https://www.isu.org/communications/16248-isu-communication-2146/file
https://www.isu.org/communications/...or-publication-isu-id-vs-esen-05-02-2018/file
III Facts
The Alleged Offender is listed as International Judge for Ice Dance and for Single & Pair Skating for
the season 2017/2018 (ISU Communication No. 2111). She served as judge No. 7 on the panel of
judges at the Free Ice Dance panel for the Senior category at the 2017 ISU Challenger Series Golden
Spin International Competition in Zagreb.
The referee of this Ice Dance event, Ms. Leslie Keen, has reported her observations during the Free
Dance as follows:
“During the first warm-up group, I observed that Judge #7, Ms. Ece Esen (TUR), had a folder
underneath her personal judging papers on the stand…..
The contents of her folder included her personal judging papers and the Judges Details per
Skater from the Senior Short Dance as well as a print out of the Senior Dance event competitors
3
(including substitutes). On this list of event competitors, there is what appears to be preprepared
PC marks as well as placements for teams from 1 to 10, with a 3rd place listed for
the team from Turkey.
At the conclusion of the Free Dance event, I spoke privately with Ms. Esen and asked her about
the PC marks and placements written on the Event Competitors list from her folder. She stated
that she had written these marks and placements following the first practice (note that on this
document there are also marks and a placement listed for a team not present at the competition,
but a substitute entry)….
She continued to state that if I looked at the marks for the Short Dance, her marks for the event
would be the same as those she had written in advance on the event competitors sheet. On
analysing the Short Dance results, there is an alignment between these pre-prepared marks
and those she ultimately awarded. Based on her comment as well as the analysis, one can
assume that she was referencing this document with her pre- prepared marks for the Short
Dance (which I did not directly observe). She also brought this same sheet with pre-prepared
marks to the judges stand in her folder for the Free Dance.”
After the competition the Alleged Offender has sent an e-mail to the ISU Vice President Figure
Skating, Mr. Alexander Lakernik, explaining the conversation with the referee and the papers which
she had taken with her to the judges stand. The Alleged Offender wrote:
“After the competition I went and ask (the referee) if I can have my file because all my marking
papers are inside, and she said yes you can take your file, but I took one page from it and I
want to talk to you. She took the paper without my permission or without asking me of course
she is a referee she can look check but what she is trying to do is as I felt was a bit to disturb
me, we go to the room she show me which page she took, that was the page list of skaters which
was with me during the short dance practice that I took some notes near the names of skaters
with my own hand writing, I supposed to make up my mind not to mix the skaters because there
were 20 couples and its sometimes difficult for me to remember while judging its more practice
to grouping them but there were only 5 or 6 skaters the first group I mean, and I told her this
is for the short dance and you can check my marks for short dance you will see it they are
totally same and this paper is nothing it’s just my paper and my own notes?!!”
In her statement of reply of January 29, 2018, the Alleged Offender explained:
During Free Dance, Ms. Esen was present at the panel with "the folder'' provided by ISU
Organisation Committee at the very beginning of the Competition. There was no additional
paper or non-lSU documents with her. She was taking out "the marking sheets of the respective
couples" in order of their presence and upon her evaluation she was putting her marking sheets
away and closed (upside down) as it has to be……
There are no observations under the Report which evidences or states that Ms. Esen is USING
PAPERS OTHER THAN THE MARKING SHEETS, OR HER FOLDER IS OPEN…..
Then after during the ice resurfacing, the Referee, with considerably threatening approach,
took the folder; reviewed the folder page by page together with Ms. Esen. Upon such review
and Mrs. Keen's request, Ms. Esen also took "yellow papers" out of the folder, teared them in
front of her and threw them in to trash…..
4
The Referee finally took her folder in full, to look at the papers within the folder in detail…
On the subject list, which was submitted as an evidence, there were notes taken by Ms. Esen
during the first official practice, there is nothing to do with this paper, or has no help neither
during the Free Dance nor the short dance.”
The Alleged Offender concludes that there is no evidence that proves she had prepared marks and
that she used such marks during the performances. The evident thing is that she accidentally forgot
the " paper in question" (the paper with notes of her from the official practice) in her folder given by
the organising committee.
The Complainant is convinced that the explanations of the Referee in her Report as well as the
Alleged Offender's own statements strongly suggest that she used her pre-prepared marks and
rankings while judging. But in the opinion of Complainant this question is ultimately not decisive.
By the simple fact of bringing the list of participants with pre-prepared marks and placements to the
judge's stand, the Alleged Offender in any event gave the appearance of unethical behaviour and lack
of fairness in the sense of Article 4f of the ISU Code of Ethics.
The Interested Member, the Turkish Skating Federation, and the Turkish Disciplinary Commission,
have carried out an overview of this case in a manner of providing a diligent response. As per the
results of investigations and analysis of the situation within the scope of above mentioned
observations, the Federation has reached a consensus that the presence of the “referred paper” in the
file during the competition is an inappropriate situation and a behavioural mistake conducted by the
Alleged Offender. However, the observations also point out that this mistake has been carried out in
an unconscious manner without pursuing any intention of being used during competition and
effecting the judging of the performance of the competitors.
https://www.isu.org/communications/...or-publication-isu-id-vs-esen-05-02-2018/file
III Facts
The Alleged Offender is listed as International Judge for Ice Dance and for Single & Pair Skating for
the season 2017/2018 (ISU Communication No. 2111). She served as judge No. 7 on the panel of
judges at the Free Ice Dance panel for the Senior category at the 2017 ISU Challenger Series Golden
Spin International Competition in Zagreb.
The referee of this Ice Dance event, Ms. Leslie Keen, has reported her observations during the Free
Dance as follows:
“During the first warm-up group, I observed that Judge #7, Ms. Ece Esen (TUR), had a folder
underneath her personal judging papers on the stand…..
The contents of her folder included her personal judging papers and the Judges Details per
Skater from the Senior Short Dance as well as a print out of the Senior Dance event competitors
3
(including substitutes). On this list of event competitors, there is what appears to be preprepared
PC marks as well as placements for teams from 1 to 10, with a 3rd place listed for
the team from Turkey.
At the conclusion of the Free Dance event, I spoke privately with Ms. Esen and asked her about
the PC marks and placements written on the Event Competitors list from her folder. She stated
that she had written these marks and placements following the first practice (note that on this
document there are also marks and a placement listed for a team not present at the competition,
but a substitute entry)….
She continued to state that if I looked at the marks for the Short Dance, her marks for the event
would be the same as those she had written in advance on the event competitors sheet. On
analysing the Short Dance results, there is an alignment between these pre-prepared marks
and those she ultimately awarded. Based on her comment as well as the analysis, one can
assume that she was referencing this document with her pre- prepared marks for the Short
Dance (which I did not directly observe). She also brought this same sheet with pre-prepared
marks to the judges stand in her folder for the Free Dance.”
After the competition the Alleged Offender has sent an e-mail to the ISU Vice President Figure
Skating, Mr. Alexander Lakernik, explaining the conversation with the referee and the papers which
she had taken with her to the judges stand. The Alleged Offender wrote:
“After the competition I went and ask (the referee) if I can have my file because all my marking
papers are inside, and she said yes you can take your file, but I took one page from it and I
want to talk to you. She took the paper without my permission or without asking me of course
she is a referee she can look check but what she is trying to do is as I felt was a bit to disturb
me, we go to the room she show me which page she took, that was the page list of skaters which
was with me during the short dance practice that I took some notes near the names of skaters
with my own hand writing, I supposed to make up my mind not to mix the skaters because there
were 20 couples and its sometimes difficult for me to remember while judging its more practice
to grouping them but there were only 5 or 6 skaters the first group I mean, and I told her this
is for the short dance and you can check my marks for short dance you will see it they are
totally same and this paper is nothing it’s just my paper and my own notes?!!”
In her statement of reply of January 29, 2018, the Alleged Offender explained:
During Free Dance, Ms. Esen was present at the panel with "the folder'' provided by ISU
Organisation Committee at the very beginning of the Competition. There was no additional
paper or non-lSU documents with her. She was taking out "the marking sheets of the respective
couples" in order of their presence and upon her evaluation she was putting her marking sheets
away and closed (upside down) as it has to be……
There are no observations under the Report which evidences or states that Ms. Esen is USING
PAPERS OTHER THAN THE MARKING SHEETS, OR HER FOLDER IS OPEN…..
Then after during the ice resurfacing, the Referee, with considerably threatening approach,
took the folder; reviewed the folder page by page together with Ms. Esen. Upon such review
and Mrs. Keen's request, Ms. Esen also took "yellow papers" out of the folder, teared them in
front of her and threw them in to trash…..
4
The Referee finally took her folder in full, to look at the papers within the folder in detail…
On the subject list, which was submitted as an evidence, there were notes taken by Ms. Esen
during the first official practice, there is nothing to do with this paper, or has no help neither
during the Free Dance nor the short dance.”
The Alleged Offender concludes that there is no evidence that proves she had prepared marks and
that she used such marks during the performances. The evident thing is that she accidentally forgot
the " paper in question" (the paper with notes of her from the official practice) in her folder given by
the organising committee.
The Complainant is convinced that the explanations of the Referee in her Report as well as the
Alleged Offender's own statements strongly suggest that she used her pre-prepared marks and
rankings while judging. But in the opinion of Complainant this question is ultimately not decisive.
By the simple fact of bringing the list of participants with pre-prepared marks and placements to the
judge's stand, the Alleged Offender in any event gave the appearance of unethical behaviour and lack
of fairness in the sense of Article 4f of the ISU Code of Ethics.
The Interested Member, the Turkish Skating Federation, and the Turkish Disciplinary Commission,
have carried out an overview of this case in a manner of providing a diligent response. As per the
results of investigations and analysis of the situation within the scope of above mentioned
observations, the Federation has reached a consensus that the presence of the “referred paper” in the
file during the competition is an inappropriate situation and a behavioural mistake conducted by the
Alleged Offender. However, the observations also point out that this mistake has been carried out in
an unconscious manner without pursuing any intention of being used during competition and
effecting the judging of the performance of the competitors.
