Hey, We’ll Take Our Skates and Go Home

The International Skating Union should be ashamed of itself for caving into the hysteria encouraged by the media.

As those in other parts of the world tend to lump all North Americans into the same pot, the Canadians’ whining and the media’s focus on whining at the expense of authentic Olympic events just adds one more reason to look at us in disgust. You’d think the lives of thousands of people had been permanently scarred because a couple of people on ice skates got a different color medal than they wanted.

To many people outside North America we look like arrogant, childish, morons. With good reason.

Dick Fischer

Burbank

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All of a sudden, the respected voting system of the Olympic ice skating competition turns out to be nothing more than a bunch of corrupt judges ignoring their oath by making backroom deals to select a winner who really did not deserve to win. This sounds like the 2000 presidential election.

Marlena Levitas

Cypress

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Thanks to Bill Plaschke [Feb. 14] for injecting some perspective and common sense into the Olympic figure skating fiasco. Based on the initial press frenzy, I thought Russia had bombed Toronto. Then I realized it was just another incident that occurs regularly (as Plaschke points out) in every subjectively judged sport.

Furthermore, what makes anyone think that the opinion of the audience should decide the outcome.

If that were the case, the Oakland Raiders would never win a road game, the New York Yankees would always lose outside the Big Apple and Mike Tyson wouldn’t win anywhere.

Ross Barrett

Los Angeles

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Why not just shut down the Olympic figure skating competition right now? Why allow the judges to continue the charade of rating performances? Why broadcast at the opening ceremony the oath they take to be impartial, fair, non-nationalistic? Let’s put all of us out of our misery.

Judy Rubin

Los Angeles

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So Randy Harvey thinks all the furor over the pairs figure skating judging is much ado about nothing.

Poor NBC and its misguided announcers. The judging was just an honest difference of opinion. I suppose Harvey also thought the O.J. Simpson jury did a fine job.

I’d like to ask Harvey one simple, hypothetical question: If Pelletier and Sales were Russian and the other pair was from anywhere else, does he honestly believe that the Russian judge would have rated them in second?

Harvey reports that the completely unbiased, former Soviet skater Irina Rodnina thought the Russians were better. Who is Harvey trying to fool--himself?

Surely, Harvey can find a more worthy group to defend than these obviously partisan judges. What next, Randy--a piece on how all us misinformed readers just misunderstand the Taliban?

Charles Ward

Marina del Rey

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My gratitude to Randy Harvey for clarifying once and for all the criteria for winning gold in Olympics pairs skating:

1) Select music by dead European composers; 2) Wear diaphanous costumes reminiscent of dainty French drapes that rustle in the wind; and 3) And most important, choose a routine so complex and challenging that all tumbles and spills are forgiven.

Stephen Astor

Glendale

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I have just one question for Olympic gold medalist/skating expert Scott Hamilton, who NBC would have us believe is also an expert on judging: Why was it a “major error” when Russian pairs skater Anton Sikharulidze stepped out of one double axel, but it was only “a few minor errors” when American men’s skater Michael Weiss stepped out of several triple jumps? Just curious.

Julie Gidlow

Beverly Hills

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Every time a sporting event involving judging (ice skating, gymnastics, diving, etc.) comes along, I swear I won’t watch it because I expect something like this to happen ... and it usually does.

Tom Reinberger

Glendora

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As usual, Mr. Plaschke wrote a fine column when he described our nation’s disappointment in the men’s downhill results in general and Daron Rahlves’ results in particular [Feb. 11]. But I was sorely disappointed when he conferred the name “Jean-Claude Silly” on Daron.

For a moment, Mr. Plaschke was on-point when he compared downhillers to NASCAR drivers, linebackers and the like. That makes it all the more peculiar that he was so flippant about the run that Daron made. He seemed to already know that a split-second error can not only remove a brave competitor from the podium, but indeed can cost him his life.

While Daron was flying dangerously (was this the “silly” part?) through the air at a speed most of us can only imagine, I marveled at the skill he displayed to save his life.

Keep up the good work, Bill. But please don’t disparage these brave, gifted athletes--even when they falter.

If you really need some perspective on this, go to the top of Mammoth Mountain’s cornice, point your skis straight downhill, and midway down consider anew your coy description. (Psst: Olympic downhillers are going twice as fast.)

Jay Windsor

Ojai

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1. Americans adapt the ultimate slacker sport for snow.

2. Americans bribe/bully the Olympic committee to make it a winter medal sport.

3. Americans dominate the sport only they and their slacker kids are interested in.

Michael Baskin

Covina

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I find it irritating that snowboarding has become an Olympic event before skateboarding. How can the powers that be justify this obvious oversight? All of the tricks done on snowboards were invented by skateboarders who worked for decades to develop them.

Skateboarding is a more difficult, more physically punishing sport than snowboarding. When will the powers that be give skateboarding the respect and place it deserves in Olympic competition? For God’s sake, we’ve got people shooting rifles, curling and lifting weights for gold medals. Surely we can make room for a sport that requires more athleticism than any of those three combined.

Jon Shaw

Burbank

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So the IOC and international sports community have a problem with too much American patriotism. Well, I’ve watched the Games, and here is what I have seen: Russian figure skaters who live and train in Pennsylvania, Illinois and California; one Russian figure skater who says he is going to apply for U.S. citizenship after he is through competing for Russia in these Games; bobsledders living in California but competing for Armenia; and, of course, countless hockey players representing their respective countries for two weeks, but earning a living playing in the NHL and living in North America.

So you know what I say to the protesters of patriotism? Keep your athletes home and let them train in the facilities you have. If you don’t like what we have done, we can always pull our money and athletes out of the games and NBC sure wouldn’t bother paying to broadcast them. Just imagine what a glorious event all of you wouldn’t be having then.

Tony Siracusa

Pasadena

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I just read the article about the reforms from the George Steinbrenner report. Let’s see, we’re paying some athletes more than $100,000 to train. Isn’t that what we used to get mad at the Soviets and East Germans for doing?

I guess since we’re the good guys, it’s all right.

Dave Hill

Thousand Oaks

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The duration of this bloated affair should be cut in half via these recommendations.

Opening and closing ceremonies: Eliminate them.

Skiing: Keep the downhill, eliminate the rest.

Skating: Keep one sprint and one distance race, eliminate the rest.

Bobsled, luge and skeleton: Combine into one event. Call it “sledding.”

Hockey: It’s just the NHL with the players re-shuffled. Eliminate it.

Curling, ice dancing, biathlon: Don’t ask.

Peter Myers

Palos Verdes

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Because tape-delayed coverage of the Olympics is inevitable, I have a suggestion for NBC--never show only one non-American longshot. Always throw in coverage of a few also-rans as decoys. When you show only one, it’s pretty obvious they’re gonna win. Why else would you be showing them?

Rob Osborne

Redondo Beach