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Judging


arwebb

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Judging and refereeing are always a problem in the OG. It seems that the federations not always send their best judges/referees to the OG, opting to save them for the world championships, instead. I always feel them very unprepared when they´re on action during the OG, in almost every sport. Not surprisingly the OG is the event where we find the most unpredictable results.

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Judging and refereeing are always a problem in the OG. It seems that the federations not always send their best judges/referees to the OG, opting to save them for the world championships, instead. I always feel them very unprepared when they´re on action during the OG, in almost every sport. Not surprisingly the OG is the event where we find the most unpredictable results.

Interesting observation, roger. I never thought of that.

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Interesting observation, roger. I never thought of that.

I could tell you a lot of examples, but it would take a lot of space here. Let me give you just one:

I remember the Brazil-Cuba game in women´s volleyball in 1996 when there was all that screaming and fighting, the referees DID notice that it would happen if both cubans and brazilians kept talking and speaking and they did NOTHING to avoid that. Not even a single yellow card was shown. After the end of the match, they just walked out while the players were fighting over the court, like if they didn´t have anything to do with it. How irresponsible ! We hardly see this kind of thing in a World Championship, where refereeing is a lot more tight. I feel the same with judging sports like gymnastics or diving.

Remember the figure skating final at the Salt Lake City Winter Games ? What was that ?? It was ridiculous to see the Russians taking the gold, they even felt embarassed ´cause they knew that the Canadian (or American?) couple was better than they..

Man, there are just so many judging and refereeing mistakes in the OG. We don´t see it as often in World Championships. It´s clear for me that the best judges/referees normally do not take part in the OG, or at least only a small part of them are called to join.

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I could tell you a lot of examples, but it would take a lot of space here. Let me give you just one:

I remember the Brazil-Cuba game in women´s volleyball in 1996 when there was all that screaming and fighting, the referees DID notice that it would happen if both cubans and brazilians kept talking and speaking and they did NOTHING to avoid that. Not even a single yellow card was shown. After the end of the match, they just walked out while the players were fighting over the court, like if they didn´t have anything to do with it. How irresponsible ! We hardly see this kind of thing in a World Championship, where refereeing is a lot more tight. I feel the same with judging sports like gymnastics or diving.

Remember the figure skating final at the Salt Lake City Winter Games ? What was that ?? It was ridiculous to see the Russians taking the gold, they even felt embarassed ´cause they knew that the Canadian (or American?) couple was better than they..

Man, there are just so many judging and refereeing mistakes in the OG. We don´t see it as often in World Championships. It´s clear for me that the best judges/referees normally do not take part in the OG, or at least only a small part of them are called to join.

Rogerio, that could mean having the top referees, because of the seniority status in the sports that they officiate for many years and are very good at them, end up having the privilege of not taking part when they're called up for the Olympics. For those whose international champiosnhip experience is limited in comparasion, it would provide good experience for them.

In keeping with the Judges's Oath, I think a widespread evaluation on refs's perfromance after every Olympics, because of the massive international attention it gets, would be welcome. But it could lead to subjectivity.

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I think taekwondo and gymnastics had the worst judges (I watched boxing only once so I can't talk about that).

Of course we want people of our country to win but there was especially two cases I think the judges were totally wrong:

1. Artistic Gymnastics - men's floor exercise final: there was a Chinese guy, Zhou Kai (?), who did a good (only good) exercise, and he got a mark of more than 17 points; the last competitor was Gervasio Deferr from Spain. When Deferr finished, it looked like he had done the best exercise and all the contestants congratulated him, even the Chinese. When the mark was shown, Deferr got less than 17 points and the silver medal. He was happy, of course, but he deserved more.

2. Taekwondo - men's -58 kg: European/World/etc champion Juan Antonio Ramos from Spain did it great in the semifinals but was defeated by a Dominican (can't remember his name... could it be Mercedes?) who had already defeated Taipei's Athens 2004 Olympic champion. Then, in the bronze medal match, more or less the same. His kicks were rarely a point and lost the medal.

Maybe there were other sports in which Spaniards should have received better marks but those two cases were terribly judged as well as the polemic gold medal for Denmark in sailing, 49er, leaving Spain with the silver medal and Italy, with the fourth place.

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