When Olympic Judges score the competition, the winners are decided in advance

BALTIMORE, Maryland February 17, 2014 - I don't know that anything could convince me to become a fan of figure skating.  It's not that I don't appreciate the athleticism of some of the skaters, because I do.  The ability to jump in the air and spin around at incredible rates of speed, then land on your skates while you act as if it was nothing, well, folks, that is nothing short of astonishing.  But when you combine a method of scoring that is a total joke with judges who are. if nothing else, a complete and total joke, it absolutely ruins any chance that the sport will be accepted as legitimate.  The Men's Figure Skating Competition at these Olympic Games are a quintessential example.  As the competition began last week, the dozens of skaters first took part in the short program.  The USA sent two quite talented skaters onto the Sochi ice.  One lad, Jeremy Abbot, was said to be about to give up the sport after these Olympics. He is 28 years old and the only Olympic Medal he has earned was in the Team Skating Competition that took place for the first time in these Olympics. The United States earned the Bronze in that event. In the midst of his short program Abbot sustained a traumatic crash and fall.  He leaped into the air as he executed a spin, but lost his balance as he landed and in the process, bashed into the rink boards.  He was clearly hurt and stayed down for a bit.  But in a bit he pulled himself back together -  athletes often do that - and completed his skate quite competently.  Nonetheless, his "score" or award of points by the exalted judges, reflected his fall. and was thus quite low for so accomplished a skater.  The actual number, 72.58, means nothing to most of us; suffice to say that the men who are said to be among the best skaters and who didn't fall ended up with scores approaching or even over 100.  Fair enough.  You fall, your score suffers. Athletes are oftn heard to say that the rules are the rules so long as they are applied equally to all participants. Then came the "long program," or, as it is now officially called, the "free skate."  Abbot was sensational.  His jumps were wonderful.  His performance was artistic.  But right from the start the talking heads said he was skating for only for his honor; in other words, he was skating for himself.  They said this was his last time in the spotlight and he wanted to go out with a great performance.  When it was over they said he had accomplished what he went out to do.  His second skate, the great skate, was "awarded" a score of 160.12.  Again, it means nothing unless it is compared to others who similarly executed a perfect skate.  The  Gold Medal was awarded to a 19-year-old from Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu. He had the score of over 100 in the short program.  His free skate score was 178.84.  No one's score was higher.  So? Hanyu took two spectacular falls during his "free skate" and yet his score was higher than everyone else's.  Abbot didn't fall during his free skate.  He had a spectacular skate.  His score was 18 points lower than someone who wiped out twice.  Don't bother explaining to me how this is possible.  If the sport and its "scoring" are so screwed up that the results above are even possible, then it's not a sport.  It is a game of favoring somebody who has tickled the judges' fancy.  Behind the scenes bootlicking is heavily in play.  But then again, it's always been that way.  During the cold war - the war that supposedly is over - Russian Judges routinely scored their athletes very high and USA athletes very low.  Now, the nonsense is more "nuanced."  Now, the judging group latches on to certain performers and, for a time, the same performers are always at the top of the scoring.  It allows them to promote an event as another showdown between A and B.  Performer C never breaks through in the big events.  There is no chance that a Valparaiso or George Mason will crash the big show, no matter how well they do.  The truth for Jeremy Abbot is that he had no chance no matter how well he did.  If you showed his last skate to the average person, and then showed Hanyu's, Abbot would prevail every single time. Both skaters set out to be great, one succeeded and one failed miserably. But the powers that be in this version of professional wrestling wanted the flamboyant Japanese skater to win, and darn if he didn't.  It really didn't matter what he did, his victory was certain from long before the "competition" started.  There is a certain stench in the air when things are like that.