World Championship 2021: GOE in the Men’s Short Program

I’ve already written something about PCS, now I check some GOE.

Watching a skating program on television it’s difficult to understand the speed of the skaters or their coverage of the rink. The continuous switching from one camera to another makes difficult to have the same overview that has who is beside the rink. The judges (and the spectators) have a better vision than who is in front of the TV.

So, even if the official recording is closer and we can see better the details, the fancam can give to us an overview impossible from the official recording. Both the type of video are interesting. To entertain me (ehm…, yes, I let him entertain me very often) I watch the official video, but sometimes I search the fancam.

In Stockholm there isn’t public, but someone has made two video, of Yuzuru Hanyu and Nathan Chen. From here I’ve done some screenshot. I start from Hanyu. This is the first jump, the quadruple Salchow.

In the upper line there’s the preparation. In the first screenshot he’s doing a spread eagle. In the second screenshot he has just finished the spread eagle, in the third he has already started the step preparatory of the jump. This is a perfect example of bullet 4, jump preceded by step.

The second line is the jump. In the central screenshot he has just left the ice, in the third he has just landed. Watch the length. Here we can see well, the symbol of the ISU give to us a clear reference. The jump is long, as requested by bullet 1.

After the Salchow he has done the combination quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop.

In the first screenshot, first line, he has just ended a step. In the second he has started the three that is part of the toe loop. He finish a step, he start the preparation. Bullet 4, I’m happy to see you again. In the second line, first screenshot, he is at the take-off. Among the second screenshot of the first line and this he has covered a lot of space, he is skating really fast. The second screenshot of the second line is the landing. First jump big. The third line is the second toe loop, the triple. He is far from the writings on the ice, for understand the lenght (beside to watch the video) we must watch the vertical bar of the balustrade of the area reserved for the public, at the bottom of the screen. Also the camera change a little the angulation, but have you seen how much he flew? Bullet 1 again.

With the screenshots we can’t see everything, actually the combination respects all six bullets and should have taken +5. None of the marks was correct.

yuzuru hanyu’s 4T+3T in his short skate at the 2021 world championships, earning +2.99 GOE points pic.twitter.com/op9iqlAdUF

— figure skating gifs (@figureskatings) March 25, 2021

If the Salchow wasn’t effortless in the landing and a +3 is right (but two judges has given a 0!), here there is no reason to give a mark different from +5. The last jump was the Axel.

The first line is the counter. Have you seen how he flew? I shouldn’t have either done the screenshot, now even the walls of my house know that usually Hanyu jump the Axel from a counter. Bullet 4, if someone don’t give this bullet don’t deserves to enter in a skating rink.
And, again, a really big jump. Attention in evaluating the amplitude, the trajectory he holds is diagonal.

i saw god in yuzu’s triple axel pic.twitter.com/Sp0t9ApQIr

— leia 🧚‍♀️ (@walkersarahs) March 25, 2021

He can land better, but for all the other skaters this is a great landing. It’s not that to Hanyu must be used rules different than to everyone else. If for all the skaters this jump is effortless, the fact that Hanyu can land better don’t change the reality: the jump is effortless, and accomplish six bullet on six. The only correct mark is +5, so… Judge 1, are you kidding? +2 for this triple Axel? For me a +2 deserves immediate ban from judging. And Judge 1, the British Lisa Davidson, has given also a 0 for the quadruple Salchow and a +2 for the combination. By the way, the wrong marks given by all the judges for all the jumps surpass by large the correct marks.

Ok, let’s go on Chen’s jumps. The first is the quadruple Lutz.

In the first screenshot of the first line, Chen has just ended the last step. He has just surpassed the star at the center of the rink. After, he glides. Ok, it’s a Lutz, a jump that need a preparation a little longer, but in the third screenshot he is at the center of the ISU logo. And he hasn’t yet done the take-off. It’s a matter of moments, he’s about to do it, but the glide is too much long for bullet 4.

In the second line he jumps. The first screenshot is the take-off, the second the landing. The jump is little and don’t deserves the bullet 1. In this jump he fell, so the GOE was a mandatory -5. But there’s a problem that the technical panel hadn’t noticed.

First line: take-off. Second line: he is in the air. Third line: he is still in the air. Fourth line: he is on the ice. The jump is underrotated, his base value should have been 9.20 points, not 11.50. The technical panel pretended to sanction Chen giving to him a q. As the q doesn’t change the BV and it’s important only for the GOE, with a mandatory of -5 a q don’t change the score. In fact with the wrong call the technical panel has gifted to him 1.15 point.

The second jump is the triple Axel, and if some times ago I’ve criticized Chen for a skid really big, this time his jump is better. The skid is acceptable.

In the first screenshot of the first line Chen is doing a spread eagle, in the second he is doing the take-off. This time his step is right before the jump, he deserves the bullet 4. Unfortunately is almost impossible to understand the length in the screenshots of the second line because the camere was moved a little. You must watch the video. The jump is little and doesn’t deserves the bullet 1. The final mark can’t be higher of +3. Five judges has given him +4. Why?

He concluded with the combination. He was brave to do the combination after the initial mistake. I’m not sure about his edge, during the program I think a thing, during the replay I think another thing, this jump is the proof that we need better cameras to understand if the edges were inside or flat.

The first line is all a long glide. In the first screenshot he has just done the last step. I’ve done so much screenshot to show you how long is the glide. The last screenshot of the first line is when he start the step preparatory for the jump, but it isn’t a step before the jump, this step is part of the jump. The trajectory that we can see in the four screenshot is on a curve, he need a lot of time for the preparation of the flip. And, you know? For long preparation there’s a deduction from -1 to -3.

The second line is the jump, from the take-off to the landing. It’s all ok. The third is the second jump, the toe loop, and here Chen doesn’t move. He jumps high, he almost lands where he started from. We’re sure that here we don’t have to apply a deduction from -1 to -3 for poor distance? I’m kind and go in favour of the skater, no deduction but surely no bullet. From the maximum mark of +3, and -1 for long take-off, at best the combination can earn a +2. Five of the nine marks are wrong.

I’ve published yesterday the names of the technical panel and the judges, but I repeat them here:

Referee Mr. Philippe MERIGUET (FRA)
Technical Controller Ms. Leena LAAKSONEN (FIN)
Technical Specialist Mr. Konstantin KOSTIN (RUS)
Assistant Technical Specialist Mr. Filip STILLER BOROWICZ (SWE)
Judge No.1 Ms. Lisa DAVIDSON (GBR)
Judge No.2 Ms. Ursula STAHL (AUT)
Judge No.3 Ms. Iryna MEDVEDIEVA (UKR – before she judged for AZE)
Judge No.4 Ms. Pia ALHONEN (FIN)
Judge No.5 Ms. Salome CHIGOGIDZE (GEO)
Judge No.6 Ms. Inger ANDERSSON (SWE)
Judge No.7 Ms. Christiane MILES (SUI)
Judge No.8 Mr. Sviatoslav BABENKO (RUS)
Judge No.9 Mr. Miroslav MISUREC (CZE)

Hanyu’s marks are wrong, I’ve seen it immediately. But the judges are strict in the same way for all?

With a fall in the short program a -5 is mandatory. I’ve highlighted in orange the two deduction that I’ve mentioned writing about Chen’s combination, a larger sign for the deduction that must be applied, a strict for a deduction possible but not so authomatic. I’ve highlighted in red the rule of which I’m writing now.

The words doesnt’ left place for interpretation: in the short program the final GOE for a jump element not according to the requirement must be -5.

Now, if Shoma Uno has earned a -4 for his triple Axel with a fall from Salome Chigogidize and Inger Andersson, the only logic conclusion that I can draw is that to Shoma Uno isn’t required to end his jumps standing on his feet. He can fall, why not?

Perhaps he didn’t earn a high GOE, but for Uno evidently it’s not a mistake so terrible as… I don’t know… to put a hand on the ice and do a step out on a jump in the free skate. I know, there are two different competitions, two different judges, but for a big jump with little preparation ended with a hand on the ice and a step out, two judge has given to Hanyu a -5 in the free skate at the last Four Continents Championship. But we know, the rules need to be interpretated.

I digress a lot, I know. I’ve checked the marks of all the jumps in which the skater doesn’t fall (I haven’t considered also a combination of two double jumps). In my table you can see all the marks given by the judges to all the jumps requested: Axels double or triple, solo triple or quadruple jumps and combination of at least a triple and a double, with no fall.

I wanted to see the bullets, so I’ve ignored how much high is the GOE of a single jump. Judge 1 and 2 has given a 0 for the 4S of Hanyu, judge 3 and 4 a +3 and so on. These are the columns C-K. In the columns L I’ve calculated the average. According to the nine judges, the Hanyu’s 4S deserved a little more than a +2, his combination a little more than +3, the Axel a little more than +4. And Kagiyama’s 4S+3T deserved almost +3 and half. That for his Axel Hanyu has earned 3.54 points of GOE and Kagiyama almost the same points, 3.46, with marks lower, is due to the rule and now doesn’t interested me.

Which jumps, by average of all nine judges, deserved the better marks? This is the rank:

Watching all the skaters the best jump is Hanyu’s 3A, but a nice detail is that Hanyu’s combination was good, but non as good as Chen’s 3A.

Oh.

I’m speechless.

The rest of the rank:

Two last screenshot, after I’ll go to bed. In Italy it’s late, and Saturday will be an intense day. I’ve done the rank of all the jumps according by every judge. We can see, for example, that for judge 5 Chen’s 3A was better than Hanyu’s 3A, and so many fantasy stories. Or perhaps creepy stories.

The colours haven’t a real significance, I’ve used them to distinguish all the +5 from all the +4 from all the +3…