Non Controversial Olympic Wins | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Non Controversial Olympic Wins

Ziotic

Medalist
Joined
Dec 23, 2016
I wouldn’t say dance 2018 was controversial. The French lost due to a wardrobe malfunction and weren’t even that heavily penalized.

Had V/M lost I think that would have led to controversy.
 

StitchMonkey

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
is there such a thing???

just a couple examples : Alina's win : she was definitely the strongest but do not forget the drama with zhenya and all the tears.. there are thousands of posts about this... i wouldn't say it was completely not controversial..


Yeah this one confused me. May fair weather skating fan family did not understand the win. Even my step-father thought Evgenia "got robbed". I hardly think that was a slam dunk. I mean i understand it mathematically... but that is hard to see a win that led to a scoring system change is non-controversial.

I am not really sure there is any.


Edit. I wonder if looking for unanimous decisions would be more fun and less... messy.
 

MCsAngel2

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 10, 2019
I'd say that every winners at 1984 Olympics (Scott Hamilton, Katarina Witt, Valova/Vasiliev and Torvill/Dean) are/were uncontroversial :)

Nah, Scott Hamilton's win is a *tiny* bit controversial. He was a star at figures, and he freely admits his figures score is why he won gold. Brian Orser had better SP and LPs but came seventh in figures, so he only got silver.

I think Torvill & Dean in 1984 is the least controversial win ever. Even though they were overscored in their OSP (because Jayne made two obvious errors), they still would have won had they been scored correctly.
 

AshWagsFan

Edges for days.
Final Flight
Joined
Oct 14, 2017
Country
United-States
This is quite simple, isn’t it:

Michelle Kwan 1998

Sarah Hughes 2002

Shizuka 2006

Yuna Kim (2010 and 2014;))

Osmond 2018
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
That feels like a separate kind of "controversy". I've not read any editorials like that and can only imagine what sources it would be from. :slink:
 

lesnar001

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
I barely remember there was an article saying that Kristi did not get the level of endorsements expected because she didn't fit the standard "Ice Princess" image.
It that was indeed true, then it is a shame.

Also on the same general theme, there was the infamous "American beats Kwan" headline from 1998.
 

StitchMonkey

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
That feels like a separate kind of "controversy". I've not read any editorials like that and can only imagine what sources it would be from. :slink:

It was a main stream American paper it was an archived article from the print version. I read it years later and it made me sick. I have not been able to find it recently.

The overly sanitized sentiment was "how can a WWII veteran support a Japanese American Olympian?" It was gross, and i think I first read it as a cited example of some of the crap at the time. I don't believe it was isolated.

Yes it is different, but it is still a controversy. An ugly one yes, but i suspect Kristi faced her share of vitriol over her win... it just was not as easy to be public about it back them.
 

Gia_Sesshoumaru

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Country
United-States
Men - 2002, 2006, 2014, 2018
Ladies - 2002, 2010
Pairs - 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018
Ice Dance - 2014, 2018
 

Skatesocs

Final Flight
Joined
May 16, 2020
I always sort of disagreed with margin of Yuna’s victory, against Mao’s 3As and non-jump elements. And I’ve seen other people echo that sentiment, but has anyone really thought Mao should have won outright? She didn’t have a Lutz or Salchow, and she also made two major errors and ended up with lower BV—it was Worlds that was controversial.

I agree with Kim winning, but I wouldn't provide Asada's LP BV as an argument as to why she should have. The two triple axels notwithstanding, she also got a (deserved) 3F< in the LP which at the point was called as a 2F. She still deserved lower overall BV, but definitely more shenanigans to me.

As something more debatable, she also did a 3F+2Lo in the LP, which IMO is harder or at least as hard as a 3T+3T when done properly, but still it gets lower BV even now.

Oh, also, I think Elvis Stojko weighed in favour of Mao?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I guess I don't understand what the word "uncontroversial" means. Almost every one of the examples given on this thread were, and remain, steeped in controversy. :scratch2:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
The overly sanitized sentiment was "how can a WWII veteran support a Japanese American Olympian?"

The vet must have been a Midori Ito fan, who was Kritsti's closest rival.

Or possibly he was rooting for Surya Bonaly, the Frenchwoman, our WWII ally.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
The fact that Savchenko/Massot's gold in 2018 is uncontroversial is a bit of a miracle when you think about how narrow their win actually was.

I see your point, but I think that watching that whole evening of skating, it seemed apparent to most that S/M's FS was one of those once-in-a-lifetime skates where people who view it, whether from the arena or from a screen, feel that "you know it when you see it" describes what was so special and inevitable about it.

^People were really rooting for Savchenko which makes it easier for them to accept a win, and that narrow win made it even more of an Olympics miracle story.

^^ I don't think I'm alone in saying I wasn't rooting for Savchenko/Massot because of her story and previous attempts.

But I do think that miracle is absolutely the correct word, and it added thrills on several levels. To me, the free skate itself was the miracle, on account of its perfection as a program and the exquisite expression, technique and musical sensitivity that Aljona and Bruno skated it with. And then, there's the added miracle of their coming from fourth in the SP to winning gold overall.:love:
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
I always sort of disagreed with margin of Yuna’s victory, against Mao’s 3As and non-jump elements. And I’ve seen other people echo that sentiment, but has anyone really thought Mao should have won outright? She didn’t have a Lutz or Salchow, and she also made two major errors and ended up with lower BV—it was Worlds that was controversial.
Yup. Yuna winning the free at worlds is controversial.
 

Mista Ekko

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
There are very few completely non-controversial wins.

Men - 2002
Ladies - 1992, 2006
Pairs - 1988, 1992, 2006
Dance - 1992, maaaaybe 2010 (but isn't there a considerable "Davis/White should have won" contingent, at least for the SP?)

Every other time, even if there isn't controversy about who deserved to win as a whole, there's still some issue of the winner being overscored or placing too high in one segment of the competition or doing something that people say shouldn't be allowed (Torvill/Dean being on their knees so long at the start, Yuna doing 3 double axels, etc).

This.

It's funny to see people name wins like Lipinski, Zagitova, Savchenko\Massot and Hughes in a thread like this,
Can we get real?
 

yume

🍉
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 11, 2016
I agree with Kim winning, but I wouldn't provide Asada's LP BV as an argument as to why she should have. The two triple axels notwithstanding, she also got a (deserved) 3F< in the LP which at the point was called as a 2F. She still deserved lower overall BV, but definitely more shenanigans to me.

As something more debatable, she also did a 3F+2Lo in the LP, which IMO is harder or at least as hard as a 3T+3T when done properly, but still it gets lower BV even now.

Oh, also, I think Elvis Stojko weighed in favour of Mao?
Clean she would have deservely had an higher BV than Kim by 4 points.
But
That ur rule was rude.
That call was rude too.
The judge who gave -2 for her 3A-2T was rude. The one who gave -1 for her 3F-2lo too.
That margin was rude. Especially in the short
That competition was rude.
 

Mdk0144

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 17, 2017
Clean she would have deservely had an higher BV than Kim by 4 points.
But
That ur rule was rude.
That call was rude too.
The judge who gave -2 for her 3A-2T was rude. The one who gave -1 for her 3F-2lo too.
That margin was rude. Especially in the short
That competition was rude.

To get clear one of her 3a in the fs was ur so she actually gained some points there
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I would say that Plushenko in 2006 was pretty straight-forward. Lambiel did not step up with his best performance, and no one else was really in the conversation.

It was like, "I'm Plushenko, you're not. Why are you here?"
 

plushyfan

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Country
Hungary
I would say that Plushenko in 2006 was pretty straight-forward. Lambiel did not step up with his best performance, and no one else was really in the conversation.

It was like, "I'm Plushenko, you're not. Why are you here?"

:biggrin: Yes!! And he didn’t even use his full potential. He didn't need to.
 

EyesOfLove

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Clean she would have deservely had an higher BV than Kim by 4 points.
But
That ur rule was rude.
That call was rude too.
The judge who gave -2 for her 3A-2T was rude. The one who gave -1 for her 3F-2lo too.
That margin was rude. Especially in the short
That competition was rude.

:confused: You're talking about Asada's 3F<-2Lo-2Lo in LP at Vancouver, right?
 
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