The Official

Anyone that has ever watched a sporting event has probably complained about officiating. As spectators, we often point out the wrong calls and the non-calls and yell obscenities at the television. We then wonder if the referee has been bribed or if he is truly an incompetent buffoon.

But what if you are an athlete? Those that are actually participating in the sport undoubtedly as just as, if not much more, frustrated when a referee screws something up in the opponent's favor. However, athletes are not at liberty to yell obscenities at the referees, because they will be ignored or, at worst, tossed.

If you think about it, though, it's a pointless exercise anyway, because typically, a referee will never overturn a call even if he realizes that he is wrong. This usually only happens when the other officials don't agree with a call that has been made.

Sometimes, though, the "other officials" can be wrong. Like when the Detroit Red Wings "lost" in a shootout to the Dallas Stars earlier this year.

When an athlete publicly lashes out at an official, this usually is followed by some sort of disciplinary action against the player and none against the official, even if the call in question was utterly egregious to anyone's eye. Other times, it is swept under the rug as if it never happened.

An official's actions are sometimes the difference maker in the outcome, and sometimes they aren't. Sometimes it's difficult to quantify whether it would have made a difference. But in all of these cases, they are wrong nonetheless. Still, they seldom face disciplinary action.

But what about the cases where the official's judgement is the outcome? I'm talking about sports that rely solely on judges to determine the result.

Figure skating, for instance, is in the midst of controversy yet again. In both the men's and women's events, it was shown that safe and easy are rated higher than ambitious highlights.

Evgeni Plushenko has been labeled as a sore loser by the American media who are perhaps subconsciously feeling guilty. Korean media have claimed Mao Asada's scores were too high, which is rather odd given the rest of the world seems to think Kim's score was conspicuously high. Is it really necessary to put down the runner-up?

What are Plushenko's options anyway? The alternative to expressing discontent is to stay quiet, in which case problems would never be unearthed. As is the case with anything, if no one points out the problems then they will never be fixed. Most venues encourage people to speak up about potential issues that can be improved. In sports, such an attempt is lambasted.

Of course, complaining only is not enough. One must also come up with a way to fix the problems. However, this is not a task for Plushenko alone to undertake. If whatever governing body that oversees figure skating is not going to acknowledge that there might be a problem, then there is no hope for the sport. In fact, it can hardly be considered a sport, according to some.

Ironically, the fact that the head of the IOC had to come out and say that there was "nothing wrong" with the way in which both figure skating events were judged shows that there was indeed a problem. The truth is, while there may not have technically been a problem in accordance with the current rules, the problems lie within the rules themselves. If there had been no fundamental problem, no one would have complained and no such statement would have to be made.