(18 February) Different judges were drawn, but national bias in the marks showed up yet again in the Men's Free Skate.  Spain did not have a judge on the free skate panel, while China, Japan and the U.S. did. Working our way though the protocol, anomalous marks from all three countries show up in the scoring.

For Nathan Chen, the GoEs from the U.S. are the highest of the panel, including two 3s, vs. none from the rest of the panel.  The U.S. component scores averaged 9.34 vs. 8.74 for the panel as a whole.  No other country gave components that averaged above 8.95  The marks from Japan and China are in line with the panel as a whole.

For Yuzuru Hanyu, the panel was in good agreement.  No one messed with Hanyu's marks substantially, though the component marks from Japan average a bit higher than the panel as a whole.

For Shoma Uno, the Chinese marks are highly anomalous. The GoEs are mostly 1s where the rest of the panel gave 2s and 3s.  The Chinese components average 8.65 vs. 9.27 for the panel as a whole.

For Javier Fernandez, the Chinese marks are again highly anomalous. The GoEs are often 1s where the rest of the panel gave 2s and 3s.  For element two, the Chinese mark is -1 vs. 1s and 2s for the rest of the panel.  The Chinese components average 8.95 vs. 9.61 for the panel as a whole.

The highest marks for Boyang Jin, not surprisingly came from the Chines Judge.  Jin receive ten 3s from the Chines judge.  The rest of the panel was mostly in the 1s and 2s, and only one other judge gave 3s, two from the Kazakhstan judge.  The GoEs from Kazakhstan were the second highest, and clearly stand out from the rest.  Makes you wonder if the Chinese judge had a friend on the panel.

The U.S. marks for Adam Rippon stick out.  The GoEs are the highest of the panel and the components average 9.30 vs. 8.69 for the panel as a whole.  No other judge gave Rippon components that averaged in the 9s.

For Keiji Tanaka, the Japanese judge marked distinctly high and the Chinese judge marked distinctly low, compared to the panel as a whole.

For Han Yan, the Chinese judge marked distinctly high and the Japanese judge marked distinctly low, compared to the panel as a whole.

The were two Russian skaters in the event.  They received marks from the Russian judge that were in line with the rest of the panel.

In this segment it seems pretty obvious the Chinese judge did everything in their power to push Jin up onto the podium and pull his nearest competition down, short of going out on the ice and tripping Uno and Fernandez while they skated.