12/03/04

Ice Wars, USA vs. The World, CBS

This could be anything, but it’s professional figure skating. The commentators said that the concept was born by the epic battle at the 1994 Olympics between Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul. Baiul wasn’t representing Russia at the Olympics but The World. So they take past Olympians break them down into two groups—even though most of the “world” competitors live in the US—and let them have at it in a nationalistic competition in South Carolina. What would Brian Boitano do?

I have never been one for competitions where this isn’t a quantitative way to determine winners. Games that result in numbers being generated are so open to bias and cheating, that I have a hard time seeing how any scoring system can be honest. Whenever I catch women’s gymnastics or figure skating on TV, it seems that there are decided biases in judging. Both seem to strongly favor the moves that pixie-ish girls can pull off as opposed to moves that grown women can pull off. What would Brian Boitano do?

At least with this competition—I would have been just as interested in the skating if it was just a demonstration—there were no kids. The US team included Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano. The World included Oksana Baiul and Kurt Browning. And the grownups put on polished programs, maybe not as air-worthy as kids can pull off, but longer and more varied. What would Brian Boitano do?


Not surprisingly, the US fell behind the world, despite what seemed to be generous judging. Kristi Yamaguchi won her head-to-head with Oksana Baiul, yet neither appeared on the ice at the same time. I sensed biased judging, as Kristi’s was very traditional and Oksana’s decidedly modern. What would Brian Boitano do?

It all came down to the final competition. What would Brian Boitano do? He had a tough act to follow. Kurt Browning did a great job as the first prop skater comic. Brian followed up by doing a more graceful, yet much less interesting dance with a coat rack. Of course Brian won, even without the triple lutz while wearing a blindfold, but it wasn’t enough to save the US. The World won, even though the judges were determined to see it much closer than it should have been.