More short track races are decided by a referee than most people watching realise. The principle behind every call is simple — a skater may not improve their position by impeding somebody else — but the way it is applied is not, and the on-screen abbreviations explain nothing.
Penalty. In the ISU's words, a skater or team receiving one will "lose their result in the race and be placed after the other Skaters participating in that race for the final classification." It applies to that race; earlier rounds stand.
Yellow card. The second level: the skater "loses all the results acquired in the distance and is placed at the bottom of the classification concerned." Three kinds — YC-B for reckless skating or very bad sportsmanship, YC-2 for two separate penalties in one race, and YC-LAP for a skater being lapped who does not give way.
Red card. The third level, "only used for extreme behavior". The skater loses all points and classification in the distance and is listed at the bottom. Note that this is the distance, not automatically the whole competition — and there are three of them: RC-B, RC-COC for a breach of the code of conduct, and RC-LAP.
Read that rule again, because it settles an argument. An advancement is not the referee's sympathy: it is available only to a skater who was first or second at the moment of the infringement. So a skater's advancement count is largely a record of how often they are at the front when something goes wrong — which is a fact about their racing, not about the officials.
Not every review ends in a sanction, and the ISU has codes for the other outcomes. SR is "No penalty - Shared Responsibility" — the referee has looked and judged neither skater more to blame. NRV is "No Rule Violation": reviewed, and nothing was wrong. A race that is reviewed and left alone is not the referee missing something; it is a decision with a code of its own.
There is also EMB, embellishment — exaggerating contact to draw a call — which is sanctionable in itself.
These are the ISU's own, from the Language and code document. Nobody publishes them in plain sight, which is why the abbreviation on the screen at an event means nothing to most of the people watching.
| code | the ISU's wording | what it means |
|---|---|---|
| PEN | Penalty to Skater or Team | loses the result of that race and is placed after everyone who finished it |
| YC-B | Yellow Card for Bad Behavior | reckless skating or very bad sportsmanship |
| YC-2 | Yellow Card for 2 Penalties in a single race | two separate impeding or kicking-out offences in one race |
| YC-LAP | Yellow Card for Impeding the Race | a skater being lapped who does not give way to those passing |
| RC-B | Red Card for extremly Bad Behavior | the ISU’s spelling, not ours |
| RC-COC | Red Card for Breach of Code of Conduct | |
| RC-LAP | Red Card for Impeding the Race | |
| ADV | Advancements | moved into the next round after being impeded |
| SR | No penalty - Shared Responsibility | the referee judges neither skater more to blame |
| NRV | No Rule Violation | reviewed, and nothing was wrong |
| EMB | Embellishment | exaggerating contact to draw a call |
| OFF | Off Track | cutting inside the blocks and skating less than the distance |
| ASS | Assistance | help from another skater |
| EQP | Equipment Violation | |
| DNF | Failing to cross the Finish Line |
The infringement codes work differently: the same offence has a different code depending on where on the track it happened. An arm block is S3 on the straight, C3 in the corner, ST3 at the start and F3 at the finish. The blocks marking the corners are the reference points.
| S1 | Lane Change | from Outside to In |
| S2 | Lane Change | from Inside to Out |
| S3 | Arm Block |
| S4 | Arm Push |
| S5 | Contact from behind |
| S6 | End of Straight | Illegal Late Pass |
| S7 | End of Straight | Illegal Opening and Closing |
| S8 | End of Straight | Inside Skater Failure to Give Way |
| S9 | End of Straight | Outside Skater Not Giving Space |
| C1 | Lane Change | from Outside to In |
| C2 | Lane Change | from Inside to Out |
| C3 | Arm Block |
| C4 | Arm Push |
| C5 | Contact from behind |
| ST1 | Lane Change | from Outside to In |
| ST2 | Lane Change | from Inside to Out |
| ST3 | Arm Block |
| ST4 | Arm Push |
| ST5 | Contact from behind |
| ST6 | False Starts |
| F1 | Lane Change | from Outside to In |
| F2 | Lane Change | from Inside to Out |
| F3 | Arm Block |
| F4 | Arm Push |
| F5 | Contact from behind |
| F6 | Kicking Out at Finish Line |
| R1 | Missed Relay Touch |
| R2 | Illegal Relay |
| R3 | Blocking in the Infield |
| R4 | Inactive Skater on the track causing Obstruction |
| R5 | Lane Change during Exchange causing Contact/Obstruction |
| R6 | Leg Blocking during Exchanges |
| R7 | Impeding the Race Entering or Exiting for an Exchange |
The standard for all of them is the same. Rule 286 §4: only racing incidents that are "clear and obvious", and not in line with the principles of the general racing rule, may result in sanctions.
Every race in this archive since 2007/08, grouped by round. Across 13,834 races, 3,094 ended in a call — 22.4% overall.
The spread is the interesting part: semifinals ends in a call 33.8% of the time against 3.7% in pre-prelims — 9.1 times as often.
Because an advancement requires the skater to have been first or second when the incident happened, an advancement count is partly a measure of where a skater races rather than of how they are treated. The lap data makes that concrete: skaters who get advanced spend about half of the first half of a race in the top two, against roughly a third for everybody else. See the balance, skater by skater.
One caveat on our own data. The ISU's code list has a single ADV; the results feed this archive is built from also carries ADVA and ADVB, which appear to distinguish an advancement into the A final from one into the B final. We count all three as advancements and say so rather than pretending the distinction is documented.