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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, I get that the standards are different these days.  I would argue that even based on that big long list of what that part of the score is made up of, the choreography and composition sections were lacking in the Russian performance.  She isn't an "artist" - Kim is.   This is why the new scoring system has made the sport less fun to watch over the past 10 years.  I'm not going to argue the numbers because I do GET where they came from, I just think the sport has lost something through this new system.  The beauty, grace and elegance has taken a hit.

Although I guess this system would have given us Gold Medalist Surya Bonaly and her crazy-ass bird music?[/quote]
Actually, it would not, Bonaly kept doing forbidden elements (backflip) despite multiple ISU warnings and she got dinged for it.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that artistically, Kim is vastly more pleasant to watch vs. Sotnikova.  Not too many people would pay to watch Adelina.  The issue you raise goes to the existential question of figure skating, and that question is: [b]what does it mean to be a good skater?[/b] There is no one answer to this question.  The skating establishment is continually evolving their definition of "good skating", and the athletes follow the rules to achieve the highest score, because they want to win.  They may want to create beauty on ice for sure, but most of all, they want to win.

You may have your own answer to this question.  I may have my own.  But there is no one answer other than what ISU decides they want to reward.

The new system has its critics, for sure, but remember how it came about. It was instituted in response to the scandal and decades of confusion about what sort of skating deserves a 5.9, and what deserves a 5.4.  There were no hard-and-fast rules. Skaters were ranked in relation to each other.  For those who say anonymous judging creates corruption, I say to you that the judges' marks have been tied to identifiable judges for decades leading to 2002, and that did absolutely nothing to eradicate corruption.  Wherever you have people, you will have human vices.

So in response to this groundswell of not understanding the marks, ISU said: OK, skating public. You don't like 5.9? You don't like seeing scores you don't understand? Very well.  I will break down skating to bits and pieces and assign numerical value to each piece. Now you will see exactly how these scores come about. The athletes, predictably, responded by constructing programs that maximized the point value and neglected the "artistic impression." Some of the highest-scoring elements are the ugliest to watch.  But should viewer enjoyment mean more than technical difficulty? You might find the "orbiting uranus" spin ugly to watch but it doesn't change the fact it's a lot harder to do than a standard upright spin. Should the skaters not be rewarded for achieving higher technical difficulty? Or are we forever deadlocking them to the "must look beautiful" handcuff?[/quote]

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