No need to ask Elvis Stojko how he really feels about men's figure skating these days. There is no question Elvis Stojko has a particular bias when it comes to how judging should be done.
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Stojko blasts Lysacek's Olympic victory
- February 19, 2010 3:42 PM |
- By Noah Love
Story provided by
By Jeremy Sandler, National Post
No need to ask Elvis Stojko how he really feels about men's figure skating these days. There is no question Elvis Stojko has a particular bias when it comes to how judging should be done.
Canada's former men's world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist often had trouble getting "artistic" appreciation for his martial arts-themed routines that ran to the butch side of the sport.
He remained a "jumper" through his career, sometimes paying the price when his showmanship did not measure up.
That is worth keeping in mind when reading his column Friday posted at Yahoo.com called "The night they killed figure skating." It is his reaction to Russian Evgeni Plushenko's quad-infused routine finishing runner-up to Evan Lysacek of the U.S. and his quad-free performance.
"How can you be Olympic champion when you don't even try the quad?" Stojko wrote, echoing comments Plushenko and others had made before the event. "If you're going to take the quad out, why not take out another triple axel and just have more of the other stuff so the International Skating Union can make it more into an 'art' recital."
The 37-year-old Stojko labelled the scoring "ridiculous" said Lysacek's triumph would water down what young skaters might attempt in the future.
Stojko also went on to suggest it's a trend the International Skating Union -- a body plagued by judging scandals and allegations of fixed competitions over the years -- prefers.
"I don't want to rain on anybody's parade because it's not the skaters' fault," Stojko wrote. "It's the system. And the figure skating community wants to control who wins and who loses. And what it does is it makes the component score more valid than the jumps so it can control whatever it wants. And that's exactly what happened Thursday night at Pacific Coliseum."
About the Author
- Bruce Arthur Bruce Arthur is the National Post's national sports columnist. A Vancouver native, he has been with the Post since 2001, and a columnist since 2005. He is covering his second Olympics, after the 2008 Games in Beijing. He expects these Games to be slightly less propagandistic, and for China to win slightly fewer medals.
- Joe O'Connor Joe O'Connor is a roving sports feature writer with an open-ended beat. He joined the National Post in 2002, and has spent the past seven years bouncing from sport to sport, offering fresh perspectives and delivering unique stories wherever he goes. Whether it has been getting Don Cherry to open up about his love life; George Chuvalo to talk about heartbreaking loss; or racing down the side of a mountain with former Crazy Canuck, Dave Irwin, the veteran Postie chases a story wherever it leads. Before joining the newspaper he was a two-time silver medalist at the National Magazine Awards. Vancouver will be his first Olympics.
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