BEIJING (Reuters) – A Chinese figure skating judge suspended for giving preferential marks to his compatriots became eligible after his ban to serve in an official capacity at the Olympic Games, the sport’s international governing body said.
Huang Feng received a one-year suspension in June 2018 for biased judging of pairs figure skating at the Pyeongchang Olympics that year.
Reuters reported on Monday that Huang was listed as a technical controller, an official who supervises technical specialists and can propose corrections regarding the level of difficulty identified for a given element, for the Beijing Games.
In response to a request for comment, the International Skating Union (ISU) told Reuters on Thursday that Huang had become eligible to serve as an official at its events following his suspension.
“In the case of Huang Feng, he was suspended for one year as per the decision of the disciplinary commission … and following the suspension became eligible to serve as an official at ISU events and the Olympic Winter Games and consequently must abide to the ISU Code of Ethics,” it said.
Prior to the 2018 Games, the ISU Officials Assessment Commission warned Huang that his judging at the 2017 ISU Grand Prix Final showed “clear support for the two Chinese pairs without any objective reasons either in elements and in components”.
The ISU said on Thursday it had measures in place “to focus particularly on cases that potentially show strong national bias through scoring.”
Figure skating at the Beijing Olympics begins on Friday with the men’s short program in the team event.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Stephen Coates)
