South Korea filing complaint over figure skating results
South Korea is protesting the results of the women’s figure skating event after their star athlete, Yuna Kim, earned silver behind Russian teenager Adelina Sotnikova.
In a letter protesting the decision, the South Korean Olympic Committee said biased judging was to blame.
Much of the uproar over the women’s free skate centres on what many perceived as a lack of artistry in Sotnikova’s program. Yet her marks were comparable or better than those for the highly artistic Kim. Her technical marks were significantly better.
The mistake
Judges penalized Sotnikova just 0.9 for this mistake, where she steps out of a jump early. Kim made no such mistakes. A detailed analysis on The Wire suggests Italy’s Carolina Kostner was also judged with prejudice: she finished far behind Sotnikova despite skating flawlessly and completing the same number of triple jumps.
The spread
The unusual distance between scores for Sotnikova and Kim has also garnered some attention since the Russian finished 18 points higher than she ever earned, finishing with 149.95 compared to 144.19 for Kim.