Figure Skating's New Judging System Exemplifies Secrecy

http://www.seattlepi.com/olympics/93088_skate28.shtml

The following article discusses the replacement of the old 6.0 figure skating judging system, where marks of each judge was posted, with the new judging system, where the computer randomly and secretly selects the judges’ marks used, and only posts the cumulative score. According to the article the anonymity of the judges was implemented, after the 2002 Olympic scandal, in order to prevent judges from being bribed or pressured to vote for a specific skater. However, this random and secret selection of judges, also gives “judges license to cheat,” as no one is able to trace back the selected scores.

Similarly, Weber argues that the bureaucratic officials monopolize knowledge (power) under secrecy (233). Thus, the secrecy of which judges scores are used, prevents “criticism”(233) and makes it difficult to investigate the score of a skater’s program. As this gives the bureaucratic officials power, it also gives figure skating judges power.