Olympic figure skating is on thin ice again. The new scoring system designed to banish bias among judges could itself influence the choice of medal winners.
During the 2002 Winter Olympics, Russia won gold for pairs figure skating thanks to a dubious score from one of eight judges, who later admitted being under pressure to rig the vote. To prevent this happening again, the International Skating Union introduced a more complex scoring system, now in use at the Winter Olympics in Turin. Twelve judges vote anonymously and a computer randomly discounts the scores from three of them.
However, John Emerson of Yale University says that in a close competition random choice can alter the outcome. He analysed results from the short programme event during the women鈥檚 European figure skating championships in January, which also used the new system. Scores from all 12 judges are available online. Emerson calculated the results for all 220 possible combinations of nine judges. Although Russia鈥檚 Irina Slutskaya always came first, the order of second to fifth place changed depending on which of the nine judges鈥� scores were selected.
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鈥淚 think the skaters in a close competition really ought to be concerned about this,鈥� says Emerson. 鈥淭he 12 scores are the best information we have, and all 12 scores should be used 鈥� it鈥檚 not rocket science.鈥�
