Japan in Bid to Change Skating Rules to Favor Mao Asada

The Japan Skating Federation apparently wants to propose amending regulations for the jump content in the ladies' figure skating short program in favor of 2010 world champion Mao Asada.

Currently, women skaters must perform a double axel in the short program, but the Japanese federation hopes to change this to either a double or a triple axel, just like the requirement for male skaters. The triple is worth more points, so those who can do it would have an advantage. The federation reasons that a triple axel should be credited as long as there is at least one woman skater who can perform it, as Asada can.

Out of eight elements that women are required to perform in the short program, three jumps are mandatory -- a triple-triple combination or a combination of a double and a triple jump, one triple jump on its own, and a double axel. Asada included a triple axel-double toeloop combination, a triple flip and a double axel. If she can replace the double axel with a triple axel, she would be able to earn 4.7 points more, since the base value of a double axel is 3.5 points whereas that of a triple axel is 8.2. The difference is big enough to close the gap of 4.72 points by which she trailed Korea's Kim Yu-na after the short program at the Olympics in Vancouver.

After winning the world title in Turin, Asada said, "I'd like to include a triple axel in the short program next year. I also want to do a triple-triple combination in a variety of combinations." Asada already tried two different triple-triple combinations in the 2007-2008 season. But if she wants to try a triple-triple combination again, she needs to address an issue that has been bothering her for a long time -- under-rotation.

Many Korean figure skating fans seem to accept that Asada is most likely to stay at the top of the world until the 2014 Olympics in Sochi if Kim retires from competition.

I'm agree vv

Actually, it looks not fair at all, when they don't give the advantage to someone
who does something difficult in comparison to the others...
(: more difficult, more score!