NEW SEASON, NEW SCORING: SAME OLD SECRECY

Washington, D.C. The International Skating Union's first test of the new Code of Points (COP) judging system at last weekend's Nebelhorn competition demonstrates that the ISU is still imposing a judging system characterized by secrecy, lack of accountability and top-down directives, according to SkateFans for Accountability and ISU Reform (SkateFAIR). SkateFAIR, founded on the Internet in January 2003, is the first international skating fan organization to protest the ISU's secret judging system, and staged the first-ever skating fan protest at last year's World Championships in Washington, D.C.

The new Code of Points system was introduced by the ISU last year in a process that did not conform to the ISU's own constitution and regulations. Introduced as a "project" to be studied, the new system, the most radical change to the sport's scoring since 1981, has now been implemented for the first international competition of the 2003-04 season. The Nebelhorn experiment suggests that:

• The secrecy and anonymity of last year's interim system continues to contaminate the scoring system and the entire sport. The system provides the individual scores from each judge for each element, but just as in the interim system there is no way to discover which judge is awarding which score. Although eventually COP may result in a more specific and objective rating of each skater's performance, the continued reliance on secrecy, and the lack of accountability from judges to skaters, coaches, the media and the public, continues to jeopardize the credibility of the sport. Furthermore, judges who have been convicted of cheating in the past are among the first to be given the opportunity to judge under this new system.
• Judging is not just secret, it is random, and under COP only five judges are determining the results of major international competitions. Ten judges made up the Nebelhorn panel; seven scores were counted, but the COP system threw out the highest and lowest score per element, leaving five judges' scores to count. Although it is a matter of common sense that larger judging panels reflect more expertise and a wider experience than small ones, COP's random selection of judges will ensure that the results you see are the product of a very small sample - and not necessarily the actual majority of the panel! The Grand Prix series and other major competitions will have fourteen-judge panels, with nine random scores selected and the two highest and two lowest eliminated - again leaving five judges' scores to count.
• The COP system was rushed into place without proper testing, and without widespread education of skaters, choreographers and coaches about the system's standards. At Nebelhorn, the point totals of the Men's Short program had to be revised because rounding errors in the software initially provided the wrong scores. Correcting rounding errors is a basic step in software testing; the problem suggests that other, more complex software glitches may await skaters at the upcoming Grand Prix series. Additionally, the judges' scores show a wide range of marks for the quality of particular elements, which denotes either a software problem or subjective application of judging standards that COP was supposed to eliminate.

  Thus, the results of this competition and the upcoming Grand Prix series should probably be considered unofficial until the software supporting the Code of Points system is independently vetted. As important, the system was proposed, announced and implemented so quickly that many skaters admit to little understanding of what the new system expects and will reward or punish. For example, the ISU did not publish information about how spins and step sequences will be rated until August 5, long after this season's programs were presumably choreographed.

• The COP system is utterly dependent on the integrity and ability of the Technical Specialist, or caller. Unlike judges, who have years of experience and training before qualifying to judge at international competitions, callers need not have any judging experience, and have had only a few days' training.

  The men's program at Nebelhorn demonstrated the ultimate power of the Technical Specialist, or caller, in the new system. Nicholas Young, the winner, in his free program, two-footed a quadruple toe loop that was called an overrotated triple instead of a low-quality quad. Because he also did a 3-salchow, 3-toe combo, a 3-toe he performed later in the program was not counted at all because of the Zayak rule that prohibits the same triple jump being performed more than twice. For attempting the quad and underrotating it, he got a mark of 2.7 for a triple, instead of a probable 6.2 for a two-footed quad - in addition to receiving no credit at all for the solo 3-toe later in the program. Point difference? Approximately 8.0: certainly enough in a closer competition to drop the skater down a placement or two. Incidentally, because COP also removes the factored placements that have been used for the last twenty years, Young had such a big lead after the short that he won the competition, questionable quad or not.

• ISU President Cinquanta handpicks the Technical Specialists, who report to no-one else inside or outside the ISU. Additionally, only some judges have received COP training - again, at the behest of the ISU - including Yuri Balkov, who has previously been suspended for illegal conduct. According to sources at the Nebelhorn competition, ISU President Cinquanta dismissed questions about and criticisms of the new system by pointing out that Nebelhorn is a minor international competition. If this is so, not only did he gratuitously insult the athletes and sponsors of Nebelhorn, he indicated that the ISU's standard operating practice of top-down arrogance and disdain for outside input continues unimpeded in this new season.

SkateFAIR will continue to observe the implementation of the Code of Points system, especially the system's vulnerability to error, collusion and unintended results, as the new season progresses. We will continue to keep an open mind to the potential of this new system to provide better and more accurate scoring for figure skating, but will continue to vociferously object to secrecy, anonymity, and illegal impositions by the ISU. Many SkateFAIR members and spokespeople will attend Skate America and Skate Canada, and we will provide more information about our activities at a later date.