An Edmonton college president has Olympic experience few others can claim: she’s judged figure skating events at not one, but two, Games.
Jodi Abbott is president and CEO of NorQuest College. But she is also an internationally ranked skating judge, and one of a very small group selected to remake the sport following the Salt Lake City judging scandal.
In the lead up to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Abbott travelled to South Korea for a test event last winter and was impressed with what she saw.
“They’re ready. Everything I saw gave the indication it’s going to be a great Games.”
“The venues are beautiful. They are ready. The small city next to PyeongChang where the actual events will take place is a beautiful little city, very friendly people,” Abbott said.
Abbott started judging figure skating when she was 16, and worked her way up to international levels. That included judging at both the Vancouver and Sochi Olympic Games.
“It’s really an incredible experience,” she said, beginning with multiple levels of security and accreditation once teams and officials arrive.
“What happens during the Games is you kind of live in a bubble. You’re in this world of elite athletes, of the world watching you, and connecting with people from all over the place and the eyes are on sport.”
“So in my case, it’s figure skating, but we got to know a lot of the other athletes and officials and got to interact with them, so it’s a really incredible experience.”
Judging in figure skating fell under worldwide scrutiny during the Salt Lake City Games. Questions arose as to whether the Russian team received a gold medal that should have gone to Canadians Jamie Salé and David Pelletier. The resulting outcry led to an international panel being struck to form a new judging system.
Abbott was one of about a dozen experts from around the world selected for that panel.
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The change would be momentous. Abbott points out figure skating had been judged in the same way for about 100 years.
“It was a very smart thing the International Skating Union did. They said: ‘We’re taking this seriously, so let’s take a look at our sport and how it’s judged.'”
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In the past, judges gave two scores. Under the new system, judges score each element individually. Program components are scored as well. This means judges give hundreds of scores. A technical panel gives point for difficulty of the elements.
There’s also now an Officials Assessment Commission. Members of the OAC sit behind the judging panel, analysing judge’s scores and looking for correct scoring.
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