Figure Skating Announcers....

[TeamBoone]

Is it just me? I've been trying to hold my tongue throughout the competitions, but tonight put me over the edge.

Dick Button (has he gotten cantankerous?). After the first skater finishes, he says "the early scores this evening don't mean much, except to the skaters of course".

Geez! Why even bother to have the early skaters in the competition?

And the woman (can't remember her name because I've never heard of her). Just before the second skater begins, she says "I hope he's put as much effort into his program as he has into his costume".

Ugh! I could live without the ad libbing. I'm finding Scott Hamilton the only one worth opening his mouth.

[KronoRed]

They seem to get mad that the Russian's aren't being allowed to skate alone

[Dom Heffner]

I must know absolutely nothing about figure skating because I'll watch a performance and think it's pretty good and then whoever the male is comes on and just rips these guys a new one. It makes me not want to watch this guy is so negative.

The female and Scott Hamilton (?) seem to be pretty fair but the main guy just calls everything awful. Even when someone skates well he'll talk about how they normally don't skate that well.

Really strange, and I'm glad I'm not the only one, TB.

[Caseyfan21]

I got dragged into watching some of the doubles pairs this past weekend when the girlfriend was in town. Anyways, I'm like Dom, I have no idea what's going on. All I know is falling is bad.

I was excited to watch the girl from Columbus (I think her name is Marcy). So I was watching her and before her and her partner take the ice, the announcers are saying, "Well, they would be lucky to finish in the Top 10 here."

Geez, even if that's true (which it was) you don't have to lead off their performance with that. That just lowers the expectations of the audience watching and unless someone cares they will probably get up and grab some food, go to the bathroom, etc, since these skaters aren't so great in the announcers opinion.

Sorry, venting over...

[TeamBoone]

You're right, falling is bad.... except tonight.

The guy that won the bronze fell twice and beat two others who were flawless. Some new judging system they've got there.

[KronoRed]

The winners are pretty much decided before hand, I'm not saying it's fixed but all the favorites have to do is not screw up too badly and they win.

The announcers know it too, they try and set it up but it's all a big farce.

Such is the case in most sports decided by judges.

[Caveat Emperor]

The winners are pretty much decided before hand, I'm not saying it's fixed but all the favorites have to do is not screw up too badly and they win.

The announcers know it too, they try and set it up but it's all a big farce.

Such is the case in most sports decided by judges.

I tried watching the "Snowboarding" half-pipe event (why is this an Olympic sport? ) when it was on, and that was the same conclusion that I reached as well. Everyone said the nerdy looking redhead was going to win, and he won...and if you want to go over the videotape and show me what he did differently than anyone else who didn't fall on their "Trick" attempts, I'd be more than willing to watch -- because I couldn't tell the difference in his run from anyone elses.

It seemed like he won just because everyone said he was going to.

[RedFanAlways1966]

This is why I do not like anything that involves human judging. I do not like to watch any event that has it. Skating has to have it (I cannot see any other way), so it will always have a cloud of non-fairness to me. The same for most of those X-Games type of events like the snowboarding in the halfpipe thing.

Ski jumping? Why have a human judged element to the final score? Joe jumps 300 feet and Steve jumps 298 feet. Joe wins... why make it any different? They do. They throw in style-and-flair points. Do they have style-and-flair points in the long jump in the Summer games? I don't think so.

[SunDeck]

This is why I do not like anything that involves human judging. I do not like to watch any event that has it. Skating has to have it (I cannot see any other way), so it will always have a cloud of non-fairness to me. The same for most of those X-Games type of events like the snowboarding in the halfpipe thing.

Ski jumping? Why have a human judged element to the final score? Joe jumps 300 feet and Steve jumps 298 feet. Joe wins... why make it any different? They do. They throw in style-and-flair points. Do they have style-and-flair points in the long jump in the Summer games? I don't think so.

At some point you have judge whether a person lands on their feet or not. If a guy hurls 300 feet and skids in on his rear end, how does that square against a 290 foot jump, where the guy lands on his feet. Seems like the latter is the better jump. But maybe that's where it should end. Did the guy land on two feet and stay up and not whether he stuck his butt out and waddled on the way down.

And speaking of skating, did anyone see the interview with Johnny Weir? He's fighting the establishment. I didn't know skating was a part of the movement against the Man.

[flyer85]

I'd find it a lot more interesting if they skated two at a time, with pugle sticks.

[TeamBoone]

Unfortunately, there's a human judgement element in every sport... including baseball, football, basketball, etc. They're just called by different names.

I really do enjoy watching the Olympics, and I almost feel guilty that I feel the way I do about the commentary and what often appears to be unfair judging... or perhaps it's a straight-forward case of judging/emphasizing the wrong elements.

I was especially bothered last night by the fact that all announcers noted that the gold medalist's performance lacked a "program" (choreography); that he nailed all the technical elements but was unable to tie them together with the choreography... yet, he was the top scorer for the creative points!

Anyway, I'm going to try to get past it and continue to enjoy what's left of the games.

[Red Leader]

I agree with everyone on here, the figure skating announcers are bad.

To kind of echo what Caveat said, many of the sports that they say "so and so will win this event," they do. The Flying Tomato in the halfpipe, Seth Wescott in the Snowboard cross yesterday. It's gotten to the point where I chuckle when someone like Bodie Miller, Jeremy Bloom, or Johnny Weir don't medal after they've been super-hyped. That's bad. I wish I could root for all Americans to win, but because of some of the announcers hyping these people, I'm actually finding that I'm rooting for some of the underdogs from other countries.

[Dom Heffner]

This is why I do not like anything that involves human judging. I do not like to watch any event that has it. Skating has to have it (I cannot see any other way), so it will always have a cloud of non-fairness to me. The same for most of those X-Games type of events like the snowboarding in the halfpipe thing.

RFA, I agree to a certain extent. Figure skating is just mostly subjective it seems. I still watch, though, because I think all sports have some sort of range for human error in judging- how many blown calls have we seen in football and baseball?

Boxing is one of my favorite sports, and a funny thing happened to me last fall. I went and saw the Tarver-Jones fight live instead of watching it on television. What a difference it is watching something like that without anyone telling you how the fight is going.

I called it right, but right before the decision was announced I was convinced it could have gone either way.

[Caveat Emperor]

I agree with everyone on here, the figure skating announcers are bad.

To kind of echo what Caveat said, many of the sports that they say "so and so will win this event," they do. The Flying Tomato in the halfpipe, Seth Wescott in the Snowboard cross yesterday. It's gotten to the point where I chuckle when someone like Bodie Miller, Jeremy Bloom, or Johnny Weir don't medal after they've been super-hyped. That's bad. I wish I could root for all Americans to win, but because of some of the announcers hyping these people, I'm actually finding that I'm rooting for some of the underdogs from other countries.

You'll notice, though, that upsets occur FAR more frequently when there's an impartial judge of the victor, such as a clock.

[Red Leader]

You'll notice, though, that upsets occur FAR more frequently when there's an impartial judge of the victor, such as a clock.

Yes, that is true.