To Quad or Not Quad? That Is The Question.

After last night's Men's Free Skate at the Vancouver Olympics, I feel compelled to write an entry about this whole quadruple jump madness, not to mention the whole who deserves to win issue. It's interesting to see what Elvis Stoyko had to say about this whole ordeal. He for one sided with Plushenko saying:

The results from last night brought the sport backwards. People aren't taking risks and what sport encourages not taking risks? - I think that's a great point. I want the sport to move forward and for people to try the difficult tricks. However I do feel like the other components, i.e. spins and footwork shouldn't necessarily be worth less than jumps. Also, i think the component score is important, whats the point of performing or even being creative if it wasn't worth a good proportion of the score? Why have music? Sorry Elvis, I think you're a little biased cuz you didn't get gold due to your component scores. Don't ding others because they are more creative than others and can interpret music better. With that said, i agree that people aren't taking risks and without risks this sport is doomed.

My solution to this problem is to re-evaluate the worth of different skills. A triple axel-triple toe loop combo is only worth .5 points less than a quad. I mean, seriously? 4 revolutions in one jump is so much harder than 2 triple jumps put together. Why not just make the quad worth the risk of doing it. Make it 5 points more than the triple axel-triple toe loop. I think its a simple solution that rewards a skater for doing something more difficult.

What's my opinion on Evan Lysacek winning? He deserved it. Evgeni Plushenko is being a sore loser for not executing everything well enough and then expecting to get rewarded for that just cuz he didn't fall. First, of all he didn't skate smart, did he realize that after the 1/2 way point that jumps are worth more? Imagine if he had just saved one of his jumps for the 2nd half of his program? He probably would have won. He only lost to Evan by a little over a point. Evan got his points because almost every jump he landed came out smooth and flowing. He gets bonus points for that. What if Plushenko had just landed 2 of his jumps and wasn't at a stand still or without a bobble? Bam! Another way he would have won. Plushenko had opportunities. It's not like he was forced to make his program the way he did. He had the freedom to change it and take advantage of the point system. Sore Loser!!! It's not the judges fault, you're a dumb ass.

I think the judges did their job and there wasn't anything ridiculous about the scoring. Don't get me started on Johnny Weir because he also basically deserved what he got. His routine looked like a watered down version of everyone in the top 3. Artistically, I think he was better than the other 3 but that's only half the score. What about his spins? What about his footwork? Those were lacking. His skating was straight forward and went from one element to another without any interesting transitions. Don't forget he fell out of a spin as well. All in all it was a great performance but the difficulty wasn't there and scores reflect that.

The outcome was basically right. Lysacek 1st, Plushenko 2nd, Takahashi 3rd. I'm not complaining. It is what it is and I'm happy with the outcome. Go USA!