Posted on 02/21/2014 7:05:10 AM PST by NKP_Vet
SOCHI, Russia — Ashley Wagner launched a withering attack on figure skating's hierarchy and the Winter Olympics judges on Thursday night after being pushed down to seventh in the ladies' individual competition.
The 22-year-old American fought back tears as she revealed her frustration and anger with the judging at the Iceberg Skating Palace and suggested that the two Russian skaters, gold medalist Adelina Sotnikova and fifth-place finisher Julia Lipnitskaia, had been given unfairly inflated scores.
"I feel gypped," said Wagner, who skated two programs without any falls and punched the air with delight at the end of her free skate.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
It’s the Euroweenie figure skating world, kid. Get used to it.
When you take up a “sport” where it all comes down to “judging”, this is what you can expect. Quit whining about it when it doesn’t go your way.
Ashley, you didn’t even deserve to be there.
Take the loss like a man er woman
It is because of A) They are in Russian so they have home team advantage and B) it is the all gay thing that obama sent over with NBC’s help.
I said Kerchner but of course meant Kostner. I can see why you’d say that and wouldn’t have had any problem with that. I really loved her short program skate.
Indeed, her short was exquisite.
It was a pity that Gracie Gold fell, I felt that her skating was the most beautiful, the Russian winner didn’t have the same elegance as Gracie and the Italian girl.
does anyone expect America to get a fair shake at the Olympics when it comes to judging???
I'm happy to see that you used the word "event" as opposed to "sport." Don't get me wrong: While figure skaters, gymnasts, divers, ski jumpers, etc., are no doubt highly skilled, world class athletes, not all athletic events are sports.
Now she knows how Mirai Nagasu feels.
It’s sort of like big-city elections - the repub must beat the lib by at least 10 points to overcome the vote fraud.
I thought Ashley’s score was far too low. I thought the Italian should have won the gold medal.
So glad that military brat got shot down by a brilliant Russian skater whose performance was flawless.
Wagner reminds me more and more of Tonya Harding.
A very classless dame.
Right on.
Wagner should not have even been there. She stole someone else’s spot.
What a whiny brat!
That “flawless” Russian skater almost fell flat on her ass.
All knowledgeable skating experts have been saying all day that the only flawless skating done was by the the Korean. The only people that think the Russian should have won were the Russians.
Honey, next time you go to the Olympics, do a *sport,* not figure-skating. Then you don’t have to worry about biased judging.
The gal who should really feel gypped is the one they denied the Olympic team spot to give Wagner a shot, "for her body of work."
Bad-mouthing the system is not going to look good on her resume.
I doubt whether she gets another shot, because some one else is going to come along who knows how to skate a clean program.
I might be the only one I know of who was rooting for the Russian girl. She was more athletic - amazing flexibility. If Scott Hamilton is to be believed - her difficulty level gave her an advantage with bonus points.
If Scott Hamilton is to be believed - the small stumble out of the one jump was a small execution deduction.
Regardless - Tracy Gold and the other Russian placed ahead of Wagner - who didn’t fall.
Maybe Wagner’s difficulty level was not as high?
Maybe they just don’t like her?
But if Eastern Bloc judges are going to renew the Cold War - I have a hard time believing they’ll pick Ashley Wagner - someone who was not going to win any medal - as their battleground.
Exactly - if there is a controversy - it’s between the gold and silver spots.
Wagner wants everyone to feel bad for HER.
It appears she is bashing her teammate as well.
As a former gymnastics judge I “get” how the whole difficulty issue affects scores and awards bonus points. I don’t have a clue as to how that works in skating.
If this were a gymnastics controversy - the judges would have to reveal exactly what they awarded in bonus - what their start value was - and how much they deducted in execution.
Level of difficulty was why Mckayla Maroney took a silver on vault despite sitting her vault down. Her start value was that far above the rest.
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