Huang Feng was banned for one year for bias judging at Pyeongchang 2018 but has still been allowed to officiate at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images

The International Skating Union (ISU) has underlined its efforts to ensure there will be no "strong national bias" in figure skating judging scoring during the Winter Olympics here.

The ISU has faced criticism after selecting previously banned Chinese figure skating judge Huang Feng as an official for Beijing 2022.

Feng was hit with a one-year ban in 2018 after being found guilty of bias during Pyeongchang 2018.

An investigation by the ISU found Huang and fellow official Chen Weiguang had given skaters from their own country "preferential marking".

Huang gave the second highest grade of execution scores to the Chinese pairs team of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the silver medallists.

At the same time, German couple Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot were awarded the lowest score of all the judges by Huang.

Chen was banned for two years and excluded from judging at Beijing 2022 whereas Huang was suspended for one year.

Huang has now been given the role of technical controller - a position that could see him propose corrections – during Beijing 2022.

Meagan Duhamel of Canada and Eric Radford were impacted by Huang’s scoring as they finished behind Sui and Han in third position.

The figure skating competitions are underway at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images
The figure skating competitions are underway at Beijing 2022 ©Getty Images

Duhamel insisted "you should not be allowed to be suspended, and your reward is working the next Olympics".

In response, the ISU told insidethegames that Huang had been cleared to officiate at its events and the Winter Olympics after serving his ban as long as he abides by its code of ethics.

The organisation claimed it monitors the judging of all ISU figure skating events as part of its "robust evaluation and reporting procedure".

The process includes the appointment of the Officials Assessment Commission which the ISU claimed checks the behaviour of judges during competitions and reports any errors.

The ISU added that the procedure allows them to "focus particularly on cases that potentially show strong national bias through scoring".

"The cancellation of anonymity makes it possible to trace not only the quality of judging but also any bias,” the statement from the ISU added.

"Judges who make mistakes and/or are over marking skaters receive a warning and can be penalised by the ISU.

"It is the ISU’s priority to do its utmost to guarantee a fair result during any ISU event."