A Gold Lost

So although this is pretty late, I would still like to share my outrage over the figure skating results in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Yuna Kim, the South Korean figure skater performed flawlessly in both the long and short program, however she was only awarded the silver medal. While Adelina Sotnikova, the Russian figure skater, also performed very well, most viewers knew that Kim was better, especially with Sotnikova stumbling a little on one of her jumps. Although this is my opinion, let's take a look at the statistics.

On her triple Lutz-triple toe combination she made a minor error (stumbling) for which she should have been awarded 3-1 or 2 points. However one judge awarded her a perfect three which is out of the line considering the maximum number of points she could have gotten was 2. Also she got 33 +3's while Yuna Kim only got 13 +3's. The drastic difference between the numbers should already tell you something is not right, since Yuna Kim was long the gold standard.

Sotnikova won the gold by 5.76 points and she did one extra jump than Kim did which was worth 5.3 points. But the rest of the difference is where the uproar began. Four of the nine judges were Eastern European; however this proves nothing since the scores are randomized. 

A petition was begun on change.org for a rescoring of figure skating with more than 1 million signatures. However, the traffic on the website soon exceeded the normal amount and the website crashed. This petition wouldn't have done anything though, since most of the traffic was from South Korea, homeland of Yuna Kim.

Hopefully the practice of randomized scoring will be changed in the future, so judges can be held more accountable for these major results. But for now, we can only mourn the loss of a gold for Yuna Kim. 

Following the Olympics!

So this week has been quite a busy week - the Sochi Olympics began a week ago, but I haven't been able to write about it because I've been busy xD

So, after watching the Olympics every day at the dinner table, I've got to say, that its pretty exciting.

So let's look at the current medal count shall we?

                

The United States is currently tied with Russia for medal count, but since Russia has more silver than the US they are placed ahead of us. 

Figure Skating:

First of all, I would like to congratulate Polina Edmunds on making the American Olympics Figure Skating Team! As she left for Sochi, her high school gave her quite the sendoff along with three weeks of homework. Isn't that fun? She chose not to attend the opening ceremony in Sochi and instead to stay in Austria to practice for her upcoming events. We all wish her luck on a quest for a medal! Her event, I believe will occur this Wednesday. 

Her teammates covered her for the team event with Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold winning a bronze medal. Gracie Gold's final performance was flawless, securing the medal for Team USA. 

Gracie Gold at her final performance for the team event

Plushenko, Russia's male figure skater had an outstanding performance winning a gold in one events, but was unfortunately injured in another of his events. The crowd stood shocked as he  later announced that this would be his final Olympics. Farewell Plushenko...

Skeleton:

So what the heck is this you ask? Well, its simply when a person lies on a board and slides across an ice course. Keep in mind that I simplified the description greatly, the sport is actually quite complex.

Skeleton

Noelle Pikus Pace after winning silver medal

The gold was won by Britain's Lizzy Yarnold, who finished the event in record time, her slide flawless. 

With a win and a loss for women's skeleton I now take you to the American contender Noelle Pikus-Pace. It was the final olympics for this optimistic woman and she ended winning a silver medal in the event. The scene was quite emotional as she rushed up to her family in the crowd and shook with  happiness. She was the most bubbly person I have ever seen and all that positive energy led her right to a medal! 

Now for the other American skeleton contender Katie Uhlaender it was a sad day as she lost the bronze medal by 0.04 seconds. In an interview with NBC, she was fighting to control her tears, and said that she would return for the next Olympics despite this tearful loss. 

So these are the two events I will cover for now, more updates later~

What's up with Ukraine?

Ukraine is a country near Russia that used to be a part of the Soviet Union. Although they are no longer a part of the Soviet Union, they are still heavily influenced by Russia. This is shown by the the pro-Russian cabinet of Ukraine's president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. Now, however, Ukraine wants to join the European Union or the EU, but there are those who are anti-EU supporters. This is the cause of the current revolution. Well, now that you have some background, let's get why it would be good for Ukraine to join the EU.

Ukraine is a poor country, currently in an economic crisis. It would benefit from joining the EU because they would get support from the other countries. For those who might not know what the EU is, watch this video, it might clear things up:

Ukraine is quite dependent on Russia, and that isn't doing so well if we look at their current situation. Ukraine can contribute a lot to the EU, since they have a lot of natural resources that can be put to use. A lot of the gas produced in Ukraine goes to Russia at the moment, but if this is exported elsewhere, a lot more of the money can be circulated within Ukraine.

However, President Yanukovych rejected the potent offer to join the EU opting instead to stay with Russia. Shocked? You should be. But he shouldn't be the only one to be blamed. Russia threatened to impose harsh sanctions on Ukraine should they join the EU. Since Russia is their main trade partner, this would cripple their already run down economy.  

The people of Ukraine have already ousted their prime minister and are now demanding President Yanukovych to step down. Joining the EU would set some guidlines on the government making the process more efficient and less corrupt. 

Credits: The situation in Ukraine was made known to me by a friend in Germany, she is also an author on the site: Empress of Serendipity. 

Any thoughts on whether Ukraine should join the EU or not?

Super Bowl 2014

Wow, what a crushing defeat for the Broncos. It was a 43 to 8 loss, stunning most of its fans. It isn't too surprising considering that the Seahawk's defense is ranked #1. But, the Broncos offense is also ranked #1, so the game was simply a battle of who was better. The Broncos turned over the ball too often, and every chance the Seahawks got at intercepting the ball, they ran for a touch down. Most viewers expected the game to be a close and hard win, but instead they were handed an embarrassingly boring game. Well, congratulations to the Seahawks for their first win at the Super Bowl and to Pete Carroll for leading them to a victory!