Judges for 2013 ISU Championships

[Buttercup]

After looking over the judging assignments, as usual Ice Dance is the most "engineered" discipline.

JUNIOR WORLDS:
4 former SSRs: BLR, EST, UKR, UZB
3 eastern Europe: CZE, HUN, ISR
3 western Europe: FRA, GER, SUI
2 NA: CAN, USA
1 far East/other: CHN

WORLDS
5 former SSRs: AZE, RUS, UKR, UZB, LTU-which tends to score independently
3 Eastern Europe: FIN, HUN, SVK
3 Western Europe: FRA, GER, GBR
1 NA: USA
1 Far East/Other: AUS

Not all the judges sit on both SD and FD; 9 are selected randomly for each segment.

You have to consider who the ISU member federations are and how many are in each geographical region. There are only two NA members*, and both are represented on the JW panel, with 50% on the Worlds panel. How many Eastern European and Western European members are there? A lot. Percentage-wise, it looks to me like Europe is shockingly under-represented! Clearly this means people are going to be wuzrobbed.

Finland now counts as Eastern Europe?

* Unless you want to count Mexico and the Caribbean members, and even then it's not that many.

[Précision]

After looking over the judging assignments, as usual Ice Dance is the most "engineered" discipline.

JUNIOR WORLDS:
4 former SSRs: BLR, EST, UKR, UZB
3 eastern Europe: CZE, HUN, ISR
3 western Europe: FRA, GER, SUI
2 NA: CAN, USA
1 far East/other: CHN

WORLDS
5 former SSRs: AZE, RUS, UKR, UZB, LTU-which tends to score independently
3 Eastern Europe: FIN, HUN, SVK
3 Western Europe: FRA, GER, GBR
1 NA: USA
1 Far East/Other: AUS

Not all the judges sit on both SD and FD; 9 are selected randomly for each segment.

I'm also little puzzled how you find Finland to be part of eastern Europe? And also Israel?
Also, even if Estonia has been a part of the Soviet Union, their relationship with Russia isn't that warm. Estonians like to rebel quite lot.

For me, it's little disturbing, that the Cold War is still so present here, and the independence of the Judges is not so trusted. I know there is lots and lots of politics going on, but I truelly want to believe, that the judges are there to do the best they can. They too seem to love this sport as much as we fans do.

As for technical panels, there really isn't that much room for cultural differences or politics, that could effect to the results or how the panel calls the elements. 8 revolutions in a spin is the same 8 revolutions around the world. There is much more room for different interpretations in judges panel.

[ImaginaryPogue]

Buttercup, while I agree in principle, I'd argue that if we weighed the number of member nations in Europe vs the 4CC (the divide the ISU has set up with their Championship events) you'd find it in Europe's favour regardless.

Now I'm VERY curious what tech panels we get.

[dorispulaski]

There are a lot of close calls made by tech panels. The most interesting are negative calls by panel members who coach and choreograph or are involved with federations in a particular country. I.E. Bob Jones coaches Janie Skater, sister of Sally Skater.

Sally Skater tends to take off on a flat for her lutz, often flutzing. Bob Jones never notices Sally's flutz. Never. Sometimes his fellow panel member will notice it, and the head of the panel will say, "Yes it's a flutz." And Bob will say, "O, yes it was." But if his fellow panel member does not catch the flutz, then Sally gets a freebie non edge call.

The same happens in other close calls in other disciplines.

[Buttercup]

Buttercup, while I agree in principle, I'd argue that if we weighed the number of member nations in Europe vs the 4CC (the divide the ISU has set up with their Championship events) you'd find it in Europe's favour regardless.

What, the judging assignments? There really are a lot of European Feds - take a look at the list of member federations on the ISU website.

BTW, chuckm divided it into western Europe, eastern Europe (now including Finland and Israel) and former SSRs. I'd just like to point out that one of those, Uzbekistan, is an Asian country, and their skaters compete at 4CC. Though East/Southeast Asian federations may be underrepresented compared to both Europe and North America; I'd have to look at judging panels for the other disciplines to make a more informed comment on that subject.

Now I'm VERY curious what tech panels we get.

Now that is the truly important question.

[ImaginaryPogue]

What, the judging assignments? There really are a lot of European Feds - take a look at the list of member federations on the ISU website.

BTW, chuckm divided it into western Europe, eastern Europe (now including Finland and Israel) and former SSRs. I'd just like to point out that one of those, Uzbekistan, is an Asian country, and their skaters compete at 4CC. Though East/Southeast Asian federations may be underrepresented compared to both Europe and North America; I'd have to look at judging panels for the other disciplines to make a more informed comment on that subject.

I did. A 2 to 1 ratio of Europe to 4CC.

[Buttercup]

I did. A 2 to 1 ratio of Europe to 4CC.

But it's not North American countries that are underrepresented in the assignments, is it? And I think that's what chuckm was suggesting. At least, that's what I was responding to.