02.19.10
Why I Love the Russians (Plushenko ‘robbed’ of Gold)
Check out this article about how upset the coach for Russian figure skater Plushenko regarding his athlete not being awarded Gold. While I do understand that his program was not as clean as it could have been, I will have to agree with his coach about the quadruple…
Plushenko had previously claimed the quad and its variations are the future of figure skating. Mishin focused his accusations of thievery on the judging panel.“Any judge who thinks this is the right champion is a Cyclops,” Mishin said. “Without the quad, there is no difference between the men’s competition and the women’s. Why not let them skate together? Why not have it as a unisex competition in the Olympics?”
Quad jumps are very difficult since they require tremendous leg strength. And there has been only one woman,Miki Ando (JPN) in 2002, to land one in competition. I think since very few athletes are able to accomplish quad jumps in the first place that there should be a more gratiutious awarding for them. Consider the risk. If they skater does not land the quad he basically gets 0 points. If he under-rotates, he gets very few points as well. Consquently, a safe skater would much rather perform a safe program consisting of triples and sophisticated footwoork techniques and artistry.