OT: Olympic Men's skating - Adam Rippon and why he didn't score higher
February 11th, 2018 at 10:54 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 6:24 AM ^
Have a happy life
/Brandon’d
February 11th, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
I dont think anything that has judges is truly a sport.
And yes, the way that some officials can exert influence over a game in basketball, etc.... it's borderline for me
February 11th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
Referees are judging whether someone is committing a penalty in football, and umpires are judging balls and strikes in baseball.
February 12th, 2018 at 6:51 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 7:58 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:08 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:10 AM ^
This is a pretty myopic view...
February 12th, 2018 at 9:00 AM ^
I mean, you could smoke or drink while playing basketball. Or football. Or hockey. You would do none of them particularly well, but that's true for golf and bowling, too. Nobody who spends the first two rounds of the Masters guzzling PBRs is going to make the cut.
February 12th, 2018 at 9:10 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:37 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:41 PM ^
Side judge, back judge, field judge, line judge, center judge...
February 12th, 2018 at 1:38 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 7:38 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 7:57 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:54 AM ^
Are you being intentionally obtuse or do you really not see the difference between officials whose job it is to enforce rules and officials whose job it is to determine who is more artistic?
February 12th, 2018 at 5:03 PM ^
Not being obtuse, slightly joking maybe.
Sure, most sports are determined by who scores more runs, points, or goals. But there are officials in those sports subjectively enforcing rules that determine which team or individual scores more runs, points, or goals, so I guess I don't find it all that different.
Figure skating, gymnastics, snowboarding, and diving officials are all judging on a points system that does not just measure artistic ability. It takes into account technique and accuracy and difficulty and I don't find it all that more subjective than calling accuracy of balls and strikes, or a penalty for pass interference, or a hand checking foul.
Maybe I am just a jaded Michigan fan though.
February 12th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
A basketball game is won or loss by how many points you score versus the other team. A boxing match can end with a knock-out. Figure skating is based 100% on how your performance is rated by a panel of judges. So yeah, that's a meaningful distinction, unless you are going to trot out a trite "the refs decide every game, ever."
February 12th, 2018 at 5:03 PM ^
I am not so naive to think that "the refs decide every game, ever." But they certainly play a role in who wins or loses every game, ever. I agree with you that sports that are judged purely on your performance should be looked at with a suspicious eye. But outside of golf, bowling and timed/measured sports, I am pretty much always suspicious of officiating errors playing a roll in wins or loses.
Like I said above to Aero, maybe it's just the jaded Michigan fan in me.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:29 AM ^
Teddy Valentine says Hi.
February 11th, 2018 at 10:42 PM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:04 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:14 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:23 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 10:43 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 10:53 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:14 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:29 PM ^
Actually their coach basically has a figureskating puppy farm, and he's just pumping out world class technical champions. He gets them young. Teenagers, not so much.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 10:54 PM ^
His technical score was roughly the same as the Russian guy. The Russian guy skated a much tougher routine, and even though he fell because he is attempting harder jumps he gets more points. The little bit of controversy is that his artistic score should be significantly higher.
The technical score is more subjective due to the change in the scoring system, and less on "opinion judging". The artistic score is still based off of "opinion judging".
February 12th, 2018 at 7:39 AM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
womens snowboarding on NBCSN is much better
February 11th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:09 PM ^
February 11th, 2018 at 11:11 PM ^
Those random 45mph wind gusts aren't helping at all.
February 12th, 2018 at 1:51 AM ^
Ur a sexist sex is just in ur brain. WOmens can do 1889 spins.
February 12th, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 8:09 AM ^
It's almost like men have stronger bodies or something.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:30 PM ^
It's on the CBC as well. One of the advantages of living in the SE Michigan and a couple other markets in the US is that you get the luxury of Canadian television too.
That being said, the wind conditions are reported to be pretty damn brutal, and they are saying some of the snowboarders aren't exactly happy that this is going right now. I don't know the exact "on / off" criteria though - they haven't been able to do most of the Alpine events, I think, because of an absolutely brutal wind and wind chills too.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:48 PM ^
The gusts for Slopestyle were rough, really rough, especially when you're about to hit a jump. That said, that area of the mountain is much further down from where the Alpine events are so if Slopestyle was being hit at 45mph gusts, you can imagine how brutal they were on the courses.
February 12th, 2018 at 2:04 AM ^
Saw some clips from the Giant Slalom course that they declined to race on. It looked brutal, nothing like normal conditions for alpine skiing. A Canadian skiing reporter, Brian Stemmle, was nearly killed when a camera was blown off of its perch and fell next to him. It's brutal.
Stemmle was also harshly critical of holding slopestyle in these conditions FWIW. He's an alpine guy, though.
February 12th, 2018 at 7:26 AM ^
February 12th, 2018 at 9:09 AM ^
It was a terrible decision to hold the competition. If they cancelled the GS, they should have canceled the freestyle. The conditions killed any chance that the women could do their most advanced tricks. Normally, those boarders are doing 1080s, the wind cut those down to 720s at best. It meant the winner was going to be based far more on the fluke of when the wind gusted than actual skill and ability. It made the competition both really basic and completely unfair.
The wind blowing up the hill either knocked them down short on the flat transition, or, if they went in with tons of speed, it carried them farther than expected (like in ski jumping) and they were bailing in the air. It was really lucky that no one seemed to get seriously hurt, given the really violent crashes a lot of them took.