Chastened by fallout from the Salt Lake City Olympic pairs skating controversy, no one in figure skating dares question the need for immediate change in the way the sport is judged. The question international figure skating leaders began debating Wednesday was which new method to use.
“The rules next season will be different from the ones we have today,” said International Skating Union President Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy.
The figure skating associations of the United States and Australia each gave 30-minute presentations Wednesday morning, attempting to sell judging reform proposals that could be implemented immediately because they involve no retraining of judges. The feeling was a composite version of the two proposals would be adopted Thursday, although there may be resistance from nations lacking the means to use the systems on the national level.
In the background remains an ISU proposal, also explained Wednesday, that would radically change the judging system but is so complex it could not be used for at least a couple of years. The ISU congress Monday approved submitting the ISU proposal, which puts great emphasis on jumping, to a team of experts for further study.
The one common element in all the proposals will be the need for a Pentium IV calculator.
“What happened in the pairs event at Salt Lake City has destroyed and canceled in one minute all the effort … during the past 40 years to give credibility to judging and the sport,” said Japan’s Katsuichiro Hisanaga, the ISU figure skating vice president. “The damage caused to the image of figure skating and the ISU is enormous.
“The only way the ISU can regain its credibility is to show the entire world our firm will to really clean the house and establish a clear new judging system.”
Both the U.S. Figure Skating Association and Ice Skating Australia proposals use random selection of judges to minimize the possibilities for backroom deals. The fundamental difference between them is how each skater’s result would be calculated.
“On the whole, maybe I prefer the USFSA one, but I think they will take a part of the Australian proposal,” Cinquanta said.
– The U.S. system starts with 10 judges, who will use the current system of judging the skaters on technical merit and presentation with a scale to 6.0. Seven of the judges’ scores will be randomly selected for use. After factoring to put extra weight on technique in the short program and presentation in the free skate, the technical and presentation marks of each judge will be added. The median total score, or statistical consensus, of the seven judges’ scores will become each skater’s result. Skaters will be ranked on median total score.
“Using the median mark will make it very difficult for one or two judges acting in bad faith to change the result,” said USFSA executive director John LeFevre.
Applying its math to results from five 2001-02 competitions, the USFSA found few results would be changed.
– The Australian system starts with 14 judges, who also will use the current performance evaluation system. Nine of the judges’ scores will be randomly selected. The two highest and two lowest technical and presentation marks will be dropped. The remaining five technical marks and five presentation marks for each skater will be added together. The highest total wins.
As applied to the pairs event at the 2002 Olympics, the Australian math would have reaffirmed the original victory of the Russian pair. U.S. pair Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman would move from fifth to fourth.
