Olympic team event

[Skater Boy]

Having read the communication, I'm not sure what I think about the scoring of the team event.

Instead of being based on total score earned, it's based on total placements. I haven't done the full math but this seems like it might benefit a team such as Japan. Let's say for example that the final 5 teams are Russia, Canada, USA, France, Japan. In this case, the Japanese ice dance team (the Reeds) are not in the same class as the dance teams from the other countries. Their numerical score would probably come in, I don't know, maybe 20 points behind the potential 4th-place Russian dance team? However, instead of being actually 20 points behind, they'd only be 1 point behind, because the scoring is based on placement (5th) rather than scores earned.

I think I would have preferred a score-based system. Would be interested to hear others' opinions though.

Yep, that's right. It is sort of like the ordinal system so it does favour Japan for example or even Italy or France who are almost non existent in some disciplines or are not very competitive. In dance and pairs for example Japan could be dead last but still have a chance for a medal if they say place first in ladies and men which is realistic. By the luck of the draw Canada could say place 4th in men, 2nd in dance, 3rd in pairs, and say4th in ladies yet be so close ie dance, men and ladies to say someone higher up and so far ahead of say the Reeds or the new Japanese pairs team yet the scores or results won't show the distance of how close they were to someone above and far ahead of those below.

[chuckm]

If it's scored like the WTT, then the top placer would get 5 points and the bottom placer 1 point. I don't see how this benefits Japan, who would at best score 12 total points (5 in men, 5 in ladies, 1 in pairs, 1 in dance) and even the firsts in singles aren't guaranteed. If Canada scored 2nd in two events and 3rd in two events, they'd have 14 points.

I think the idea is where the TEAM places, not the points scored.