Considering judges have been caught fixing results over the phone (eg- Jean Senft's taped conversation from Nagano), taking caviar for marks, taking money for marks, giving foot and hand signals to each other caught by camera, bloc judging, dozing off during routines and not looking up until it is over, the mere suggestion one has to just accept what the judges put out as a final score and result as correct is simply
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Individuals like BlueBonnet who actually claim judges as "professional" really know nothing of what they are talking about. Judges at the amateur level have never been "professional" in any sense of the word. They have for decades been volunteers who dont even get an official salary (hence why many are so eager to take behind the scenes cash offers), and many who have virtually no skating background of their own, just willingess to go through tests to become a judge. That is in fact one of the huge problems. Tracy Wilson, blackballed former ISU judge (despite being one of the few excellent ones they ever had) Jean Senft, and Globe and Mail writer Beverly Smith had a long interview session during the 2002 Worlds where they discussed how judges needed to become professional, needed to be ex World class skaters, and needed to be payed and representing the ISU, not their own federations. Of course none of that happened and we still have a sequence of scandulous results involving people like Chan which threatens to plummet the popularity of the sport, especialy in North America, to the point of non existence. The idea anyone would believe amateur competition judges as things are, or ever have been, are "professional" is too funny for words.
