--- title: Olympic Figure Skating: What to Watch for in PyeongChang description: Here's a handy guide for the Olympic figure skating numbers and acronyms you'll see on your screen when watching the 2018 PyeongChang Games canonical: https://time.com/5139060/olympic-figure-skating-pyeongchang-guide/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-09T17:44:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-15T18:56:16.000Z article:section: Sports og:title: How to Sound Like an Expert While You Watch Olympic Figure Skating og:description: Here's a guide to understanding scores og:url: https://time.com/5139060/olympic-figure-skating-pyeongchang-guide/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49d5395f81749acd/698926cc929fad5978bef87b/maia-alex-shibutani.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3781 og:image:height: 2127 og:image:alt: US Championships Figure Skating, San Jose, USA - 07 Jan 2018 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Sound Like an Expert While You Watch Olympic Figure Skating twitter:description: Here's a guide to understanding scores twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49d5395f81749acd/698926cc929fad5978bef87b/maia-alex-shibutani.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Sound Like an Expert While You Watch Yuzuru Hanyu, Adam Rippon and Nathan Chen Skate > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:56 PM UTCPublished: Feb 9, 2018 5:44 PM UTC  Maia Shibutani, left, and Alex Shibutani, who will compete as an ice dance team for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, perform during the pairs free skate event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif. Maia Shibutani, left, and Alex Shibutani, who will compete as an ice dance team for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, perform during the pairs free skate event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, Calif.Tony Avelarm—AP/REX/Shutterstock  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:56 PM UTCPublished: Feb 9, 2018 5:44 PM UTC Figure skating is taking center stage at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics as the Men’s Single Skating Short Program just wrapped up. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan came away with the top score and rival American figure skater [Nathan Chen](http://time.com/5139367/nathan-chen-figure-skating-olympics-hopeful/) fell short of expectations, [leading many to send optimistic messages](http://time.com/5162283/nathan-chen-olympics-2018-reactions/) and wishes to send hugs online. Fellow American skater Adam Rippon also [gave an electrifying performance](http://time.com/5162114/adam-rippon-skate-interview-reactions/) and garnered a score of 87.95.  Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan competes during the Men's Single Skating Short Program at Gangneung Ice Arena on February 16, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. Robert Cianflone—Getty Images However, those scores and all the smaller scores it encompasses can be hard to follow. This is your guide to everything you need to know about Olympic figure skating before the Ice Dance and Ladies Single Skating competitions. ## What are the 2018 figure skating events? Next on the Olympic figure skating schedule are the Men’s Single Free Skating and medal ceremony and Ice Dance before the Ladies’ Single Skating closes out the competition. The men take the ice, where Chen is likely to once again face off against Japan’s Hanyu, the reigning Olympic champion, for the title. In ice dance, another [rivalry between France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron and Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir](http://time.com/5139072/best-ice-dance-teams-winter-olympics-2018/) will make the competition interesting; the U.S. also has three teams, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, and Maia and Alex Shibutani, who could earn a medal. Finally it’s the women’s turn; training teammates from Russia Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova will skate for gold, but don’t count out the U.S.’s Bradie Tennell, who has had a charmed season and could also earn a medal. The first skating competition was the team event, in which 10 countries compete in ladies, men, pairs and ice dance. Canada and Russia are likely to battle for gold, and the U.S. has a chance to make the podium as well. Next are the pairs; the German team of Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Masso, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China, and Megan Duhamell and Eric Radford of Canada, all world medalists, will be skating for medals. ## How does figure skating scoring work? The International Skating Union instituted a new set of judging rules in 2006, based on a Code of Points. Under this system, every element a figure skater completes — a jump, or a spin or footwork — is assigned a point value, or base value. That’s the number you will often see in the small box on the upper left of your TV screen. The leader’s technical score will be on top (L) while the current (C) skater’s score will appear underneath. Every skater starts out with a different number of points depending on what they have decided to include in the routine. Skaters with more technical abilities have a slight edge under this system, since they can start out ahead of their competitors and stay at the top of the leaderboard, as long as they are able to execute everything they had planned. **Read more:** [Team USA’s 2018 Winter Olympics Figure Skating Lineup Has Been Announced](http://time.com/5090778/team-usa-2018-winter-olympics-figure-skating-lineup/) To make things complicated, the nine judges in figure skating can add or subtract up to three points from this base value, depending on how well a skater performed it. (This is what NBC skating commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir mean when they talk about Grade of Execution, or GOE scores.) If the jump is under rotated, for example (meaning the skater doesn’t complete the full number of revolutions in the air, but finishes the last quarter or half on the ice), it could lose points. So a triple axel worth 8.5 if performed correctly could drop down to 8.0 or less if it’s not. The highest and lowest GOEs from the nine judges are dropped and the remainder are averaged and added to the base value. There is also a Program Components score, which includes how well a skater executed all the skills, their musicality, how well put together the program was, and other less objective measures. The presentation score is judged on a scale of 1 to 10, and the scores from the nine judges are averaged. **Read more:** [How the North Korean Figure Skating Team Trained for the Winter Olympics — in Canada](http://time.com/5133932/north-korea-figure-skating-coach-olympic-journey/) A skater’s overall score is the combination of the technical elements and the weighted average of the program components scores. Every time a figure skater falls, he or she loses one point. These rules apply for all four of the disciplines — ladies, men, pairs and ice dance. ## How has figure skating scoring changed? [Olympic figure skating](http://time.com/5139072/best-ice-dance-teams-winter-olympics-2018/) used to be relatively easy to watch — at least when it came to understanding the scores. Figure skaters were judged on a 1 to 6.0 scale, with 6.0 representing perfection. Their score was determined by averaging the judges’ marks for their technical prowess and their presentation. Technically, every skater started at 6.0 and judges deducted for mistakes and other errors in execution from there. The problem, as the [Great Olympic Figure Skating Judging Scandal of 2002](http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/figureskating/olympics-figure-skating-reforms-sale-pelletier-1.4484433) revealed, was that this measure was subject to, well, a lot of subjectivity. (In the pairs event at the [Salt Lake City Games](http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/01/sports/figure-skating-2-french-officials-suspended-3-years-in-skating-scandal.html), judges were exchanging votes and manipulating scores to rig the results.) As a result, some changes were made in 2006 to how Olympic figure skating is scored, and those rules are in place for the [2018 Winter Olympic Games](http://time.com/4932670/2018-winter-olympics-when-where/) in PyeongChang, South Korea. Here’s what to watch for when tuning in to this year’s figure skating events, including how figure skates will be scored. ## How does team figure skating scoring work? Beginning in 2014, a new Olympic figure skating event was introduced — the team event. Ten countries are invited to participate, and can enter skaters for each of the four disciplines. Just as with the individual events, each discipline — such as pairs — has a short and long program, and after the short program, countries can choose to change up to two skaters. Countries receive points depending on where their skaters finish from first to 10th place, with first place earning 10 points, and 10th place earning one point. The countries with the five highest scores move on to compete in the long program for each discipline, and the top three finishers make the podium. It’s not a perfect system — in any judged sport, there will always be disagreement, dissension and discord, but it’s a better way to measure how one skater’s skills stack up against another’s. ## What other figure skating terms are there? If you want to sound smart about figure skating, throw in words like axel, salchow and and lutz (and [see our video](http://time.com/5131773/guide-figure-skating-jumps-olympics/) about how to tell them apart). You’ll thank us. **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated the highest potential score under the old figure skating judging system. 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