If you've read the
rant and would like to read the feedback
click
here. If you haven't read the rant yet, please do
before you read the feedback.
As
most of you know, I decided to attend the 2009 Barefoot World
Championships in New Zealand this year. It was an amazing event to
attend, and we were shown some great hospitality by event organizer Fred
Groen. I came back to the US with a whole new perspective on the
sport, the skiers, the teams, and how they all interact with each other.
I came home self assured that the sport has some great young talent
coming up through the ranks. Exciting skiers that seem to be very
excited about being in the sport. The young skiers are learning in
an age of technology advancements. The can watch video after video
on-line studying moves in slow motion. They share ideas through
better communication utilizing online services such as MySpace and
Facebook. They're using whatever means possible to learn the basics and
more importantly, develop new ways of enjoying the sport. So the
skiers are doing what they love to do, and that's ski to the limits of
their abilities and learn from each other.
Now, on the flip side of the skiers,
are the judges, officials, and ruling bodies of the sport. While
at the Worlds, I watched as the officials work tirelessly to get the
event completed in a timely manner. I met representatives from
many different countries. I talked to them about the difficulties
of keeping the sport running and promoted in the smaller countries.
We talked about the need for more officials and volunteers around the
world.
But on the darker side, I watched
team managers and country official file complaint after complaint if
they felt their skier wasn't treated fairly. If a skier fell
unrepentantly, the first thought was to how can we get our skier a
re-ride. How can we point out the flaw in the system that will
convince the officials to give our skier a re-ride. I watched a
young woman from France loose a bronze medal because another team
manager filed a complaint that the water was too rough (and unsafe to
ski in) after their skier fell in women's slalom. So they ended up
re-running that single event (the only event they re-ran all week)
because of that representative's position in the sport. Their
skier did better in the re-ride, and thus took all the dreams of coming
home with her first worlds medal from the girl who had been assured the
bronze position. I lost a little faith in the sport that day.
I didn't know the girls involved. I didn't interview them
afterwards. I just saw the look on the girls face that lost her
dream. And was really angered me as a spectator was their was no
official announcement about why they were re-running the event. It
just quietly happened.
I watched as skiers waited
anxiously for over 24 hours to see their scores. There seemed to
be no rhyme or reason as to why it was taking so long to post scores.
There were no announcements, and no way for the crowds to follow what
was going on. The jump event was the only event with announcing.
Behind the scenes, all the team managers were jostling through the
scorer's trailer to find out how their skiers did. It was a test
of who had the most clout, or who had a country representative in the
boat judging the event in question. It seems to be a system built
around "He who has the most clout, gets the best information".
This may not be the case, but as a casual observer, it definitely seems
that way.
After being home for over a month,
I've watched the forums as skiers applaud Keith St Onge for his victory
and wait anxiously to find out if his 12,450 run will stand as a World
Record. I wait to see if the WBC will announce to everyone what
they are saying behind the scenes, that Keith's run did NOT stand up to
scrutiny, and is in actuality only a 10,600 pt trick run. This
news was given to Keith at the Worlds prior to the event ending and no
announcement was made at the Worlds at that time. So I am left as
an observer wondering why we have a sport where they can crown a World
Champion, then after the event, claim that the performance really wasn't
what we thought it was? How can we have a World Championship that
ends, and then months later still has so much controversy around it?
I try to think of another sport that would overrule the event judges in
such a way? I can't.... So I'm left thinking "Is Keith
really the World Champion?" If his points were re-calculated,
would he still win the Overall? Did they do the same thing to
other skier's scores? If so, what's the point of even going to
watch a Worlds. Next time, I'll stay home and wait for the real
results months after the fact. It's just a lousy feeling to have
for all the people involved. I know the skiers don't want to feel
shorted. I know the judges and officials want people to know their
efforts are for the good of the sport. But at the end of the day.
The current system leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions.
We are in a sport that allows for
so much human error on the judges side, but no error on the skier's
side. Skiers are expected to perform tricks to perfection (as
stated in the Rule Book), but at the same time, we as skiers are
expected to give the judges and officials slack for not getting it right
because they are volunteers. We have judges that claim they are
good enough to score a 10K, 11K, and now 12,000 pt trick run, under
pressure, first time, every time. But for some reason, they won't
let us see their score sheets. I would lay money down that at
least 9 times out of 10, if you put a wall up between the 3 judges in
the boat, then had them watch Keith's run, then Heinrich's, then Dave
Small's, there wouldn't be a single set of scores where 2 out of 3
judges score sheets match. Officials behind the scenes tell us
that it's a common occurrence for the boat judges to share notes at the
end of the run. what ends up happening is the judge with the type
A personality, or judge with the most tenure gets it his/her way.
When we asked Richard Gray, current
Chairman of the WBC about this, he replied that he has the utmost
confidence in his World's Officials and feels they are astute enough to
score any world class run.
Based on Mr Gray's answer, we then
asked him how then can you explain that your top 3 World Class judges
missed so badly scoring Keith's run correctly? His answer was that
judges in the boat are judging the trick as closely as the WBC does to
count for a World Record. When the run is submitted for World
Record consideration, the videos are reviewed in slow motion, frame by
frame, to assure every trick is done in accordance to the rules.
So, I walk away from that
conversation as confused, and frustrated as I walked into it. We
have the best judges in the world in the boat, at the World
Championships. They are supposedly capable of scoring a world
record run at any level, but then again for some reason, it isn't good
enough. Why is that???? And I keep asking myself, "Where is
the video in all this?" So I ask Mr. Gray "Why aren't you
utilizing video review 100% on the Open Pro level skiers at Worlds?"
His answer: "Video does not allow you to judge the skier fairly.
There is no substitution for the human eye. Shadows, camera
angles, and video quality limit our ability to judge on video alone."
But when I ask him why it's good enough to go frame by frame after the
fact when reviewing it for World Records, he changes the subject.
It's the same questions we've had
time and time again with the WBC. And it's an argument that looses
more merit on there side every time I look in a catalog and see the next
generation of High Definition video cameras. We've seen an
explosion in video quality. What used to cost tens of thousands
and was only available to the professionals is now available to the
common consumer for a few hundred bucks. But we can't seem to
figure out how to make it work for us and take the skepticism out of the
sport.
We've watched as other sports have
embraced the use of video to ASSURE the crowds that the judges are
getting the calls right, at the moment they happen. Skiers from
all around the world talk about how we should have a camera person in
the boat and 3 judges on shore watching video. It would save gas,
increase boat speeds, and be less fatiguing on the judges. They'd
be able to sit in a more comfortable environment and be able to reply
anything in question. Let the judges share comments and help each other
on the rulings. The end result needs to be a score that's final
and OFFICIAL. World Records need to be announced at the event, not
remain rumors for months after. Guidelines could be put in place
that state that if a country were to pass a world record (at any
tournament), that ended up really not being a world record, that country
would be required to remove the officials that ratified the record, and
ban them from officiating for x amount of time. Make the penalty
for not doing the job as expected as severe as we penalize the skiers
for not performing to their expectations.
All the nay-sayers claim that this
could not work. What if the tape malfunctions? What if we
can't see the skier due to the sun in the background? Answer:
Require the skier to do the run again. Same as if the judges today
mess up, or if the driver messes up. Mandatory re-ride.
Utilize the back-light function on the cameras. Instead of trying
to find out reasons why a new system such as this would not work, we
should be demanding that our governing body find ways to make it work.
We need this sport to be moving as fast off the water as it is on the
water. Run a few tournaments utilizing a new method and prove that
it can be done.
That rant is over.......
Now that you've listened to me
rant, are you ready to get excited yourself. You be the judge of
whether or not the World's judges made the right call or not.
|
