2026 Winter Olympics

[rlayt]

I don’t know! Allegations of penile injections are pretty crazy.

 

[RedBirdie]

Always a French judge.

 

[RedBirdie]

In other news, Slovakia absolutely stunned Finland in men's hockey.

 

[Big_rock_show]

Always a French judge.

Wasn’t it also a French judge in the 2002 pairs scandal?

 

[RedBirdie]

Wasn’t it also a French judge in the 2002 pairs scandal?

Yep. Which then gave us this god-awful current judging system that ruined the sport, imo. Damn French judges.

 

[KathySantoni]

Not an expert or aware of the drama but I thought the French had an amazing program tonight, they presented as water with an amazing fluidity and beauty over all. I enjoyed their number the most. The young woman reminded me of Ali MacGraw and Olivia Hussey. The male was not as appealing, he reminded me of a guy my son brought home for thanksgiving one year who had the gay sauna punchcard/frequent visitor look.

 

[Aizheng]

Yep. Which then gave us this god-awful current judging system that ruined the sport, imo. Damn French judges.

I have gotten into Figure skating for the first time this year, and it is very fascinating to me how the judging system is often similarly maligned as gymnastics. Some in the FS community even hold up gymnastics as a positive, at least for some situations.

To me, the key differences between the two are:
1. In FS, execution is scaled to the element. An element word 12 BV can be 6 (-5GOE) to 18 points worth (5GOE). FAlls are separate deductions in addition (1 point). To me, this leads to technical content (jumps being worth it quite often. For higher-level jumps, it seems mathematically impossible to lose more than you gain, even if you fall. Falling also seems to be much less of a drama event, and wins with a fall seem quite common. In addition, the same judges decide on start value and decide under rotation etc as GoE, which can also ensure that we do not have gymnastics’ double penalties due to independent D and E judges.
2. FS separates “artistry” (presentation, program and skating skills) from the execution of individual skills (GOE), but judges need to do both, and as a result, many feel that PCS is often neglected also in judging. This is similar to gymnastics’ artistry deductions that seem to also be difficult for judges next to their execution judging.
3. Transparency is much better for FS. I also like how in competitions, you see in real time what people are doing and GoE, but as a new fan, it was very difficult to follow in the beginning.

I would like for both sports to have artistry judging be separate from other judging. I think if you are focused on individual elements, it can be very difficult to also take in the whole program as you need it in “artistry”.

I would also like gymnastics to develop a system that assigns deductions to specific elements so that coaches and athletes can see how many deductions they get.

 

[BB12]

I also know nothing about the French pair (and it seems it's better it stays that way) but really enjoyed their routines. There was something mesmerising about the whale concept and I'm a sucker for a good vogue routine.

 

[Denn]

I feel like the judging system for skating has NOT ruined the sport, not even a little. The old system of using ordinals and factored placings was an utter disaster -- the brainchild of either a dolt or someone diobolical, I am not sure which. The idea that skaters often had to get help from a third skater to beat the second... totally asinine, I feel.

And if you look back at older programs, there's lots of empty skating around and empty space. Nowadays, we get a little bit of that at the beginning of programs in conjunction with harder jumps, but otherwise, programs are quite rich. Certainly technically, skating is better than ever.

Are there problems? Absolutely.

1. The spins should have higher values so that the GOEs can separate great and good spins better.
2. @Aizheng, I think you've hit a nail on the head about offloading program components to other judges — they don't even need to be as knowledgeable and skillful, honestly.
3. I also think that they should steal a trick from gymnastics of not letting judges from your own country judge you in the finals, at least if you are in the top 10. That would avoid stuff like these margins, by judge. Eek.

 

[BB12]

I feel like the judging system for skating has NOT ruined the sport, not even a little. The old system of using ordinals and factored placings was an utter disaster -- the brainchild of either a dolt or someone diobolical, I am not sure which. The idea that skaters often had to get help from a third skater to beat the second... totally asinine, I feel.

And if you look back at older programs, there's lots of empty skating around and empty space. Nowadays, we get a little bit of that at the beginning of programs in conjunction with harder jumps, but otherwise, programs are quite rich. Certainly technically, skating is better than ever.

Are there problems? Absolutely.

1. The spins should have higher values so that the GOEs can separate great and good spins better.
2. @Aizheng, I think you've hit a nail on the head about offloading program components to other judges — they don't even need to be as knowledgeable and skillful, honestly.
3. I also think that they should steal a trick from gymnastics of not letting judges from your own country judge you in the finals, at least if you are in the top 10. That would avoid stuff like these margins, by judge. Eek.

View attachment 13543

Wow! It's like they arent event bother to hide the 'home' scoring.

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

I also think that they should steal a trick from gymnastics of not letting judges from your own country judge you in the finals, at least if you are in the top 10. That would avoid stuff like these margins, by judge. Eek.

Yeah if five of top six receive their highest or second-highest score from their "home" judge something is not working as it should. The only non-corrupt explanation I can think of is that they're more familiar with their "own" skaters' style and performance and so subconsciously give them the benefit of the doubt on matters of artistry etc. But I fear I'm being very generous.