Question 1

How many Winter Olympic events use subjective judging?

Accepted Answer

At the **2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics**, approximately **30 medal events** across figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, and ski jumping involve judges who assign subjective scores. Figure skating has 5 events, freestyle skiing's judged disciplines total 13 (slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air each for M/W; moguls singles and dual M/W; aerials individual M/W and mixed team), snowboarding has 6 judged events (halfpipe, slopestyle, big air M/W), and ski jumping has 6 events with subjective style marks. The exact total depends on how you classify ski jumping, where distance is objective but style is subjective.

Question 2

Which winter sport has the most complex scoring system?

Accepted Answer

**Figure skating** has the most complex scoring system of any winter Olympic sport. The ISU Judging System (IJS) assigns individual base values to every technical element, modifies each by a Grade of Execution from -5 to +5, evaluates three separate program components on a 0-10 scale, applies discipline-specific multipliers, trims outlier marks from a nine-judge panel, and subtracts deductions for rule violations. A single program can generate over 100 individual data points that must be processed to produce the final score.

Question 3

What is the difference between technical judging and impression judging?

Accepted Answer

**Technical judging** breaks a performance into individual elements, each scored against specific criteria with predetermined values. Figure skating exemplifies this: every jump, spin, and step sequence has a base value and receives a GOE modifier. **Impression judging** evaluates the performance as a whole on a single scale. Freeskiing slopestyle and snowboarding use impression judging, where judges assign one 0-100 score per run that captures difficulty, execution, amplitude, variety, and progression together. Moguls and aerials blend both: specific maneuvers receive technical DD multipliers, but execution quality is assessed impressionistically.

Question 4

Are Olympic judges anonymous?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the sport. In **figure skating**, the ISU uses an anonymous judging protocol where each judge's individual marks are published in scoring protocols but are **not attributed to specific judges by name**. This system was introduced after the 2002 scandal to reduce political pressure and bloc judging. In **ski jumping**, individual judge marks are displayed publicly and attributed to each judge's position on the panel. In **freestyle skiing and snowboarding**, individual scores are typically visible during competition, though the drop-highest-and-lowest protocol reduces the impact of any single outlier.

Question 5

Why do different winter sports use different judging systems?

Accepted Answer

Each system evolved to match the nature of the performance being evaluated. **Figure skating** needs element-by-element scoring because programs contain 7-13 discrete technical elements, each with different difficulty levels. **Freeskiing slopestyle and snowboarding** use overall impression because a run across multiple features is best judged as a flowing whole rather than a sum of parts. **Ski jumping** requires objective distance measurement because the primary goal is measurable. **Moguls** weights three separate skills (turning, aerials, speed) to reflect the discipline's multi-dimensional demands. **Aerials** uses DD multiplication because trick complexity varies enormously between a simple layout and a quintuple-twisting triple somersault.

Question 6

What new judged events debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Accepted Answer

**Milan-Cortina 2026** adds three new judged formats. In ski jumping, **Women's Large Hill Individual** gives female jumpers a second individual event alongside the Normal Hill competition that debuted at Sochi 2014, and the **Men's Large Hill Super Team** (two jumpers per nation) replaces the four-man team event. In freestyle skiing, **dual moguls** joins the program for men and women. Women's Large Hill represents a significant step toward gender parity in ski jumping, where men already contested both hill sizes at the Olympics. The other judged disciplines (figure skating, single moguls, aerials, and the halfpipe, slopestyle and big air events in freeski and snowboard) carry forward the event programs established at Beijing 2022, including the freestyle skiing mixed team aerials event and freeskiing big air that were added in recent cycles.

Question 7

How do judges train for the Olympics?

Accepted Answer

Olympic judges undergo extensive, sport-specific certification programs. **Figure skating** judges must pass ISU examinations, accumulate experience at progressively higher-level competitions, and attend annual educational seminars. **FIS-sanctioned** freestyle skiing and ski jumping judges follow similar tiered certification paths, judging at national and international events for years before receiving Olympic appointments. All Olympic judges must demonstrate statistical consistency — their marks are analyzed against panel averages over time, and judges whose scores deviate systematically face review. Pre-Olympic seminars calibrate the panel using video examples to establish shared standards.

Question 8

What happens when judges disagree on a score?

Accepted Answer

Every winter Olympic judging system includes built-in mechanisms to handle disagreement. The most common is **trimming**: in figure skating, ski jumping, and freestyle events, the highest and lowest marks are dropped before averaging, which prevents a single outlier judge from skewing the result. In figure skating, the technical panel (not the judges) identifies and calls each element, removing a major source of potential disagreement about what was performed. In ski jumping, the three-of-five middle scores are summed. If a statistical analysis reveals persistent bias or inconsistency, the referee or head judge can flag the issue for post-competition review.

Question 9

Does alpine skiing use judges? What are the alpine skiing events?

Accepted Answer

No — **alpine skiing is entirely objective**, with results determined by **time alone**. There are no judges, no style scores, and no subjective evaluation. Alpine skiing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics features five events for both men and women, four individual plus one team event: **Downhill** (the fastest, with speeds exceeding 140 km/h), **Super-G** (super giant slalom, combining speed and turning), **Giant Slalom** (wider gates, two runs combined), **Slalom** (tight gates, two runs combined), and **Team Combined** (two-person teams, each racing one run, replacing the former individual Alpine Combined). The fastest cumulative time wins, no interpretation, no subjective criteria. This is why alpine skiing is not covered in this judging guide: it falls outside the scope of subjectively judged sports.

How every winter Olympic sport is judged

JudgeMate for Winter Olympic Judging

Set up an event

Guides for this sport

Guides and tools about Winter Olympic Judging

Frequently Asked Questions About Olympic Judging

Primary Sources

Run digital judging at your event