Everything you need to know about the Olympic figure skating scoring system
Having an understanding of the Olympics figure skating scoring system will give you an appreciation of all of the elements that go into every program.
Being an Olympics figure skating judge might be one of the hardest jobs in all of Winter Olympics competition. Sure, there are rules that must be followed in terms of awarding a score for each skate, but even still there’s the impression of a degree of subjectivity that never fails to garner controversy at the games.
Let’s take a look at the world of figure skating rules and scoring.
Timing and Music Requirements
The 2018 Pyeongchang games will be the first to feature the option for figure skaters to use music with lyrics in their routines. That could lead to some interesting music choices in these games.
The rule is not new for ice dancing, which already allowed music with lyrics. Ice dancing short dances must utilize a Rhumba rhythm in conjunction with at least one other Latin American or Caribbean rhythm. The short dance will range between 2:40 and 3 minutes. Free dances, by contrast, can last between 3:50 and 4:10 and must feature rhythmic music, but from any genre, giving the athletes a little more room for creativity and their own personal style.
The basic rule for the men’s, women’s and pairs short programs is that it must be less than 2:50. When it comes to the free skate, the pair and men’s teams can have programs lasting between 4:20 and 4:40 while the women’s free skate will be between 3:50 and 4:10.
Scoring
In skating there is the Total Element Score (TES) and the Program Component Score (PCS), both of which are combined to determine a skater’s final score, called the Total Segment Score (TSS).
The Total Element Score is determined by nine judges and a technical panel of three people whose sole focus is the technical merits of the performance. The technical panel works to determine the individual elements of each skater’s routine and whether or not jumps are landed properly. They use a four point system to grade the jumps, spins and footwork based on the degree of difficulty. The nine judges determine the score, called a grade of execution, based on how well the skater performs each element. The scoring system starts with a base score for each element, and then the judges can use a range of +/-3 to score it. The base values are added to the grade of execution, and the highest and lowest scores are dropped and the other scores are averaged to determine the final score.
The Program Components Score is where you tend to see the most subjectivity because the judges are evaluating the program as a whole, taking into consideration components like skating skills, transitions, performance, composition and interpretation. They use a scale of .25 to 10 with 10 being the best to evaluate the programs. The final score is multiplied by a factor (which is different for each category) to make it closer to the technical score, and then rounded to two decimal places.
The final score, called the Total Segment Score, is determined by combining the technical element score and program components score, taking into consideration any deductions the skater received.
Next: Winter Olympics 2018 schedule: When is figure skating?
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into the scoring system but since it comes down to people judging performances, there can still be discrepancies between judges. The elements have a scoring system based on subjective observation of implementation. Eliminating the highest and lowest score and averaging the rest of the scores helps to rid the score of bias, but it’s still an imperfect system no matter how hard the International Skating Union tries to fix it.