Turin – The scandal rocked the Salt Lake City Olympics. A gold medal bribery charge that changed figure skating forever, or so people say. It’s four years later and the new International Judging System will soon be judged itself when it performs on the world’s biggest stage: the Winter Olympics.
The new system, though, may not prevent a scandal any better than the old system. That’s according to the victims in Salt Lake.
“The problem with this system, it’s the confidentiality of the judging itself,” Canada’s David Pelletier said. “We don’t know where the marks are coming from. Who puts the mark on? It’s a mishmash of points and you come up with a number. So we probably would not have known about it.”
The Salt Lake scandal has stamped figure skating with an eternal black mark. Pelletier and his partner and now wife, Jamie Sale, were awarded the silver medal in pairs behind Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. However, the Canadians were later awarded the event’s second gold after it was revealed Russian skating officials pressured French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne to upgrade the Russians in exchange for a high score for the French ice dance team.
After the Games, out went the old 6.0 maximum system and in came a new system based on points acquired during the course of a program. There is no maximum. Less emphasis is placed on jumps and more on footwork and artistry. Every step, every second, counts for points. Skaters can make up ground faster, thus placing less emphasis on a skater’s reputation.
The International Skating Union installed the system in the 2004-05 season but the U.S. Figure Skating Association didn’t begin using it until this season. After a year, the new system is getting mixed reviews.
Before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis last month, eventual champion Johnny Weir said, “There are so, so many pros and cons in the system that I would take all of your time and I have my short program tomorrow.”
Skaters scrambled to adapt their programs to the new system, and not always successfully. In September, four months before nationals, Weir had to scratch his long program when told by judges it wasn’t hard enough.
If the athletes are having trouble understanding what works in the new system, the viewing public will have a tougher time.
There are two elements: a technical panel component and a judging panel component. The new technical panel consists of three judges who are responsible for identifying each element in the program.
The 12-member judging panel, three more than the old panel, looks at each element and its pre-assigned value. The judge then awards points up to plus-3 or minus-3 based on the quality of each element performed. For example, the base value for a triple axel is a 7.5. If the judge awards plus-2 for the jump, that element’s score is 9.5.
A computer takes all the scores and posts a mass number. If a skater has a question, good luck. The judges and their nationalities, unlike in the old system, are anonymous. That’s what concerns critics.
“Wow! Welcome to skating,” said Peter Carruthers, the 1984 silver medalist in pairs and who will cover Olympic figure skating for NBC. “I’m not saying that to dis the sport I care so much about. When you get into a sport like this, it’s subjective. And you know that when you come up in this sport that there are people who, from an artistic standpoint, like what you do, and they may not like what you do.”
Carruthers maintains this system is a major improvement on Salt Lake. A blind draw eliminates three of the judges’ scores and the high and low marks are thrown out from the ones remaining.
“It’s a team result,” he said. “We cannot guarantee you that the intent of the judge will always be honest. We cannot guarantee you that the expertise of any judge is always perfect. But what we can guarantee is the system has greatly diminished the effect one individual can have on any individual result.”
The change in emphasis from jumps to artistry and footwork has put some of the better athletes on edge. Salt Lake bronze medalist Timothy Goebel, dubbed “Mr. Quad” for the numerous four-revolution jumps he includes in his program, says mediocrity is being rewarded over athleticism.
“The face value for the quad is much too low,” said Goebel, only seventh at nationals.
But some skaters like the switch to artistry.
“The new system has made me a very, very strong skater,” Weir said. “I’ve never been in better shape. There is no time for breathing.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
