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Pulled from a freeskier.com article
http://freeskier.com/stories/broaching-objectivity-subjective-sport-afp-director-judging-josh-loubek-trades-monotony
Here is how the AFP judges a run:
Each run’s overall score is based on overall impression, with overall impression being
comprised of amplitude, execution, variety, combinations, progression and difficulty.
1. Before the contest actually starts, the judges watch training and practice to note what tricks are being thrown, the overall level of athletes and how the course or weather might affect the contest.
2. Once a baseline of expectations is set, the judges create a scoring range: 90 plus is excellent, 80 is good, 70 is average, etc.
3. During a skier’s run, five judges (in the case of pipe) mark down each trick thrown using a customized steno (shorthand). At the end of the run, the judges collectively decide which category it fits in, based on the scoring ranges outlined above (90, 80, 70, etc.).
4. Once the run is placed into one of those buckets, it is compared against other runs in the same range to determine an order. Each judge scores the run based on his or her steno and amplitude, execution, variety, combinations, progression and difficulty.
5. The highest and lowest judges’ scores are thrown out, and the average score is submitted to the head judge, who enters the score into the system.
No matter how detailed the judging criteria is or how fair the judges attempt to be, there is no question that someone will always be upset by the outcome of a contest. “I even remember having fans at the X Games snowball the judging booth, so much so that we thought we might need security,” says Loubek.
But unless we want our sport to be limited and controlled to the point where every run looks boringly identical (read: moguls), controversy and subjectivity in judging are compromises we must accept. So long as the right people stay at the helm, the judging side of the sport is, for now, in as good of hands as we can hope for. How it evolves come the Olympics, however, is up in the air. We’ll cross that delicate bridge when we get to it.
