With the Olympics in Sochi now over, people are still fired up about the women’s figure skating results. Russians celebrated last Thursday night as 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova of the host nation won gold in the ladies individual figure skating event, the first Russian woman to win gold in the individual event. Sotnikova was second after a brilliant short program, only .28 points behind 2010 Vancouver gold medalist, Yuna Kim. Sotnikova placed first in the free skate, scoring 149.95. She ended with a total of 224.59, putting her in the gold medal position over Kim, with a score of 219.11, winning her the silver.

Since the event, questions have been raised about whether the judges made the right choice giving Sotnikova the gold. Sotnikova stumbled on one of her jumps, while Kim seemed to skate through a flawless performance. People have also debated whether the judges were fairly judging the event. However, based on the judging system in place, I believe that the right decision was made to give Sotnikova the gold.

The main objective in a figure skating competition is to score as many points as possible. There are two parts of a skater’s score: a technical score and a component score. Within the technical score, points are awarded from a base value, which is predetermined by the number of jumps and their levels of difficulty, and from the grade of execution, or how well the element is carried out. Points for the component score are awarded based on skating skills, transitions, executions, choreography, and interpretation timing.

Sotnikova came into the competition with a technical advantage over Kim because her program included more difficult elements, including an extra jump over Kim. Sotnikova’s programs’ base value was set at 61.43, the highest of all competitors, giving her more than a 4 point advantage coming in over Kim, whose program had a base value of 57.49. A commentator of the program noted that Kim’s program was “technically pulled back from Vancouver,” where she set the world record for a long program score. What added to Sotnikova’s point total was the way her program set up. She had many of her hardest elements in the second half of her program, which receives a 10% bonus in points. Kim put many of her jumps in the first half of the program, which does not receive the 10% bonus.

The grade of execution (GOE) also widened the gap between Sotnikova and Kim’s scores. Sotnikova got an additional 14.11 points from her execution in her technical elements added to her base value, while Kim got 12.47 points from her execution. This seemed to upset many people. Sotnikova stumbled on the last of her triple jump combination, while Kim cleanly landed all of her jumps. However, as the commentator noted, that small stumble would only slightly hurt her grade of execution for that particular jump. She ended up losing .9 points from the 9.24 base score from that triple combo, but it still scored higher than Kim’s triple jump combination because Kim’s combo only had a base score of 7.04. As you can see here, the base score still plays a huge role, even if there is a clear difference in the execution of a jump. The rest of Sotnikova’s jumps also made up for the deduction in that one combo. “If you look at Adelina’s jumps, they were so free and big, so that when the judges score it, they can score it higher, whereas Yuna’s were a little tight,” noted Tara Lipinski, who won the Olympic gold medal in the ladies figure skating event in the 1998 Olympics at the age of 15.

The judges presiding over the event have been a huge source for the swirling debate. Many suspect that some of the judges acted in favor of the Russians. One of the judges is Ukrainian Yuri Balkov, who was suspended after he was caught trying to rig the 1998 Olympic  ice dance event. Without a doubt, this judge should not have been in the mix determining who would walk away with the gold. However, one judge cannot skew the entire result because the highest and lowest scores awarded by the nine judges are dropped and not counted for the final score. Yet, another judge made the headlines when it was revealed that one of the judges was married to the head of the Russian skating federation. Shady? Yes, but there is no evidence that would support the idea that she cheated for Sotnikova. In addition, ever since the figure skating scandal in the Salt Lake City Olympics, where allegations that the pairs skating competition had been fixed led to two teams receiving the gold medal, changes have been made to the judging system that make it much harder for judges to cheat. As said before, many points are set without judges, such as the technical base score.

The guidelines for component scores, on the other hand, are less distinct than those of the technical score. Scoring for the component scores, which include skating skills, transitions, execution, choreography, and timing,  does have more subjectivity involved. The judges could have over-marked one skater, but it is very hard to tell because of the subjective nature of the score. However, the component score did not determine the difference between gold and silver. Kim beat Sotnikova in the component score by .09, but it was not enough to make up for the technical advantage Sotnikova had.

In conclusion, based on the judging system in place for figure skating, the judges likely made the right decision in giving Sotnikova the gold medal. Without a doubt, some of the circumstances were questionable, especially the inclusion of a judge who was caught cheating in the past. Looking past that, however, the set up of Sotnikova’s program allowed her to win the gold. The differences between the top two skaters were their technical scores. Three-time US National Champion Johnny Weir also supported the judge’s decision, noting, “Adelina won the night. Plain and simple. She had the technical advantage going in. She performed her elements almost flawlessly.”