I just saw this today when I was browsing the web...
It made me so upset I had to start a Facebook group.
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46196598874
So I guess it was up to the american public to decide who should win the gold at the 2009 X-Games big air final.
How to you think anyone with a name like Torstein Horgmo could win over someone with a name like Travis Rice under those circumstances?
Or what's up with Mikkel Bang's PERFECT ss bs 1260 getting 8% of the votes against Travis Rice's 92% for the double back bs 180?!
The X-Games people should be ashamed for even considering this form of judging, and they should feel even more ashamed for actually using it .
To quote Todd Richards:
- "Torstien would need to cure aids and herpes to win plus do a 14.000.000 (rotation)"
Seriously.., what makes americans qualified to judge this by texting in their opinion? So wrong.
78% voted for Travis Rice.. come on.. granted Rice´s trick was great, but not as great as Torstein´s.
We all know americans love backflips and backyard wrestling:) Combine that with a name like Jeremy Jones, Eddie Wall, Shaun White and you don´t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Travis Rice would have won the gold even if he would have done a backflip.
From what I heard (read: rumor) half the texts were in before they had even jumped... real professional there ESPN/X-Games.
It would have been pretty funny if Travis would have fallen in all four runs against Mikkel and Torstein since he would have still won.. haha.
Then ESPN/X-Games would have had some real apologizing to do.
Wonder how this form of judging would fly at the olympic figure skating event?
You have some girl who´s got the looks/name of someone like Sienna Miller or Jenna Jameson (or similar) against a girl with a better performance but with a name like Olgur Karkalinotjef and looks like the unibrown girl from "Dodgeball".
Hmm, I wonder who America would text/vote for...
As I see it X-Games need to make a public statement that this was a horrible idea and that the people in charge for making it happen were fired and they should be fined a couple of thousand dollars each for letting this happen.
Then X-Games should pay Torstein whatever the 1st price purse was + his incentives from DC (which is probably considerable).
That´s the LEAST they can do to try and make this right.
Actually they should compensate Mikkel too. His trick would obviously win over Rice's in any contest with actual judges and he got 8% of the votes!
Mikkel should have been the one battling Torstein for the gold.
How do the X-Games expect anyone to take them seriously when they treat their riders talent like this? Embarrassing.
Isn't there a board of people that decides how to judge the event? Who are they and what were they thinking?
I have a hard time believing that anyone with knowledge and love for snowboarding was part of making this "have-americans-vote-by-texting" a reality.
So next time.. please consider talking to people "in the know" before ruining an event.
I can totally consult, I'll even help with camera angles and editing (yes you can improve, a lot).
I´m glad I wasn´t there. I would have been soooo mad (well I still am, but I´m like 8,000 km away).
And after this post I bet X-Games will ban me from any future events anyway.
Mikkel, Travis and Torstein, I like you all and you are such amazing snowboarders. But you deserve your riding to be judged by people who are just as good at judging like you are at snowboarding.
Peas / Pierre
Mikkel vs Travis:
Torstein vs Travis:
Here are some articles about the event:
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=540131 (in norwegian)
http://www.tacky.no/snowboard/article/?id=102786 (in norwegian)
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/23/x-games-xiii-big-air
http://snowboarding.transworld.net/2009/01/23/x-games-xiii-big-air-video
Here´s a gnarly slam from Travis from the day before:
;alksdhfa;sd THAT"S THE DUMBEST SHIT I"VE EVER SEEN@!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that the double 180 should not win against a switch bs 12! 8% IS a fucking discrase and X-games should be ashamed!!
ReplyDeleteI do however think that travis last trick. A madly inverted bs cork 10 is a legit winner!
The problem is that rice shouldnt even have been in the finals. And is now the winner!
BE ASHAMED!
Emil from Sweeeeeden
the only reason i would have had sympathy for travis is because of what happened to him the day before and the fact that he was still standing let alone riding after that. but yeah, switch bs 12 with flawless landing definitely should have won.
ReplyDeletethats what you get when stupid american kids do the voting.
well it is an american thing, right? its not the air and style. and what is it with you euros crying to facebook everytime something happens you don't like?
ReplyDeleteI´m not crying over it because Travis was born in America.
ReplyDeleteI´m crying over it cause since ESPN made a dumb mistake by having people text in who they should have won. Pretty sure 99% (with 1% margin of error) of the people in the industry agree that it was an dumb decision.
And that decision has huge financial consequences for the riders who don´t get recognized for their skill + just makes ESPN look like even bigger clueless tools.
If you think is lame that I care, don´t read the blog and don´t look at the Facebook page.
X-games, hmmm, maybe they had their X-president deciding how the voting take place.
ReplyDelete