whitebamboo wrote:
True, plenty of people have made mistakes with jump combos, but somehow somehow that one time with Evgeni (when the COP was just getting started) gets singled out as evidence that he "doesn't know the rules". As for the 09/10 season--what galls me is that at the beginning of the season, so many people were saying how it's impossible for Plushenko to come back at all. But after Vancouver, all that seemed to be completely forgotten, and many people seemed to turn around and attribute ignorance of the rules/arrogance/overconfidence/etc. to him, as if all his struggles with coming back, with all his physical issues and injuries weren't never there at all.
Speaking of Inman's letter, I remember reading an interview by a Belgian (I think) judge after Vancouver, in which he defends Inman, saying that he felt that Inman meant well, but Evgeni was irresponsible for mentioning his own and Joubert's weakness in transitions, because that had an adverse effect on Joubert's scores. In other words, he actually tried to blame judges' unethical scoring on Evgeni! Sorry, I don't have the interview itself right now, and I am too disgusted to dig it up, but I remember being made rather sick by it...
People was shoked that Evgeni put so many efforts to came back but he didn't add one 2 to one of his combos, or moved one jump after half point. Nobody could understand, the only explanation is that Mishin and Evgeni did not know how to maximize the points.
The judge you're talking about is indeed the Belgian Patrick Ibens and Tony Wheeler and him defended Inman and suggested that Joubert received low PCS also due to Evgeni's statement. If judges score programs based on interviews and not on what the skater actually does, maybe Evgeni should emphasize in each interview how great his programs are, how many transisions he has, etc.