ISU Standings Calculation | Golden Skate

ISU Standings Calculation

samson

Medalist
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
I was wondering if there's someone who could help me better understand how the ISU world ranking system works? The math seems off to me when I go to the ISU page.

http://www.isu.org/en/single-and-pa...tatistics-and-world-standings/world-standings

By the way I understand the ranking system, scores are given by amassing all the points a skater got last season and this season at 100% of their value and any points amassed in the 12/13 season at 70% of their value.

I was looking at ladies worlds rankings and here's what I found.

Let's starts with Elizaveta, the Number 1 ranked skater. While it looks like they have already factored the 12/13 season numbers by .7 when I add them all the numbers up it equals 5085 points. That's 544 points she should have that aren't counted. When trying to account for the missing points here's what I found: There was no event where she earned specifically 544 points. So I checked to see if maybe she was missing several events, and in fact if you add the 252 she got for her second best grand prix in 2012 with one of the 292 points she got for a grand prix in 2013 - that is the missing 544 points.

Why aren't they included?

I then added Mao's points together and hers does indeed add up to 3920 as the list claims. But also, Mao's score comes from only 6 competitions while Eliza's comes from a possible 12 (only 10 are actually being used to add up)

When you get to Julia, her score is 479 points lower than it should be. This time it's both her grand prixs from the 12/13 season.

THEN, if you go to Satoko, she doesn't have ANY of her points from the 12/13 season counted. That's three competitions missing. If Julia and Satoko had all of their points counted Satoko and she would also be ahead of Mao.

I then checked with other skaters like Ashley, who also had a deficit - and finding the missing points wasn't as obvious to me.

I decided to add up the scores myself and I re-ranked the top 40 women here's what I came to. I've included next to their score how much their ranking would change positive or negative. Scores with asterisks are adjusted scores.

1. Elizaveta Tuktamesheva 5085* No change
2. Ashley Wagner 4816* +5
3. Gracie Gold 4613* +3
4. Elena Radianova 4555* +1
5. Satoko Miyahara 4330* -1
6. Julia Lipnitskaia 4304* -3
7. Anna Pogorilaya 4068* -1
8. Mao Asada 3920 -6
9. Kanako Murakami 3893* +1
10. Adelina Sotnikova 3812 -1
11. Viktoria Helgesson 3123* +4
12. Rika Honga 3122* +1
13. Joshi Helgesson 2774* +9
14. Carolina Kostner 2762 -3
15. Samantha Cesario 2734* +1
16. Mae B. Meite 2733* +2
17. Polina Edmunds 2702 -5
18. Zijun Li 2689* +2
19. Courtney Hicks 2656* -5
20. Haruka Imai 2520* -20
21. Alena Leanova 2461* -4
22. Gabriella Daleman 2394* +3
23. Mirai Nagasu 2321* +4
24. Alaine Chartrand 2299* +2
______________________________

25. Nathalie Weinzierl 2207* +7
26. Valentina Marchei 2177 -5
27. Nicole Rajicova 2077* -1
28. Roberta Rodeghiero 2062* -1
29. Evgenia Medvedeva 2039 -6
30. Serafima Sakhanovich 2030 -6
31. Brooklee Han 1903*+2
32. So Youn Park 1790* -1
33. Christina Gao 1696 -3
34. Laurine Lecavelier 1569* +1
35. Hae Jin Kim 1540* +3
36. Miyabi Oba 1514* +3
37. Natalia Popova 1510* +3
38. Agnes Zawadzki 1497 -4
39. Nikol Gosviani 1450 -3
40. Maria Sotskova 1408 -3

The common denominator I found with scores that were still the same after I added them up was those were all skaters that only had points amassed from only two out of three seasons. It didn't matter if the season was 12/13 or 14/15.

I'm not sure why this is, but it does seem to be relatively significant for some skaters, specifically with Grand Prix assignments. The only skater that should be negatively affected for grand prix would be Valentina if she were to decide to compete next year. She would drop out of the top 24 to 26th.

The other skaters that would drop out of the top 24 are Evgenia and Serafima but it wouldn't necessarily affect their grand prix assignments because they still are in the top 24 seasons best.

It would likely positively affect Mirai and Alaine because they would go from being out of the top 24 to just inside it - which should guarantee them one assignment each, which is significant since neither finished top 12 at worlds or were in the top 24 seasons best.

I haven't looked at the other disciplines yet - but I'm curious could anyone explain this? Why is there this discrepancy? Maybe there's a rule I'm missing?

I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but if this is a mistake what are peoples thoughts? It's potentially alarming, because even if it's just a mistake on the ISU's calculation system it's still a pretty big one. That would mean in the top 40 ranking only 27.5% of those scores are accurate.

What's going on? :shrug:
 
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KIG

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 16, 2014
I haven't looked at the other disciplines yet - but I'm curious could anyone explain this? Why is there this discrepancy? Maybe there's a rule I'm missing?

2.3 Within the preceding two seasons and the current season the following events will be
considered for the ISU World Standings order, season’s factors as per C.1. to be considered:

2.3.1 ISU Championships and Olympic Winter Games: The best result by points per
season; the best two results by points over a period not longer than 2 completed
seasons plus the current season;

2.3.2 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating and Final: The two best results by points per
season; the best four results by points over a period not longer than 2 completed
seasons plus the current season;

2.3.3 ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating and Final: The two best results by points
per season; the best four results by points over a period not longer than 2 completed
seasons plus the current season;

2.3.4 International Senior Calendar Competitions: The two best results by points per
season; the best four results by points over a period not longer than 2 completed
seasons plus the current season;

http://static.isu.org/media/99358/1629-world-standing-sandp_id.pdf
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
I was wondering if there's someone who could help me better understand how the ISU world ranking system works? The math seems off to me when I go to the ISU page. ...

Sort-of-picky (sorry), but sort-of-important comment:
Your question (per the details in your full OP) is about ISU World Standings.
http://www.isuresults.com/ws/ws/wsladies.htm

Not to be confused with ISU Season's World Rankings.

Two very different metrics with names that unfortunately are quite similar.

The similarity in names has caused a lot of confusion in previous GS threads. Just trying to minimize confusion going forward.

2.3 Within the preceding two seasons and the current season the following events will be
considered for the ISU World Standings order, season’s factors as per C.1. to be considered: ...

Thx to KIG for posting the salient answer :).
 
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