An article on the Boston Globe's Boston.com says chatter is continuing about scores being calculated incorrectly at January's U.S. National Figure Skating Championships, in which Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir tied at the end of the free skate. Lysacek was awarded the gold medal because he won the free skate. However, as USA Today reported last month, it appears the program components scores may have been rounded wrong, and Weir may truly own the title with a hundredth of a point edge:
... instead of having the trimmed scores for the long program averaged, factored by two, and rounded off to two places beyond the decimal point, the scores were rounded, then factored. Had they been computed correctly, Weir would have regained his crown by a hundredth of a point.
US Figure Skating says it was simply using the IceCalc software provided by the ISU and that its own rule is just a basic description of the scoring that isn't meant to include all elements.
USA Today reported last month that U.S. Figure Skating contacted the International Skating Union about its IceCalc software and that the ISU "clarified" how the software interprets scores. However, the Boston.com article states that the rules will be clarified at the ISU's summer congress.
For Weir's part, he put out a February journal entry addressing his second place win as well as the computer "backlash":
I never thought there would be a tie in this system, but I guess I should expect the unexpected. I accepted that I was second. I'm not going to pretend to be able to outsmart a computer, so I'm fine in knowing I won a silver medal, not a gold. In this system, the computer knows best. I won't say it isn't crazy though.
...I want to thank everyone who questioned the result. I heard through the grapevine and from USA Today that there were human calculators trying to figure how the results were possible and criticizing the credibility of the computer. I am fine with the result, and I think everyone should be. If not a champion this time, work hard and be a sure champion next time.
It seems unlikely that there will be another tie, but never say never. And a computer is only as right as it is progammed to be (and sometimes not even then...). That said, perhaps ISU should do some more checking on the software to allay fears that it is not calculating scores in accordance with its own rules.
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