A leap forward in figure skating scoring

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© 1952 / International Olympic Committee (IOC) - All rights reserved - Marianna Nagy and László Nagy (Hungary) placed 3rd in the mixed pairs figure skating event, 14 February 1952. The scoring system had been greatly revamped with the entry of computers.

At previous Olympic figure skating competitions, athletes had to wait until the end of the competition for their scores to be tabulated and announced. The introduction of computers at Oslo 1952 changed all that, allowing the scores awarded by judges for the compulsory and free programmes to be calculated and displayed without delay to the figure skaters.

The scoring system currently used in figure skating is significantly more complicated than it was in 1952, with athletes being assessed according to the ISU Judging System. Introduced in 2004, it assigns an individual score to each element, which requires cutting-edge technology.