Judging Anomalies at the 2010 Olympics in Men's Figure Skating

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the 2010 Olympic figure skating judges had trouble scoring Plushenko and the transitions program component, and if the International Skating Union's (ISU) “corridor” method flagged the same judging anomalies as the Rasch analyses. A 3-facet (skater by program component by judge) Rasch rating scale analysis was conducted on nine judges' free skate scores for five program components for each of 24 skaters. A principal components analysis of the residuals, and the ISU corridor method were also performed. Some judges were not internally consistent in scoring Plushenko (estimated discrimination index = −0.69; MNSQs ≥ 2.66). The unusual scoring patterns for Judges 1 and 2 warrant further investigation whereas the ISU corridor method did not flag any judges for the way they scored Plushenko and Lysacek. The Rasch analyses appear to be more sensitive to judging anomalies than the ISU corridor method.

Keywords:

• validity
• objectivity
• judging errors
• Olympics

View correction statement:

Corrigendum: “Judging Anomalies at the 2010 Olympics in Men's Figure Skating”