(16 February) Transparency is a beautiful thing.  The Men's Short Program included contenders from China, Japan and Spain, and also judges from those three countries.  National bias from these three judges is subtle but clear in the protocol.

The Spanish judge (judge 1) marked Hanyu a little lower than the panel, and Fernandez a little higher.  He gave Fernandez four 10s vs. two for Hanyu, and an average of 9.6 for Hanyu vs. 9.9 for Fernandez.  The Japanese judge (judge 5) played the same game, giving Hanyu a little boost and Fernandez a little drop in the scores.  Compare the GoEs and components for these two skaters on the protocol.  This couldn't be more obvious.  Finally we have the Chinese judge (judge 9) who did the right thing with Hanyu, but marked Fernandez and Shoma Uno down and Boyang Jin up compared to the rest of the panel.