KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (AP) - American slopestyle snowboarder Chas Guldemond thinks it might be time for Olympic judges to go back to school.
Guldemond missed the finals after finishing seventh in the semifinals on Saturday, posting a score of 79.75. Guldemond landed a triple cork - three flips - but missed out on the top four by full five points.
While not complaining about his score specifically, Guldemond said it was tough to get a handle on what the judges wanted.
“They’re all over the place, so it’s kind of hard to track them down,” said Guldemond, of Truckee, Calif.
The Olympics use judges from the International Ski Federation (FIS), who typically judge World Cup events. The sport’s top riders, however, largely compete in World Snowboard Tour events like the X Games.
Guldemond, who is on the World Snowboard Tour board of directors, says the tour brings judges in three times a year to update them the state of the sport. The FIS does not.
“’’I think we need to educate,” he said. “In any business industry you need to educate and keep people on the cutting edge of snowboarding and that’s what needs to continue to happen. And yeah, we’re working on it.”
- Will Graves - Twitter https://twitter.com/WillGravesAP
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