The Day Elvis Stojko Killed Logic
by LauraS on Feb 19, 2010 12:32 PM EST
8 comments
I used to really root for Elvis Stojko to do well. Sure his programs were not the prettiest, but the man really did go for it, technically. He never quite got his gold medal but he had that valiant free skate in 1998 despite injury.
But today, Mr. Stojko has gone too far. He has an article in Yahoo! Sports titled "The Day They Killed Figure Skating." It's interesting - I thought the day they killed figure skating was maybe one of the many judging scandals, or other blatant displays of politics over the years. But no, it was last night. Because a skater who did a quadruple toe/triple toe (and kicked up more snow in that quad landing than the downhill skiiers) was not automatically given the gold medal. Stojko even argues that Daisuke Takahashi should have been placed higher than Lysacek for merely attempting the quad. Um...so points for trying are allowed? If someone tried the quad eight times, and fell eight times, would he also have deserved the gold medal over someone who landed eight triples? There is no logic in that argument.
A choice excerpt:
Plushenko had a great performance. His footwork was great and maybe his spins weren’t quite as good as Lysacek’s, but it wasn’t that big of a difference. He also had a quad toe triple toe that wasn’t even attempted by anyone else. He did both triple axels, so all the jumps were there.
But the judges’ scoring was ridiculous.
I didn't agree with all the judging last night. And I believe that skaters should be rewarded for trying difficult moves that no one else does. If Stojko truly is criticizing the code of points, then that's fine - but back your argument up with a comparison of points awarded for each move and why you believe that the quad is undervalued. Don't just essentially say that skating is dead because Plushenko did this one awesome jumping pass but he lost anyway.
The hilarious part about this is that last night, Evan won on the technical score! He won because Plushenko's jump landings were not as technically sound as Lysacek's were. He won because he received higher scores for his jumps, because he tried more jumps in the second half of the program than Plushenko did. There's a reason that they give a bonus out for landing jumps in the second half of the program, and that's because it's much more technically demanding to land them then. And Stojko knows that...he may just be too blinded by his quad love to care.
The truth is, this did not damage skating. There are and always will be plenty of Lysaceks and Plushenkos to go around. And if Takahashi had landed the quad and done the rest of his planned jumps, he would have beaten both Plushenko and Lysacek, judging from the scores. So in that case, a quad might have made the difference, and Stojko could have rejoiced. Or if there had been someone like Alexei Yagudin there last night, he might have beaten everyone handily with both artistry and technical ability. But one jumping pass in a program full of other weaknesses should not determine the entire competition.
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Wow
Wow…okay, where do I begin with this?
On one hand, I’ve always loved Elvis. And I know Elvis has always been an advocate for the athletic aspects of figure skating – and as someone who hates to hear men’s figure skating discredited as a sport for being effiminate (or God forbid, “GAY!”), I have always loved Elvis for that. If you wanted to see a guy’s guy go out in jeans and skate to rock music and flex his guns while pulling off athletic feats…than Elvis was your man.
However, I have never been more discouraged about the state of figure skating than in 2002 and 2006 when it felt like “HE WHO LANDS A QUAD WILL WIN.” As someone who worships the ice Todd Eldredge graces, I couldn’t stand the thought that he was being pushed out of the sport for the lack of one jump when there were so many other things he did better than many of the younger skaters. If it’s all about the quad, then make it a compulsory competition where everyone goes out and attempts a quad, and the skater with the best one wins and we’ll call it a day.
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS SPORT IS. Figure skating is the only sport that = athletic ability + artistry. It’s BOTH. And that’s what makes it special.
I was so worried that the new judging system (while it has its benefits) would not allow the judges to award championships to the skater who may not have been the most technically superior, but still delivered the best program. This is a subjective sport – sometimes the winner just simply cannot be calculated with math…and that’s hard for athletes to accept. (However, in this case, Evan was technically superior to Plushenko even without a quad so this point is invalid…but I just want to say that I have more faith in the new system after last night’s results than ever.)
I’m done trying to defend figure skating to people who don’t understand it. I just want to embrace the aspects of this sport that make it unique, special and beautiful. And if Elvis feels that the male skater’s athletic ability (or masculinity) has been threatened by this result, I’m sorry he feels that way but I really don’t think that’s the case.
[AND ANOTHER THING!: There are plenty of sports where, at times, finesse delivers better results than going for too much – tennis and baseball, for example. It’s not always about how hard you hit it, but rather HOW you hit it!]
Sigh Elvis.
I can’t even argue about this anymore. He’s so off in his argument.
A fun post would be to do is Evgeny Plushenko, quote machine. I may try to do this later, once I finish the report from h-e-double hockey sticks.
Elvis has left the building
(Apologies if much of this has already been covered-I read Elvis’ article earlier and signed up just to have some place to respond to it).
It seems like the crux of Elvis’ article is to pretend like the additional 2+ mintues of the long program that occured AFTER Plushenko landed the quad/trip were completely meaningless. If all that is to be considered in figure skating is the number of rotations that one performs, than why even judge any aspects of the competition. Why not make it like men’s gymnastics, where the skaters just land a number of jumps in a row, and whoever completes the most gets the highest points. Plushenko himself has admitted that he doesn’t worry about transitions. As others have pointed out, Evan’s program involved a series of later jumps that were scored higher due to the higher degree of difficulty. To act like “landing a quad” is the only thing that determine final scores is to completely ignore all other elements of the presentation.
Not to sound petty, but it seems like Elvis is just bitter that Evan was able to do two things that he was never able to.
1. Skate with any type of artistry (And no karate skating doesn’t count)
2. Win a gold medal in the olympics
Buh Bye Elvis
Awww, I loved Elvis right with you Laura.
I’m not a fan of Lysacek really, actually none of the men looked really fluid on the ice. Everyone seemed very choppy to me. I much prefer ladies skating to mens just for the beauty factor. I unfortunately have been a little under the weather and fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the free skate, and missed all of the big players. So I have to wait for it to be posted on NBC to catch up.
by Elizabeth Santos on Feb 19, 2010 3:38 PM EST reply actions
First off, Elvis’ comments have psychology written all over them! He is clearly speaking from a sour grapes perspective, having gotten two silvers with better technical content than the gold medalists who beat him (at least once). That is ALL this is, plain and simple.
He also speaks to the height of Plushy and Dice-K’s jumps. Height is important, but NOT the only thing…there is of course ride-out, edges, etc.
by jumping clapping man on Feb 19, 2010 5:31 PM EST reply actions
I’ve read articles here a lot but never commented, and I think I’ve officially lost it.
When I watched Plushenko’s free skate, to me, every element to me looked either flawed or shaky. I spent the entire time thinking “If Plushenko wins the gold medal, I’m going to stop watching this sport altogether”.
Let’s apply Elvis’ logic to some past Olympic finishes (I started with memory and then had to look up a couple things, so hopefully the sources I found were right):
1992 Ladies competition free skate – Midori Ito fell on her first triple axel attempt and threw another one in at the end in order to have one completed successfully. So Elvis would have given her the gold medal, even though she came in 4th in the short program and 2nd in the free skate, and despite the fact that Kristi landed a triple/triple (Ito didn’t) and won both the short and free? (Yes I remember that Kristi made mistakes in her free too, but I remember her having less of them than Ito did)
And since Elvis thinks “points for trying” are allowed:
2006 Pairs Free Skate – Zhang and Zhang should have won gold just for “attempting” that unbelievably scary and memory-scarring throw quadruple salchow? Even though they lost by an incredibly wide margin?
Anyway, you guys might be able to correct me on flaws in the details, but I think the examples make sense.
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