By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

BEIJING (Reuters). A Chinese figure skating judge, who was suspended because he gave preferential marks for his compatriots, will now serve as a technical judging panel member at the Beijing Winter Olympics. This is according to competition records. It has caused concern from a competitor affected in the past.

Huang Feng was placed on suspension for one year after being accused of biasedly judging pairs figure skaters at the Pyeongchang Olympics in June 2018.

Huang, who is listed in the Beijing Games’ technical controller list, supervises technical experts and proposes corrections for elements that are identified as difficult, will begin Friday.

Huang was suspended by the International Skating Union’s disciplinary committee in 2018 after he displayed “obvious, systematic bias” during the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The Olympic Winter Games was the best competition for figure skating, and his conduct is considered serious.

According to the ISU’s disciplinary committee, Huang asked to be freed from all allegations.

Huang couldn’t be reached to comment. A request to comment was not received by the Chinese Figure Skating Association. However, a phone call to their office did get answered.

Although the ISU had asked for Huang to be barred from officiating at Beijing’s Olympics, they did not reply to our request.

Huang was sent a letter by the ISU Officials Assessment Commission prior to the 2018 Games. It stated that Huang’s judging at 2017 ISU Grand Prix Final had shown “clear support” for the Chinese pair, without objective reasons in either elements or components.

The letter read, “This was evaluated as national bias,” according to the ISU’s disciplinary commission.

‘REWARD’

The scandals in judging and conflicts of interests that have afflicted figure skating include a vote-trading plot at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, which sparked radical reforms.

Canadian pairs skater Meagan duhamel won bronze with Eric Radford. Duhamel stated that she realized one judge was particularly harsh when marking pairs after she had reviewed the scores.

Huang’s suspension later in the year was no surprise to her.

Duhamel, who was a retired Pyeongchanger, said that suspending you should be avoided and that your reward for working at the Olympics is being paid.

“We, as a sport, have been trying not to welcome those people back in but clearing them out.”

Bruno Marcotte, the coach of Duhamel and his wife, claimed that Huang would come under increased scrutiny in Beijing.

He told Reuters that he hoped one day, judges would represent ISU members and not the countries they belong to. But I doubt that this will ever happen.