Figure Skating Upset Sparks Criticism
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Ryan Pierse/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Russian figure skating fans went wild when their star, Adelina Sotnikova, won the gold medal in Sochi this week.
But criticism has mounted against the competition’s judges for awarding the highest score to Sotnikova rather than defending champion Yuna Kim from South Korea. Critics accuse the judges of inflated scores for Russian skaters.
A petition posted to Change.org calling for an investigation into the figure skating results and judging was signed by more than 1.5 million people, causing the website to crash.
Ashley Wagner, star of the U.S. Figure Skating team, chimed in with her own criticism of the judging process.
“People don’t want to watch a sport where you see people fall down and somehow score above someone who goes clean. It is confusing and we need to make it clear for you,” she said. “They need to get rid of the anonymous judging.”
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