International Judging System of Figure Skating: A Middle Grades Activity on Decimal Operations

Vol. 1 No. 4

Year: 2012

 
Issue: Oct-Dec

Title : International Judging System of Figure Skating: A Middle Grades Activity on Decimal Operations

 

Author Name : Diana Cheng

 

Synopsis :

The International Skating Union implemented a new judging system, the International Judging System (IJS), after it was revealed that the previously used 6.0 judging system accommodated for judging bias in figure skating events at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The 6.0 judging system required judges to rank figure skaters’ placements in an event relative to the other competitors; a controversy arose in the pairs event at the Olympic Games when it became clear that some of the judges were persuaded to influence the outcome irrespective of the actual performances of the skaters. The new IJS now requires judges to rate each element performed by each skater, without comparison to other skaters’ performances, in an effort to reduce judging bias.  The judges’ ratings are then averaged and a decimal score is accordingly assigned for each element.  The skaters earn a technical score, computed by finding the sum of the element scores.  In this article, the IJS is explained as an application of mathematics, and a skating judging activity suitable for middle grades students is presented.  The activity involves students’ rating a pairs team’s performance and computing the team’s score through a simplified version of the IJS.