A new anti-cheating system for counting the judges鈥� scores in ice skating is flawed, according to leading sports specialists. Ice skating鈥檚 governing body announced the new rules after concerns that a judge at the 2002 Winter Olympics may have been unfairly influenced.
Initially the judges in the pairs figure-skating event at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City voted five to four to give the gold medal to a Russian pair, even though they had a fall during their routine.
But the International Skating Union suspended the French judge for failing to reveal that she had been put under pressure to vote for the Russians. The International Olympic Committee then decided to give a second gold to the Canadian runners-up.
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The ISU, skating鈥檚 governing body, now says it intends to change the rules. In future 14 judges will judge each event, but only seven of their scores 鈥� selected at random 鈥� will count.
The ISU will not finally approve the new system until it meets in June but already UK Sport, the British government鈥檚 sports body, has expressed reservations. 鈥淚 remain to be convinced that the random selection system would offer the guarantees that everyone concerned with ethical sport is looking for,鈥� says Jerry Bingham, UK Sport鈥檚 head of ethics.
Highs and lows
A random system can still be manipulated, says Mark Dixon, a specialist on sports statistics from the Royal Statistical Society in London. 鈥淭he score of one or two judges who have been nobbled may still be in the seven selected.鈥�
Many other sports that have judges, including diving, gymnastics and synchronised swimming, have a system that discards the highest and lowest scores. If a judge was under pressure to favour a particular team, they would tend to give it very high scores and mark down the opposition teams, so their scores would not count.
It works for diving, says Jeff Cook, a member of the international governing body鈥檚 technical committee. 鈥淚f you chuck out those at the top and bottom you鈥檙e left with those in the middle, so you鈥檙e getting a reasonable average.鈥�
Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, diving has tightened up its system still further. Two separate panels of judges score different rounds of diving during top competitions. Neither panel knows the scores given by the other. 鈥淲e have done this to head off any suggestion of bias,鈥� says Cook.
Bingham urged the ISU to consider other options. 鈥淭his should involve examining the way in which other sports deal with the problem of adjudicating on matters of style and presentation,鈥� he says. No one at the ISU was available for comment.