Ethical Issues In Judging People At The 2002 Winter Olympics

In February of 2002, at the Winter Olympics taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah, two Canadian figure skaters were trapped during what was the most high-profile judging scandal of all time. At no fault of their own, the pair consisting of Jamie Salé and David Pelletier lost their chance at the gold medal when a French judge voted in favour of the Russian pair. Thus, the Russians claimed the gold medal and the Canadians settled for silver. When confronted, the French judge admitted to being pressured by the head of the French skating organization to rank the Russians higher than Salé and Pelletier. This would ensure a favourable ranking for the French pair later in the week. Considerable media attention prompted an internal overhaul of the International Skating Union (ISU) after this incident (Smith, 2002). Since then, several more unethical judging incidents in various sports have taken place on the international stage, which is why this issue has seemingly come to the forefront of media attention in recent years. To that effect, it is important to investigate how incidents like the one at the 2002 Winter Olympics have shaped today’s modern judged athletic events, and variables such as athlete ranking and team composition. Essentially, it is a gateway to discussing how ethical issues in judging …show more content…
The first recorded instance of a competitive “match” between two or more people dates back to approximately 4000 B.C. (McKelvie, 2004). Prior to this, athletic endeavours were limited to those performed by hunter-gatherers, such as hunting and fishing. As a result, much of the first competitive sports reflected skills that would have been needed to be a successful hunter-gatherer. Given that it took place at a time where these skills would have been critical for survival, it is logical that they would be reflected as pleasurable