If they do indeed focus only on the performance, the panel will be looking at the details: the degree of difficulty of the routine, how gracefully it is executed, the compatibility of movement and music. Figure skating may be the most popular sport at the Olympics because its beauty is accessible to just about everyone. But the standards judges use to rate these performers can seem mysterious. While it may be easy to understand why they faulted Kurt Browning for his performance in the men’s competition, it is often hard for lay viewers to see why a seemingly passionless but technically perfect display earns a gold while a performance that brings the audience to its feet merits only a silver or a bronze. To some, this reflects a longstanding debate within the sport itself. Often, it’s “classical ballet versus drama,” says American judge Bonnie McLauthlin. Ballet, coupled with superior technical skills, usually wins hands down.
That’s what happened in the pairs competition last week. John Nicks, who coached the fifth-place team of Americans Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, describes gold-medal winners Yekaterina Gordeyeva and Sergei Grinkov as “a purist’s pair” because, he says, “they have so much control and their technique is so good.” Natalya Mishkutyonok and Artur Dmitriyev wowed the crowd, bringing them to their feet cheering, because they “were much more dramatic,” says Nicks. “They hit you straight between the eyes.” Gordeyeva and Grinkov’s edge was subtle, Nicks concedes; “Perhaps only an expert judge or coach would appreciate” the difference. Nicks, for example, was awed by Gordeyeva and Grinkov’s soundless glide. “Their blades caress the ice,” he says. “If you are not in perfect control of the blade, then there is friction” and a scratching sound.
Like the pairs contest, the singles competition consists of short and long programs, each stressing a different aspect of the sport. The ladies’ short program takes less than three minutes and includes eight required jumps and spins. The final freestyle program makes up the rest of the score. (Those are the basics – the actual scoring formula would make a mathematician scowl.) Skaters must perform a certain number of moves, but they get to decide which ones and in what order. The judges don’t have the benefit of slow-motion replays, but they have detailed knowledge of what each competitor plans for the performance, having watched closely at preview practice sessions.
In both the short and long programs, skaters get scored for technical merit and artistic expression. The latter can seem more than a little subjective, as the pairs competition showed. For the skaters, it’s a chance to let their personalities come through, to show what distinguishes them from the rest of the pack. For the judges, it often comes down to personal preference. After the pairs competition, Tamara Moskvina, who coached the silver medalists, quoted an old Russian proverb: “Some prefer the priest, some prefer the priest’s wife and some prefer the priest’s daughter.”
They’re looking for grace under pressure. And they’re under some pressure themselves. The nine who will judge the ladies’ finals:
1 Wendy Otley, Britain 2 Jan Olesinski, Poland 3 Jarmila Portova, Czech Republic 4 Alfred Korytck, Ukraine 5 Yang Jiasheng, China 6 Margaret Wier, United States 7 Noriko Shirota, Japan 8 Audrey Williams, Canada 9 Jan Hoffman, Germany
