But then I spent time watching bronze medal winner Laura Lepisto from Finland in both her short and long programs. If there is ANY doubt that judges are still holding up favored skaters who skate mediocrely even with this new judging system, Laura Lepisto is the poster child for this movement.
In her short program, she botched a double axel, a major move in any senior ladies competition, and her triple-triple combination was made up of the two easiest triples: salchow/toe loop. Yet, she scored third highest in the competition, three places higher than Rachael Flatt who landed her double axel and had a much harder triple-triple combination: flip/toe loop.
In the long program, Lepisto landed that same easy triple-triple combination and then skated to the other end of the rink and landed a triple lutz. And that was effectively the end of her long program because she doubled every other jump she had in her program. This long program which included only three triple jumps (the equivalent of what won the 1983 world championship when Roslyn Sumners won the title) won the bronze medal!
Now, Lepisto is a slim, lovely, lyrical skater. But to have no more difficulty in her program, and with no difficult transitions leading into DOUBLE jumps is an insult to current skating standards, and a slap in the face to skaters who completed seven or eight triples cleanly in their programs.