SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. figure skater Ashley Wagner calls for a change in Olympic judging after accusing the judges of unfairly inflating the Russian skaters' scores.
A lot of people are up in arms about the judging that led to Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova winning the gold in an upset over South Korean Yuna Kim, and U.S. skater Ashley Wagner is no exception. She believes the reason she ranked so low was because Sotnikova and 15-year-old Russian sweetheart Yulia Lipnitskaya had unfairly inflated scores as a result of biased judging.
The American beauty skated two programs without any falls and punched the air with delight at the end. Yet, despite the lack of tumbles, she still ended up falling behind Lipnitskaya, who fell in both of her programs.
"I feel gypped," said Wagner. "People don't want to watch a sport where you see people fall down and somehow score above someone who goes clean. It is confusing and we need to make it clear for you."
She feels that it's not only important for the skaters but for the sport as well if they want to keep a fan base. "They need to get rid of the anonymous judging," Wagner said. "There are many changes that need to come to this sport if we want a fan base, because you can't depend on this sport to always be there when you need it. The sport in general needs to become more dependable."
[Yahoo]
