Figure Skating Announcers....

[vaticanplum]

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!

None of this is the fault of the figure skating announcers. This is the fault of the crappy new judging system the sport has implemented. The announcers are quite right -- there's very little rhyme or reason to the way the judges are scoring the artistic side of things at the moment. The figure skating world in general is very unhappy with this system, and then add onto that that these skaters are the guinea pigs for it and aren't quite sure what they're supposed to be emphasizing, and then the judges award marks like this, thus confusing the skaters further. As far as I'm concerned last night was the exemplification of the new system at its worst. (As your resident skating freak, I can get more detailed into this, but it's very intricate and I'm very wordy so I'll spare you unless anybody really wants to know.)

In my opinion these announcers are really good; there are just too many of them. Scott Hamilton, Sandra Bezic and Dick Button are pretty much the wordiest commentators in the sport (and after last night I'm now completely convinced that Hamilton has no grasp on the new system) -- you can't have all of them talking together. Dick Button really knows his stuff and can be quite endearing. Here is a great article about him -- it's really worth reading:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021101460.html

[KronoRed]

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

Yeah..I like this

[registerthis]

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

Yes, but there's not anything nearly as subjective as "artistic merit" in any of the sports you mentioned. If a football team received points not only on whether they were able to score, but on how good they looked doing it, then the comparison would be more apt.

[registerthis]

And, for the record, i think the figure skating announcers are simply awful. Dick Button is the most negative blowhard I think I've heard in any sport. For every compliment, he dishes out ten criticisms, always said with that air of authority: "There's no artistry in this performance...he looked weak on that jump...there's no bounce in his step...etc."

Scott Hamilton acts like he's passing a stone every time a skater attempts a triple or a quad, and the female announcer (Dorothy Hammill?) provides some of the most inane commentary I have heard--"The crowd loves it!" or "She's looks so happy!"

I've taken to muting the commentary and playing my own soundtrack while they're skating.

[flyer85]

Yeah..I like this

I can see it now

"Harding does a great triple loop and clocks prissy boy across the jaw. Prissy boy is down, the judges are starting the count".

The suspense would be a killer.

[Caveat Emperor]

Dick Button is the most negative blowhard I think I've heard in any sport.

Heh heh...heh heh heh heh...

[SunDeck]

The negatitivity kinda goes with the sport, don't you think? I mean, these people are all trying to do nearly impossible things and anything less than perfection causes their score to suffer. If Button is negative, I maintain he is only pointing out the things that the judges are using to differentiate the performances. The pithy comments, I find to be a nice departure because I have no idea what the heck they're talking about unless someone just flat out falls on their backside.

[TeamBoone]

None of this is the fault of the figure skating announcers. This is the fault of the crappy new judging system the sport has implemented. The announcers are quite right -- there's very little rhyme or reason to the way the judges are scoring the artistic side of things at the moment.

Agreed, that isn't the announcers fault... but the announcers are still horrible, IMHO, for the reasons stated in my opening post on this thread (and more that I didn't go into, but others have). They did nothing last night to change my mind about that.

Scott Hamilton acts like he's passing a stone every time a skater attempts a triple or a quad, and the female announcer (Dorothy Hammill?) provides some of the most inane commentary I have heard--"The crowd loves it!" or "She's looks so happy!"

No, it's Sandra Bezic, though I've never heard of her.

[Red Leader]

What happened to Elfie Schlagel?

[creek14]

If a football team received points not only on whether they were able to score, but on how good they looked doing it...

The Steelers would have lost the Super Bowl, cause Ben looked like crap with that beard.

[traderumor]

I can see it now

"Harding does a great triple loop and clocks prissy boy across the jaw. Prissy boy is down, the judges are starting the count".

The suspense would be a killer.

How fitting that "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is playing on my computer right now. Of course, the only triple loops that Harding is doing these days is with her spoon in the ice cream

[flyer85]

Of course, the only triple loops that Harding is doing these days is with her spoon in the ice cream

or is that triple scoops

[Red Leader]

or is that triple scoops

More like double wide.

[Roy Tucker]

Dick Button seems like he's been around forever.

He is the Dick Enberg of skating.

[vaticanplum]

Yes, but there's not anything nearly as subjective as "artistic merit" in any of the sports you mentioned.

It is subjective, but probably not as much as you think. Personal tastes do figure into it, but there are very specific artistic things the judges are supposed to look for, such as how deep the edging is (ie. how much a skater is leaning to the side, how much on the side of the blade he or she is), speed (judged as an artistic element as well as a technical one), use and placement of elements in a program, position (a specific technical thing with an artistic effect), and many other things. Even the way a skater uses music is more technical to a judge than it is to the casual observer, because judges have been watching skating for so many years that they know what is technically good use of music and what is not.

I'm not entirely positive, but I'm pretty sure, that under the new system all of these things correlate to specific point values as well, thus making it even less subjective. This is why it kind of gets to me when people who just pick up and watch every four years say that it's too subjective but then argue the results because from what they see a skater had a better program. The judges aren't just picking who they like better -- there are a lot of tiny little technical things that you have to know skating really well to pick up on.