"Skategate" judging questions surround U.S. ice dancing win
SOCHI, Russia -- America's new darlings on ice, Meryl Davis and Charlie White, find themselves at the center of a judging controversy that’s being called "Skategate." Sequins and sour grapes once again dominate Olympic skating -- not that it bothers them much.
"We don't sit back and wonder how the judges judge, because that's really not our role," Davis told CBS News.
Among the skeptics was the man who developed one of the event's required sequences, in which the American pair scored higher.
"I don't understand the judging," tweeted former Finnish skater Petri Kokko.
And
frankly, neither does the Russian coach who coaches both pairs. She told CBS
News the judging is a mystery to her, too.
But judges don’t talk, they judge -- often controversially.
After the scandal of the Salt Lake games in 2002, when judges were caught fixing results, the system was changed and supposedly improved.
For Meryl Davis, the U.S. pair is simply doing whatever it is the judges like.
"It's
subjective, and that's what makes our sport so unique and so special," she
said.
"It didn't go our way, but I don’t think the judging was pre-determined," he said. "It's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess."
The cookie crumbled the American way this time, but a sport which has tried to clean up its image apparently still has work to do.
