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Judge Ye Not |
September 2002
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The Fix was In
News has just come out that the Ice Dancing and Pairs Skating at the Salt Lake Olympics were fixed. Like a rejected Sopranos script, a Russian mafiosky has been arrested in the case. Still, it points up the simple fact that, when judges can decide the scores, you don't really have a sport.
And before we hear the huffing and puffing from gymnasts, ice skaters, platform divers and ballroom dancers, we stipulate that they work hard, they train hard, and they are every bit as athletic as soccer players, basketballers and long-distance runners. But the inherent subjectivity of the competition means that taste, not performance, is key.
Few inside ice skating dispute the questionable judging that occurs -- it's a fact that going first gets you a low score so the judges have room to award better performers higher scores. And of course, there is the fact that newcomers don't get the marks performers of longer standing get. Moreover, no one is perfect -- 10.0 (or 6.0) shouldn't be a once an event occurrence. Perfection means just that -- the absolute pinnacle imaginable.
Naturally, objective scoring has a subjective haze around its edge -- ball or strike, goal tending, inbounds on the reception. But it is rare that an officials decision determines to the exclusion of all else the final result. Yes, the penalty kick awarded toward the end of the half affected the game -- but there was a full 90 minutes for the side suffering the bad call to overcome it. In subjectively judged competitions, there is not appeal, no chance to make it up.
And so, get rid of the scoring, the judging, the medals. Let the performers exhibit their talents without the fixing, vote trading, and faux standards. The most popular night at the Olympics, winter or summer, is when the ice skaters and gymnasts come out for the non-scored, post-medal exhibition. It won't take away a thing from the athletes, and it will give them back the purity of what they do. Otherwise, it becomes wrestling -- or as the WWE calls it "sports entertainment." Which at least is honest.