By Scott Tibbs, January 23, 2014
It is time for the Winter Olympics again. That means it is time for my usual rant about figure skating.
I appreciate the athleticism of events like figure skating. There is no way I could do any of the moves these men and women do on the ice. I admire the physical strength, balance, coordination, conditioning and speed of these athletes. The natural talent it takes to compete in figure skating at the Olympics is amazing and the huge amount of time they spend in training is admirable.
However, figure skating at the Olympics is not a sport, because it is not truly a competition. It is far too politicized and corrupt to be considered a true sport. I have absolutely no respect for the so-called "judges" of those events. Too many scandals have gone by and too much corruption has been exposed. I only need to point to the corrupt French so-called "judges" selling their vote in 2002 as to the reason I do not respect these so-called "judges" or their authority.
The Olympics are far too political for the judged events to be taken seriously. The only events with any credibility at the Olympics are events where there is an objective standard of performance. I may enjoy the performance, but if the results are determined by so-called "judges" then I have no interest in who "wins" or "loses" the competition.
The sad reality is that professional wrestling has more credibility than figure skating in the Olympics. At least pro wrestling promoters admit the match results are predetermined. Professional wrestling promoters do not pretend that what happens between the athletes in the ring is a legitimate competition - that farce was abandoned decades ago. The Olympic games either needs to be honest and admit the results are predetermined or clean up the corruption so we have a legitimate competition.
