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At the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, the final results of the men’s skating competition sparked what has been dubbed a quadruple jump controversy. At the heart of it lies a quadruple jump, the toughest jump there is in figure skating, done in combination with a triple toe loop, which Evgeni Plushenko of Russia landed in both his short and long programs. Evan Lysacek of the United States, however, did not include quads in either of his programs. Plushenko, who led Lysacek by half a point after the short figure skating program, was beaten out by the American in the final free skate despite performing a quadruple toe loop/triple toe loop. Lysacek’s free skate was regarded as having lower difficulty but better quality than Plushenko's.〔 Many experts of the field have offered their opinions about the results, and countless members of the general public have weighed in on the controversy through online message boards, forums and social networking sites. ==Background== Though the argument over the quad has attracted attention mostly following the men's figure skating competition at the Vancouver Olympic Games of 2010, the controversy itself is rooted in the quad's history, and its role at major figure skating competitions, including the Winter Olympics. The jump had become so common in men's figure skating since Kurt Browning first landed it in 1988 that it came to be viewed as a deciding element in a winning program and the lack of it almost a handicap. Since the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where Alexei Urmanov won gold without one, the quad, if landed in a competition (absent major weaknesses), made a difference between the first and lower placements. In a ''Sports Illustrated'' article dated January 19, 1998, E.M. Swift wrote that "no Olympic gold medal will ever again be won by a man who doesn't try a four-revolution jump." Many, therefore, tried to make themselves competitive by including it in their skating arsenal. In the twelve years leading up to the 2010 Olympics, only two skaters won the World Figure Skating Championships without a quadruple jump. Both wins were under the new ISU judging system. Jeffrey Buttle's win at the 2008 Worlds officially disproved the already long-standing notion that a quad was needed to win the big titles. His win is credited to have been the spark that ignited the quad controversy that came to a head at the Vancouver Olympic Games. Brian Joubert, the first European skater to land three quads in a program, expressed his strong disappointment over the results and stated that the value of the jump should be raised in the current scoring system. Evan Lysacek, like Joubert, commented that a quad was an essential part of men's skating. In 2009, Lysacek became the second consecutive figure skater to win the world championship without a quadruple jump. With Evgeni Plushenko and Stéphane Lambiel entering the race for gold at the upcoming Olympics, the quad debate intensified. “They saw there was two times the world champion (won) without a quad. From Todd Eldredge ages there was nobody without the quad to win the world,” said Czech skater Michal Březina. “I think they did it just because of this. They want to show, if you want to be world champion of the ages you really have to do the quad. I don’t think there is any other reason."〔 Plushenko thought it was an embarrassment and not in keeping with the established practice, that the last two world champions had won without even attempting a quadruple jump. He challenged his competition to try and win the gold in Vancouver without it. "Whoever skates clean with a quad will win it. I don't think many will" said Lysacek of the Olympics in January, 2010. Shortly after, however, citing a problem with his left foot stemming from a stress fracture, Lysacek said that he would not attempt a quad. When asked if he thought it would cost him gold, he replied that the new judging system made a win possible without one: "This season has been very telling, so if you go back and look at how the international competitions have been scored, my strategy has just changed a little." “I don’t think anyone is unbeatable right now, because of the way the sport is judged. Obviously there’s a lot of room for error, but there’s also a lot of room to gain extra points on what you are doing.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quadruple jump controversy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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