In the 2012 Four Continents Pairs final, Wenjing Sui & Cong Han attempted an ambitious program, opening with a throw quad Salchow and then a quad twist lift as the third element.  The operative word on these was attempt.  And while we admire their desire to push the technical level, we nevertheless also believe that difficult elements should not receive an abundance of points if they are not cleanly executed.

The quad Salchow attempt was clearly two footed in the program, as were the attempts in the warm-up.  Six of the nine judges gave negative GoEs, while three judges gave marks of 0 through 2.  The element earned 7.43 points, more than for a clean throw triple loop, for an element many would considered failed, since the goal is to land jumps and throws on one foot, not two.  One can find only small comfort in that at least six of the judges scored the element negative.  GoEs spanning a range of -2 to +2, however, makes a joke of the evaluation of this element.

The quad twist, however, was an even greater travesty.  The attempt, shown at the left below started off beautiful -- high and fast with nice positions  -- but ended poorly.

At the moment before the catch the element is 1/4 turn under-rotated, shown in the center photo below.  The catch ends with Sui flopped over Han's shoulder as she literally bounced off of it on the exit. And yet this element, with two major errors, earned 8.96 points!  Amazingly only one judge scored this element with a negative GoE (-1).  One judge scored the element at +1, six scored it +2 and one scored it +3 (the same judge that gave the +2 on the quad Salchow attempt).  A range of five GoEs!  Regardless of the actual execution of the element, such a wide range of opinion makes a joke of the evaluation of elements.

The points earned on the quad Salchow and the quad twist made up the team's entire margin of victory in the Pairs event.  Maybe the ending of the twist was too quick for the panel to see the errors.  Maybe the panel's view was blocked since Han's back was to the judges for the catch.  Maybe their coach was clever enough to place the element in a place where it would be hard to see.

 But it doesn't matter.  The gold medal in this event was decided by two failed elements.  Hardly a rousing endorsement of the scoring system.