A French judge’s scoring has ignited a storm of controversy after France edged out the United States in a tightly contested ice dance event a result thousands of fans say simply doesn’t add up.
Judge Jezabel Dabouis, who is French, awarded her compatriots a score nearly eight points higher than the Americans, despite what many viewers saw as a cleaner, more technically polished performance from the U.S. pair. Without Dabouis’s score, the Americans would have topped the podium, with five of the nine judges placing them ahead.
The backlash was swift. More than 10,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on the International Skating Union (ISU) and the International Olympic Committee to investigate what they believe may be biased judging.
But the ISU moved quickly to shut down speculation, insisting there was no wrongdoing. In a statement, the federation said it had “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness,” adding that variations between judges are normal and that multiple safeguards exist to balance out discrepancies.
Still, the debate continues to rage among fans and analysts who argue that the scoring gap was too large to ignore and that the sport’s credibility is once again under the microscope.
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