"How Come a Figure Skater Without Triple Jumps Placed Higher Me? I Don"t Get It!"

Question: "How Come a Figure Skater Without Triple Jumps Placed Higher Me? I Don't Get It!"

Figure skating competition scores can sometimes confuse young skaters. This short article explains why figure skaters without any triple jumps could possibly place lower than a skater who did only double jumps in an important figure skating competition.

Answer: Every Move a Figure Skater Attempts Means Points....But...

At a figure skating competition, each move in an ice skater's program equals certain points.

For example, a triple jump is assigned many more points than a double jump, but if the triple jump landings are flawed, the judges may subtract points. In addition, the flawed elements may affect the skater's component score.

Example:

Even though the IJS figure skating judging system awards figure skaters that include difficult content in their competition programs, a figure skater that skates a "clean program" and skates beautifully may be awarded more points in certain instances.

The skater that just did the doubles may have perfect positions, great flow, and wonderful presentation. Beautiful all-around skating is a pleasure to watch and points the skater will be awarded extra points for elegance and grace.

This means that even if a certain skater packs his or her figure skating competition program with several triple jumps, but wobbles slightly on the landings or slows down on jump entries, that that skater could possibly place behind a skater with a flawless program that only includes double jumps.

Short Program Scores Can Affect a Figure Skater's Total Competition Score:

Before the free skate portion of a competition event, figure skaters first compete in the short program. Short program scores determine which skaters will compete in the final warmup group at a competition. A high short program score can not only put certain skaters in the top four positions before the free skate portion of the competition, but a very high score can help keep a skater at the top.

Further Reading - How Figure Skating Competitions Are Judged:

A new kind of scoring replaced the old 6.0 figure skating judging system and was created in response to the 2002 Olympic figure skating scandal. The idea was to attempt to make figure skating competitions more objective and fair.

Competitors are given two scores: a technical score and a program component score. The technical score is added together to the program component score and the result is the segment score. The sum of all the segment scores (the short program and the free skate) becomes the total competition score. The skater with the highest score wins.