"GOLD for GOLD"
.
...she said! She is the French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne. The questions are...was it 1.indeed "Gold for Gold" or... 2."Gold for her to become a Technical Committee Member"? Anyway, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City will go down in history as the Olympics that would change the sport of Figure Skating forever! When both pairs Sale-Pelletier and Bereznhaya-Sikharulidze took the ice for their six minute warming up for the final free skate they never would have imagined that both of them would make history that night in February 2002. The tension was so high that both girls Jamie Sale and Elena Bereznhaya accidentally bumped into each other during this warming up. Both were in shock cause a thing like that can get you off focus and that's the last thing you want at an Olympics especially when you're going for the Gold! After both pairs had skated their long program and the Russians had beaten the Canadians with a 5 to 4 split panel it left most people behind with a lot of questions. People in Figure Skating were thinking what happened here tonight? The reason was that Jamie & David didn't make a mistake while Elena & Anton made a few very small one's... However Elena & Anton had the more difficult elements while Jamie & David had a much better program. Yeah this program........... "Love story" could make the difference cause I remember when I saw it for the first time, two years before, at skate America I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to write down all the elements! I never had given a 6.0 and was always told by Sally Stapleford, Britta Lindgren, Alexander Lakernik, Ron Pfenning and Walburga Grimm that when the moment comes along you have to give a 6.0 you will know!? I never knew what they were saying until Jamie and David finished their program. I considered it a 6.0 but since Jamie singled out on the Axel I gave it a 5.9 instead! Unison was broken. This was at Skate America. Me and the rest of the judges in the world were also told repeatedly only to judge what we see not what we've had seen on previous competitions. With this in mind I never agreed with the fact that some judges commented on their Olympic program as "it was an old program"! So what? In fact all programs are "old" cause they start skating them at the beginning of the season so by the time they get to the Olympics most of us have seen those programs at least three times. Because of the time difference between the US and Europe I hadn't seen the event so when I found out a day later that Jamie & David came in second I immediately asked Ann (a national judge) they must have made a mistake? She told me; no they didn't but the Russians did... I couldn't understand cause I knew from the beginning that both pairs were equally as good and that the Russians were the only one's who could beat the Canadians if they had a clean skate. So what was wrong here? By the end of the day I knew it! It was on the news allover the world! The French judge had come forward saying that it was "Gold for Gold"! She screwed the system and told everybody that she was forced to do so by the President of the French Federation in favor for the French Ice Dance team Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat who won the Ice Dance event just a week later! 
Giving their "Gold" medal a bitter taste if you ask me. Anyway, I never saw the Olympic performance of both pairs live cause I wasn't at the Olympics in 2002. In fact I only saw it a couple of weeks ago here on my computer and it's not the same as being present at the arena, feeling the tension and the pressure you have to face as a judge when you have to show your marks and make one the Olympic Champion is a very important decision to make! We all know that the International Olympic Committee rewarded a second Gold Medal to Jamie Sale & David Pelletier so that for the first time in Figure Skating history we had two Olympic Champions in one sports discipline!
Here I give you the chance to decide for yourself who in your opinion is the Olympic Pair Skating Champion. Also take a look at the "Double Olympic Death Spiral" performed at the Exhibition of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Here's a link to Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze's free program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLGROafNSmk
Here's a link to Sale & Pelletier's free program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMwaT1iuRxI
Here's the link to the finale of the Exhibition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_PvTDwKvdY
Here's another point of view on blok judging:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3JrVVz5-U
.
...she said! She is the French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne. The questions are...was it 1.indeed "Gold for Gold" or... 2."Gold for her to become a Technical Committee Member"? Anyway, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City will go down in history as the Olympics that would change the sport of Figure Skating forever! When both pairs Sale-Pelletier and Bereznhaya-Sikharulidze took the ice for their six minute warming up for the final free skate they never would have imagined that both of them would make history that night in February 2002. The tension was so high that both girls Jamie Sale and Elena Bereznhaya accidentally bumped into each other during this warming up. Both were in shock cause a thing like that can get you off focus and that's the last thing you want at an Olympics especially when you're going for the Gold! After both pairs had skated their long program and the Russians had beaten the Canadians with a 5 to 4 split panel it left most people behind with a lot of questions. People in Figure Skating were thinking what happened here tonight? The reason was that Jamie & David didn't make a mistake while Elena & Anton made a few very small one's... However Elena & Anton had the more difficult elements while Jamie & David had a much better program. Yeah this program........... "Love story" could make the difference cause I remember when I saw it for the first time, two years before, at skate America I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to write down all the elements! I never had given a 6.0 and was always told by Sally Stapleford, Britta Lindgren, Alexander Lakernik, Ron Pfenning and Walburga Grimm that when the moment comes along you have to give a 6.0 you will know!? I never knew what they were saying until Jamie and David finished their program. I considered it a 6.0 but since Jamie singled out on the Axel I gave it a 5.9 instead! Unison was broken. This was at Skate America. Me and the rest of the judges in the world were also told repeatedly only to judge what we see not what we've had seen on previous competitions. With this in mind I never agreed with the fact that some judges commented on their Olympic program as "it was an old program"! So what? In fact all programs are "old" cause they start skating them at the beginning of the season so by the time they get to the Olympics most of us have seen those programs at least three times. Because of the time difference between the US and Europe I hadn't seen the event so when I found out a day later that Jamie & David came in second I immediately asked Ann (a national judge) they must have made a mistake? She told me; no they didn't but the Russians did... I couldn't understand cause I knew from the beginning that both pairs were equally as good and that the Russians were the only one's who could beat the Canadians if they had a clean skate. So what was wrong here? By the end of the day I knew it! It was on the news allover the world! The French judge had come forward saying that it was "Gold for Gold"! She screwed the system and told everybody that she was forced to do so by the President of the French Federation in favor for the French Ice Dance team Marina Anissina & Gwendal Peizerat who won the Ice Dance event just a week later! 
Giving their "Gold" medal a bitter taste if you ask me. Anyway, I never saw the Olympic performance of both pairs live cause I wasn't at the Olympics in 2002. In fact I only saw it a couple of weeks ago here on my computer and it's not the same as being present at the arena, feeling the tension and the pressure you have to face as a judge when you have to show your marks and make one the Olympic Champion is a very important decision to make! We all know that the International Olympic Committee rewarded a second Gold Medal to Jamie Sale & David Pelletier so that for the first time in Figure Skating history we had two Olympic Champions in one sports discipline!Here I give you the chance to decide for yourself who in your opinion is the Olympic Pair Skating Champion. Also take a look at the "Double Olympic Death Spiral" performed at the Exhibition of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Here's a link to Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze's free program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLGROafNSmk
Here's a link to Sale & Pelletier's free program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMwaT1iuRxI
Here's the link to the finale of the Exhibition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_PvTDwKvdY
Here's another point of view on blok judging:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl3JrVVz5-U
.
posted by Patrick at Monday, November 27, 2006
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