Michael Weiss on Turin

February 18, 2006

Some of you who weren’t under a rock 4 years ago may have heard….In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics there were two Gold medals awarded in the pairs event, due to judging controversy.  The result was the implementation of a New System. 

It is very complicated.  So I’m going to break it down for you in its simplest form. 

The most obvious difference is-- the new system rewards a skater with points for doing things VS. the old system which deducts points for making mistakes. 

Two categories to accumulate points:   

TECHNICAL and COMPONENTS   (Components = Artistic mark)

1.) TECHNICAL MARK  points are accumulated for JUMPS, SPINS, and FOOTWORK. 

This score is reached in two ways….

              DIFFICULTY of the jump,spin,footwork pass (a level of 1-4) --determining whether an element is either hard or easy....1being easy; 4 hard 

…..and EXECUTION of the jump, spin,footwork pass--giving either a +1+2+3 or -1,-2, or -3 depending on how well it was executed

2.)  COMPONENT MARK is painstakingly broken down into 5 categories.

Skating Skills, Choreography, Interpretation, Performance and Transitions from one element to another.  Each category is given a score of 0-10.  10 being the best.

That’s pretty much the easiest way to explain a complex and confusing system.

ADVANTAGES IN THE NEW SYSTEM: The ability to move up when you didn't have such a great performance...One cool feature, from the point of view of the skater is....In the old system if you were in 7th place after the short program, you basically had no shot at the gold.  In the new system, you can be in 15th and still have a shot at winning.  

Check this out.  Let’s say 15 skaters all skate awesome in the short program, and there is only 5 points separating 1st from 15th.  A 5 point discrepancy is the difference of ONE jump in the long program.  So, if I am in 15th place, all I have to do is land one more jump than the person in 1st and I am back in the medal hunt.

You will see people in 10th, skating their hearts out with a shot at moving up.  (Evan Lycacek almost pulled that one off….just too many points to make up for him)  How’s that for keeping it competitive?

DISADVANTAGES OF THE NEW SYSTEM:

One drawback is, where the judges used to “save” skaters they liked when they fell…with the artistic mark.  They now have not just one—but 5 categories--to add a tenth here and add a tenth there to make up for their favorite skaters fall on the technical score.  So, watch out for more controversial results!

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• #9 Comment from amishchick322123 
  3/7/08 12:44 PM | Permalink

  The IJS (new judging system) is very confusing. there are so many levels and different things that you could do...(especially in spins and spirals). Figure skating is starting to drift away from what it once was, and is now starting to become a game of chess...using strategy to win the scores. Is it more beneficial to attempt a level 3 layback, but have it look horrible and get low GOE (grade of execution) scores ,-3, -2, -1? Or is it smarter to try for that level 2, and recieve a +1, +2 in GOE? It all depends on how you look at it and how well at variations you are. Before you could try for that 3 salcow and have it a little cheated and no one would care, but now, the jumps have to be clean or have less than a quarter cheat, and for some that is really hard to do. Do you shoot for clean program, or difficult one? There are so many possibilities now, and it really changes the way we think about skating.
  
  
  
  eastern great lakes, novice lady
• #8 Comment from begilmore1 
  2/21/06 9:13 AM | Permalink

  Thank you. Artistry seems to have been lost somewhere. The Bulgarians' choreography, grace and control was stunning. I watched them a second time and still could not understand why they did not win the gold. It is rare to see great artistry like that on ice.
• #7 Comment from marcoo53 
  2/19/06 7:49 PM | Permalink

  i think the new system has caused the skating artistry to not be as exciting and beautiful as it used to be.   Like the skaters used put thier all into how nice a program they could dance to now doing the best tricks for the best points.   Its all turned into technical.   Marcoo53@aol.com
• #6 Comment from marcoo53 
  2/19/06 7:49 PM | Permalink

  i think the new system has caused the skating artistry to not be as exciting and beautiful as it used to be.   Like the skaters used put thier all into how nice a program they could dance to now doing the best tricks for the best points.   Its all turned into technical.   Marcoo53@aol.com
• #5 Comment from riverdaughter196 
  2/18/06 6:16 PM | Permalink

  So judges can do whatever they please, regardless of how a skater does.