Figure Skating Controversy & Reaction: Petition Demanding Investigation Tallies 1 Million Signatures
United States Olympic figure skater Ashley Wagner made the news when her reaction video to a judges score went viral on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, in which she mouths a curse word after receiving a lower than expected score. The event is over now and she did not place in the medals, but has no regrets. She has taken the memes in stride, even posting some to her own Instagram feed.
"I just know I skated a really solid program," she said. "The scores, I was pretty happy with. A little bit lower than I would have liked, but a bias against? I can't say anything to that. I don't think so."
"I think that the ladies in the top three, absolutely hands down, belong in the top three. I don't even question that," she said. She criticized the judging for being too opaque. "It's not clear enough to the audience and it needs to be more fan friendly so that we can get a wider fan base," she said. "I think we need to get rid of the anonymous judging."
Since the competition was decided, more than one million signatures have been placed on a Change.org petition that demanded an investigation into the scores posted by the judging panel.
According to NBC, "The gold medal that went to Russian upstart Adelina Sotnikova and her acrobatic-filled program left many questioning the outcome after she defeated defending champion Yuna Kim, who delivered a near-perfect performance."
"I don't think the program component scores are being judged very accurately. I don't think it takes much of an eye to know whether somebody can skate or not," coach Frank Carroll said. "We're all good skaters. We can take a look at somebody who goes around the rink and you can say, 'Yeah, he can skate. No, they can't skate.' Why can't the judges recognize that?"
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