ISU Communication No. 2663 - Officials for 2024/25 season

[Andrea82]

ISU have published the updated List of Referees, Judges, Technical Controllers, Technical Specialists, Data & Replay Operators season 2024/25 for Single & Pair Skating, Ice Dance and Synchronized Skating, valid for 2024/2025 season.

https://www.isu.org/inside-isu/isu-communications/communications/34134-isu-communication-2663/file

Going through them, the changes compared to last season seem to be

Single and Pairs

New international judges:

Mr Valdislav Vladimirov (Armenia) * Also moving from Russia to Armenia
Ms Rachel Caughley (Australia)
Ms Fanny Eve Tapp (Canada)
Mr Tomas Janecko (Czech Republic)
Ms Ksenia Petrova (Estonia)
Mr Jorge Canizares (Ecuador)
Ms Mia Laakso (Finland)
Mr Nicolo Novarino (Italy)
Mr Atsushi Usuda (Japan)
Ms Nicole Siegenthaler (Switzerland)
Mr Jeffrey Charbonneau (USA)

Retired/delated ISU judges

Beth Crane (Canada)
Pekka Leskinen (Finland)
Mika Saarelainen (Finland)
Margaret Worsfold (Great Britain)
Halina Gordon-Poltorak (Poland)
Beatrice Pfister (Switzerland)
** Almost all due to reaching the age limit of 70 years old. I am sure that Crane, Leskinen, Worsfold and Gordon-Poltorak were born in 1954.
Except for Crane, the other 5 all served as judges or referees at Olympic Games.

Retired/delated International judges

Georg Ganner (Austria)
Marion Jäger (Austria)
Dagmar Kotnauer (Austria)
Guangying Qin (China) * former ISU judge, demoted from ISU to International status last year
Frantisek Baudys (Czech Republic)
Nikolai Salnikov (Estonia) * former ISU judge, demoted from ISU to International status last year
Tuire Kuronen (Finland) * former ISU judge, demoted from ISU to International status last year
Didier Higel (France)
Uta Limpert (Germany) * she remains in the list of judges for Synchro.
Takeo Kuno (Japan)
Yong Yun Hye (North Korea)
Andreea Gmelin (Romania) * former ISU judge, demoted from ISU to International status last year
Natalia Primachenko (Russia)
Kveta Matejova (Slovakia) * former ISU judge, demoted from ISU to International status last year
David Munoz Perez (Spain) * he is still in the list of Ice Dance judges

Changes of ISU Member

Anny Hou (ISU judge) from Taiwan to Belgium
Shi Wei (ISU judge) from China to Canada

Technical specialists promoted from International to ISU status. - Single

Yue Cao (China)
Tunca Unlu (Turkey) *He was demoted last year, and re-instated now. Possibly the issue was lack of attendance to a recertification seminar which has now been done.

New international Technical Specialists - Single

Tomislav Mikulandric (Croatia)
Erik Antero Martoma (Finland)
Maylin Wende (Germany)
David Richardson (Great Britain)
Giorgia Carrossa (Italy)
Yoshie Onda (Japan)
Matej Gregorc (Slovenia)
Jennifer Park (Sweden)
Dana Graham (USA)

New international Technical Specialists - Pairs

Kerstin Frank (Austria)
Cong Han (China)
Samantha Payne (Great Britain)
Marc Weitzman (USA)

Retired/delated ISU Technical Specialist

Todd Sand (USA)

New ISU technical controllers - Pairs

Laurene Collin-Knoblauch (Canada) * Already technical specialist. Taking advantage of the recently introduced rule change allowing technical specialists to become technical controllers.


New International technical controllers - Pairs

Katarhina Rauch (Austria)
Feng Huang (China)
Leena Laaksonen (Finland)
Emilie Billow (Sweden)
Eyerly Dawn (USA)

New International technical controllers - Singles

Andrea Derby (Canada)
Almila Arikan Sarbanoglu (Great Britain)
Ursa Krusec (Slovenia)
Steven Hsu (USA)

Come-back

Ubavka Kutinou-Novakovic (Bosnia Herzegoniva, ISU judge in Single, Pairs and Ice Dance, and Technical Controller for Pairs). She was delated in January 2023 from all lists.

Ice Dance

New international judges

Mr Valdislav Vladimirov (Armenia) * It is a come-back, now for Amernia. He used to be a judge for Russia.
Ms Lolita Katsora (Belarus)
Mr Ethan Swinburnson (Canada)
Ms Yuqing Liu (China)
Ms Riitta Elina Turunen (Finland)
Mr François Soubiran (France)
Mr Stephan Sparakowski (Germany)
Ms Bettina Langwald-Maid (Germany)
Mr Ryan Candy (Great Britain)
Mr Sundeep Pandya (Great Britain)
Ms Julia Rey (USA) * she is now technical specialist, controller and judge.

Retired/delated ISU judges

Mika Saarelainen (Finland)
Christopher Buchanan (Great Britain)
Halina Gordon-Poltorak (Poland)
Jennifer Mast (USA)

Gordon-Poltarok, Buchanan and Mast reached the age limit. They all served as judges or referees at Olympic Games.

Demoted from ISU to International status

Tianyi Zhang (China) * She has not been particularly active since having judged 2018 Olympics.

Changes of ISU Member

Yan Lukouski, from Belarus to Slovakia

New International Technical Specialists:

Jonathan Guerreiro (Australia)
Elizabeth Rivard (Canada)
Xibei Li (China)
Yiyi Zhang (China)
Kamila Vokoun Hajkova (Switzerland)
Christian Nuchtern (Germany)
Paul Bellantuono (USA)

Promoted from International to ISU status
Cedric Pernet * who also moved Federation, from France to Switzerland

New ISU technical controllers

Rock LeMay (Canada) * Already technical specialist. Taking advantage of the recently introduced rule change allowing technical specialists to become technical controllers.
Joanna Budner (Poland) * Already technical specialist.
Slavka Grincova (Slovakia) * Already technical specialist.
Janis Engel (USA)

New International technical controllers

Marco Faggioli (Italy)

Disclaimer 1: I may have done some mistakes cross-checking the lists
Disclaimer 2: ISU may have done some mistakes in drafting the document. For instance, Jamie McGrigor was born in 1954 and so he should be delated because of age limit.

 

[ladyjane]

Thank you so much for this @Andrea82. It's quite a job to find all these new and retired judges and spcialists. I was saddend by the name of Todd sand among the retired specialists although it is known why. I presume we all know the reasons, but it's sad nonetheless.

I have one question: why is there a new judge deriving from Belarus in ID? I thought Belarus was banned or doesn't his apply to officials? Or is this just a mistake?

 

[Andrea82]

I have one question: why is there a new judge deriving from Belarus in ID? I thought Belarus was banned or doesn't his apply to officials? Or is this just a mistake?

Yes, Belarussian and Russian officials aren't allowed to officiate in ISU competitions. However, their officials aren't banned to take ISU exams.

 

[TT_Fin]

I am a little bit surprised to see Mika Saarelainen on retired/delated list but on another hand I am not. He has his job as a steward and is a popular commentator, too. But he was not judging last season, I think, so maybe it is lack of time.

 

[saine]

Disclaimer 2: ISU may have done some mistakes in drafting the document. For instance, Jamie McGrigor was born in 1954 and so he should be delated because of age limit.

Skate BC/YT announced Jamie McGrigor's retirement here, so definitely an ISU mistake.

 

[lariko]

Cong Han (China)

how cool is that!

 

[PaulE]

Thank you @Andrea82 for the links. I remember very well watching Yoshie Onda on TV and I was in the audience (with my late sweet wife) to watch Kerstin Frank at the Nebelhorn in 2013.

 

[Andrea82]

Skate BC/YT announced Jamie McGrigor's retirement here, so definitely an ISU mistake.

The list has been updated and he has been indeed delated.
Other changes

• Ubavka Kutinou-Novakovic is back as International Technical Controller for Pairs rather than ISU. So no promotion.
• Rada Lamsam (Thailand) is back in the list of international judges. She became an international judge in 2019. Then she was dropped from the list at the beginning of 2023/24 season
• Yun Hye Yong (North Korea) is not retired.

Plus

• New international Ice Dance judge: Francois Soubiran (France) * This was my mistake, he was also in the August's version but I didn't notice him.

 

[Andrea82]

Judges promoted from International to ISU status last week in Oberstdorf

Single and Pairs

Ms. Karen Harris (Australia)
Ms. Mélanie Prague (France)
Mr. Jerry Hilgert (Luxembourg)
Mr. Rotterud Runas Espen (Norway)
Ms. Alenka Zidar Sambolec (Slovenia)
Ms. Nina Bischoff (Switzerland)
Ms. Kristina Blom (Sweden)
Ms. Dawn Eyerly (USA)

Ice Dance

Ms. Gabriele Streil (Austria)
Ms. Jao Limin (Canada)
Ms. Francesca Mineo (Italy)

ISU level is required to officiate at ISU Championships, Olympic Games, Qualifying Competition for Olympics, Grand Prix Final, Youth Olympic Winter Game.
For Olympics it is also required to having served at least twice at ISU Championships/Qualifying Competition for the Olympic Games, before the draw.

Other amendments compared to the list published this summer:

• Marius Siudek (Poland) is reinstated as ISU technical specialist for Pairs and international technical specialist for Single. Last year, he was dropped to international status for Pairs and out of the list for single.
• Sara Azoulay Pedersen (Denmark, Ice Dance) and Kim Louise Ettrup (Denmark, Single and Pairs) are deleted as international judges. Ettrup was active recently (JGP 2023) while Pedersen hasn't judged at international level since Bavarian Open 2020.

 

[Andrea82]

Draw for 2025 ISU Championships

Senior World

Men
Bulgaria
China
Croatia
Czechia
Estonia
Finland
France
Great Britain
Hungary
Israel
Latvia
Sweden


Women
Belgium
Czechia
France
Israel
Italy
Japan
Norway
Poland
Romania
Switzerland
Slovakia
Sweden
USA

Pairs
Austria
China
Finland
Great Britain
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Poland
Sweden
Ukraine
USA

Ice Dance
Azerbijan
Canada
China
Estonia
Georgia
Italy
South Korea
Lithuania
Netherlands
Switzerland
Slovakia
Ukraine
USA


Europeans

Men
AUT, BUL, CZE, ESP, EST, FIN, GEO, GER, ITA, LAT, POL, SVK, TUR

Women
BUL, CZE, FIN, FRA, GER, ISR, ITA, NOR, ROU, SLO, SRB, SUI, SWE

Pairs
AUT, BEL, CZE, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, ITA, NED, POL, SWE, UKR

Ice Dance
AZE, CZE, ESP, EST, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, ITA, NED, POL, SUI

Four Continents

Men
Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Mexico, Usa, Uzbekistan
Alternates: Romania, Poland, Spain, Estonia

Women
Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, USA
Alternates: Germany, Finland, Great Britain, Lithuania

Pairs
Australia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, New Zealand, Ukraine, USA
Alternates: Serbia, Netherlands, Austria, Italy

Ice Dance
Australia, Canada, China, Czechia, Finland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, USA
Alternates: Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Austria

Clearly, some 4CC countries such as Hong Kong and Taipei didn't enter the draw as they have precedence over Euro Feds.

Junior Worlds

Men
BUL, FIN, FRA, GER, HUN, ISR, ITA, JPN, NZL, POL, SUI, TUR, USA

Women
EST, FRA, GEO, GER, JPN, KAZ, KOR, LTU, MEX, NED, NOR, RSA, SUI

Pair
CAN, CZE, ESP, EST, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, ITA, JPN, SVK, UKR, USA

Ice Dance
AUT, CZE, ESP, EST, FIN, FRA, GEO, GER, ISR, ITA, JPN, TUR, UKR


Source: https://www.isu.org/inside-isu/isu-communications/communications/34482-isu-communication-2674/file

 

[4everchan]

Wow..Canada lost these draws... Only one judge at both senior and junior worlds..