Judging
The competitive levels of synchronized skating, like those in other disciplines of figure skating, are now judged using the ISU Judging System that was introduced in 2004. Each element is assigned a difficulty level by the technical panel made-up of a technical specialist, assistant technical specialist and a technical controller. Each level of difficulty for a particular element corresponds to a pre-determined base value. The base value is the amount of points that are awarded for an executed element before the grade of execution or any deductions are applied. The base value for every element can be found on the ISU website under ISU Communication 1532, Appendix D. Judges assign a grade of execution from -3 to +3 to each of the elements. Each grade of execution, or GOE, corresponds to a point value. For each element, the highest and lowest GOE values are dropped and the rest are averaged then added to the base value. The sum of all the scores of the elements comprises the Technical Elements score.
A series of five categories comprises the Program Components score. The Program Component score includes the following categories: skating skills, transitions, performance/execution, choreography, and interpretation. Each judge gives a mark for each component. Then a trimmed mean is calculated by dropping the highest and lowest score. The remaining scores are then averaged. The panel’s points for each program component are multiplied by the factors: .8 for the short program, 1.6 for the junior, senior and collegiate free skate and 1.0 for intermediate, novice and adult. The factored results are rounded to two decimal places and added. The sum is the Program Components Score.
The Technical Elements and Program Components scores are then added to form the total segment score. The team with the highest total segment wins the competition. For junior and senior teams that have two programs, the scores of both programs are added together. The added scores that are the highest are the winners.
In the event of a tie, the team with the highest free program score will win the competition.
In the United States, the introductory levels of Preliminary, Pre-Juvenile, Open Juvenile, Open Junior, Open Collegiate, and Open Adult are still judged under the 6.0 judging system. These levels can compete at the regional level but cannot qualify for the national championships.
Read more about this topic: Synchronized Skating
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