Double Standard.....Double Standard.....Double Standard!!!!!
Last night was the night of the DOUBLE STANDARD!!
I seem to recall that a week ago at the Olympics, the men's figure skating competition was "so not about the jumps". Instead, it was about the total package. This came out of the mouths of Scott Hamilton and Dick Button.
When Plushenko kept talking about being able to do a quad and criticized the competition for not being able to do the same, Hamilton and Button both essentially said SO WHAT. In fact, Hamilton said that it's called figure skating for a reason because it's not all about the jumps.
Yet last night when the women skated it was all about the.....JUMPS!! That's right!! The jumps!! Hamilton made sure to emphasize the fact that Mao Asada of Japan was the only woman in the competition who was doing a triple axel. He did that not once but several times!! Then, they kept showing you the instant replays of every jump that a skater did.
So let me get this straight!! Men's figure skating is not about jumps but about the whole package because that's what figure skating is all about. But women's figure skating is about the jumps and not the whole package.
If you're Plushenko, nobody gives a damn if you were the only one who could land a quad jump. If you're Mao Asada, you're the best skater because you're the only one who did a triple axel.
Double standard ANYONE?
I seem to recall that a week ago at the Olympics, the men's figure skating competition was "so not about the jumps". Instead, it was about the total package. This came out of the mouths of Scott Hamilton and Dick Button.
When Plushenko kept talking about being able to do a quad and criticized the competition for not being able to do the same, Hamilton and Button both essentially said SO WHAT. In fact, Hamilton said that it's called figure skating for a reason because it's not all about the jumps.
Yet last night when the women skated it was all about the.....JUMPS!! That's right!! The jumps!! Hamilton made sure to emphasize the fact that Mao Asada of Japan was the only woman in the competition who was doing a triple axel. He did that not once but several times!! Then, they kept showing you the instant replays of every jump that a skater did.
So let me get this straight!! Men's figure skating is not about jumps but about the whole package because that's what figure skating is all about. But women's figure skating is about the jumps and not the whole package.
If you're Plushenko, nobody gives a damn if you were the only one who could land a quad jump. If you're Mao Asada, you're the best skater because you're the only one who did a triple axel.
Double standard ANYONE?
posted by ParisL0ve2 @ 8:36 AM
3 Comments:
At 3:12 AM,
Anonymous said…
I don't know much about figure skating. But, according to what I read and heard, when it comes to women's figure skating, Mao Asada is the only one in history who has succeeded in performing triple axels 3 times in a competition officially, and besides, the number of the female skaters who can do the jump is much much smaller than the number of the male skaters who can do quad. So, I guess, the point in the argument on "quad or without quad" in MEN'S figure skating was, many(most?) of the favorites who had had possibility to win the Olympic game ACTUALLY COULD DO quad, but a few ones who CHOSE NOT TO DO THAT were given more advantages than the ones who did the jump and the winner was from the former group.
I find it funny that the commentators spent some time and efforts(?) talking about jumps in their comments on women's.
I heard Scott Hamilton saying, in giggles, that Kim was so excellent beyond comparison that triple axel was needless to beat Asada. His theory sounded even insulting against triple axel. I felt he wants to neglect the jump, or wants the viewers to believe the jump is not important or great. Seems like opposite to how you feel about his comments.
At 5:18 PM,
ParisL0ve2 said…
It's interesting that you point that out!!
I think that Scott Hamilton was all about the jumps up until the point when Mao Asada messed up during her long program. It became evident to him at that point that Kim Yu-Na was going to win no matter what Asada did.
Before that, he kept talking about how Asada was the only one doing a triple axel and how she was actually doing two in the long program. He kept saying, "We'll see if the two triple axels will give her an edge over Kim Yu-Na."
See, that's where I see the double standard. They put far less emphasis on the jumping in the men's competition, and actually kind of shit all over that. Whereas in the lady's competition it was all about the jumps!!
Hamilton makes absolutely no sense though. He was asked about the jumping. He says that in 2006 Plushenko won because of his jumps. Then he says that in 2010 figure skating stepped back and it's not about the jumps anymore.
How does that even make any sense? Wouldn't you want to move FORWARD and push the envelope instead of taking a step back? Not to mention, the scoring system in 2006 is the same scoring system used in 2010. So, why were the scores for jumping downgraded in favor of spins and footwork if it's the same system?
It's really no surprise though who won, given all the shit talking about Plushenko before the Olympics even started.
I'm not one to believe in all the conspiracy theories. But there was a U.S. figure skating judge who sent e-mails to the judges who were going to be at the Olympics. He "reminded" them of their duty to follow the system as it is set up. He then "reminded" them that Plushenko supposedly said that if a judge wants someone to win they can fix it so that person does.
At 5:27 PM,
ParisL0ve2 said…
We have no idea that Plushenko actually said that.
Quite frankly, the U.S. judge should be fired. He had no business sticking his nose into the matter, especially given the fact that he was not one of the judges at the Olympics.
Not to mention, I believe it was Johnny Weir who said he was concerned that he would be judged unfairly because of this judge's interference. And look how that turned out!!
Weir was SCREWED out of a medal for whatever reason, and the reason was certainly not because of how he skated!!
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