Figure skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics – Ladies' singles
The ladies' single skating competition of the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi, Russia. The short program took place on 19 February 2014, and the free skating took place on 20 February. Adelina Sotnikova of Russia won the gold medal, generating much controversy over the partiality of the judges and the new scoring system. Records. For complete list of figure skating records, see list of highest scores in figure skating. The following ISU season best scores (2013–2014) were set during this competition: Results. Short program . The short program (SP) took place on 19 February 2014. Free skating. The Free skating took place on 20 February 2014. Overall. The skaters are ranked according to their overall score. Judges and officials. Short Program judges Judge 1: Robert Rosenbluth Judge 2: Karen Howard Judge 3: Franco Benini Judge 4: Birgit Föll Judge 5: Diana Stevens Judge 6: Nobuhiko Yoshioka Judge 7: Katarina Henriksson Judge 8: Adriana Domanska Judge 9: Koh Sung-Hee Free Skating judges Judge 1: Birgit Föll Judge 2: Yuri Balkov Judge 3: Franco Benini Judge 4: Zanna Kulik Judge 5: Nobuhiko Yoshioka Judge 6: Alla  Shekhovtsova Judge 7: Hélène Cucuphat Judge 8: Karen Howard Judge 9: Adriana Domanska Result and subsequent debate. Seventeen-year-old Adelina Sotnikova won the gold medal with an overall score of 224.59 points, becoming one of the youngest figure skating Olympic champions. Sotnikova's free skate program was, in terms of base points, more difficult than that of South Korea's Yuna Kim, the defending champion who was in first after the short program, .28 points ahead of Sotnikova. In addition to more triple jumps and more difficult footwork (as determined by the caller), Sotnikova performed a double Axel-triple  toe, a challenging combination that Kim did not attempt. However, Sotnikova's routine also featured a relatively significant error—she stepped out of a jumping combination, while Kim's program was executed without any glaring missteps. The judges assessed Kim as having demonstrated greater artistry; her component score was .09 points higher than Sotnikova's. But Sotnikova's base technical score (a measurement of the difficulty of executed moves) was 3.94 points higher than Kim's, and her grade of execution score—based the average technical evaluation of each element, examining whether the proper edge was used, the speed carried  into and out of a jump, jump positioning, and more—was scored 1.91 points higher. The results sparked a debate over the judges' objectivity, spurred in part by the composition of the judging panel. The panel included two Russian officials, a Russian judge and a Ukrainian judge. One of the Russian judges was Alla Shekhovtsova—wife of the former president of the Russian Skating Federation—who Sotnikova embraced (amongst others) prior to the flower ceremony. Over one-and-a-half million people signed a petition calling for an investigation into the outcome. Several commentators attributed the result to the revised  scoring system that had been adopted in 2006, a system generally thought to "favor mathematics at the expense of artistry." Alice Park, writing for "Time", suggested that, contrary to popular belief, Sotnikova's surprising win was a consequence of objectivity rather than subjectivity: Specifically, she argued, the redesigned scoring system heavily rewarded technical difficulty, giving a substantial advantage to those with more challenging starting programs, while de-emphasizing the judge's impression of performers. Bryan Armen Graham, writing for "The Atlantic", suggested that the polarized reaction to the result was due to a generational gap brought about by the changed  scoring system, saying, "Those who came up watching figure skating under the old 6.0 system are probably accustomed to more leeway in the judging." Some in the skating community also seemed to take this view: While noting that she "personally enjoyed Yuna Kim's performance more," Michelle Kwan, two-time Olympic medalist and five-time World champion, stated, "Under the scoring system, hands down, Adelina won." Similarly, four-time men's champion Kurt Browning said that "Yuna Kim outskated [Sotnikova], but it’s not just a skating competition anymore—it’s math." And Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion, said  that, while Sotnikova's skating was not as aesthetically pleasing as Kim's, her athletic style "check[ed] off every box" and "d[id] everything the judges are looking for." Beyond the scoring system, the results seemed to divide former professional skaters: Katarina Witt, a two-time Olympic champion, said, "I am stunned by this result, I don’t understand the scoring." Two-time bronze medalist Michael Weiss attributed Sotnikova's scores to "home-field inflation." But three-time world champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist Elvis Stojko said that the result "was totally fair," as "Kim didn't have enough  technical ammunition." And Alexei Mishin, the Russian 1969 world medalist and coach to three Olympic champions, said that "Sotnikova's victory [was] absolutely natural and objective." Official responses. On 21 February 2014, the International Skating Union (ISU) issued a statement which asserted all rules and procedures were applied during the competition and that no official protest had been filed by any participating nation concerning the results of the competition. Such a protest must be done within 30 minutes of the event. ISU's 21 February 2014 statement declaring their confidence "in the high quality and integrity of the ISU judging  system". Adding "judges were selected by random drawing from a pool of 13 potential judges" and all nine judges on the free skating panel were from different nations. On 10 April, the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and the Korean Skating Union (KSU) filed an official complaint with the ISU Disciplinary Commission (DC) concerning judging. The complaint was regarding "the wrongful constitution of the panel of judges and the unjust outcome of the competition". It requested that the DC conduct a thorough investigation, "take appropriate disciplinary actions against the concerned individuals", and institute corrective actions. On 14 April, the DC ruled  the complaint inadmissible because a general request for investigation is not within DC's jurisdiction and the complaint was not addressed at an individual or federation as required. On 30 April, the KOC and KSU filed a second official complaint with the DC. This time the complaint was against Russian judge Alla Shekhovtsova and Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR), specifically citing a hug Shekhovtsova shared with Sotnikova and Shekhovtsova's marriage to the current Director General of the FSFR. On 30 May, the DC dismissed the complaint. It ruled Shekhovtsova "is not responsible for the judging panel's composition