JUDGING RESULTS IN FIGURE SKATING AFTER THE ISU JUDGING SYSTEM WAS INTRODUCED IN 2004

Abstract

Figure skating is the most subjective winter sport. If in other competitions, the result of the athlete is clearly monitored by a stopwatch, here the judges give marks for the performance. Judges are people who can be biased in judging or simply can make mistakes. 2002 was a turning point in figure skating judging. After the 2002 Salt Lake City USA Winter Olympics scandal, the so-called six-zero scoring system was replaced by a new judging system. The purpose of the research is to analyze the judges’ scores and dependencies between the final result and the separate segments of the evaluation when the ISU judging system was introduced in 2004. In order to achieve the set goal, the judging protocols of the Winter Olympic Games in women’s figure skating were studied after the introduction of the ISU judging system in 2004. After the introduction of the ISU judging system, the evaluation of the programs has become much more precise, where each element is evaluated separately. Expanding the scale for evaluating technical elements from -5 to +5 after the Winter Olympic games in 2018, according to the analyses carried out, leads to a greater weighting of the judging panel, which consists of 9 judges, rather than the technical panel, consisting of 3 specialists. This could ultimately lead to more objective judging in figure skating.