Less human, more AI – how figure skating judging can fight bias claimsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Madison Chock and Evan Bates have earned medals in the team event and ice dance at Milan-Cortina 2026ByEmma SmithBBC Sport journalist at Milano Ice Skating ArenaPublished15 minutes agoEven die-hard figure skating fans might not have heard of Jezabel Dabouis this time last week. Now, she is in the limelight. And not for the right reasons.Dabouis was one of the nine judges in the free dance segment of the ice dance event at the Winter Olympics, where medals were decided following a dramatic conclusion.On Wednesday, the French couple of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron narrowly beat the American team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates. On the ice, it was a duel between the two finest teams in the sport.
Off the ice in Milan it was a different matter, and that’s where Dabouis – who is French – comes in.
She scored Fournier Baudry and Cizeron nearly eight points higher over three-time world champions and Milan-Cortina 2026 team event gold medallists Chock and Bates in the free dance.
While seven of the nine judges gave Chock and Bates scores of more than 132, Dabouis awarded them 129.74 – the lowest score of anyone.
For Fournier Baudry and Cizeron – who performed after the Americans – she awarded them 137.45, their second highest total among the judges.
Because of the way figure skating is scored, her points for Chock and Bates did not count – the highest and lowest of the nine judges’ scores are disregarded – but they did for Fournier Baudry and Cizeron, helping nudge them into gold medal position.
Just under 18,500 people had signed a Change.org petition by Saturday morning asking the International Skating Union (ISU) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) to investigate the scoring.
And silver medallist Chock has publicly questioned it too.
Immediately after the medal ceremony on Wednesday night, she told BBC Sport: “We put on our very best skates, all four of our performances [including the team event] were flawless to us. We are happy with how we skated; the rest is out of our hands.”
But by Friday, she had plenty more to say.
“Any time the public is confused by results, it does a disservice to our sport,” the 33-year-old reported. “I think it’s hard to retain fans when it’s difficult to understand what is happening on the ice.
“People need to understand what they’re cheering for and be able to feel confident in the sport that they’re supporting.”
The ISU has backed its judges, including Dabouis, following Chock’s criticism.
“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the ISU reported, adding it has “full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness”.
