Competitors 30 from 20 nations | Winning score 224.59 | |
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Venue Iceberg Skating Palace
Sochi, Russia Dates 19 February 2014 (short program)
20 February 2014 (free skating) | ||
The ladies' single skating competition of the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia. The short program took place on 19 February 2014, and the free skating took place on 20 February. Adelina Sotnikova of Russia won the gold medal.
Contents
Records
The following ISU season best scores (2013–2014) were set during this competition:
Schedule
All dates and times are (UTC+4).
Short program
The short program (SP) took place on 19 February 2014.
Free skating
The Free skating took place on 20 February 2014.
Overall
The skaters are ranked according to their overall score.
Judges and officials
Short Program judges
Free Skating judges
Responses
Immediately after the final scores were announced, journalistic questions arose regarding whether Adelina Sotnikova's performance deserved higher scores than the performances of Kim Yuna and Carolina Kostner. Questions over the judges, the judging system, and the anonymity of scores were also raised in the press.
Official responses
On 21 February 2014, the International Skating Union (ISU) issued a statement which asserted all rules and procedures were applied during the competition and that no official protest had been filed by any participating nation concerning the results of the competition. Such a protest must be done within 30 minutes of the event.
ISU's 21 February 2014 statement declaring their confidence "in the high quality and integrity of the ISU judging system". Adding "judges were selected by random drawing from a pool of 13 potential judges" and all nine judges on the free skating panel were from different nations.
On 10 April, the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and the Korean Skating Union (KSU) filed an official complaint with the ISU Disciplinary Commission (DC) concerning judging. The complaint was regarding "the wrongful constitution of the panel of judges and the unjust outcome of the competition". It requested that the DC conduct a thorough investigation, "take appropriate disciplinary actions against the concerned individuals", and institute corrective actions. On 14 April, the DC ruled the complaint inadmissible because a general request for investigation is not within DC's jurisdiction and the complaint was not addressed at an individual or federation as required.
On 30 April, the KOC and KSU filed a second official complaint with the DC. This time the complaint was against Alla Shekhovtsova and Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR), specifically citing a hug Shekhovtsova shared with Sotnikova and Shekhovtsova's marriage to the current Director General of the FSFR. On 30 May, the DC dismissed the complaint. It ruled Shekhovtsova "is not responsible for the judging panel's composition", her marriage did not create a conflict of interest, and since Sotnikova initiated the hug, Shekhovtsova did not break any rules by responding.
As of June 2014, the KOC and KSU are considering appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Supporting opinions
On 20 February 2014, The New York Times published a technical assessment of the competition titled "How Sotnikova Beat Kim" with a point-by-point and jump-by-jump comparison of the performances of the two skaters. The New York Times also reported in a conjointly published article that Sotnikova's routine was athletically challenging stating that: "Sotnikova scored higher on the technical merit of her program. For instance, Kim did not attempt a triple loop or a double axel, triple toe loop combination, as Sotnikova did."
Michelle Kwan, two-time Olympic silver medalist and five-time World champion, stated "Under the scoring system, hands down, Adelina won." (However, Kwan added "I personally enjoyed Yuna Kim's performance more".) Three-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko responded "It was totally fair, Adelina was ready. Kim didn't have enough technical ammunition." Tara Lipinski, the 1998 Olympic champion, together with Johnny Weir, the 2008 World bronze medalist, have also expressed their agreement with the judges' decision on Sotnikova's performance. Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion, said that while Sotnikova's skating is not as aesthetically pleasing as Kim's, her athletic style "checks off every box" and "does everything the judges are looking for." Alexei Mishin, the Russian 1969 world medalist and coach to three Olympic champions, said that "… Sotnikova's victory is absolutely natural and objective."
Opposing opinions
USA Today reported "A high-ranking Olympic figure skating official … said the geographic makeup of the judging panel 'was clearly slanted towards … Sotnikova.'" The free skating panel included two Russian officials, a Russian judge and a Ukrainian judge. Journalists questioned the appointments of Russian judge Alla Shekhovtsova, the wife of the former president and the current general director of Figure Skating Federation of Russia Valentin Piseev, and Ukrainian judge Yuri Balkov, who was suspended for a year after being caught on tape attempting to fix the ice dancing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics. The technical panel, that oversees correct execution of elements, is headed by fellow Russian Alexander Lakernik. Shekhovtseva was photographed hugging Sotnikova in the arena, raising another question of bias. The detailed score sheet shows that one judge gave Adelina Sotnikova +3 grade of execution (GOE) on all except two elements. In contrast, the score sheet of short program shows that one judge gave Yuna Kim +0 grade of execution on her triple flip, of which the NBC commentator Tracy Wilson commented as 'another perfect flip'. French newspaper L'Equipe also reports accusations to Russia and US conspiring to help Russia on the figure skating events and US on ice dance events.
Journalists and experts argued that scores given to Adelina Sotnikova were inflated both in the short and long programs. She was inexplicably scored above all others in the free program, where most believed she merited only 4th place in the phase behind Yu Na, Mao Asada, and Carolina Kostner. Many among them cite that certain judges gave generous scores along with fellow Russian competitor Yulia Lipnitskaya. In particular, numerous +3 grade of executions were handed out to the two Russian skaters as well as nods in component scores compared to other skaters. Others noted that Sotnikova made a mistake by stepping out of one of her jumps which got a -0.9 grade of execution in the scorecards. Ryan Bradley, 2011 US champion, asked "Are we just going to ignore that she botched the landing of her 3 jump and pretend she was perfect?" There are also debates about whether Sotnikova's triple lutz had a wrong edge on takeoff and the triple toe loop in her first jumping pass was under-rotated. Neither error was flagged by the event's technical panel. Retired national-level figure skater Tim Gerber wrote a letter to the ISU, claiming that Sotnikova's triple triple combination jump should have received wrong edge and under rotation. Gerber also asserted that the step sequence levels were not correctly awarded for Kim and Sotnikova. He stated that Kim's step sequence should have received a level four (instead of three) and Sotnikova's step sequence should have received a level three (instead of four), as Sotnikova's step sequence elements in free skating didn't meet the requirements to get level four, and Kim's met the requirements enough to get level four.
Katarina Witt, a two-time Olympic champion, stated "I am stunned by this result, I don’t understand the scoring." Several experts have also pointed out how Kim and Kostner's programs have significantly better artistry, choreography and skill on ice that should translate to higher component marks to other skaters. One judge in the scoresheets gave out significantly lower marks to Kim and Kostner in the component marks. Sonia Garbato, seven-time Olympic figure skating judge and former high-ranking ISU official, wrote: "No fair judge … could have awarded to Adelina higher marks in choreography, performance/execution, and interpretation of the music." Four-time world champion Kurt Browning also expressed his surprise at the results, declaring that he did not understand how Kim and Sotnikova could have been so close in the programme component scores. He also pointed out how Sotnikova had her component scores boosted compared to her previous programs Michael Weiss, a two-time world bronze medalist, wrote "couldn't disagree more that Yuna and Sotnikova had basically same Component marks?..in Both short & long? Home field inflation." Dick Button, two-time Olympic champion and longstanding skating analyst, commented: "Sotnikova was energetic, strong, commendable, but not a complete skater."
A petition in Change.org against the results of the event demanding an investigation and rejudgment has amassed over 2 million supporters breaking several web traffic records on the website.