Skate debate simple math
SOCHI, Russia – The Russians did not want to hear about it on Friday, and you really couldn’t blame them. They had trotted out their pert gold medalist, Adelina Sotnikova, and then suddenly these rumpled journalists wanted to know if she’d stolen the crown.
“We see the emergence of a new star,” said Eteri Tutberidze, who actually coaches Sotnikova’s rival, Yulia Lipnitskaya. “We should not look back. For me, Adelina was the champion. That was the skate of her life. It all goes in the package, the spins, the transitions, all these things together, she was the champion.”
The debate continues, the petitions grow, though they are all fruitless and arguably wrongheaded. Was defending champ Yuna Kim of Korea better than Sotnikova? You might as well ask if the U.S. women’s hockey team was better than the Canadians. It’s the score that counts.
Figure skating is now a matter of cumulative math, a cold algorithm that likely would have anointed Nancy Kerrigan a gold medal over balletic, deserving Oksana Baiul in 1994. Back then, j udges had more leeway and were theoretically more accountable. Now there is no knowing who voted for Sotnikova, who preferred Kim’s transistions, or why.
Nine judges were on the panel. Only five scores counted. Four others were discarded in random fashion. Good luck sniffing out a scandal.
In those pure arithmetic terms, Sotnikova performed one more triple jump than Kim, earning five extra points for it. That accounted for nearly the entire difference in the final, overall 5.48-point margin between the two skaters.
Sotnikova’s scores were far higher than anything she’d managed this season, yet there is nothing inherently wrong with that. If she skated her career best on the night, she should not be limited by past performances. Four of the past five Olympic champions in this event were not even ranked No. 1 within their own federation. That is a very good sign, for it indicates the results are not preordained.
That does not excuse the conflicts of interest that still exist in the sport, of course. Alla Shekhovtseva, who was a Russian judge in this competition, is married to Valentin Pissey, Russian federation general director.
“She was a judge before marrying Pissey,” said Elena Buyanova, Sotnikova’s coach. “It is not a place to discuss who is married to who.”
Buyanova wanted to talk about Sotnikova. And Sotnikova, who had skated in Lipnitskaya’s shadow this whole past season, wanted to speak about Sotnikova, too.
The new 17-year-old figure skating champion is an extremely tough, ambitious kid who figures to be around for a while. She is not fragile or meek, but rather a bit of a boastful jock.
“This is not the end of it,” Sotnikova announced. “I want to go farther. I want to win. I want to win several times. I want to win worlds. I want to win Europeans. I want all the gold that’s out there in every event.”
Sitting next to Lipnitskaya on Friday, Sotnikova thanked her rival.
“You see how she can skate, then you skate the same way or better,” she said.
The Russian federation entered Lipnitskaya in both the short and l ong programs of the team event at the start of the Olympics, too much for the 15-year-old favorite. Lipnitskaya said she was exhausted from the effort. Buyanova and Sotnikova, meanwhile, remained furious and motivated about the snub. They had been told to prepare for the event, then told they were out, then in, then out.
Now, Sotnikova is in for the long haul, basking in the attention.
“It’s very pleasant a lot of people want to know a lot more about me,” she said. “I’m glad.”
Nothing can rain on Sotnikova’s reign. When the Russians were told that Ashley Wagner had questioned the judging on Thursday, Buyanova bristled.
“Ashley Wagner came up to congratulate us, said we skated better,” Buyanova said. “It’s good to see she said something behind our backs.”