The wonderful Lys, my favourite source of interesting articles, stroke again. This time she find a Russian article, this:

“THEY OVERTHREW THE GYMNASTS FROM THE PEDESTAL. NEXT IN LINE IS FIGURE SKATING AND SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING. ” THE JUDGE IS ABOUT HOW CHAMPIONS ARE CHOSEN

I don’t know Russian, so I can read the article only thanks to an automatic translation Russian-English. If anyone who know Russian find some mistake, I would like to know them. [Edit: now exist an english translation].

Who speaks is Alexander Vedenin, an ex figure skater, now a coach and one of the founders of the Development Program at ISU and moderator of international and national seminars in 12 countries of the world. I didn’t knew him before, but I can be sure of a thing: he knows figure skating very well. So, what he said? A lot of interesting things, I focus only on some of them.

Vedenin started talking about the competition of the rhythmic gymnastics at the last Olympics. I didn’t watched the competition. I read some polemics about the result, but I don’t know so well the rules and I’m not able to say which move is more difficult or better done, so I can’t say anything. I limit myself to write that there were polemics.

Vedenin do an example that isn’t in the article I linked, about the psychological mood using the example of two skaters, A and B.

It is important to create an atmosphere for the judges to accept the possibility of a leadership change.

What this mean? If a skater is really strong, barring a really bad program, this skater is expected to be first at the end of the competition, or at least on the podium. Another skater can beat him, and it should be able to beat him in a fair competition, if this other skater skated better. But what if this strong skater continues to skate well, and someone wants someone else to win?

In the competitions are involved a lot of other things beside what the skaters actually do. Things as the mind of the judges and their ideas, and the schemes of the federations. The federations aid their skaters. Some aid are licit, as a financial aid for the costs of the training, or campus with the best coaches for all the strongest and most promising skaters of the nation.

What about propaganda?

I read another article written by Marina Chernyshova-Melnik, the journalist that interviewed Vedenin. This article is on the 2002 scandal. She is Russian, obviously for her the result of the Pair competition was fair whith the win of Berezhnaya-Sikharulidze. For her Marie-Reine Le Gougne was forced to do a false confession. I’m sure that she was truly forced to give the first place to the Russian by Didier Gailhaguet, but I already wrote about this competition several times, so now I’m not going back to the details of this scandal.

I write only one more thing: that a Russian judge (Alla Shekhovtseva) put in the first place the Russians and not the French, don’t prove that there wasn’t an agreement. The scandal exploded before the Ice Dance competition, so the judges, knowing they were under observation, may have decided to vote honestly. And apart from that… rumors have always said that the Russian judge should have helped the French skaters by placing them ahead of the Italians, and that’s exactly what Shekhovtseva did. That she then placed the Russians ahead of both the French and the Italians could be simple national bias, which in any case has no influence on a possible agreement to place the French ahead of the Italians. In the free dance Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio fell, so it’s normal that they ended up behind the other two couples, but in the other stages of the competition the Russian judge may have awarded the placements in an honest way, but she may have been influenced by the national bias, and/or may have complied with the agreement entered into with the French federation. The president of the ISU, at the time Ottavio Cinquanta, prevented any investigation in this sense. For him the most important thing was to stop the scandals, not to do justice. Now, beyond the final result of the competitions, I am interested in several statements in this article.

Everything was done by the press, which in those years played a huge role in North America.

For this journalist the result of the Pair competition, Russians first and Canadians second, was right. So the scandal was made by the American television for his interest. Beyond what everyone can think about the result of that competition, the affirmation that in North America the press had a big role in everything is important. When I write that some journalist doesn’t do information but propaganda, is because journalists themselves say it.

It began with the fact that the American television company NBC bought the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games and planned to make good money. But the frenzied broadcasts did not work, and the media managers began to think: how to attract the viewer?

According to Chernyshova-Melnik for the American television the only important thing is the ratings, so if they don’t have another system to attract viewers, they create a scandal. But a scandal as the Kerrigan-Harding story mentioned by her attract the interest because there is a struggle among a wonderful princess and an evil rival. A scandal on manipulated results can lead the spectators to go away from the sport. If the public can’t trust the best athlete has won, why should they like the sport? There are so many injustices in the world that we all want to believe that there is at least one area where honesty, fairness and personal commitment triumph.

The thing that mostly attract the public are the wins. The television know that. Several months ago I saw a list of the GOAT of a lot of sports. The list must have be done by an American, because it started with the affirmation that the American are the strongest because in every sport the GOAT is an American. The list contained at least a mistake (Wayne Gretzky was labeled as American but he is Canadian), often was questionable (Dick Button is really one of the best skaters of all time, but for me he is the second, not the first, and I’m not the only one to think so) and was incomplete (the only sports listed are the sport in which there was a really strong American. But why a male figure skater and not a woman? Because the doubt can be among the Norvegian Sonja Henie, the Deutsch Katarina Witt and the Korean Yuna Kim and no American enter in the question? On the other hand, for tennis on the list was Serena Williams, but there wasn’t a male tennis player. Why? And in figure skating there are also Pairs – no really strong American detected – and Ice Dance, and no, none can convince me that Davis/White have ever been on the same level of Virtue/Moir).

The list say to us only one thing: the Americans (most of the Americans, not all of them but enough for the television purpose) are interested in the sport only if the Americans win. The American television, who pay a lot of money to broadcast the Olympic Games, want strong Americans. It’s the only way to attract public, that attract sponsor, that give money to the television. So for the television the question is: we have strong athletes? If we don’t have any, how can we make our athletes stronger? When there is money at stake, for a lot of people ethics goes outside the window. If a propaganda can aid an athlete, why the television (but the press in general) should not do propaganda?

Supporting an athlete is not prohibited, so they do not break any law. And if the judges are unwittingly influenced by propaganda and assign the marks not on what has been done by the skaters, but because the press has convinced them that one skater is stronger than another, no crime has been committed. But is the competition result correct? And here we return to the opening quote:

It is important to create an atmosphere for the judges to accept the possibility of a leadership change.

If the American press need a strong American skater they do propaganda in order to influence the judges. Judges should not be influenced by propaganda, but they are human, they can do mistake and can be manipulated. We all let ourselves be influenced, some more, some less. If this were not the case, advertising would not exist. So it’s up to the individual judge, some can be more influenced than others. The Olympic season has just started, propaganda started several years ago.

Speaking of gymnastic, Vedenin say that the scoring system is not so different from the ISU scoring system, but that there isn’t a public protocol.

rhythmic gymnastics has a similar refereeing system, but there is no document. Everyone says that Lina’s program was more complicated, but there is no trial without the transcript.

Protocol is fundamental to telling us that the final score is not arbitrary. We know the base value of the elements, the marks of the individual judges, the GOE and the PCS. It’s enough? No. In the short program of the 2020-2021 Japanese National Championship one of Hanyu’s spins received 0 points. No BV, no GOE. Only when the competition was over did the technical panel deign to make known the reason for the cancellation, and only because the press insisted on knowing it. Here it is again the importance of the press, in this case to check the correct running of the competitions. There is a lot to say about that invalidated spin, but not now. What interests me now is something else.

If a skater has a deduction for a fall, we know the reason for the fall. The same if he does a time violation. The same if part of his costume fall on the ice. If in the short program he does a single jump, we know why the jump is invalidated. The same if in the free skate he broke the Zayak rule. So, if a spin is invalitated the reason should be explained in the protocol. And also the GOE… why 4 of the 7 judges didn’t give a +5 on Hanyu’s combination in the short program of the World Team Trophy? I’d like that in the protocol every judge should explain which bullet he gives, which deduction he subtracts. Otherwise, I can’t trust in the fairness of the competition.

What can Russia expect from the judges at the next Winter Olympics?

We need to strain hard. The backstage process has begun – and where will it lead? Recently, Russian artists who seemed invincible were overthrown from the pedestal. The following sports are figure skating and synchronized swimming.

Vedenin focuses on Russian figure skaters. The interview is done by a Russian journalist to a Russian coach in a Russian newspaper, it is obvious that the focus is on the Russian skaters. However, I remain on the general speeches. The backstage process has begun. Here comes the importance of propaganda, which I spoke of earlier. And not just that of the press.

Everything will begin to happen long before the Olympics – at the beginning of the season. It is important to keep track of who will be unleashed an information war, who will be rotten by the ribs and underwhelmed, as in his time to Medvedev. It is necessary to closely monitor what is being discussed in the ISU and the panel of judges. What’s in the air? The process of overthrowing the leaders will begin just from this invisible air.

I wrote about American skaters, propaganda and television here. Everything will begin to happen long before the Olympics – at the beginning of the season. No, actually this is not correct, well done propaganda starts even earlier. And the same goes for wrong marks. M.G. Piety in a really interesting article about Davis/White’s gold wrote

I’m a member of a Yahoo group of skating fans. […] Davis and White didn’t need any help to win the gold was the constant refrain of most members of the group. They’ve been winning everything in the last few years. That is sadly true, but it begs the question of whether Davis and White needed help by tacitly assuming that they had not had help with these other wins.

Some wins are prepared for several years, not only from the beginning of the Olympic season.

On Evgenia Medvedeva I’ll return later. But… The process of overthrowing the leaders will begin just from this invisible air? To me this sentence gives the impression that the victory does not always go to the best skater. Sometimes it goes to whoever has the best judges in political games. Try reading the posts I’ve written in the past, the ones on Jon Jackson’s book in particular, to see some of these discussions.

Before the start of the competition, the referee (senior referee) holds a closed meeting of the judges, where he recalls the basic rules, focuses on some important points. The Referee never mentions the names of specific athletes, but can allow himself to be hinted when referring to certain trends promoted by individual athletes. These hints are easily picked up by the judges.

So if, for example, the referee says that the prerotation is not a serious error, the prerotation will not be sanctioned. If he asks you to pay particular attention to the edge of the flip… you can say many things without naming names. How many names did I mention among the skaters that are still competing? Two, that of Medvedeva, only because Vedenin specifically mentioned her, and that of Hanyu, on two specific episodes. But how many skaters have you thought of? How many episodes of which I haven’t said anything about? If I can hint some names without write them, so a referee can hint some names without saying them. The judges are able to pick them. But it’s a fair competition?

[Edit: about pre-event meeting among judges, read the first comment on this post].

Speaking of the judges, they do not earn much money. Do you remember that in October I wrote that a judge asked to me (not in a pleasant way) what a judge can earn from the competitions?

The amounts of fees are so ridiculous that I will not even voice them. Something close to the daily allowance on a business trip – enough for sandwiches or a trip to the local bar. It will not be possible to earn money by refereeing, but this is a very honorable position for which people are eager. You are shown on TV, announced before the start of the competition, to which the attention of millions of spectators is riveted. And also a purely human sense of vanity: you decide the fate of the best athletes on the planet! Plus, many consider these trips around the world as prestigious tourism: you are placed in five-star hotels and accepted as a VIP guest.

So for them it is a way to see the world, to go free of charge to wonderful places and luxurious hotels and to feel important. They can decide the fate of the athletes. They are famous and powerful. In the article on the 2002 scandal, the journalist wrote on Marie-Reine Le Gougne

when the result of judging looks like 5: 4, everyone is looking for who personally was this decisive fifth vote. The French judge knew that the deciding vote was hers. And she smiled, very proud of herself.

In such a situation, it is easy to grow your head and place your desires, sometimes even your ambitions, ahead of the fairness of the competitions.

– How is the relationship between judges and coaches built? I think it’s not in vain that the words “your judge” often appear in conversations about behind the scenes.

– Leading referees of the country often go to trainings with the leading athletes of the national team and give advice: here the element does not correspond to the rules, it is better to start this support from a different position, and so on. This is how the referees help to “clean” the skaters’ programs from doubtful moments before the start of the season, so that everything complies with the current rules and for each movement it is possible to get maximum points. Of course, the referees give feedback at test skates and all domestic tournaments.

I wrote about this both when commenting on Jon Jackson’s On Edge and Christine Brennan’s Inside Edge. Judges work closely with the skaters with whom they share the nationality, how can they be impartial when judging them? And the rule that a person cannot be a judge in a competition at the same time and team leader of the team of his compatriots was only approved in 2018. I could be wrong, but the ISU does not seem very quick to change their rules even in the case of clearly absurd situations.

– How is the world-class figure skating policy formed? It’s no secret that the most influential federations are Russia, Canada and the United States.

– Yes, and between them there is a usual political struggle for the results of athletes, team classification, etc. Pressure on judges is a typical practice. It’s worse when athletes and coaches feel it. 

See the names? Russia, Canada, and United States, but I think that the journalist should have said Russia and United States, and Canada. If Russia and United States are tied, the Canada comes third. Other nations? Do they matter to anyone? And there is a usual political struggle for the results. The results above all. And if a judge is honest, Pressure on judges is a typical practice.

And what happens in the elections for leadership positions in the International Skating Union! I can cite an example of 5 years ago, when the new president of ISU was elected. Ottavio Cinquanta spent more than 40 years there, reaching the full Mr. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In general, he gathered all these English gentlemen: he had so many scandals with him! But he continued to hold his post. One of the candidates was the president of the French federation, Didier Gayage. He was the first in 100 years of ISU history to come to the polls with his work program. Didier proposed a lot of reforms, for which he was not elected. Because the leaders of the ISU and many national federations have been sitting well in their posts for a long time and do not want to move.

I wrote in the past on some elections, Valentin Piseev at the Technical Committee when he was suspended in the 1974, of other elections I wrote here. I have no words on Ottavio Cinquanta. If this was the situation, why not replace him sooner? I have no idea what Gailhaguet’s program was, which according to this journalist is just a poor victim of circumstances, but already at the time I wanted him away from skating, and after reading Un si long silence by Sarah Abitbol I am even more sure that he must stay away from figure skating.

The article focus on some old competitions and Chernyshova-Melnik mentions two ice dancers that I liked a lot, the Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas. These are their results:

They were strong but, according to the results, not so strong. In their best years the strongest Ice dancer were Marina Anissina/Gwendal Peizerat, Barbara Fusar-Poli/Maurizio Margaglio, Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh and Shae-Lynn Bourne/Victor Kraatz (my favourite Ice Dance couple at that time). A French team (but the lady was a Russian with a French passport, and France is probably the fourth nation for importance after Russia+United States and Canada), an Italian team (with Ottavio Cinquanta president of the ISU, about the importance of this I’ll write soon), a Russian team and a Canadian team.

The judges know from the beginning that such and such athletes need to bet more, and these – less. Moreover, they are not told directly, but a psychological mood is created. Imagine the situation: you know that skater A skates at 5.8-5.9, and skater B skates at 5.0-5.2. Suddenly skater A is skating unsuccessfully, and you give him a mark much lower than his usual level: 5.5-5.6. Skater B skated great for himself, and you bet more than his usual level: 5.3-5.4. You encouraged him super, but still he was left behind athlete A, who performed unsuccessfully this time. This is approximately what happened with the magnificent Margarita and Povilas. They were beautiful, interesting and unusual, but did not receive medals at the World Championships. There was no one to stand up for them. The main role was played by this psychological mood of the judges, which even rarely anyone formulates in specific words.

Here Vedenin did a mistake, Drobiazko/Vanagas won a bronze in the 2000 World Championship, but his words are equally disturbing. None stand for them, so they were left out of the podium? And the fairness of the competition where is it? Remember a thing: at the 2002 Olympics, Fusar-Poli/Margaglio, with a fall, won the bronze. Bourne/Kraatz, with a fall, were 4th. Drobiazko/Vanagas, without mistakes, were 5th. A judge, if he really want to, can give to a skater marks lower than usual, to another marks higher than usual, and equally have the result that he want. When Hanyu was first after the short program at the last World Championship several people, I among others, complained that his marks were too low, that he deserves a higher score. For someone our complain was a nonsense because he was anyway first. None could have imagined that his free skate would be full of mistakes. But if his short program had received the score that deserved, at the end of the competition Hanyu would have won the silver, not the bronze.

– At the same time, British dancers Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean won despite their nationality.

– There are two important factors here. Great Britain is the birthplace of ice dancing, which has dictated fashion for 20 years. Plus, at that time, the vice-president of ISU was Laurence Demme – the world and European champion. It was easier for his compatriots to get into the top. 

Torvill and Dean were wonderful, but again we can see the politics. I hinted before of Ottavio Cinquanta and Fusar-Poli/Margaglio. I know nothing, but now some questions come in my mind. And now the vice-president of the ISU is a Russian, Alexander Lakernik. Not someone in which I trust, I wrote about him a lot in my blog.

I skip some paragraphs and go to the Battle of the Brian at the Olympic Games in 1988.

The International Federation in those years just welcomed the expressiveness and plasticity on ice. The judging panel was made clear that with ideal skates for both leaders, Brian Orser should win – as a symbol of the development of the artistic direction in figure skating. Nobody said this directly, but remember my words about psychological work!

– As a result, after the “required pieces” stage, Orser gets points clearly higher than usual. These figures were just his weak point. I see that the process has begun.

Definitely the Compulsory Figures weren’t Orser speciality. He may have worked on them and may have improved, but the impression is that the judges had given the marks thinking of the final placements of the skater. They won a win for Orser? They awarded them the third place at the 1987 World Championship and at the 1988 Olympic Games. After the Olympics, it’s best to give the gold medal at the World Championship to the Olympic winner or to the Olympic silver medallist? So, 5th place and not 3th in the Compulsory Figures for Orser.

Do you know how the rank worked in 1988? Different rankings for every segment of the competition. Every segment has his ranking. The compulsory Figures counted for the 30% of the final score, +0.60 points for every position (the percentage was changed several times, don’t use there percentage for other years). The Short Program counted for the 20% of the final score, +0.40 for every position. The Free Skate counted for the 50% of the final score, +1.00 for every position. The points earned in the three rankings were summed, the lower sums means a better position.

So for Boitano a 3 – 1- 2 result mean 1.80+0.40+2.00=4.20. For Orser a result 5 – 2 – 1 mean 3.00+0.80+1.00= 4.80. At the Olympic Games Orser’s Compulsory Figures were evaluated the 3th, Heiko Fischer’s figures were evaluated the 4th. Orser skated better than Fischer. What would have happened if even at the World Championship Orser’s figures were judged better than Fisher’s figures? Fourt place for Orser in the first segment of the competition, so 4 – 2 – 1. This mean 2.40+0.80+1.00= 4.20. Same points as Boitano. And in 1988, if the points were the same, would have won the skater who skated better in the free skate. If Orser’s Compulsory Figures would have judged the 4th and not the 5th, he would have become the 1988 World champion.

According to Vedenin, the result at the Olympic Games was decided rightly, notwithstanding the pressure put on the judges by the ISU, by the skaters themselves. Boitano was perfetc, Orser “made two gross and obvious mistakes“. No, Orser did only one mistake, a step out on the 3F, but Boitano did eight triple jumps, among them two 3A, Orser did seven triple jumps, among them one 3A. The result was the right one, but the disturbing episode remain.

But only 5 judges from the brigade put Boitano ahead. The other 4 people did not dare to go against the wishes of the management. I am happy that I acted honestly and professionally. Although a couple of years later, the former general director of the Canadian federation David Door came to the ISU leadership, who then took revenge on me for my position in Calgary for the rest of my life.

A pity that he doesn’t say any more. I’d liked to know what David Dore did.

[Edit: When my post was published, I spoke to several people on Twitter about it. One of them noticed a strange alliance, the poor Americans and Russians were pressured by the evil Canadians. Curious that there is a nation capable of mistreating the two most influential nations. With this I am not saying that Canadians are exempt from all guilt, but one wonders how much truth there is in Vedenin’s words. At the next Olympic Games, Russia will compete for gold in the Women’s competition, with perhaps one or two Japanese skaters to disturb their plans, a medal for an American is unlikely. In the Pairs’ competition, the fight for gold will be between China and Russia, not even the shadow of a strong American pair. In the Ice Dance competition it will be between France and Russia, probably the Americans will fight for the bronze with the second Russian team, the Canadians and the Italians. In the team competition, unless a collective suicide, Russia will win gold, they are the strongest (or the second strongest, but China and France will not fight for a medal, so a possible placement behind them would not be particularly harmful) in almost all disciplines, and probably the silver will win by the United States. The fight for the bronze should involve three nations. The United States will fight for a single gold, the only one that Russia is sure will not win. Perhaps Russia will win a medal, but they struggle for the bronze, not for the gold. Russia and the United States with different interests and therefore allies? It’s possible? Even this interview is propaganda?]

-Canadian functionaries generally know how to organize everything cleverly. At one time, they fought through the press with Zhenya Medvedeva, who won every tournament. Closer to the Olympics, the Canadians have a star – Caitlin Osmond. An active, emotional girl. Heavy, it is true, but so she flew in accordance with her weight. Videos often appeared on the Internet about how badly Zhenya jumps – with “undercool” and “wrong ribs”. We compared the marks for quality with Yuna Kim, although there are generally different eras and judges. 

The comment about Kaetlyn Osmond’s weight could have been avoided, it’s not that all the female skaters has to be as thin as a breadstick. These are the results of Evgenia Medvedeva and Kaetlyn Osmond before the Olympic season.

With a silver at the last World Championship, obviously Canada hoped in a medal for Osmond. There was also Gabrielle Daleman, World bronze medallist in 2017. But Medvedeva was a lot stronger. I too remember the videos comparing Medvedeva’s technique with Yuna Kim’s technique. A war fought also against video on youtube. What I said earlier about propaganda?

Probably Canada did propaganda promoting Osmond but at least on a thing Vedenin is wrong. Vedenin is Russian, and if he can warn us about Canadian propaganda, at the same time he is doing propaganda for the Russian skaters. He said although there are generally different eras and judges, and on this Lys came to aid me.

And different judges? LMAO
These are the panels for ladies in 2010, 2014, 2018.

Very few judges from 2010 do no longer officiate. Every judge from 2014 was still active in 2018.
Every judge but maybe one from 2018 was already officiating in 2010 and earlier. pic.twitter.com/8ihJkQyRnH

— 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ (@FedUpLys) September 4, 2021

This is a premeditated action, which ultimately affected Zhenya’s assessments.

So the two eras can be compared. The Canadians do propaganda? Sure. These are two example. The most blatant case perhaps is this protocol at the 2018 Canadian Championship, and remember that I really love Virtue/Moir.

The name of the judges were:

Leslie Keen, Controller Canada (national bias as a judge in my calculation from 2016-2017 to 2019-2020, 9.28 points)
Marie Bowness, Technical Specialist
Rock Lemay, Assistant Technical Specialist
Janice Hunter, Referee (national bias 5.32 points)
1 Pam Chislett, Judge (national bias 6.21 points)
2 Sabrina Wong, Judge (national bias 8.53 points)
3 Sylvain Guibord, Judge (national bias 9.79 points)
4 Erica Topolski, Judge (national bias 9.57 points)
5 Ron Conacher, Judge (national bias 7.89 points)
6 Patty Klein, Judge (national bias 4.42 points)
7 Nicole LeBlanc-Richard, Judge (national bias 8.48 points)
8 Leslie Lawrence, Judge
9 Jean Senft, Judge (national bias 5.96 points)

Virtue/Moir were the favourite for the Olympic gold together with the French Papadakis/Cizeron. Another example?

These are the average marks in the PCS for Patrick Chan’s short programs. I didn’t find the protocols of two Canadian Championship, the site of Skate Canada is really bad. I highlighted the seasons when Chan was still in the junior category with a gray background. There is nothing in a column because Chan took a season off. In blue there are his marks in the international competitions, in light blue there are his marks in the National Championship.

Almost always his marks in the National Championship have been higher than in previous competitions, and very often his marks after the National Championship, while lower than those in the National Championship, are higher than those he received at the beginning of the season. I suspect that the propaganda, the high marks awarded by the national judges, has influenced the international judges.

I’ve done other schemes like this for different skaters (only for the Men’s competition), both for PCS and GOE. I will probably publish them sooner or later.

Anyway, here we see some of the Canadian propaganda in action. I haven’t done anything similar for the ladies, a check would require time. Even without a check, I’m sure that Canada did propaganda trying to aid Osmond. Did it worked? Poor Medvedeva was damaged by bad Canadians? At the Olympic Games Medvedeva won the silver, Osmond won the bronze.

I’m not saying that Canadian propaganda is right, simply at least for now I don’t check in other Canadian propaganda, but I know that it exist. Instead I watched only one thing in the programs skated by Medvedeva at the Olympic Games, the edge of her lutz.

Not the best angle, but in the first screenshot she is tilted towards us, with an outside edge, in the second she has changed inclination, and now the edge is inside. Is it too hard to tell from these images? The doubt to the Technical Panel came, in the third screenshot we see that for the element they called a review.

Who was in the Technical Panel?
Technical Controller: LYNCH Susan
Technical Specialist: CHUNG Jae-Eun
Assistant Technical Specialist: MARTYNOV Yevgeny
I’ve already noticed that sometimes Martynov (a Russian-Ucrainian Specialist that lives in the United States) has some problems with the edge. He can see a wrong edge on a flip, not so much on a lutz.

How was Medvedeva jump?

According to her marks, perfect or almost perfect. Really? This is the replay.

This jump deserved an “e” and a deduction comprised among -2 and -3. So, Osmond can be aided by propaganda, but also Medvedeva received some undeserved gift.

What Vedenin said is really disturbing and should be indagated, but we also must remember that if someone highlighten the fails of the system, perhaps at the same time he is doing propaganda. Of one thing I’m sure: I don’t trust in judges and want a better technology and an AI that can judge the competitions.