- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
The current issue of Blades on Ice has a feature by George Rossano critiquing the performance of the New Judging System at the Olympics. Dr. Rossano is a mathematician and space physicist with a keen interest in figure skating. He has written a goodly number of articles, some with non-trivial statistical content, pointing out the weaknesses of the ISU judging system.
Here are his main points, with regard to whether the ISU judging system "passed the test" at the 2006 Olympics.
1. In ice dance, despite the claim of the CoP to inject some objectivity into the process, the judges' scores did not reflect any systematic agreement. "In the Compulsory Dance segment, five couples were scored best by at least one of the 12 judges. Moreover, for each of these five couples, another judge considered them dreadful. Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, for example, were scored best by one judge and ninth by another."
So much for objectivity.
2. The random draw might have had an impact in the results -- and it's just a matter of time before it does -- but it did not play much of a role in the 2006 Olympics.
3. The judges are using the program component scores pretty much the same way they used the second mark under the ordinal system. Under the ordinal system, the judges by and large gave a 5.9 to the skater they thought was best, a 5.8 to the second best, etc. Now they give 8.0 across the board to their first place choice, 7.5 for the person they think was second best, 7.0 for third, etc.
In some cases this led to puzzling results, such as Plushenko getting 8's in choreography (what choreography?) and transitions (what transitions?)
4. There was some concern that the NJS is leading to watered-down programs on the tech side (the ladies' medallists managed only 5, 4 and 4 clean triples compared to the 6 or 7 that we are used to seeing at championship events.) Time will tell whether this is a trend or an anomaly that is about to be set on its ear by a new wave of triple-Axels and quads.
Rossano did not have much to say about the pairs, completely passing over the Zhang and Zhang restart question.
At least there weren't any big scandals. But again, whether that has anything to do with the judging system cannot be determined from such a small sample.
Comments?
My overall feeling was that if this is the best that Rossano can do -- he is an inveterate CoP opponent and a perennial thorn in Speedy's side, LOL -- I guess the NJS did OK in its Olympic debut.
Here are his main points, with regard to whether the ISU judging system "passed the test" at the 2006 Olympics.
1. In ice dance, despite the claim of the CoP to inject some objectivity into the process, the judges' scores did not reflect any systematic agreement. "In the Compulsory Dance segment, five couples were scored best by at least one of the 12 judges. Moreover, for each of these five couples, another judge considered them dreadful. Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, for example, were scored best by one judge and ninth by another."
So much for objectivity.
2. The random draw might have had an impact in the results -- and it's just a matter of time before it does -- but it did not play much of a role in the 2006 Olympics.
3. The judges are using the program component scores pretty much the same way they used the second mark under the ordinal system. Under the ordinal system, the judges by and large gave a 5.9 to the skater they thought was best, a 5.8 to the second best, etc. Now they give 8.0 across the board to their first place choice, 7.5 for the person they think was second best, 7.0 for third, etc.
In some cases this led to puzzling results, such as Plushenko getting 8's in choreography (what choreography?) and transitions (what transitions?)
4. There was some concern that the NJS is leading to watered-down programs on the tech side (the ladies' medallists managed only 5, 4 and 4 clean triples compared to the 6 or 7 that we are used to seeing at championship events.) Time will tell whether this is a trend or an anomaly that is about to be set on its ear by a new wave of triple-Axels and quads.
Rossano did not have much to say about the pairs, completely passing over the Zhang and Zhang restart question.
At least there weren't any big scandals. But again, whether that has anything to do with the judging system cannot be determined from such a small sample.
Comments?
My overall feeling was that if this is the best that Rossano can do -- he is an inveterate CoP opponent and a perennial thorn in Speedy's side, LOL -- I guess the NJS did OK in its Olympic debut.
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