The Ice Dancing Judging Scandal That Has American Fans Furious

"On Wednesday in Milan, French figure-skaters Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron narrowly won gold in their first Olympics as an ice-dancing pair. When the final scores came down, American figure skating fans cried out with one voice: Madison Chock and Evan Bates got screwed! This hue and cry might seem like predictable patriotic grumbling. Yes, the beloved U.S. duo, who lost out on gold by a measly 1.43 points, skated a scintillating toreador-themed free dance."

"Although the American skaters had a lower total score than their French competitors in the free skate, five of the nine individual judges preferred Chock and Bates to Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron. Of those nine judges, eight gave the American duo a score that exceeded 130 points. The one judge who scored Chock and Bates under the 130-point line? France's Jézabel Dabois. On the flip side, the French Dabois gave the French duo a dizzying 137.45 points, 7.71 more than she awarded Chock and Bates."

"In 2004, in the wake of a (coincidentally also French-related) judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, figure skating's governing bodies adopted a new methodology called the International Judging System. The IJS was meant to bring transparency and specificity to a process that had for too long been rooted in subjective opinion. While the IJS isn't perfect-if it were, I wouldn't be writing this article-it's still much better than the old 6.0 system."

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron captured Olympic ice-dance gold in Milan, beating Madison Chock and Evan Bates by 1.43 points. Five of nine judges in the free skate preferred Chock and Bates, and eight judges scored the Americans above 130 points, while a French judge gave the French pair a notably higher mark. The scoring sparked strong reactions from American fans and raised questions about judging consistency. The International Judging System, adopted after the 2002 Salt Lake City scandal, aims to increase transparency and specificity but remains imperfect compared with the old 6.0 system.

Read at Slate Magazine