My husband has made no secret of being un-fond of the sport of figure skating. He's of the mind that the judging system is inherently unfair and it screws hardworking skaters. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something like he would throttle any judge who would dare screw me. Needless to say, I'm a little worried about bringing him to competitions...
But he's not entirely wrong (well he's wrong about threatening physical harm of course). The judging system is flawed. And subjective. This year's national results are indicative of that I think, in a number of ways.
It seemed to me that presentation scores and GOEs were manipulated to achieve a certain result in the Men's and Ladies' events, more so in the ladies short and in the men's long. I already expressed my dissatisfaction with the ladies' short results, and I was happy to see the ladies' long program pan out in a more straightforward way. Polina's presentation and GOEs paled in comparison to Gracie's--sorry to those who were rooting for Polina, but it was the right call to put her second.
But the men's long program was frustrating. Nathan Chen's four quads were a spectacle indeed. He got what he deserved in technical marks. And I'll buy that his presentation skills were lackluster in comparison to skaters who placed above him, and I'd have bought a second place finish for him overall. He should have won the long though. The technical merit was too high for him to lose, but his presentation scores were ratcheted down so far that they ensured a third place finish.
Now to Max Aaron. This guy should have been the winner. He did two quads, and his presentation, while not amazing, should have been enough for a second-place finish in the long, and a first-place finish overall. But his GOE's were unfairly middling at best.
Adam Rippon, the ultimate champion, on the other hand, should have been third. He skated well and had great presentation, but he didn't complete a quad. Yet his GOE's and presentation scores in my opinion were higher than they should have been. He scored less than a point higher than Max Aaron on the technical side. Max did TWO solid quads, one of which was a quad-triple combo. I just don't see objectively how that's possible. Meanwhile, he scored almost nine points more than Nathan Chen in the presentation department, and more than five over Aaron.
If score inflation was at work, I simply don't see the aim of launching Rippon to the top. Even with a great performance at Worlds on par with what he delivered at Naitonals, he's going to get BURIED! His quad lutz, for all the talk about it, is under-rotated, and ALWAYS gets a downgrade, whether he stays on his feet or not. Max Aaron and Nathan Chen have more chance of faring better against the Yuzuru Hanyus and Jin Boyangs of the world. Is there a movement to fight back against the quad? To show that a guy without a quad can still win? While that's noble and all, that's not the direction figure skating is going in...
All of that said of course, it is nice to see a guy who has been in the sport, fighting for so long, finally get a national title. And I did like his program, a lot.
This feeling of dissatisfaction with the outcome of this year's Nationals aligns with a recent column by Christine Brennan for USA Today about why figure skating isn't the ratings-getter it once was. She makes a few very fair points here, among them, the intricate scoring system that lets judges jack up GOEs and presentation scores while remaining anonymous.
And for more of my thoughts on Nationals, I weighed in on WAMCs daily call-in talk show.
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