It wouldn't be the Winter Olympics without hockey, of course!

But my American friends disagree. They say figure skating is what it's all about.

Well, those Americans! They are nice people, and I like them a lot. But they don't know how to play hockey! If only they knew how to play hockey, they'd be perfect.

Well, who wants to be perfect?

Hockey is at least not as reliant on subjective judging, save for the odd bad ref call. Though it is ultimately pretty rare that a single ref call decides a game whereas in figure skating, the judging is all there is. There is nothing as baldly objective as the puck going into the net.

Mendalla

I would hate to see figure skating leave the olympics, but I agree maybe the ice dancing is a bit too subjective.  If you get rid of it, you could make many of the same arguements for gymnastics.

Making the scoring anonymous was a bad decision IMO.  At least when you know who scored what there's a certain degree of accountability for the score.

For events that require actual judging I think it is time for it all to become more transparent.  It would be worthwhile I think, to gather a group of qualified people and avoid having those countries with competitors likely to be 'in the medals'  doing the judging.  There have to be qualified people from countries with lower achieving skaters.  All judges should  display the marks they award so it is simple to see that ALL or NONE of their marking is significantly different from the others, or that overall they mark high or low. 

double post

ooops - three copies!

But if you eliminate judged sports you eliminate a lot of them.

All the slope style, snowboard jumping stuff. Even moguls gets judged on the air tricks they do, not just speed.

All skating except for races would be gone.

In summer it would eliminate most gymnastics if not all. Parts of riding,

Having only judges from countries not competing doesn't really work either. Remember to the days of the "soviet pack" where the judges blatantly voted en mass.

I would, like to see what judges scores what but in reality, I have no ability to actually second guess them.

I liked Virtue and Moir much better. But I can't tell if something is done perfectly or not.

I also think there was a bit of an issue related to what the judges are interested in seeing and that is a choreography issue.

I remember when Elvis Stoyko first started competing. His moves were much more physical and martial arts oriented. It was a huge shift for men when others had been much more flowery. It took a while for the judges to appreciate his style of artistry