(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Yuna Kim’s scores had barely registered before cries of scandal in women’s figure skating echoed around social media. Seventeen-year-old Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova took gold in the competition while Kim received a silver medal for her performance.
An almost unknown Russian winning gold was bound to raise eyebrows, but Sotnikova’s victory was far from shady. She executed seven triples in her nearly flawless program, five of which were in a combo. Kim had six and three, respectively.
“I think we need a little of a reality check here,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “I don’t know much about skating I saw some of it last night and [Sotnikova’s] performance was agreed by many to be absolutely fantastic … At this stage, I think we’re discussing purely hypothetical things and my personal point of view would be to congratulate a fantastic performance.”
Adams’ feelings on the matter are not shared by over 1.5 million people who signed a petition on change.org demanding an open investigation into the judging of the event.
Because if we know anything, it’s that signing a petition on the Internet is the best way to get results.
But of course, we, as just citizens, know that our voice is weak and we may not have a chance to change anything. But this is crucial. And this petition may help towards bringing fairness back into the Olympics that showed so much corruption ironically. Yuna does not care about the medal since Gold was not in her utmost desires but it is the unfairness being observed by EVERYONE in the world except Russia. They need to acknowledge that yes, Sotnikova wrote the history in Russia but HISTORY IS FULL OF BIAS THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. This is NOT for Yuna Kim, this is for the FAIR SPORTSMANSHIP THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CENTRAL TO THE WORLD EVENT OF THE OLYMPICS.
It’s not the least bit stunning that a majority of the near-1.5 million signatures come from Korea. Was the competition between Kim and Sotnikova close? Sure. Did it feel like Sotnikova got more support for her performance? Obviously, it happened in Russia. Was Kim cheated out of a gold medal?
Nope, no way, no chance, no how. The Korean needed a perfect performance to knock down Sotnikova on her home turf. Kim skated spectacularly, but not perfectly. As much as it may pain 1.5 million people on the Internet, Sotnikova did enough to win a gold medal and Kim came up just short.
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