, though. Weir's commentary after Aaron's free skate went like this (heavily paraphrased):
(Aaron finishes)
Weir: "He should win."
(Aaron goes over to the kiss and cry and sits down and says hi to everyone etc)
Weir: "He should win."
(Aaron's score comes up and puts him in first overall, he looks really relieved)
Weir: "That's really dodgy, that shouldn't have happened." (What?)
(Rippon skates)
(Rippon's score puts him in the lead)
Weir: "It's all a fix, Aaron should have won"
WHAT DO YOU WANT, WEIR?! DOES AARON WIN OR NOT WIN?
Frankly, the US Nationals result was wrong. Max SHOULD have won that event. Rippon's 4Lz was clearly downgraded and he clearly had an underrotation on the triple Lutz-triple toe and neither of those was called properly (4Lz< and 3Lz-3T clean). BUT what that comes down to was a technical panel that clearly decided they were going to be really lenient at that point, rather than a fix. (And one judge who was clearly...well, I don't know, since they gave Rippon a 10 for IN. With a fall in the program.)
Personally, the USFS was probably thrilled with the result. Aaron didn't win, they got an openly gay champion which looks good for them, Aaron didn't win, Aaron didn't win, they got one of their precious "artists" as Champion, Aaron didn't win...
I don't think the USFS or ISU were too beat up about that result.
-
These skate associations are all, in the end, someone's grubby little empire (and income stream). Of course things get fixed. That's the game to watch. What happens on the ice is just a side show.