Lysacek v. Plushenko

[nachtrabe]

In men's figure skating there was an upset when the American Lysacek took the gold over the Russian Plushenko. Since then it turns out that Lysacek is a gracious winner and Plushenko is a sore loser, stirring up controversy, badmouthing Lysacek, and claiming the "platinum" medal in the olympics

Comments

[dallastwin]

I couldn't agree more! Very well put. Thank you.

[jadine]

I haven't examined the scoring breakdown, but I think if Plushenko had skated his program perfectly, he probably would have won. He obviously deserved poor GOE scores on some jumps, whereas Lysacek did a beautiful job throughout.

If Plushenko had lost on program components, he'd have something to argue about. But the failure was not in his choreography, or judges' bias, or anything else. His execution was poor, and he has no one to blame for that but himself.

Personally, I'd like to see the scoring system reward quads more, such that it would make sense for all the male skaters to include them. Lysacek has landed a quad in competition before, and I expect he would have attempted it in the Olympics if it were worth more points. But he and his coach are smart enough to work with the system instead of ignoring it and then whining about it.