This video is inspired the figure skating mystery series written by Alina Adams. Get her ebook on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Skating-Mystery-Books-Alina-ebook/dp/B00HUZ41FI/
What were the scandalous and controversial moments that rocked the figure skating world in the past Olympics? We explored how these scandals changed the figure skating judging and rules, and how it shaped the scoring system we have today! Let’s take a look!
Timestamp:
Figure Skating Scandals and Fiction Intro | 0:00 – 2:06
10 – 1976 / 1998 Circus – Backflip banned | 2:06 – 4:00
9 – 1981 Worlds – Zayak Rule | 4:00 – 5:13
8 – Sarajevo 1984 – Bolero Legend | 5:13 – 6:43
7 – Costumes – Katarina Rule | 6:43 – 8:11
6 – 1994 Olympics and Worlds – Bloc voting? Sportsmanship? | 8:11 – 10:25
5 – 2002 Salt Lake – IJS Era to begin | 10:25 – 13:28
4 – 2014 Ladies event – Anonymous judging scandal | 13:28 – 16:42
3 – 2014 Men – Falls to be penalised | 16:42 – 18:46
2 – 2018 Women – Zagitova Rule | 18:46 – 20:48
1 – Beijing 2022 – A new scandal brewing? | 20:48 – 24:23
Featured Figure Skaters
#yuzuruhanyu – Yuzuru Hanyu, 羽生結弦, Юдзуру Ханю, 柚子，哈牛，ハニュ.ユズル, 羽生、柚る | GOAT (Greatest of all time) | Reigning Olympic Champion | Team Japan
#yunakim – 김연아
#alinazagitova – Алина Ильназовна Загитова
#evgeniamedvedeva – Евгения Армановна Медведева
#nathanchen – Nathan Chen
#alexandratrusova – Quad queen, Alexandra “Sasha” Vyacheslavovna Trusova, Александра Вячеславовна Трусова
#annashcherbakova – Anna Shcherbakova
#kamilavalieva
Adelina Sotnikova
#figureskating #iceskating #figureskater #skating #iceskater #evgeniamedvedeva #yuzuruhanyu #olympics #iceskate #figureskate #alinazagitova #teamtutberidze #skate #sport #ice #patinageartistique #isu #edea #skater #edeaskates #usfigureskating #patinajeartistico #adultsskatetoo #teamrussia #isufigureskating #figureskaters #icedance #alexandratrusova #adultskater #bhfyp
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Video
2016 GPF Men LP Patrick Chan | https://youtu.be/z6HwnI1DzNU
Criticism from US figure skater ‘only spurred me on to be stronger’ – Zagitova (Exclusive) | https://youtu.be/6W3wkN_7ua4
How to manipulate scores in Figure Skating Sochi Scandal Olympics 2014, Adelina Sotnikova Yuna Kim | https://youtu.be/RQK-iFlQLvg
Kim Yuna Adelina Sotnikova Sochi 2014 Scandal | https://youtu.be/_1N3gol_eN8
Meet Zahra Lari, hijabi athlete from UAE Winter Universiade 2019 | https://youtu.be/GysxMIQOiyg
Sotnikova’s Gold Medal Winning Performance – Ladies Figure Skating Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics | https://youtu.be/CrVL5tM926s
The skating scandal that rocked the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics Oral History | https://youtu.be/qil17f5gtxo
These Olympic Athletes Were Caught Cheating | https://youtu.be/8eOPP5gMrMg
Torvill and Dean 1984 | https://youtu.be/Til6Pv3NgCI
Torvill and Dean’s Bolero Wouldn’t Win a Medal in the Olympics Anymore This Morning | https://youtu.be/R8RP_hYXLCQ
What’s Behind the Women’s Figure Skating Scandal POPSUGAR Newx | https://youtu.be/Q9tyU0gkYKI
1994 WC Ladies Medals with Surya Bonaly Sato and Szewczenko | https://youtu.be/sgXQzfUHKWk
1994 World Championships Ladies medal ceremony Surya Bonaly interview | https://youtu.be/EKJQWtlKTyk
Countdown Timer 20 Seconds | https://youtu.be/ArQ1pE7JPHw
Elaine Zayak 1982 Worlds LPUKTV | https://youtu.be/bHLZfJiAvb0
Flame countdown fire based | https://youtu.be/mRFsQgs1TmQ
Katarina Witt GDR 1988 Calgary Figure Skating | https://youtu.be/2Wp9PN60124
S BONALY 1998 OLYMPIC GAMES FS | https://youtu.be/fGNtP4TSy2M
Terry Kubicka 1976 Olympics Free Skate | https://youtu.be/AdH921rNkT4
Update on the Judging Controversy from Salt Lake City 2002 World Figure Skating Championships | https://youtu.be/fY7nU3LgYOg
Yuna Kim’s Free Skate to “Adios Nonino” at Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics | https://youtu.be/hgXKJvTVW9g
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And it’s not enough! Kim Yuna does not regain her title! You can hear the audience, they’re not happy with those scores! Were they robbed? was it rigged? Those are the kinds of questions a lot of people were asking today people don’t want to watch a sport where you see people fall down
And somehow score above someone who goes clean! Big snowstorm in salt lake city last night! Visibility down to zero! and maybe that’s why the figure skating judges couldn’t see anything! There are the judging controversy surrounding the pairs competition Here at the olympics though the pressure is coming from IOC president Figure Skating TOP Scandals!
Corruption and rigged results always put figure skating in the line The 2002 olympic made headlines around the world and blew the judging scandal up to the roof The story was fictionalized in the first book of the figure skating mystery novel series “Murder on ice” In the book, the judge who was accused of fixing the votes
And gave the gold medal in the ladies event to Russia over America is murdered who did it? and why? what really goes on behind the scenes of an international figure skating competition? Alina Adams, who has worked as a figure skating researcher, writer and producer for ABC, NBC, TNT and ESPN
Spills all the secrets behind the glitz and the glamour in this fictionalized series of figure skating mystery novels The book is full of juicy and never before revealed secrets for figure skating fans you can get the ebook at just $9.99 from Amazon using the link in our descriptions below
We also got in touch with the author of the book, Alina, who had agreed to sponsor this video and shared some insights about figure skating competitions the 2002 games changed figure skating judging forever so what are some of the scandals or incidents in the past which contributed to the scoring system we have today?
Let’s take a look! Hello and welcome back to my channel Before we jump into the video, make sure that you go down and subscribe to my channel that way you are always the first to know whenever I upload a video and so you don’t miss one
Figure Skating – Top 10 scandals which change figure skating scoring forever to watch! 10 – Backflip Banned | Scandals in the 1976 and 1998 Olympics In the 1976 Winter Olympics, Terry Kubicka performed a jaw-dropping move on ice — the backflip okay now, here’s the backflip performed in competition for the first time
Watch him swing it up pull himself up and over and land almost fell out out it but got it done and boy!! That bring a roar to the audience here! The standing ovation! Terry Kubicka from the United States! He won the crowd, but lost the competition
Ok here is the mark! Canada gave him a low mark The rest of the judges are giving fairly lower marks as well.. You can hear the crowd booing at the judges! and that would be the first and only legal backflip performed in the figure stating history because shortly after that, backflip was banned!
Skaters will get two points deduction if they do that so, in case you are drawn to figure skating because you chanced upon the super cool backflip videos on TikTok! Nope! you won’t be seeing it in the olympic games but you might see it in the exhibition after the competitions
As the reigning world champion, Nathan Chen and Canadian champion, Keegan Messing have both got this move in their bags! The official reason for the backflip ban was because the landing is made on two feet instead of one but this lame excuse was debunked when Surya Bonaly from France did a backflip
And landed on one foot in the 1998 Olympic winter games backflip! totally illegal in competition! you might as well land it on one foot because they get mad when you land things on two feet so strong to be able to do that! and she finishes her program with her back to the judges! oh-oh!
Well the reaction from this judging panel will be really interesting! Here are the marks! Did she get penalized? Absolutely! Yup she took the bullet from the judges but the crowd and press loved it! and she became a legend overnight! and I’m looking for a backflip tonight! I don’t know about you Surya Bonaly!
9 – “Zayak Rule” | 1982 Worlds Controversy even though you won’t see skaters flipping backward, you will definitely see skaters flipping sideways in the air in fact, so much so that you will lose count these days the jumps might look the same to you in the air but not all of them are made equal
Or they will be penalized for “Zayak-ing” so what’s a Zayak? In the 1982 world championships, Elaine Zayak won the world champion title by performing as many as six triple jumps just for reference, the average number of triple jumps performed by women’s skaters is still six in the last world championships so she’s way ahead of her time
That performance has set the flags flying! but out of 6 triples, she did four 3T which caused some outrage then ISU enacted a new rule forbidding skaters to perform the same jump more than twice the fans dubbed it the “Zayak rule” Yup, we now know ISU doesn’t like people taking advantage of the loophole
The next one, they exploited it big time and became legend overnight which brings us into 8 – When does the timing start? In the 1984 Sarajevo games, the world was mesmerized by the ice dancing couple, Torvill Dean’s bolero 6.0 right across the board! What a marvellous performance!
But little did the public know about the controversy surrounding this routine firstly, the music cut was 18 seconds longer than what was allowed then the couple reviewed the ISU rule book and found that the actual timing count begins only when the skaters started skating
So they made use of this loophole, knelt down at the beginning of their routine timed the performance so that when Torvill first placed her blade on the ice, it’s after 18 seconds ISU had now amended their rules to redefine the starting time as when you begin to move or skate and no lying on the ice!
Their reasoning? If your blades did not touch the ice, you are not skating you know I was watching the winter olympics and uh if you perform that routine now, you wouldn’t get the gold? No.. simply because of all the rule changes, the requirements of everything that you need to do now um
That routine wouldn’t get any marks really?! Well ISU can stop skaters from exploiting their loophole but they definitely can’t stop skaters from wanting to recreate the Bolero legend on ice Notice Kamila Valieva, one of the biggest stars to watch in the olympic this year, is wearing pants instead of skirts?
This costume was not allowed in the past! which brings us into.. 7 – “Katarina Rule” there was one scandalous moment the 1988 winter olympics that changed the figure skating costume forever Katarina Witt from East Germany adorned her waist with feathers instead of a skirt this skirt-less showgirl themed program was considered too theatrical and sexy
This costume all fits together. It’s the quintessential showgirl number! now watch this next move! these are the footwork and that led to a new ISU rule which required female skaters to wear the skirts which cover the buttocks It was later extended to include pants for that gender equality but no feather!
The rule is dubbed the “Katarina rule” by the spectators however, the word “modest” is different from culture to culture when Zahra Lari, the first Arabic skater competed in the ISU competitions, she would get a deduction point for wearing a hijab hijab is an essential clothing in the Arab world but unknown to the European-centric judging panel
Meet Zahra Lari, an activist and Hijabi athlete who brings figure skating to the Arab world It was in 2012 It was like the first time ever someone comes out from the sport wearing a hijab so they just really did not know how to judge it so they just gave the deductions
But immediately afterwards they wanted to do something in order to change that So ISU wants no drama on ice but they definitely couldn’t stop drama off the ice which brings us into 6 – 1994 Olympics / Worlds 1994 is a year full of drama for figure skating, both on and off the ice!
There was first the knee whacking incident in the US figure skating scene pre-olympics Some guys hit her then another drama happened during the world championships that very same year where is the European champion? All the cameras crowding around and uh a late arrival and here she comes reluctantly she arrives
Oh! Bonaly has chosen not to stand on the podium she came to japan in 1994 after the olympic games and finished second to Yuko Sato obviously not happy at all with how it sorted out we feel for Surya but that is not the way to behave and to react
I’m sorry I think the result was right Surya skated well but uh Sato skated better This is the first for me that’s for surety She’s heartbroken Oh.. she takes off the medal! Audience booing her loud yep that’s something we don’t see in today’s podium often Thank god! I mean look at today’s skaters
At what she thought was unfair judging by that panel Surya why did you not accept the medal? what was the problem? because it’s not my place and I’m just disappointed did you deserve the gold medal Surya? That’s nonsense! If nobody thinks I’m not first, I think it’s not good!
Surya Bonaly later admitted it was un-sportsmanship for her action she lost out to Yuka Sato after a five to four tie breaker decision two main clans among the judges always stand out in the skating competition that time the Anglo-Saxons and Eastern Bloc American judges always look for a graceful skater who meets the beauty standards while
European judges favor athletics and creativity which benefits Bonaly Bloc voting has been an issue that long plagued figure skating ISU refused to address this issue despite all the criticism until when the biggest scandal broke out eight years later which brings us into 5 – 2002 Olympics Figure Skating Judging scandal
Now we have arrived in 2002 the day figure skating judging would be changed forever the Canadians finished their long program clean and thought they had the gold medal in the bag but it was the Russians who won the event despite not having a clean skate and the game fixing conspiracy was spelled out instantaneously Unbelievable!
This is wrong! were they robbed? was it rigged? those are the kinds of questions a lot of people were asking today those accusations of a fix started almost moments after the marks came in skating your best program and coming second is hard to take it
It was a 5-4 split that night, as close as it gets on the panel! the vote mostly broke down along former party lines with former Eastern Bloc judges picking the Russians, the western judges choosing the Canadians there’s a lot of rumors going around right now that some judges gave them up
So they would get some help in the other events and that’s what’s so bad about this sport this woman, a skating union official, now claims she was approached by the French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne with an admission that she had in fact been pressured to vote for the Russians
The French judge broke down into tears and saying you don’t understand what pressure I’m under and it was not her own opinion.. I think it has to be taken serious.. yes. those charges and all of that public anger has pushed the International Skating Union to do something extremely unusual
After the Russians, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze originally won the event David Pelletier and Jamie Salé will get a gold medal for pairs figure skating well after the competition, the French judge initially claimed that her own federation pressured her to cast her vote for the Russian pair
But recently she held a press conference and changed her story she now claims she voted with her conscience but was later approached by Canadian supporters who intimidated her into making up her original story the case has prompted many people to propose reforms to the judging system The new scoring system would reduce the potential for cheating
This system would create a degree of difficulty for each skater’s program similar to systems used in diving and gymnastics the goal of this new system is to make every element accountable for but to prevent anyone from knowing which seven were voting, individual marks would no longer be displayed a lump sum score would appear on the scoreboard
Judges could vote without anyone in the building knowing how they had voted this would protect and prevent considerably, possible bloc judging how does this help you? It seems to me that it’s important to say who is the judge and what did they vote? and how did they vote? openness is the issue, not hiding everything
So the new ISU judging system replaced the previous 6.0 system in 2004 with anonymous judging being approved looking back in hindsight, Dick Button, the two-time olympic gold medalist, did have the foresight in seeing how the next scandal would play out which brings us into 4 – Sochi 2014 Yuna Kim vs Adelina Sotnikova 149.95!
So Kim Yuna does not regain her title.. (Italian) I cannot believe it! No!! The cheating Russians XXX They need a gold medal. Lipnitskaya couldn’t do it so they gave it to Sotnikova Katarina Witt (2 time Olympic Gold Medalist): No! For the love of god the gold medal shouldn’t be taken away from her!
I can’t honestly say I agree with that.. At the 2014 Sochi olympics, Russian figure skater, Adelina Sotnikova fumbled a complicated jump during her routine South Korean skater, Yuna Kim seemed sure to win but it was Sotnikova who received the highest score and took home the gold
The exact same scandal played out again in the 2014 winter olympics when Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova took a shocking gold in the women’s event Sotnikova came into the event pretty much unknown to the public as she finished in ninth place in the previous world championships bottom second in the grand prix final
And number two in the European Championships she wasn’t even selected to represent Russia in the team competition However, she suddenly rose up to be the olympic champion because.. after she left the ice, Sotnikova hugged one of the nine judges, a fellow Russian married to a leader of Russia’s figure skating federation
One of two Russian officials involved in her scoring if you look into the scoresheets, you can easily detect cheating there one judge straight out gave Sotnikova +3 grade of executions for all the elements without visible mistakes and the maximum program component score they can give when the skater had a visible mistake
And they gave minimum bonus score to Yuna Kim and not just that one judge! there was definitely a bloc voting fixed conspiracy there something I only managed to understand after reading Alina Adams novel there again, read it if you haven’t! Unlike some sports, figure skating’s international governing body
Lets national federations choose the judges they send to the olympics and allows these judges to score skaters from their own countries I think as long as the federations or the countries are hiring or firing the judges then the judges are going to do right by the country first
So the judges are under an enormous amount of pressure from their federations I think the number one thing the ISU has to do is they have to separate the judges from the federations 2 million people have since signed a petition demanding an inquiry
But ISU was able to dismiss everything exactly because of the anonymous judging if you read Alina Adams book mentioned earlier, you would realize how the 2002 game fixing came to light was because it was easy to identify who gave each score that time but under that anonymous voting system, it’s impossible!
If there is any positive rule change that comes out from this scandal, it’s that it pushes ISU to abolish the anonymous judging the judge’s names would now be revealed together with the scores they give for accountability scandals always push the tv rating higher
In the same olympics in 2014, the men’s event seemed a little less exciting for the tv commentators in fact, the media described it as a “bobble-fest” which brings us into.. 3 – Olympics 2014 Mens | Fall yup! that was the first time Yuzuru Hanyu won the gold in the olympics!
He didn’t have a clean skate if you consume English media at that time, you would see they were full of criticism rather than celebration, declaring figure skating has turned into a cold-blooded circus act and lost its grace Even though I won the Gold, I feel a bit regretful
The issue was made worse eight months later when Hanyu and Yan Han had a crash on ice but insisted on competing still feel the impact warm up for Grand Prix Yuzuru Hanyu fell five times during that free skate it is so hard to watch and some of the authorities
Were criticized for allowing him to go on and skate Hanyu who insisted on going for his QUADS and all the difficult jumps took five falls in his program that’s probably the most falls one skater had done in one program but he still won the silver in the event, drawing even more criticism! well done Yuzuru Hanyu!
Again, the issue of skaters falling but winning raised red flags for ISU so they started implementing new rules which penalized falls even further since season 2016. and look at the deductions! four! If you fall it’s a mandatory one point deduction well there’s a new rule this year!
For the first two falls, you get a mandatory one point deduction; for the third and fourth fall, you then get a two point deduction; and if you go to five falls, then you get three (points deduction) you’re out! they ban you! no.. (Just kidding)
Hanyu, being a super competitive skater, was playing around the rules in Cup of China 2014 by going for high value jumps despite his body condition knowing very well that he would get the full credits as long as he completed the rotations in the air even with the fall! so he won the silver there..
But with a new rules implemented, skaters would think twice before playing around this strategy next up, we will introduce another icon in the figure skating world known for playing around the rules to maximize the score which brings us into.. 2 – “Zagitova” Rule | Backloading Banned
In women’s ice skating, two Russian teenage girls topped the podium after breaking two world records one after another within 15 minutes the 2018 olympics ladies event was a showdown between Alina Zagitova and Evgenia Medvedeva But the real winner from this game is their coach, Eteri Tutberidze
For many figures skating spectators, it’s hard not to have heard of this name in recent years her students would often top the podium, one replacing another to the point some fans started calling it the “Eteri” bonus how does “Eteri” bonus work? she would study all the judging rules and explore the loophole to maximize the scores
Medvedeva was trained to place all her jumps into the second half of her short program because there is a 10 bonus for doing jumps late in the program Then, Alina Zagitova, two years Medvedeva’s junior, was trained to place all jumps into the second half of both short and long program
After Alina won the olympics, she was under some criticism for exploring this loophole you said you don’t notice the media attention but we have to ask you about the American skater, Ashley Wagner, who criticized your routine saying that putting all the very complicated elements at the end is basically cheating
What would you say to her? I can say that this only encouraged me to do more and better I wanted to prove even more that what she was saying is not true but you cannot prove anything to people like her I say let her compete in the olympics with my program
And I’ll gladly see how she’ll manage to do it yep! it’s the drama time the media loved anyway, since then ISU has enacted a new rule, only one jump in the short and three jumps in the long program would get a 10% bonus of the second half to avoid skaters backloading their program
This rule, dubbed the “Zagitova rule” by the spectators, is not the only new rule set by ISU since the 2018 games what else? let’s go to the 1 – New rules = new scandals brewing? QUADS have been under fire since the early days for bringing down artistry
You’re seeing a lot more skaters now try all these quads and the program becomes messy because maybe they’re not so consistent on it but they’re hoping that because it’s a good base value that they can up their technical score and then their artistic score starts to lag behind
In the 2018 olympics, all the top six men scored significantly higher technical scores than their artistry impression mark with the women’s skaters joining into the QUAD frenzy, there’s multiple pushback from different stakeholders worrying the skating competition will become the jumping contest
In order to slow down the trend, ISU decreased the base value of quadruple jumps and triple axels but increased the range of grade of execution scores from +3 to +5 indirectly, this new rule change is giving judges even bigger power to influence the overall scores of the skaters
Some fans started calling this out as a new paradise for judges to fix the winners 79.36, that’ll put Tiffany and Jonathan currently into third place you can hear the audience, they’re not happy with those scores this just happened in the Russian Nationals last week
When the judges manipulated their power to place Eteri’s daughter higher than her competitors yeah wow.. despite having a weaker performance a lot has happened since then for instance, fans noticed that Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time olympic champion who used to get the full bonus of +3 GOE across the board for his 3A,
Are not getting the full credit of +5 GOE anymore I mean, look at these perfect 3A, tell me who can do this any better? for that 3A, makes it look so easy look at these moves coming to the 3A, you wouldn’t even know something difficult is coming up
He just does some turns and lifts way up in the air and none of the judges gave a +5? one judge gave only +1 GOE Hanyu offered another perspective beside the corruption theory in his thesis though there’s the fatigue factor, the “confusing rule changes every year” factor the limitation of the judge’s factor
With the increasing difficulty of jumps being executed, it became clear that the judges couldn’t even tell the right or wrong technique anymore while Hanyu was trying hard to do justification for the judges spectators couldn’t help but notice the judging bias over the past few years it’s so prominent that in the latest Russian Nationals,
The skaters under team Tutberidze have all gotten boosted scores compared to the rest of the field Then, together with other issues like the nationalistic bias, the bloc voting etc, the sport is slowly losing its credibility among fans there is at least one basic reform that many people want to see happen
A zero tolerance policy for judges who have been caught cheating the ISU sanctions judges who act improperly but said it has never banned a judge for life have you ever heard of a bank, for example taking back someone who embezzled money? that is a major problem
Honestly, without addressing the root cause of the subjective system, spectators aren’t sure if giving such high power to the judges in influencing the scores is a good thing all it takes is for 2-3 judges to gang up and we will have another corrupted game fixing scandal lying ahead of us
All right, that’s it for our video today! don’t forget to leave a comment and let us know what do you think! remember to subscribe and share it with your friends thank you
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