Did anyone watch the Olympics?

[trinityvixen]

'Cause, on top of the Paul Hamm thing, which I only found out about Saturday when Lisa told me, apparently the silver medalist in the women's all-around individual final is now claiming that Patterson (forgot her first name) only won because of a massive conspiracy to give the US the gold. She said in an interview with a Russian magazine that she believed that the time the judges took to confer over her one round's scores is proof that they were conspiring--the delay was, I guess, them checking the difference in scores or just maintaining that she should only get so high. This broad also says that the points should go to beauty, grace, and elegance on the mat, not "mechanical tumbling."

Look at this dumb bitch: Does this look like a beauty queen to you?

I actually recognize her from the two seconds I caught of the team all-around. I looked at her and gagged. She's skinnier than someone who has that much muscle ought to be; she's got knock-and-knobby knees; and she has no shape at all (Yes, I know, most gymnasts don't, but she has even less definition than most gymnasts, and that is saying something). Sour puss expression don't really help her any. If the pointswere awarded for beauty and elegance, she'd be somewhere behind an unfed donkey. Grace? Sure, I could see that, as you have to have a degree of floaty-ness to be a good gymnast anyway. Elegance? Meh, same thing, just fancier words.

I hate that she sees conspiracy here. The thing with the men, I get, that was an unfortunate mistake, but this? Look, I do feel bad there was an accident for her in Sydney, but there's no call to be a sore loser. That's like the anti-thesis of what the Olympics is about, right?

Comments

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

I still have to review the full night's events (taped it), but from the parts I did see they were a bit harsh on her. I wouldn't go as far as calling it a conspiracy, but I would say that the judges set their expectations much higher for her than the many of the other gymnasts that night. What happened in Sydney was very much a crime, and it doesn't matter the gymnast; at that level they would all harp on that.

I won't touch the whole beauty aspect, since beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. But I will say that in Russia she is considered a diva (and oh boy does she know it from the way she acts), so there are quite a few people in that country that would call her a beauty queen.

actually she might have a leg to stand on

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Just came across this article. With another russian gymnast scoring lower than expected (so much so that that even the audience for the event got up to complain the scores where too low), there can be made a case for bias. Now I really have to watch the tape =-)

Russia plans top-level protest over gymnastics scores

Re: actually she might have a leg to stand on

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The difference here is that Nemov was a) already a 13-medal winner versus Khorkina who I think only has her silver and maybe another medal from the last games and b) he was a class act. Conspiracy? I still think Russia's being a little too put-out about this because they set for themselves an unrealistic goal. China, on the other hand, being that handy-dandy land of a thousand communists, could enforce the rules they knew would get them medals, and it's worked. Nemov did the right thing to get the crowd to be quiet for Hamm, who I'm not exactly in love with here. He's been something of an ass for not sharing the gold with South Korea (again, I'm not on their side either, they had time to lodge the complaint and missed it--I sympathize, though, and do think he ought to get a gold, too, but Hamm can keep his).

What I don't like is how awful the judges have been under pressure. They literally changed scores because the crowd booed them into it. It's a crowd, for pete's sake. Tourists and family members, countrymen and local boys, not all of whom are exactly qualified to determine point differences. I bet not 1 in 5 could tell the moves apart, let alone name them and judge the accuracy and grace of the performance. Hell, given all the trouble Greece has had filling the stadium, I'd be surprised if they weren't all just drunken Greeks going, "Dude!" from the sidelines a lot when someone did *anything.*

Stupid bad sportsmanship is what Khorkina is guilty of, even if there is anything to this claim. I doubt it, but there you are.

Re: actually she might have a leg to stand on

[arcane-the-sage.livejournal.com]

Well the camera never caught her being unsportsmen-like when they called out the metals that night. I'll still review the tape and see if their calls were on the mark or unduly harsh.

Still, two cases that show potential bias is enough for them to bring it up for arbitration. The odds are against them, but it wouldn't be the first time that judges showed bias for one reason or another. Again, I haven't seen the entire night's performance yet so I can't say one way or the other if she was robbed that night or not. Though as I said before, she does act like a diva (and I don't mean in a good way).

PS: in the South Korean dispute, both the US and South Koreans said that sharing the gold (ie both athletes get gold metals) was acceptable to them. It's the international gymnastics group that said no way on that idea, hence making the whole thing nastier.