Skaters are also expected to meet a specific set of criteria. In addition to those base values, there’s a “grade of execution,” or GOE, for each element, as well as a component score that takes into account the artistic merit of a skater’s program. The “new” system assigns numeric base values to jumps, spins, and other technical elements in a skater’s program, in an attempt to standardize the potential scores for those elements and reduce the possibility of corruption (though, as BuzzFeed points out, favoritism and inflated scores still exist). Those of us old enough to remember names like Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano probably remember the old 6.0 system, in which programs were judged in two parts: presentation (artistry) and technical merit (the jumps) on a scale of 0.0 to 6.0, with 6.0 meaning perfection.īecause of a 2002 Winter Olympics scandal involving fixed scores and corrupt judging, the International Skating Union - the governing body for competitive skating disciplines - adopted a new set of codes in 2004 (which was fully implemented in 2006). The current figure skating scoring system assigns each “element” an individual score It may not change your mind about any given skater’s results, but it will give you a better idea of how those results came to be. Understanding how the figure skating scoring system works can help explain how that outcome unfolded - so we’ve put together a brief guide to its most confusing aspects. That feeling of inaccessibility can be exacerbated in cases where the scoring system yields a counterintuitive outcome - like in the recent Olympic team event that saw Russia’s Mikhail Kolyada fall but still score higher than America’s Adam Rippon, who gave what looked to be a nearly flawless performance. Consequently, figure skating can feel inaccessible to casual fans, especially to those who tend to only tune in once every four years during the Olympics. And that’s before you count any deductions or bonuses. A skater’s final marks can somehow add up to a seemingly random number like 150.49, and that figure includes both component scores for artistry and presentation, and more technical scores like the esoteric “grades of execution,” which measure how well a skater performs individual “elements” of a program. The scoring system that’s currently used for all competitive figure skating - including at the Olympics - isn’t easy to crack. Every time a skater steps onto the ice, there’s always a sense that something could go splendidly right or disastrously wrong - and we, as viewers, never know what we’re going to get.īut it’s not just skaters’ performances that can leave our jaws on the floor sometimes it’s the judges’ decisions too. The only predictable thing about figure skating is that the sport is unpredictable.
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