A new petition that has already gotten over 1.7 million signatures online calls for the investigation into the judging decisions in the women’s figure skating final at the 2014 Olympics.
The petition refers to the public controversy after Russian Adelina Sotnikova won by a wide margin over reigning champion Yuna Kim, a win many believe was wrong.
Among them were sports journalists and fellow figure skaters, such as Alex Goldberger, an Olympics researcher at NBC: “Adelina Sotnikova was excellent tonight, but Yuna Kim was robbed,” he said.
The petition was started by a “justice seeker” who is supposedly based in Russia.
“It is the unfairness being observed by EVERYONE in the world except Russia,” the creator wrote. “They need to acknowledge that yes, Sotnikova wrote the history in Russia but HISTORY IS FULL OF BIAS THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED. This is NOT for Yuna Kim, this is for the FAIR SPORTSMANSHIP THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE CENTRAL TO THE WORLD EVENT OF THE OLYMPICS. ”
The petition, which is seeking 3 million signatures, is addressed to the International Skating Union.
People signing the petition left comments as well: “Regardless of their nationalities, this is about fair sportsmanship. Not very ’mature' of the judges to give into racial bias...” said Mia Kim of Toronto.
“I do agree that Sotnikova did present to her potential and showed amazing performance. However, that performance was NOT worth the score she received. If the judges were to give such generous points for her, they need to do the same for all athletes competing in the event,” said Helena Chang of California.
