Salt Lake 2002 Women's FS (BBC) | Results, Medals, Speculation & Intrigue

Описание: British coverage (commentators: Barry Davies, Robin Cousins). slight audio issue.
Robin and Barry analyse the judging and final results from the women's competition in the immediate aftermath of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games. Followed by the medals ceremony.
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[from the BBC] 22 February, 2002, 22:32 GMT
Russian claims rejected
Russia's protest over Irina Slutskaya's second place in the women's figure skating has been rejected.
Officials had filed a formal protest against 'biased judging' and demanded that Slutskaya should be given her own gold medal
Russian Figure Skating Federation president Valentin Piseyev signed the protest sent to the referee of Thursday night's free skate, won by 16-year-old American Sarah Hughes.
It singled out the judging that awarded Hughes gold after she was only placed fourth in the earlier short program.
"We filed the protest because we think the judging was biased," Viktor Mamatov, the head of the Russian delegation in Salt Lake City, had said.
"Canadian pair skaters were awarded their gold medals. Now that subjective judging harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya."
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THE VERDICT; At Last, The Judges Are Able To Explain
By S. Roberts
Feb. 23, 2002
The morning after Sarah Hughes's magic carpet ride from fourth place to gold medal Thursday night, the judges who gave her room to fly allowed a peek into the thinking that produced the all-but-unimaginable outcome.
The nine judges from the women's figure skating championship went about their usual routine today of convening a post-competition meeting with the referee to discuss and debate the results.
Afterward, some issues were still spoken of in hushed voices, like the moment Michelle Kwan's new choreography was brought up as a weak point to her long program, and the repeated questions directed at the Russian and Danish judges in the meeting for placing Hughes fourth in the long program.
Still, it was a civilized debate. No nastiness, as one judge noted in an interview. Most everything about the post competition session was fair game, with many judges willing to explain why Hughes vaulted into first, ahead of second-place Irina Slutskaya of Russia and Kwan, who was left in third.
As improbable as it was, the winning scenario for Hughes was simple enough. Based on a short program that counted for one-third and a long program that was weighted two-thirds, Hughes could finish first only if Kwan, the leader entering the final program, ended in third or lower.
In fact, Kwan would have completed her career with a Games title if she had finished second in the long program, as long as Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen stayed tucked behind her. At the end of the night, Kwan did not have a single first-place ordinal in the long program, but was one second-place vote short of taking the gold by default. Anyone could have changed the outcome..
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thanks to Kim!