As dozens of athletes have taken to the halfpipe in Beijing, they have dazzled fans with their jaw-dropping heights and dizzying flips. But in competition, no one is watching them more closely than the six judges, and a seventh head judge, who among them determine if the athletes land on the podium.
“Halfpipe is about overall impression,” said Nick Alexakos, the snowboard and freestyle skiing event director at U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
It’s far from simple.
Judges will look for specific characteristics, sometimes referred to with the acronym PAVED: progression, amplitude, variety, execution and difficulty. Here’s what that means:
Progression: Judges look for new tricks and new combinations, either a new twist on an old standard or a completely new combination. “A lot of people are doing the same tricks in their own unique fashion — but is it a different grab?” Alexakos said. “Was there something different that makes them unique?”
Amplitude: The higher you go, the more difficult the trick can be, Alexakos said. And the more rotations, the bigger the amplitude. “To go into the pipe wall at that speed, to get that amp, it is unique and special,” he said. The edges of the pipe itself are about 22 feet high, and some riders can soar 20 feet past that. “Amp is always one of those things that wows the crowd,” he said. “And it is rewarded.”
Variety: Judges look at the selection of tricks and grabs, and the direction of spin. “You might be able to do a front-side double cork better than anyone, but it might be your only trick,” he said, adding that “you will very rarely see a trick repeated in the same run.”
Execution: How do athletes perform the maneuver? Judges look for stability, fluidity and control.
Difficulty: Are athletes linking their most difficult tricks together or performing them separately? Are they performing only one major difficult trick, or is every trick difficult? “You will see them linking combos,” Alexakos said. “It has gotten to a point where the level of riding is insane. They are all multidirectional.”
Each athlete has five to six tricks, and judges use a scale of 1 to 100 to assign ranks. A score of 100 “is the best run of the day, but it doesn’t necessarily mean perfection,” Alexakos said. Each snowboarder’s high score and low score are dropped, and the remaining runs are averaged.
The scores, Alexakos said, are meant to rank the athletes and set the level of competition. “So what was a 90 yesterday in halfpipe, the same one might not be a 90 today,” he said.
There are no standardized deductions, but judges deduct more for instability or a full-out fall than for a hand drag.
If a run is close, judges will analyze it trick by trick, Alexakos said, “and generate a score based on that — what stood out that was better or worse, and score from there.” He added, “They are trying to set a range, and it is a range that is consistent throughout the competition.”
