And the Aussies are crying already:
Quote:
Members of the Australian Olympic contingent believe their moguls skier, ex-Canadian Dale Begg-Smith, got shafted by the judges Sunday night and that the historic winner, Montreal’s Alex Bilodeau, may not have deserved the gold.
“I thought Dale won,” Australian coach Steve Desovich told the Aussie media after Sunday’s moguls race. “Alex is a good kid. I just thought Dale won.”
There was word on Monday that the Australians may protest the moguls final.
The Aussie camp felt Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win an Olympic gold medal on home soil, was given turn scores from two judges that were too high.
Three of the five judges awarded Begg-Smith, the 2006 Olympic champion, superior scores for his turns, but two judges, the Finn Pipsa Pohjavirta and a Norwegian, Morten Skarpaas, awarded Bilodeau higher scores of 4.8 and 4.9.
Turns are traditionally not Bilodeau’s strength.
The Canadian judge, Susan Verdier, gave the Australian a higher scorer, a 4.7, and only a 4.6 to Bilodeau.
“My own opinion is probably that Alex is not capable of a 4.8 or 4.9 for turns,’’ said Australian team high performance director Geoff Lipshut. “He’s just not capable.”
The Australians felt that the pro-Canadian crowd may have swayed the judges to some degree.
Lipshut added that Bilodeau was overscored for his turns, which make up about 50% of the final mark. Bilodeau scored 26.75 points to win the gold, followed by Begg-Smith in second with a score of 26.58. Bilodeau had a much faster time down the Cypress Mountain course, crossing the finish line in 23.17 seconds, to 23.72 for Begg-Smith and the Aussie camp acknowledged that Begg-Smith may have ultimately lost the gold on speed.
“Dale could have been quicker,’’ Lipshut told reporters. “That’s the bottom line, if Dale is three-tenths of a second quicker, Dale wins. You can say all the little things that you want, they are all small things. But you’re probably not going to win by that. He had to be faster.”
Bilodeau was second heading into the final and Begg-Smith fourth.
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Aussies claim Bilodeau's gold tainted | Vancouver 2010 News | Vancouver 2010 | Sports | Toronto Sun
Now the thing that popped out to me in this article was this:
“My own opinion is probably that Alex is not capable of a 4.8 or 4.9 for turns,’’ said Australian team high performance director Geoff Lipshut. “He’s just not capable.”
His 'opinion', which some could say is tainted as he's an Aussie team member, and well, his opinion doesn't matter, it's the opinion f the judges that matters, and the judges gave the nod to the Canadian, not the former Canadian/spam master.
As for the 'pro Canadian crowd swaying the judges', sounds like sour grapes to me, the Aussies should just be grateful losers, and stop embarassing themselves with this display, they lost, suck it up and move on.