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I really hope this isn't another Johnny Manziel story happening before us.

>When you can physically train more because of "grandpa's water", you tend to get more consistent jumps.

No disagreement, but then you have to make the next logical conclusion, because you can't have it both ways... They are either doping and it's getting results which then ties the hands of the judges (Hint: it's this one) or you can say they are getting favors that doesn't have to do with their skill... but not both. They wouldn't need to dope if they were getting rampant favors... they dope to ensure they have an advantage come time to look at things with a closer lens.

Then you really have to consider, you don't even know what you don't know. Do you understand how small of a world figure skating is? I am not a major player in the sport, and I personally know 5 of the 9 judges that were on the panel for the Women's free skate, two of which I competed against for years, lol. If some yahoo on reddit who is involved can know half the panel just by happenstance, what are the odds the coaches with people in the actual even know EVERYONE? I can assure you, it's 100%.

Hell, even as a developing skater myself, the number of times an official took me aside and told me things off the record couldn't even be counted on one hand. What you are describing is just part of daily life in the sport. The deeper in you are, the more everyone just knows everyone and who they know... it's just how it is, everywhere.

Do you really think the well connected US coaches, like say Artunian, are just sticking their head in the sand and don't know inside out who the people on the panel are? Or do you maybe think they have done a little greasing of the wheels also, and what Eteri does with the officials she has influence on isn't all that different then what I have personally seen coaches in the US do... you are describing a standard practice, for better or worse. Not a specific offense of the Russians.

It’s a short article. Some of you should read it before reacting. His “domestic incident” was him pushing a woman. Sounds like he pushed her exactly once. She happened to fall but did not require medical attention. For all we know she went after him and he simply pushed her away and this was the end result. He didn’t beat the shit out of her so he shouldn’t be compared to some who should rightfully be called out.

What shows are the results of preferential treatment and rampant doping. Nothing more; nothing less. When you can physically train more because of "grandpa's water", you tend to get more consistent jumps. When a certain coach is taking out ISU judges out to expensive dinners before a competition, subjectivity is called into question.

Regardless, I suspect we won't be seeing eye to eye on this topic. I just threw in my two cents. Have a good one.

>Medvedeva? None.

I mean, I could show you video evidence of exactly why she doesn't get a call. Just because a large group of people online feel a specific way, doesn't mean it's cheating. I am eligible to be on a technical panel, I've seen plenty of examples of her doing a "passable" lutz. It isn't a shock those who are actually on the technical panel see the same thing...

If we really want to talk about cheating, there was literally a doping scandal a year ago, one that directly correlates to two major advantages the Russians have at this moment, but this issue isn't one what is being put out on the ice. They are, for all intents and purposes, putting a lot of effort into ensuring what they do gets by, and they are throwing training time at it... and it shows.

The Japanese and Canadian ladies all had their Lutz edges miraculously called at the 2018 Olympics. Medvedeva? None. It's magical how judges develop astigmatism any time a Russian skates and 20/20 vision any time anyone else skates.

>I wouldn't shine a light on her successes in any argument other than to illustrate how much of a vice grip Russia has over the figure skating governing body.

Her success didn't come out of no where. She still went to, skated in, and won all of those events with elements that would be scored that way to the letter of the sport. Her technique isn't my favorite either, it isn't what I personally teach, but I can't deny how they would be called in any competition in the world.

It wasn't like she was missing those elements and winning, whatever corruption there was, and there was plenty, was still predicated on those girls going and landing their programs flawlessly, which in turn means those girls are landing those jumps when the pressure was on.... consistently.

Anyways, again, the point stands. If the complaint against Levito is she jumps like a two time World Champ, you aren't grasping what was really being said in my original comment. My point was, you can rely on her to land her stuff in competition, and the arguments against were splitting hairs because they don't like the lineage of the technique...

Clearly you understand why I, as a professional in the sport, couldn't be using that line of reasoning with say... one of my own athletes. To suggest she isn't going to be fully scored, and well, would be a major disservice to your ability to parse what is actually happening in the competition.

>Then I gotta point out, Medvedeva is what, a two time world champ and an Olympic Silver? If your comparison for her technique to be considered "bad" is someone who won worlds twice... I rest my case. Her jumps are excellent, and I stand by my original statement.

Medvedeva is a prime example of the overwhelming amount of politics and corruption in the sport. I wouldn't shine a light on her successes in any argument other than to illustrate how much of a vice grip Russia has over the figure skating governing body. Her technique was absolutely abysmal in every way imaginable, yet she was rewarded endlessly for it. That isn't something to emulate. That is something the public should demand change from in the ISU.

As for Levito, watching her is like watching skating in 0.25x speed. Her telegraphed jumps are unwatchable to me. She has beautiful spirals and spins, but that's about the extent of her skating that I find palatable. It is very much like watching an Eteri girl minus the quads.

the US has had a slump in women’s figure skating ever since Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen retired in the mid 00s. Before that the US was quite dominant ever since the 90s at least. But following Michelle Kwan/Sasha Cohen’s retirement, there was a long and legendary rivalry between a south korean and a japanese skater (mao asada and yuna kim) for a decade and then came the russian dominance, which recently if you recall has come under question bc one of their stars tested positive for doping at the 2022 olympics. This has seriously called all of the past results of recent russian skaters into question (and honestly it’s very likely that they’ve all been doping). Had it not been for the systemic russian cheating more American skaters probably would’ve been winning medals but probably not sweeping championships, as Japanese women are generally more competitive.

Anyway I digress, but the US has still had very great men’s and dance fields this whole time. Nathan Chen was very very dominant and American ice dance has many very high quality top teams, probably the most out of any country this era

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I love this sport. It’s so beautiful.

Least unhinged libertarian.

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Yeah that's kinda how racism works...

Same with the Australian Open. This links to one of the docs.

https://www.tennis.com.au/nsw/about-us/a-new-constitution-for-tennis-nsw

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If the player was white then it'd be ok, though, right?

My point is that it was a phrase people used. It wasn't used on black people exclusively. Examples have been given in this thread of the phrase being used during that era, regardless of race. You've skipped over this and saw "black people" and "monkey" used, and you linked those together. You can argue that you're the one being racist, but I'm not going there.

I'm bowing out of this thread. This is a mess

I really hope you don't think I was going to read that.

A popular racist phrase that was used at the time 40 years ago, and is no longer accepted because the majority of the country has decided that it is no longer acceptable to compare black men to monkeys period...

It was racist at the time, it's still racist today. Because you believe it's popularity and frequent use some how makes it not racist, I'm going to say you have some unresolved racism yourself.

The UK has a constitution. It's not all written in a single document but it does have a constitution and a supreme court with the specific job to uphold this constitution.

Why not keep Wilks and give him a whole year. What he managed to do with that team post Mcaffrey was impressive. Literally a missed kick and one more win from representing the NFC South over Tampa Bay. Not a fan of this move.

My perception of figure skating is through the Olympic lense and probably distorted by the 90’s. I thought US was dominant but I must be wrong. Has Asia/Russia been the force to be reckoned with?

Agreed. Will be nice to see her compete on the international stage. With her and Ilia, it’s an exciting time for U.S figure skating.

The UK is a state and doesn't have a constitution. Nor does the Open.