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A Chinese figure skating judge will serve on a panel at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Beijing despite being previously suspended for "obvious and systematic bias" at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea.
Huang Feng is listed as a technical controller for the international competition, which begins this upcoming Friday. In this role, Huang will serve as "an official who supervises technical specialists and can propose corrections regarding the level of difficulty identified for a given element," according to Reuters.
Huang had previously received a one-year suspension from the sport in 2018 from the International Skating Union (ISU). The ISU's disciplinary board had found that Huang had demonstrated a significant bias toward Chinese competitors during that year's Olympic festivities.
"The seriousness of his misconduct is aggravated by the fact that it was committed at the Olympic Winter Games, the doubtlessly most important and prestigious competition that exists in figure skating," the ISU had said in a press release.
The board found that Huang's bias toward Chinese competitors, particularly in pairs events, had started even before his actions at the 2018 games.
Prior to the opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang, the ISU sent Huang a warning letter regarding his judging at the 2017 ISU Grand Prix Final. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, the ISU told Huang that he had shown "clear support for the two Chinese pairs without any objective reasons either in elements and in components."
"This has been evaluated as national bias," the letter continued.
In the lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Games, the ISU made multiple attempts to have Huang banned from judging. However, Huang himself has requested for the bias charges against him to be dismissed.
Some competitors expressed their agreement with the ISU that Huang was biased toward Chinese athletes. Many also raised concerns about the fairness of the competition if he would be allowed to judge in 2022.
"You should not be allowed to be suspended, and your reward is working the next Olympics," retired Canadian pairs skater Meagan Duhamel told Reuters. "We as a sport have been trying to clear those people out, not welcome them back in."
Duhamel, who hung up her skates after Pyeongchang, stated that Huang's bias had been obvious due to his significantly skewed scores compared to the other judges. Duhamel and her skating partner, Eric Radford, eventually won a bronze medal at the 2018 Games.
"I dream that one day judges will represent the ISU and not their countries," said Duhamel's coach, Bruno Marcotte. "But I don't think that will happen any time soon."
Competitive figure skating, particularly on an international level, has been rocked by a number of scandals throughout its history.
During the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, allegations that the pairs' competitions had been fixed resulted in two teams winning gold medals. Following this scandal, the ISU made significant alterations to the scoring system used by the judges.
Perhaps the most famous incident, though, involved American figure skater Tonya Harding. In 1994, Harding's ex-husband attacked fellow figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in an attempt to knock her out of both the upcoming U.S. Championships and Olympic Games.
Harding initially claimed that she had no knowledge of the assault, but eventually reached a plea deal after the FBI found evidence of her involvement. She was eventually banned from all U.S. figure skating events.
The ISU told Newsweek in a statement that it "closely monitors the judging of all ISU Figure Skating Events and has a robust evaluation and reporting procedure in place."
"Judges who make mistakes and/or are over marking skaters receive a warning and can be penalized by the ISU. 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."
Update (02/02/2022, 5:45 p.m. ET): This story has been updated with a statement from the ISU.
