Figure skating: 3rd place Asian girl gets bumped from Olympics

[bshole]

what we need is another Kerrigan/Harding rivalry to add some excitement to figure skating. nothing like a good old fashioned knee capping.

Interestingly enough, Kerrigan got into the olympics by displacing the 2nd place finisher in the U.S. Championships, an ASIAN girl named Michelle Kwan. Kerrigan never even finished the U.S Championships due to her injury. INSTITUTIONAL RACISM I SAY!!!!

Although Kerrigan's injury forced her to withdraw from the U.S. Championships, her rivals agreed that she merited one of the two spots on the Olympic team.[18] The USFSA chose to name her to the Olympic team rather than second-place finisher Michelle Kwan.[19]

Anybody else notice that Harding got fat, grew/bought a massive rack, developed a sense of humor, and actually has a television career (of sorts) whereas Kerrigan offended the only people in the nation who employ figure skaters (with their clothes on anyway) and promptly disappeared?

Dude, didn't you see Blades of Glory?!!!?!!!

 

[nehalem256]

while that is the excuse it falls flat. I read the other girl on the team has NEVER won elite level championship. IF they were going by track record alone she should have been off and teh asian girl on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Nagasu#Competitive_highlights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wagner#Competitive_highlights

So winning the US Championship the previous 2 years doesn't count?

For the last 3 years. Wagner finished 1st, 1st, and 4th. Nagasu finished 7th, 7th, and 3rd.

It seems to me that picking Wagner over Nagasu is at the very least reasonable, and quite possibly the more logical pick.

It seems like if Wagner sucks balls she gets 4th place, and if Nagasu has her best day she gets 3rd. Regression to the mean means Wagner is a better pick.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Interestingly enough, Kerrigan got into the olympics by displacing the 2nd place finisher in the U.S. Championships, an ASIAN girl named Michelle Kwan. Kerrigan never even finished the U.S Championships due to her injury. INSTITUTIONAL RACISM I SAY!!!!

So how did she go on to represent the US in the two following Olympics where she won silver and bronze medals respectively?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Kwan#Competitive_highlights

 

[nehalem256]

So how did she go on to represent the US in the two following Olympics where she won silver and bronze medals respectively?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Kwan#Competitive_highlights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Kwan#Competitive_highlights

Probably has something to do with winning the US Championship 9/10 years. Its a lot easier to maintain institutional racism if you have plausible deniability.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

It also appears that based on performance including this year prior to the US Championships that Ashley Wagner has better odds at winning an Olympic medal than Mirai Nagasu.

Ashley Wagner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wagner#Competitive_highlights

Mirai Nagasu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Nagasu#Competitive_highlights

 

[CanOWorms]

It also appears that based on performance including this year prior to the US Championships that Ashley Wagner has better odds at winning an Olympic medal than Mirai Nagasu.

Ashley Wagner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wagner#Competitive_highlights

Mirai Nagasu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_Nagasu#Competitive_highlights

I think if you normalize their awards to account for Wagner's benefit of white privilege that Nagasu may be the superior skater for the Olympics. Wagner likely won't benefit as much from using white privilege at a major international event like the Winter Olympics. You can see this in her results because she mainly places in France and America in international competitions. However, Nagasu has not only placed in Russia (where the Olympics is being held, and therefore, should be a major consideration), but also Japan and Finland in addition to placing better in the US in the last year.

These types of abuses of white privilege, in the aggregate, are probably the most dangerous things to America, moreso than some al Qaeda terrorist hiding in some cave in Pakistan.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I think if you normalize their awards to account for Wagner's benefit of white privilege that Nagasu may be the superior skater for the Olympics. Wagner likely won't benefit as much from using white privilege at a major international event like the Winter Olympics. You can see this in her results because she mainly places in France and America in international competitions. However, Nagasu has not only placed in Russia (where the Olympics is being held, and therefore, should be a major consideration), but also Japan and Finland in addition to placing better in the US in the last year.

Normalize their awards???? White privilege???? I would say that 4 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medals for Wagner outweighs the 4 bronze medals that Nagasu earned the same time period (2012 - 2014).

 

[M0RPH]

I ask you this, gentlemen. If the Asian girl were a Black girl, do you think they would have been so quick to snub her? Just a thought exercise. Can you imagine the uproar over that one?

Ok I'm stirring shit, I don't even think this is mostly about race, it's more about marketing and ad revenue. Still, they should need to maintain appearances of fairness, and it just bothers me that they didn't think the appearance of snubbing the one Asian girl would bother anyone.

Just to clear up some of the facts. This is the first time ever that someone who did not finish in the top at nationals was taken over someone who did, barring injury-related special circumstances. Nagasu worked the last 4 years of her life to get here and have another chance at the Olympics. If these results were going to be meaningless because Wagner was already a lock for the team, she should have been told that beforehand.

Here's part of an article that sums up pretty well why Wagner was chosen:

But the USFSA committee chose Wagner for the Olympic team. Why? “It was the triumph of sponsors over competition,” lamented one coach. The USFSA has three major sponsors who, not coincidentally, also sponsor Wagner: Proctor and Gamble; HiltonHonors; and Cover Girl. “I really worry about what sort of message this sends.”

Let me spell it out. It sends the message that patronage is more important than performance. A spot on the Olympic team should be earned, not awarded. Unless there is a mitigating injury or illness, the top three finishers at Nationals should go to the Games, just as they do in swimming or track and field. Shame on the U.S. Figure Skating Association. Their athletes — especially those without rich endorsement deals — deserve better.

http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2014/01/15/after-nationals-before-sochi-olympics-e-m-swift

 

[Sonikku]

She doesn't really look "American" enough to represent America in the games. They were probably going for more solidarity.

 

[nehalem256]

She doesn't really look "American" enough to represent America in the games. They were probably going for more solidarity.

Or they picked who they thought gave the US the best chance to win:

For the last 3 years in the national championship Wagner finished 1st, 1st, and 4th. Nagasu finished 7th, 7th, and 3rd.

 

[Geosurface]

white privilege

If the Asian girl were a Black girl, do you think they would have been so quick to snub her?

Allow me to just point out, when China, Korea, Japan, Finland, or Norway are picking their three skaters for these teams, they are able to make their choices based on skill or whatever factors they deem pertinent and not have to worry about their public second guessing it and dissecting it to see if any racism or "privilege" can be sussed out. They also don't spend a lot of time as nations agonizing over why Group A's test scores simply cannot be made to catch up to Group B's, no matter how much tax payer money they throw at the problem... and they don't need to have a bunch of affirmative action programs and such which are blatantly unfair, in order to try to compensate for the unsatisfying results of just letting things play out on their own. They don't spend a great deal of time gnashing their teeth about arrest rates and why that store clerk is watching them and why that cop pulled them over, either.

Though, Finland and Norway, along with the rest of Europe, are certainly well on their way to joining us in having these sorts of problems to agonize over.

Remind me why diversity is our greatest strength again?

 

[surfsatwerk]

If she wanted to go to the Olympics that badly she should have won.

 

[zinfamous]

<looks at offense generated> Not even close. :hmm:

"Peyton, your table is ready."

Wins are all that matters, and so Seattle and Denver are even.

Now, we look at strength of schedule. In that case: Seattle by a country mile...

This is about football, right?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

wagner is hotter. that decides it for me.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/01/12/ashley-wagner-us-olympic-team-/4440029/

Who watched ladies figure skating last night? If you were watching, you probably noticed the coverage was all about the 3 white blonde girls, while the Asian girl hardly got a mention, despite being in 3rd place after the short skate.

Well, the Asian girl upset the natural order of things by skating near perfectly, while the favorite Ashely Wagner choked and fell twice, coming in 4th. Results were like this:

1. Gracie Gold
2. Polina Edmunds
3. Mirai Nagasu

4. Ashley Wagner

So, there are 3 open spots for the Sochi Olympics and you would think these top finishers earned the right to go, yes? Nope. Today they decided to bump Mirai Nagasu and send Wagner. They bump the one Asian girl and send the 3 white blonde girls. Anyone else think that's messed up?

this isn't about race. just stop the race baiting already.
US had 2 very prominent asian skaters in recent history.

 

[werepossum]

Please sign the petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-figure-skating-president-patricia-st-peter-send-mirai-nagasu-to-sochi

Sorry, dude. I do not watch professional football, or basketball, or baseball, and I don't drink beer. I don't have enough man points banked to risk giving a damn about which figure skaters we send the Olympics. My balls might fall off.

 

[CanOWorms]

Normalize their awards???? White privilege???? I would say that 4 gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze medals for Wagner outweighs the 4 bronze medals that Nagasu earned the same time period (2012 - 2014).

Yes, normalize. Nagasu seems like she would perform better at the Olympics and therefore she should have been picked. Nagasu performs better in foreign locales where white privilege is more neutralized.

 

[CanOWorms]

Allow me to just point out, when China, Korea, Japan, Finland, or Norway are picking their three skaters for these teams, they are able to make their choices based on skill or whatever factors they deem pertinent and not have to worry about their public second guessing it and dissecting it to see if any racism or "privilege" can be sussed out.

I'm glad I don't live in those countries then. I'm going to second-guess this human rights atrocity. That's what white privilege is and that's likely what happened here. In isolation, it's very trivial, but in the aggregate, this type of thing may be worse than Osama bin Laden.

They also don't spend a lot of time as nations agonizing over why Group A's test scores simply cannot be made to catch up to Group B's, no matter how much tax payer money they throw at the problem... and they don't need to have a bunch of affirmative action programs and such which are blatantly unfair, in order to try to compensate for the unsatisfying results of just letting things play out on their own. They don't spend a great deal of time gnashing their teeth about arrest rates and why that store clerk is watching them and why that cop pulled them over, either.

Of course they do. However, they may also not allow such an insane amount of racial privileges to run so rampant that it has become the biggest form of societal and governmental welfare humanity has ever seen. Would they allow it for selections for the Olympics?

 

[CanOWorms]

this isn't about race. just stop the race baiting already.
US had 2 very prominent asian skaters in recent history.

And we would have more except for happened here.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Yes, normalize. Nagasu seems like she would perform better at the Olympics and therefore she should have been picked. Nagasu performs better in foreign locales where white privilege is more neutralized.

Guess you couldn't be bothered to look at the links to both skaters performance. Nagasu's performances doesn't come anywhere close to Wagner's performances in the past 4 years much less the last 2 years.

 

[Victorian Gray]

And we would have more except for happened here.

Prove it.

 

[CanOWorms]

Guess you couldn't be bothered to look at the links to both skaters performance. Nagasu's performances doesn't come anywhere close to Wagner's performances in the past 4 years much less the last 2 years.

I looked at the links. We're just using different metrics.

 

[CanOWorms]

Prove it.

That's quite simple. Nagasu should have gone, and therefore, we would have prominent representation of an Asian American figure skater in the Olympics.

 

[Geosurface]

That's what white privilege is

If a country is 100% white... how much white privilege would there be in it? Would it be 100% white privilege, or 0%? It seems like it would be 0% because everyone there would be forced to judge one another on factors that had nothing to do with them being white, because white was just a universal non-factor. So I guess maybe the only way to defeat racial privilege is through homogeneity?

I looked at the links. We're just using different metrics.

Yea, you always use the metric which allows you to end up with the conclusion of "white privilege" - or rather, to start with that conclusion and justify it afterward.

 

[Victorian Gray]

That's quite simple. Nagasu should have gone, and therefore, we would have prominent representation of an Asian American figure skater in the Olympics.

Why in the world would you send an inferior skater over the superior skater regardless of their ethnic background?

Their records over the past couple of years clearly show that they sent the skater who will give the US a better chance at a medal. What else is there to say about it?