Right now you’re probably trying to figure out how Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in women’s figure skating last night. You, that is, and the entire nation of Russia. The Russian Figure Skating Federation is protesting Hughes’s medal, saying that silver medalist Irina Slutskaya deserves gold because “the judging was biased.” But more on pesky, little Russia later.
So here’s what I can tell you. Think of Sarah Hughes as your favorite football team come playoff time. That’s about when you’ll hear talk of teams “controlling their own destiny:” they win, they’re in. Hughes was not the equivalent of one of those teams. She did not control her own destiny–well, not entirely. For her to win the gold, yes, she had to skate a flawless program. But she also needed Slutskaya to skate exactly as she did, wobbling not an inch more, not an inch less. But more on peppy, little Sarah Hughes later.
A brief primer: two thirds of a skater’s score comes from the long program; the first third comes from the short program. Now, deep breath … exhale…. When you see those 5.8’s and 5.9’s flash across the screen, all they’re doing is assigning skaters a certain rank, and giving you, dear, intelligent, reader, scores you can understand and cheer. Even if you skate much smoother than the skater ranked below you, your official marks are only half a point better. Michelle Kwan won the short program, which gave her a 0.5; Slutskaya, in second, got a 1.0; Sasha Cohen, in third, got a 1.5; and Sarah Hughes, in fourth, got a 2.0. See, not that much fun to yell, “Woo hoo! 0.5!” Follow? The rest is easy. In the long program, you get what you place. Hughes, with a flawless performance, won with a 1.0; Slutskaya came in second, Kwan in third and Cohen in fourth, getting a 2.0, a 3.0 and a 4.0, respectively. After both programs, Hughes and Slutskaya were tied with 3.0’s. But there’s more weight given to the long program, so Hughes won the tiebreaker–and won the gold.
She should have won. Had Slutskaya been perfect, she would have won the long program, and won the gold. Had she hit the ground, and ranked beneath Kwan, then Kwan would be tops. The stars were aligned for Hughes, however, and the Russians, like countless sailors before them, should trust the night sky. Oh, and they should pipe down. To argue that Slutskaya deserves a gold medal is just silly. Almost as silly as the request made yesterday by the Russian delegation to award Larisa Lazutina, a star cross-country relayer, a gold medal for the 20-kilometer race–a race she didn’t run because she had high levels of hemoglobin in her blood, often a sign of doping.
You have to feel some pain for the Russians, who feel that there performance here has been adversely affected by judging decisions. Their protest over last night’s decision was scrawled on looseleaf paper, not typed. Lazutina owns that race, and would have probably been victorious. That would have given the Russians another medal to add to their total of 13 through Wednesday, a lame tally compared with Olympics past. But, c’mon. Jamie Sale and David Pelletier got their golds because of judging improprieties; there’s not much to correct about Lazutina’s performance being that she didn’t perform. I didn’t compete, either, and my hemoglobin’s just fine. Got a medal for me?
I take particular offense to Russia’s antics, for no other reason than it’s stealing time from a sweet 16-year-old from my native Long Island who wasn’t sure which congressman called to congratulate her. (Oh, how I hoped it was President Bush.) Look, in the land of Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher, it’s not often that we’re in the international spotlight for something good. Hughes was able to skate the best she’d ever skated because, her coach Robin Wagner said, she had nothing to lose sitting fourth after the short program. And, dear, patient reader, it looks like Kwan and Slutskaya and Cohen did.
