Uh, oh! Are the Olympics rigged???
Team USA’s figure skating duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates lost out on the gold medal this week, and folks are now blaming it on a French judge allegedly known for favoritism!
French judge Jezabel Dabouis has been accused of rigging the competition in favor of her country’s athletes after she gave the USA an unusually low score compared to her other judges during Wednesday night’s free dance competition — despite many thinking it was a flawless performance. She awarded the American team 129.74 points, electing not to break the 130-point barrier the rest of her fellow judges crossed (which would have made it an even tighter race). US and Chinese judges gave the pair scores of 137.67 and 136.95, respectively. That’s quite a big difference!
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When the French team, Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron, performed, they earned 137.45 points — the second highest of all the judges — from Dabouis, despite some visible issues. Five out of nine judges ranked the American’s first in the free dance, but the 8-point advantage given to the French pushed them over the edge for the gold. They ultimately won gold with a total score of 225.82, just 1.43 more than Team USA, who took silver. Whoa.
@teamusa What a performance! ???? @madison_chock and Evan Bates put on a show during the team event’s free dance! #winterolympics #teamusa #figureskating #madisonchock #evanbates
This same judge also had a wide margin in favor of France in the rhythm dance competition, in which France also beat the US. In that portion of the competition, she gave France the highest score by far 93.34 and gave the US the second lowest of any judge, nearly 6 points lower than her French score. Interestingly, per The US Sun, the American judge was not scoring this section of the competition. Per CBS News, the French judge gave the French team higher scores than any opponent for the entire season — even when they fell. Soooo, there’s a pattern here.
Many fans are now calling for the Olympics to investigate the judge, arguing it was “rigged.” Speaking to CBS News, Madison seemed to agree, saying:
“It would definitely be helpful if it’s more understandable for the viewers, to just see more transparent judging and understand… what’s really going on. I think it’s also important for the skaters, that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are also putting out their best performance. There’s a lot on the line for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges also giving us their all and for it to be a fair and even playing field.”
She continued:
“Any time the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport. I think it’s hard to retain fans when it’s difficult to understand what is happening on the ice. People need to understand what they’re cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that they’re supporting.”
See the husband and wife team react to the incident:
In its first statement about the scandal on Thursday, the ISU stood behind the judge:
“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations.”
They said they have “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”
Reactions?? Do U agree with the calls for an investigation??
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