| Ninemsn | - |
Almost
two million people have signed a petition calling on the International
Skating Union to investigate the figure skating judging at the Winter
Olympics.
Nearly two million sign figure skating petition
12:00 AEST Sat Feb 22 2014
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Almost two million people have
signed a petition calling on the International Skating Union to
investigate the figure skating judging at the Winter Olympics.
Controversy erupted on Thursday when Russian beat South Korean favourite and two-time Olympic gold medallist Yuna Kim.
Adelina Sotnikova Many commentators and experts have said that Kim's performance was almost flawless and should have won the gold.
"Some would call it scandal, others would call it skating, but common sense would call what happened at the Iceberg Skating Palace just plain wrong," Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Plaschke wrote.
American skater Ashley Wagner, who finished seventh in the event, was also shocked at Kim missing out on the gold.
"I'm speechless," Wagner told the Times.
"This sport needs to be held more accountable if it wants more people to believe in it."
The change.org petition, started by 'Justice Seeker' from Vancouver, calls on the ISU to 'Open (an) investigation into judging decisions of Women's Figure Skating and demand rejudgement at the Sochi Olympics.'
With the number of digital signatures on the petition closing in on two million, it is clear there are a lot of fans of the sport unhappy with the result.
One of the judges of the event was Ukrainian Yuri Balkov, who was banned from the position for a year after being recorded trying to fix the ice dancing competition at the Nagano Olympics.
Another, Alla Shekhovtseva, is married to the head of the Russian figure skating federation Valentin Pissev.
But the International Olympic Committee was quick to hose down any suggestion of a judging controversy, saying there were systems in place to safeguard some of the corruption that has plagued the sport in the past.
"The IOC has a pretty sophisticated judging system with safeguards in place and each of the judges has a video review where they can review each of the jumps so there's a number of things in place," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"At this stage, I think we're discussing purely hypothetical things and my personal point of view would be to congratulate a fantastic performance."
Adams said he wasn’t aware of any official complaint being lodged yet about the result.
Controversy erupted on Thursday when Russian beat South Korean favourite and two-time Olympic gold medallist Yuna Kim.
Adelina Sotnikova Many commentators and experts have said that Kim's performance was almost flawless and should have won the gold.
"Some would call it scandal, others would call it skating, but common sense would call what happened at the Iceberg Skating Palace just plain wrong," Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Plaschke wrote.
American skater Ashley Wagner, who finished seventh in the event, was also shocked at Kim missing out on the gold.
"I'm speechless," Wagner told the Times.
"This sport needs to be held more accountable if it wants more people to believe in it."
The change.org petition, started by 'Justice Seeker' from Vancouver, calls on the ISU to 'Open (an) investigation into judging decisions of Women's Figure Skating and demand rejudgement at the Sochi Olympics.'
With the number of digital signatures on the petition closing in on two million, it is clear there are a lot of fans of the sport unhappy with the result.
One of the judges of the event was Ukrainian Yuri Balkov, who was banned from the position for a year after being recorded trying to fix the ice dancing competition at the Nagano Olympics.
Another, Alla Shekhovtseva, is married to the head of the Russian figure skating federation Valentin Pissev.
But the International Olympic Committee was quick to hose down any suggestion of a judging controversy, saying there were systems in place to safeguard some of the corruption that has plagued the sport in the past.
"The IOC has a pretty sophisticated judging system with safeguards in place and each of the judges has a video review where they can review each of the jumps so there's a number of things in place," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"At this stage, I think we're discussing purely hypothetical things and my personal point of view would be to congratulate a fantastic performance."
Adams said he wasn’t aware of any official complaint being lodged yet about the result.
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