{"id":480163,"date":"2026-02-14T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480163\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:17:16","slug":"figure-skating-ice-dance-free-dance-scoring-judging-controversy-isu-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480163\/","title":{"rendered":"Figure skating, ice dance, free dance scoring, judging controversy, ISU response"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Skating Union (ISU) has defended the judging of the ice dance event at Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>, following a silver-medal performance by Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates<\/a> that sparked widespread debate.<\/p>\n

Much of the backlash stemmed from French judge Jezabel Dabouis favouring French duo Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron<\/a> by nearly eight points over the three-time world champion Americans in the free dance.<\/p>\n

The result prompted a fan petition on Change.org calling for the ISU and the International Olympic Committee to investigate the scoring; by Friday evening, the petition had garnered almost 17,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Stubborn call that cost Scotty James gold in this crucial moment<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Upset he was losing’: Cheating claims as curling gets heated<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Broken’: Extent of Woods’ chaotic gold celebrations revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

\"France's<\/p>\n

France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron take gold ahead of Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates in the Milano Cortina 2026 ice dance.\u00a0Tim Clayton via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In a statement, the ISU maintained it has “full confidence in the scores given,” noting that multiple layers of review are built into the system to reduce discrepancies.<\/p>\n

“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges on any panel,” the ISU said.<\/p>\n

“To mitigate these variations and ensure fairness, several mechanisms are in place. The highest and lowest scores for each element are typically dropped, reducing the impact of any outliers.<\/p>\n

“Scores are averaged across the remaining judges, and technical elements are reviewed and verified by a technical panel to ensure consistency with the rules.”<\/p>\n

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now<\/a>. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on Stan Sport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron claimed gold with a total of 225.82 points, narrowly edging out the Americans on 224.39. The ISU added that an Officials’ Assessment Committee provides further oversight and that judges undergo regular training “to maintain a high standard of scoring accuracy.”<\/p>\n

Bates told reporters on Friday that while he and Chock had not read the petition, they were aware of it.<\/p>\n

\"Madison<\/p>\n

US stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates perform their silver-medal winning Free Dance at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“It means a lot that people are voicing their opinions on our behalf,” he said.<\/p>\n

Chock suggested the controversy highlights a broader transparency issue within the sport.<\/p>\n

“Anytime the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s hard to retain fans when it’s difficult to understand what is happening on the ice. There needs to be a lot more clarity for the skaters, for the coaches, and for the audience in order to just have a solid fan base moving forward. People need to understand what they’re cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that they’re supporting.”<\/p>\n

The current scoring system was overhauled following the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games scandal.<\/p>\n

In that instance, duplicate gold medals were awarded to Canadians Jamie Sal\u00e9 and David Pelletier after an investigation into allegations of vote-swapping and rigging.<\/p>\n

Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze had initially been awarded the gold.<\/p>\n

To combat future subjectivity, figure skating is now turning to artificial intelligence and computer vision technology.<\/p>\n

For the past two years, the ISU has been testing high-resolution camera systems that use AI to track movements and analyse technical elements \u2014 such as jump rotation, height, distance travelled, and spin positions \u2014 in real time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Skating Union (ISU) has defended the judging of the ice dance event at Milano Cortina 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-480163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}