I feel bad for Patrick being so targeted by disgruntle figure skating fans, figure heads and media alike recently. Something he really doesn't deserve, but more to do with the nature/faults of human judging and sometimes the politics of this sport.
Such problem is always there with any systems consist of human judgement using numerics. They conflict by nature. How can you expect 'cognition' and 'interpretation' will always be correctly, consistently and equally applied using numeric with 100% success rate? To do such thing would be impossible. Plus the fact they also modify points/rules year by year (a fall is less penalized than the 1/2/3 years before), makes the idea of relative comparison/impression bit of a farce. Jumps became currencies and are no longer about beauty and whether it is suitably applied or well executed within the context of a fully realized artistic program with good musicality and interpretation. The very reasons people watch figure skating as oppose to gymnastics for example.
While the problem is always there. The problem only became more obvious when the skater failed to deliver what they are suppose to on the day, or the indirect effect of a poorly/slanted judged competition early in the season. When there appear to be NO recaliberation process after (internal briefing to put right to wrong on what should be the correct mark given comparatively field wide. If there is, these result should be published for public scrutiny/interest). Other wise the system ends up haywire when different skaters are seen to be given different 'yardstick' with the rest, it ends up a conflict between those think they deserve it to those who do not. When there are wide disagreements, who looses? The skater does, the sport does.
In general any human judgement adapting numeric are susceptible to
- Residual/Psychology problems (Reputation, Impressions/Environmental factors, Influencing, Peer pressure.)
- Latency (Without enough time to process and deliberate, how the judges feel 'in the moment' may be different after when they have time to process and can compare with the whole field more objectively.)
Like many, I suggested the score system need to be improved and put forward some ideas forward. TES with expanding the GOE scale of values that reward risks and penalize failures and contrivances (do enough just to score points rather than sport performance). The PCS breaking them into 2 categories/panelists; SS and TR and Execution on 1; Performance, interpretation, choreography on another with judges that are not anonymous. To ensure high quality of judging with real depth of realization means we require those who are qualified to judge the artistic aspect of skating performance without anonymity, to train to think holistically, comparatively according to what is delivered on the day and not subject to typical influences. I would also hope the second panelist could offer constructive comments and feedback other than numeric after the competition. Yes, we need Simon Cowell judging Whitney Houston, and tell her she is crap when she delivered crap that day. (I paid serious £££ to a Whitney Huston concert a while back and I was really disappointed with her singing, frankly someone need to tell the great Diva she is not great all the time! Just like Patrick Chan when he failed to deliver his best on the day, and similarly shower him with praises when he did.)
I have asked before if there had been proper attempt by the ISU to address incorrect/widely diverse markings from one competition to the next, through a field wide 'recalibration' and internal briefing. I suspect NOT, due to the young and immature system, old traditional conservative sport culture and organisation, lack in resources, or dare I suggest - basic pride and arrogance that came with any human judging and organisation? To apply such exercise would certainly admit there might be possible faults in the system and to explore it further would prove certain skaters are indeed getting preferential treatment.
Yet human judgement by nature has its own tendencies and natural problems, it might be good to acknowledge it sooner than later to ensure only the highest quality of judging is correctly applied through out, and assures credibility to the sport. Something I think the sport has never fully recovered from the 2002 Olympics scandal (which was when I left the sport then - until 2010 Olympics when the ladies figure skating brought me back).
Of course had it actually happened that way, do you think there wouldn't be as much outrage anyways? There would likely be arguments that Takahashi should heve won the LP by at least 12 points. Anything short of that requires a system overhaul.
