I hope everyone is enjoying the competition so far.

The least heard-of male skaters are so far the best-performing at the US
Nationals after the short program, but the #7 judge doesn't seem to know that.
That judge gave the lowest scores of all the judges to all the skaters who gave
solid performances and didn't fall.

The skaters who stayed on their feet while doing all their required elements
were Savoie, Weir, Lysacek, and Bradley. There were nine judges. For every one
of these skaters, the lowest scores came from the #7 judge for both the
technical and presentation marks.
The skaters who had at least one fall were Goebel, Ward, and Weiss. For Goebel,
the #7 judge gave the 3rd highest score for technical and the 4th highest score
for presentation. For Ward, who fell 3 times, the #7 judge gave the 2nd lowest
scores for both the technical and presentation. For Weiss, the #7 judge gave
the 2nd lowest score for technical but the 2nd highest score for presentation.

The #7 judge somehow gave Weiss higher technical scores (despite the two-footed
landing on the quad and the fall on the triple axel) than that judge gave to two
other skaters who appeared to turn in nearly flawless performances (Lysacek and
Bradley). That judge gave the same technical score to Weiss and Weir. The only
skater that judge thought performed technically better than Weiss was Savoie.
The combined scores of that judge would have Weiss in first place by 0.5 points!
Unbefreakinlievable.

I suppose this judge could have seen the biggest technical differences in things
like the spins, the footwork, and the edges, but geez, was it enough to skew the
scoring by that much?

These up-and-coming skaters are giving the veterans a run for their money. It's
heartwarming to see the crowd giving standing ovations to skaters many of them
have probably never heard of before. This is shaping up to be a great
competition.

GO WEIR!!!

La'Tisha


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