Skaters Asada, Takahashi return home

Not to diminish his performance, but neither the gold nor the silver medalists at the olympics were present. He did a good job tho

Not to diminish his performance, but neither the gold nor the silver medalists at the olympics were present. He did a good job tho

And neither will be at Worlds in Tokyo in 2011 either. And I thought Takahashi was retiring too.

Not to diminish his performance, but neither the gold nor the silver medalists at the olympics were present.

Lysachek is a little bit fake champion so not a big loss.

Lysachek is a little bit fake champion so not a big loss.

True, in a sense. Someone who doesn't even attempt a quad or other physically demanding elements, takes away any legitimacy (if there was any) of figure skating as a "sport". Figure skating ends up being solely "a judged art". As such, can "a judged art" really be continually deemed as an Olympic "sport"?

Lysachek is a little bit fake champion so not a big loss.

You also have to add that he is not the United States champion this year or last year. Jeremy Abbot beat him for that title. Whereas, Pluchenko, Takahshi and even Joubert have been the dominant skater in their countries and continents during the last several years of competition (if you ignore Pluchenko's period of retirment).

can "a judged art" really be continually deemed as an Olympic "sport"?

A number of the games at the winter Olympics are judged sports: Moguls, half-pipe, arials, etc. As are many at the Summer games. In some ways it is an improvement. You are judging not just the score, but the quality with which that score was obtained.

True, in a sense. Someone who doesn't even attempt a quad or other physically demanding elements, takes away any legitimacy (if there was any) of figure skating as a "sport".

I agree with this. Now that I think about it, one can probably say Plushenko had a valid complaint (to a certain degree) during the Olympics when he raised the issue of his quads not as highly valuated as he wanted. And there was the not too subtle swipe at Lycasek's win.

Then again, in comparison Lysacek skated a clean albeit rather conservative program. Had Evan attempted a quad or two it probably would have been less of an issue and probably in the eyes of more technical-minded fans, more "legit."

A number of the games at the winter Olympics are judged sports: Moguls, half-pipe, arials, etc. As are many at the Summer games.

They should then include other judged events as well, such as ballet or karate's kata performance (since it involves the same level of physical prowess as does ice skating and other judged events.)