There were no North American or Asian judges on the Worlds 2002 FS panel; the judges were from ITA, SVK, CRO, HUN, FRA, RUS, SWE, BLR, POL.
For Michelle to win the gold medal, she would have had to win the FS and Fumie would have had to have beaten Irina. Button said there was 0 chance of that happening given the judging panel.
Kwan got first place ordinals from HUN (Judit Furst-Tambor who later got canned from the ISU for backing the new WSF), FRA (Philippe Meriguet) and SWE (Marianne Oeverby). Fumie got all 3rd place ordinals except for one 4th, from the French judge, who put Sasha 3rd.
But I believe that even with a better-balanced panel, and if Michelle had won the FS, the outcome would have been the same: Irina would have won the gold medal. Fumie has never beaten Irina and certainly did not beat Irina on that occasion.
For Michelle to win the gold medal, she would have had to win the FS and Fumie would have had to have beaten Irina. Button said there was 0 chance of that happening given the judging panel.
Kwan got first place ordinals from HUN (Judit Furst-Tambor who later got canned from the ISU for backing the new WSF), FRA (Philippe Meriguet) and SWE (Marianne Oeverby). Fumie got all 3rd place ordinals except for one 4th, from the French judge, who put Sasha 3rd.
But I believe that even with a better-balanced panel, and if Michelle had won the FS, the outcome would have been the same: Irina would have won the gold medal. Fumie has never beaten Irina and certainly did not beat Irina on that occasion.