Settling the score

Skating stumbles toward judging reform

Six-oh for that skating fly-by?
Yeah, the Frenchwoman scores on the sly.
By dagger and cloak
Or with mirrors and smoke,
It's the highest score money can buy.

In Salt Lake City, it was so much simpler. Follow the numerical randomness of Rent-a-Judge A and it might be tethered to a corresponding exaggeration on behalf of Gimme Graft B. The want ads might have looked like this: Skating judge three from the land of lead-footed ladies offers 5.8s for furs. Can also repay our light-footed ice dancers in technical ordinals. Bonuses offered for medals. You knew who artificially boosted and slammed because their names and numbers were public and open for audit. Now the International Skating Union, in the most staggering sleight-of-reverse-reform since the advent of Astroturf, has divined a solution it hopes will solve all meddling in phony medaling: quick, somebody hide the judges.

Under the interim scoring system -- in place at a world figure skating championship for the first time last week -- a panel of 14 judges had their marks revealed as a list of numbers from low to high, with no corresponding names of those who had awarded the scores. This replaced the old system in which nine judges were listed by name, country and scores awarded. Additionally, the ISU decided to eliminate random scores from five of the judges for each skater. (If you couldn't figure out skating before... ) The rationale is that if judges aren't certain that their votes will be included in the final calculations, they'll be less likely to try to swing deals that could turn out to be for naught.

In practice, the notion of more judges with less accountability was received with derision and revolt. "How did our sport get into the mess?" Paul Wylie, an Olympic silver medalist said outside the MCI Center in Washington, where the Worlds were taking place last week. "Look around. Something has to be fixed. It's getting worse." As Wylie spoke, the D.C. streets were scattered with a few dozen protesters, holding placards and wearing buttons, each decrying the chaos of the international conflict that stirred their passions: secret judging. The most popular souvenir all along F Street was a decal with a diagonal red slash through the words "Secret Judging". Another sign read: "Axel of Evil -- Secret Judging."

It was both a tame diversion from and a trivialization of real-world strife. And it was being handled miserably by nearly everyone involved. The melodrama pre-dates the scandal at the Salt Lake City Olympics, in which Marie-Reine Le Gougne, a judge from France, admitted to fixing scores on behalf of a Russian pair in return for favorable marks from another judge on behalf of a French ice dance team. Secret scores-for-scores or scores-for-goods deals have apparently gotten the wink for years. But after an insider made such scandals public, ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta had to do something beyond the Band-Aid awarding of a dual gold medal to Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, the Canadian pair that had originally gotten the short end of the shenanigans.

So, Cinquanta, also an IOC member from Italy, implemented System No. 2. At a time when the ISU needs to change with the times, it has rendered judges so unaccountable they are anonymous and made scores so confusing as to be incalculable. Clever, the ISU brass may be thinking: you can't fling accusations at something you don't understand. Even the skaters at the Worlds were flummoxed. After Sasha Cohen received one set of marks ranging from 4.6 to 5.7, she said, "I'm not really sure what it means."

The gulf between Cinquanta and his fellow ISU members was as big as the building in which the competition took place. The judges and many other delegates sat at one end of the arena; Cinquanta had a nice perch in the front row on the opposite side. Instead of having different federation members present awards to the medalists in the various events, Cinquanta presented all the prizes and was roundly booed each time he stepped onto the ice.

Even before the first flying camel in D.C., however, there was a lot of accusation-slinging. When Ron Pfenning, the U.S. judge who was originally assigned to be the referee for the ladies' competition criticized the new system a week before the event, Cinquanta removed him from his assignment. Pfenning was among a group of judges -- Sally Anne Stapleford of Britain, Sonia Bianchetti of Italy and Britta Lindgren of Sweden were some of the others -- who were leading an attempted coup by creating a rival governing body, the World Skating Federation (WSF). One coup supporter, Hungarian judge Judit Furst-Tombor, was removed by her federation after announcing her support for the group.

The latest version of SkateGate came at a time when the FBI was knocking on the Washington hotel room doors of ISU members to interview them about alleged Russian mob involvement in the Olympic fixes in Salt Lake. Add to that the sport's declining TV ratings and the poor attendance at the Worlds -- there empty seats for all but the ladies' free skating program -- and, well, the sport seems to be spiraling as fast as a spinning skater.

On Thursday, the ISU threatened to take unspecified action against anyone who participates in whatever competitions a rival federation may try to hold. It also approved a new system it hopes will be permanent, one that eliminates the traditional 6.0 mark as a standard of perfection and could be in place in time for the 2006 Olympics. Under system No. 3, to be tested at six Grand Prix events next season, judges will award points for every technical element, from spins to quads, giving additional grades for execution. They will also award separate marks for artistry. This is a nice theory, but it doesn't address the problems of cheating and score swapping.

The ISU still plans to reveal the evaluations of its judges as nameless, unattributed sets of numbers. And although the organization has promised greater internal review ofjudges' performances, it has not been specific as to how the reviews will be conducted or what the sanctions would be for poor or biased judging. Without external oversight, the reviews could be as subject to influence as the marks themselves. Granted, the main players from the WSF have agendas that may taint their motives. Many come from North America and are often at odds with their Eastern European counterparts. But at the very least, it is time for accountability, discussion, debate and a welcoming of divergent voices. Skating is addressing its rough spots by closing ranks, and that will only make the sport worse.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine and is regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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