The problem with this documentary is that it is heavily biased toward the Canadian team. Tara Lipinski, Scott Hamilton, and many of the announcers that are featured were highly favoring the Canadian team to win and had convinced themselves they had won, even though they had NOT YET EVEN HEARD what the judges had to say. It was obvious during the commentary after the Canadian pair skated that the western media commentators felt like the Canadians had won Olympic gold, even though the judges had not even weighed in yet!
I am an American, and watching the two performances, I would have personally voted for the Russians, because I greatly prefer that tradition of skating that emphasizes ballet. I personally also do not like most singles Olympic skaters in the United States and Canada because they focus on athletics, not ballet and dance tradition the way the Russian skaters do. I prefer Victor Plushenko to any American singles skater, as an example.
Because the 2002 Olympics was held in Utah, there was obviously a bias in the western audience for the Canadian pair. I guarantee you if this had been held in Russia or another country such as China, the audience would have heavily favored the Russian team. So it really is not a surprise at all, not in the least, that the audience was loudly cheering for the Canadians! It is what anyone would expect from an audience in the United States.
That is why, even before knowing about the supposed "scandal," I found the comments from the Canadian skaters and from the western news media personalities to be disingenuous at best.
Obviously, Canada or the United States would want one of their pairs to beat the Russian team. A tale as old as time. Back when the Olympics scoring system was 6.0, it was common to have politics involved in decisions in judging. It may still be for all I know, even though they changed the system.
I believe it was a mistake to award the Canadians with a second gold medal. I personally believe the Russians won their gold medal.
I did not find Tara Lipinski's documentary especially compelling nor neutral. For that reason I rate it five stars at best.
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