To many Americans, the idea that ANYTHING connected to the Olympics could be even a little tainted was an obscenity. But the stadiums had been built, and the hotels were in place, and... and... Fast forward to February 12, 2002. If you don't know about the two young Canadian figure skaters who finished their brilliant, perfectly skated program and were judged inferior to the brilliant Russian pair who "gold medalled"( as they say on TV) even after one of them fell down after a jump and the other had a couple of rocky landings--if you aren't aware of the crisis of confidence in Olympic figure skating judging--you must have been out penguin-watching in Antarctica.

After a hasty decision by the Olympic Committee a few days later, at a special ceremony that occupied the television screen for what seemed likehours, the Russian pair AND the Canadian couple were declared to have tied, and all four skaters were awarded gold medals and bouquets of bright yellow flowers. Smiles, hugs, tears abounded, justice triumphed, but none of that changes what happened.

There has been much criticism of judging in figure skating as well as in other competitive skating events. At the 1999 World Championship Tournament, the judges from Russia and Ukraine were suspended for signaling to each other after performances (forbidden). During the cold war, it was obvious that Soviet judges and judges from Soviet satellite countries always chose Soviet or satellite nation skaters, skiers, what-have-you, over more highly skilled athletes from the West. And it is also observable that, if you are the first to skate, even if your performance is incredible, your marks will be "held back" to leave room for other skaters who follow, and may do better. What kind of crazy way is that to judge anything? If you are a perfect 6, the highest score in figure skating, than why should you be awarded a 5.8 ? The figure skating judging has always been either politicized or questionable on other grounds. Or both.

Marie-Reine Le Gougne of France is one of the five judges (the others are from Russia, China, Poland and Ukraine) who selected the Russian skaters, Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, over Canada's Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, rated first by the judges from the US, Canada, Japan and Germany as well as by the rapturous audience who gave them a long standing ovation. According to a report from Bob Costas, NBC's Olympic anchor, Le Gougne was pressured to award the gold medal to the Russian pair in exchange for the Russian judge's vote for a French athlete in another event. This is terrible news to those of us, and that's mostly all of us, who embrace the original Greek ideal: respect for perfection in body and mind and ethic. But of course that was centuries before TV and its lucrative advertising contracts that offer another kind of gold.

Didier Gailhaguet, head of the French Olympic team, is quoted by the Associated Press as saying that, "what is true is that Marie Reine has been put under pressure, which pushed her to act in a certain way." Then, as expected from a fellow Frenchman, he defended her actions. "Contrary to the accusations, there was no collusion with the East European nations."

In a poll taken on February 14 by AOL Sports, 74 percent were "appalled" to see the Olympics tainted in this way, and 62 percent felt it would "tremendously" tarnish the image of figure skating. Here are a few more appalling notes:

For many years, East German and Soviet medal winners used to appear all pumped up on steroids (there are now supposed to be tests to determine steroid use).

The women athletes' chests are barely distinguishable from the men's; prolonged athletic activity, it was discovered during World War II, suppresses estrogen secretion while building upper muscle strength, and there go one's breasts.

The downhill racers and the ski jumpers are painfully thin--their cheekbones and jawbones protrude alarmingly, and many of them suffer from eating disorders.

It is difficult to tell who is a man and who is a woman when tuning in to the ice skating races. When you hear the skaters speak, they all sound the same--masculine. All of them are muscular and perhaps they take androgens--it's easy over the counter. Pep pills? Bio-manipulation? Athletes do it every day with so much money and national prestige at stake.

The standards for winning in almost all of the Olympic events are set higher by the day, and athletes are driven to perform more and more desperate maneuvers. Broken bones and fractures requiring surgery are common place as athletes push themselves to twist in the air five times in snow-boarding, spin a quadruple jump in skating, and torture themselves both mentally and physically to practice and prepare to exceed last year's expectations.

The Olympics used to put a higher value on strength, grace, skill and speed than on physical daredevilry. These young, determined would-be superstars are to be admired, and they claim to love what they do, and it's better than rolling joints on the street corner, but what will happen to the mental and physical health of those who DON'T win when they are really grown up and their jousting days are over? Will the demand for ever more dangerous, life threatening acrobatics accelerate until someone is killed? Are the Olympics hyped up "cold wars"? Are some of the judges prejudiced? Corrupted? How will it all turn out?

Stay tuned.