Judges, fairness and the past

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Martina Frammartino

The most important thing for any competition is fairness. We all want to see good competitions, but if the competitors are good and the result is distorted by those who should monitor the fairness of the competition, this isn’t a competition anymore. This is a farce. If an athlete is doped, he is suspended. He hasn’t respected the rules, and rightly his results are deleted, and he is banned from competitions. But what if it’s a referee, or a judge, who doesn’t respect the rules?

In 1997 the Italian long jumper Giovanni Evangelisti received a World bronze medal that didn’t deserve because a judge has falsified the measurement of one of his jumps. The truth emerged over two months later, and he gave back the medal to the right winner, the American Larry Myricks.

For reference: giovanni-evangelisti-and-his-medal-for-rigged-long-jump.

In the 2012 Olympic Games the American gymnast Aly Raisman was initially in fourth place behind the Romanian Catalina Ponor in the balance beam final, but her coach Bela Karoly protested, saying that it wasn’t counted the full difficulty done by Raisman, the score was rightly corrected and Raisman won the bronze. I’ve found some explanation here and here.

For a fair sport the results can be contested if there’s a big problem bound to the judging. So, why for the ISU this isn’t true?

A change after a results is announced undermine the credibility of the sport? There was many other controversies in the sports, a lot even in the Olympic Games. Many are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_Games_scandals_and_controversies.

So it’s better to have wrong scores – ISU has clearly written that aren’t allowed protests against a wrong identification of an element or of a level of difficulty, although it results in a lower or higher score – than to admit a mistake and to have the right scores for all the skaters?

Let’s see, for example, at a competition of the 2019-2020 season, the Internationaux de France. From the TP Handbook 2019-2020:

Lys has made a really interesting thread on Twitter about a sit spin:

Previously in this program the Technical Panel has made another huge mistake. This is the landing of Chen’s triple Axel:

In the first screenshot Chen’s foot is fully on the ice. In the second he is touching the ice only with the toe pick, in the third he is again in air. He totally lost control of the jump. After that, this isn’t a landing anymore. It’s a fall. In the last screenshot he is sustained firmly by both hands, with the hip higher than the head, the left foot is fully in the air and the right foot in that position can only support less weight than the hands.

This is Chen’s protocol:

Two big mistakes in a single program. Let’s see who was in the TP and how the short program ended.

The Technical Specialist Vanessa Gusmeroli, a former skater (bronze at World Championship in 1997) needs urgently of a new pair of glasses, and this isn’t the first or the last time that I have more than some dubious on her calls. In the TP with her there was the American Wendy Enzmann, but surely it must be a coincidence that two mistakes has aided an American skater. Considering the free program, Chen would deservedly win easily the competition anyway, but why Samarin has lost the equally deserved joy to win a program? Why mistakes as these can’t be contested? The difference is 4.94 points. How many results at World Championship or Olympic Games would have changed with a difference of 4.94 points in the program of only one skater? I watch only from 2010-2011 season.

60 medals out of 132, among them 5 of the 8 Olympic gold medals, would have changed owner. With a difference equal to the value of the two mistakes that the technical panel actually committed in a single program, Chen’s short program at the Internationaux de France 2019.

These mistakes were an isolated occurrence so we don’t need to be worried about what could happen in other competitions? Not exactly. The 2020-2021 season is really strange, we all agree on this, but according to ISU in autumn 2020 were held four Grand Prix Competition (Skate America, Cup of China, Rostelecom Cup, NHK Trophy), even if they were domestic event. In America the judges and the TP were all experienced.

For the first six judges I’ve calculated the national bias (table on the right) in the international competitions from season 2016-2017 to season 2019-2020. The way in which I’ve calculated the bias is explained here. What interested me now is that all of them have judged several competitions. Even Stefanie Mathewson, that isn’t in my list, has judged several international competition when the marks of judges were secret, or she was in a TP and so she don’t appears in my list. And also Todd Bromley, Wendy Enzmann, Denise Williamson and David Santee (silver medallist at the World Championship in 1981) are really experienced and should know the rules and be able to understand what they see. So they should understand when a spin don’t respect the rules.

If in 2019 for an invalid spin Chen received 3.23 points that he didn’t deserved, in 2020 he has received 3.96 points that didn’t deserved. How many mistakes that none can contest the judges will do? Chen would have won anyway, but the judges mistakes are worrying, and can be occur in any elements and in any way, and not every competition is decided by a margin so big that a mistake is not influential on the result.

Another spin, from another competitions, but with the opposite mistake: in the short program of the 2020 National Championship Yuzuru Hanyu’s second spin was invalidated.

He has lost 3.22 points for a mistake done by the TP, Mami Maeda (an important international judge and referee, so she should be know how to do the calls), Kengo Shibata and Ikuko Ishikawa. Some detail about the spin:

and

These are different competitions? A rule should be a rule, regardless of the competition. Anyway, this is Yuma Kagiyama’s combination spin in the short program of the National Championship, the same competition in which Hanyu’s spin was invalidated. In the first screenshot he has landed from the jump in which he has changed foot and he is getting lower to reach the sit spin position.

In the second screenshot he is almost in the sit position, but he is higher than Hanyu. But, according to the principle (not used with Hanyu) that in all the dubious cases the TP must judge in favour of the skater, let’s pretend that the position is correct. In the first screenshot of the second line, he has completed the first rotation. But after half of rotation he has already started to get up.

In the third screenshot is clearly visible that he is getting up, in the fourth, theoretically when he should complete the second turn, he is really high. This isn’t a sit spin position, he hasn’t completed the two turns. Hanyu and Kagiyama’s spins are different, Kagiyama’s spin shouldn’t be invalidated, but should receive a V sign and a lower level. This is Kagiyama’s protocol:

Two mistakes in two different program in the same competition have translated in a difference among the skaters lowered of 7-8 points. The fact that Hanyu hadn’t any problem to win the short program and the competition don’t makes the two mistakes (that could happen in any competition) less serious.

Several spins from the same competition:

https://twitter.com/intelligentYuzu/status/1343197617698664448

Spins aren’t the only elements with whom sometimes the TP has some problems. In the Russian junior Championship held in February 2021 a quadruple Salchow done by Egor Rukhin was initially called as a triple Salchow:

The Technical Controller was Alexander Lakernik, now vice president of ISU, in the past head of the Technical Committee. We can suppose that he can distinguish a jump from another, right? So he has made a mistake. At the end of the competition, with a 3S in the protocol. Rukhin was fourth. But Lakernik has corrected the mistake – I don’t know who has signalled it to him – and, with a 4S in the protocol (the jump he has done) – Rukhin won the bronze medal.

Figure skating needs a most precise system to evaluate any elements, but need also the possibility, for any skater who is damaged by an human error, to protest and to see recognized what he (and his rivals) have done, for the fairness of the results. The rejection to change a score, knowing that that score is incorrect, undermine the credibility of the ISU sport more than a possible change in the ranking. In 2014 the Korea Skating Union protested against the results of the Ladies’ competition at the Olympic Games. The complaints were deemed inadmissible but now there can’t be complaints. ISU, are you joking? The credibility isn’t the first ISU target. What ISU want is to avoid any more scandal, and if none can contest a score, if protests aren’t allowed, there will be none scandal. Remember the scandal of 2002? Ottavio Cinquanta, President of the ISU, has done his best to hide all, or to minimize the damage of certain people: https://sportlandiamartina.link/2021/01/23/jon-jackson-on-edge-7-giochi-di-potere/.

Cinquanta was not going to give up on attempting to cover up the scandal, right to the bitter end. Then, once he realized that his resistance was futile, all his attention focused on the easily targeted French, still providing for the coverup of the Russian side of the deal to go completely unchallenged. (Jon Jackson, On Edge, pagg. 224-225)

Jackson isn’t the only one who has written about the will to cover all the dirt. Read his book, and also the other books from which I’ve quoted some passages, they are all very interesting.

In figure skating competitions there are a lot of problems. Some are due to mistakes made by judges, and some of them can be prevented with better training of the judges or by giving to them better technology. To forbid any protest by the skaters isn’t fair, and isn’t the system to give credibility to the competitions.

I’m looking at the files that I have saved on my computer, in order to make an archive of all the problems. In this post I put the links on other posts that I wrote about past scandals, other posts that I will publish in the next days will be dedicated to other topics related to fair judging. I could change, or add something, every times that I’ll find something interesting. If anyone see a mistake and he tells to me, I’ll correct the mistake (also on grammar).
Figure skating is a wonderful sport, but if the results are incorrect it become a farce. For better understand the current situation, I start from the past. Remember that some problem of the past is equally present, if not worse, even now. And some of the judges of which I talk, are judges, or ISU officials, even now.

This posts are in Italian with quotes from books in English (all minus one). An automatic translator Italian-English won’t do a perfect translation, but it’s enough for understand what I wrote. I’ve also put the link at some interesting English article.

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/11/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi/ (Introduction);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/12/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-2/ (1882-1936);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/13/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-3/ (1947-1956);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/14/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-4/ (1958-1966);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/15/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-5/ (1968-1976);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/16/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-6/ (1977-1988);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/17/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-7/ (1989-1994);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/18/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-8/ (1995-1998);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/19/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-9/ (1999);

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/suspension-slashed-for-skating-judge/article4160915/ (Beverley Smith, Suspension slashed for skating judge, on Sviatoslav Babenko in which ISU indirectly confirmed that the most important thing is to don’t have scandal, not to prevent bad judging);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/20/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-10/ (2002);

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-04-sp-olycol04-story.html (Skating Union Did Little to Clean Up Salt Lake Mess, about the suspension of Marie Reine Le Gougne, Didier Gailhaguet, and the attitude of Ottavio Cinquanta);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/21/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-11/ (2002-2007);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/22/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-12/ (2010);

About Joe Inman’s remarks on Evgeni Plushenko:

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/usa-today-us-edition/20100211/283515087060586 (Plushenko videos raise Russian ire);

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2010-02-10-evgeni-plushenko-videos_N.htm (Christine Brennan, Educational videos of skater Evgeni Plushenko raise Russian ire);

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/02/olympic-judges-remarks-touch-off-figure-skating-controversy/ (Reid Cherner, Olympic judges remarks touch off figure skating controversy);

https://www.ocregister.com/2010/02/10/skating-judges-again-scrutinized/ (Scott Reid, Skating judges, again, scrutinized);

https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/vancouver/figureskating/2010-02-11-weir-criticizes-judge_N.htm (Olympian Johnny Weir criticizes U.S. skating judge);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/24/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-13/ (2014);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/25/di-giudici-giurie-e-giudizi-equi-14/ (le sospensioni).

After finished to write this series of posts, I’ve read several other books and I wrote about some problems highlighted by the authors in several posts:

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/10/26/christine-brennan-inside-edge/.

The book at which I’ve dedicated the most attention is Jon Jackson’s On Edge:

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/12/03/intorno-a-on-edge-di-jon-jackson/;

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/12/04/jon-jackson-on-edge-1/ (il codice dei punteggi e la formazione dei giudici);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/12/06/jon-jackson-on-edge-2/ (i preconcetti e le conversazioni fra i giudici);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/12/08/jon-jackson-on-edge-3/ (National bias e preconcetti);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2020/12/14/jon-jackson-on-edge-4/ (maneggi dietro le quinte);

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2021/01/08/jon-jackson-on-edge-5-salt-lake-city/;

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2021/01/14/jon-jackson-on-edge-6-il-campionato-del-mondo-2002/;

https://sportlandiamartina.link/2021/01/23/jon-jackson-on-edge-7-giochi-di-potere/.

For now I stop here, the next post will be closer to us.

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