Anybody want to buy into a New Judging System?

	Ice dancing will benefit the most from the new system, judge Ann Shaw says.

A "Judge Fairly" banner hung in the arena at the World Figure Skating Championships in Washington, D.C., last week. "No Secret Judging" buttons abounded -- even the guy selling pizza had one. International Skating Union president Ottavio Cinquanta was greeted by boos, not applause. About 150 protestors showed up to march for 20 minutes on Friday before trooping in to watch the show.

The ISU announced Wednesday it is putting the 6.0 scale on the endangered list. In fast-track development after the Salt Lake City Olympics, The New Judging System will be tested in the 2003-04 season at eight events: the Nebelhorn Trophy, which kicks off the season in Germany, the six Grand Prix events and the Grand Prix final.

That means Cinquanta has a tough sell. He has to convince fans it's fair and understandable, skaters and coaches that they won't radically have to adapt programs and federations that it is easily learned, implemented and financed.

Whew. That's a long list.

However, some of the judges are already on board.

"(Currently) if you are sitting on the ice more than three hours and have 30 skaters with the required elements in the short program and more elements in the free skating, are we really sure that we have evaluated each element exactly as it was performed?" asked Slovakian judge Felicitas Bubusikova as a panel member in an open meeting aimed at judges and coaches about the new system.

Charlie Cyr, the U.S. chair of judge education and training, said that before he saw the new system he wrote three pages on why it wouldn't work, put it in his briefcase and headed off to review the system. The pages never came out of his briefcase.

"The eye-opener was that I was forced to judge in the here and now," Cyr said. "I was not judging the practice session. I was not judging the warm-up. I was forced to judge the triple axel or the quad toe that was done in the performance. And not thinking back, 'he did it in warm-up.'"

After waiting for applause to die down, Cyr went on.

"I think the most disconcerting part about coming off a performance for an athlete is knowing you have done probably your personal best or you have had a disastrous skate … but the reputation of the skater comes through not in the first marks but it certainly comes through on the second mark."

Some, though, are not quite in the here and now as one judge asked, "What do you do if you have an overall bad feeling about the program."

Judges still will have the option of selecting artistic marks but they have firm criteria and through evaluation will supposedly have to justify their selection as something more than a "bad feeling."

Ann Shaw had the responsibility of applying the new system to ice dance -- most often accused of judging anomalies.

"I think it is the best thing that could ever happen to ice dance because it gives us much more break down in our measurements," Shaw said. "Ice dance is in some ways, the hardest thing to judge because we are looking for so many things and to be able to make the decision based on a number of divided portions, let's our marks have far more detailed application."

But still making it a difficult sell with the fans is the fact that judges will remain anonymous. Fans and critics -- including members of the splinter World Skating Federation - have protested the anonymous interim system.

"We're not familiar with the new system," said Maple-leaf decked fan Rhonda Raby of Toronto after joining the protest in front of the MCI Center. "Anything's got to be better. They've gone from bad to worse. They've gone from cheaters, now to no accountability."

"In this (new) system, it doesn't really matter who will be judge -- American, Russia, French judge," said Russian Oleg Vasiliev, coach of fifth-placed Viktoria Volchkova.

Cinquanta is determined to keep the anonymity for now and said Saturday that the interim system will be used for at least one more World Championships.

"By maintaining the secrecy of judges, we have evidence that we have drastically reduced the possibility of influencing the judges," Cinquanta said.

However, it will be another two to three weeks before officials can offer proof of the success of the anonymous interim system. The New Judging System creates clear criteria for how skaters are evaluated, but the system to judge the judges lacks clear consequences. First of all, there's no clear and immediate timeline for review, appeal, retraining (in cases of incompetence) and punishment. Plus there's no guarantee that cheaters will be permanently expelled or force brought to bear on federations using expelled judges at national levels.

This eats into the credibility that Cinquanta said was "priority No. 1. Big one."

It's also problem No. 1 with the introduction of the New Judging System. Like it or not, the ISU's credibility is being affected by the World Skating Federation. This federation, which has less chance of surviving than the CFL returning, has the support of some names. Perhaps you recognize them? Boitano, Button, Hamilton. And other names, less widely recognized, but known as the whistle-blowers at the Salt Lake City Olympics: Pfenning, Stapleford and Jackson.

It's to those names that fans are listening. The splinter group by it's very splintering has gained some credibility.

"I think there have always been honest and fair-minded judges and officials and if they band together and create a new organization, there's no reason to think it wouldn't be an excellent organization," said Kathy Godfrey, Medford, Mass., with skateFAIR, a fan organization in favor of reform.

And then there's the problem of understanding the new system -- or perhaps figuring out which system is being used. For example, at U.S. Nationals the old system will be used in the upcoming season, at the European and Four Continents championships, the interim system will be used with the new system used in the Grand Prix series and at Oberstdorf.

"Of course it will be very difficult for public for people watching it to understand and to get used to it," Vasiliev said. "It will be, probably for a few years, be very difficult to accept this new system. But that's the future. We need to change this."

Vasiliev thought it would be easier for skaters to know exactly what a program would be worth going into a competition, after being reassured it would still allow them the flexibility to change their program during competition.

Austrian judge Christiane North, chairman of her country's technical committee, thinks the system can work but is concerned about the cost and implementation at lower levels.

"I have all the practical things in my mind," North said. "How can I educate my judges? How can I do it if I have a competition somewhere out in the country where it's difficult to find any judges?"

Cinquanta indicated that money would be available for education, while coyly suggesting perhaps the IOC would even help.

The ISU won't vote until June 2004 -- after a season of testing -- to implement the New Judging System across the board. So the first full season will be 2004-05, the year before the 2006 Olympics.

"The system will not be perfect the first day we use it," said Patricia Benoit, director of strategic and program analysis at Skate Canada.

There are still details to be worked out -- credit for new elements being one. It will take time to train judges and for fans to begin to understand the changes. But in the end, the system of ranking that has been used since 1897 likely will be completely replaced with rating.

"A lot has changed in the world since 1897," said Benoit, who has a doctorate in mathematics. "The way in which we can process information has changed since 1897 and it's time to move forward.

"For me, this is about fair play. This is about respect for the game. And this is about respect for the athlete."

Cynthia Faulkner is the Olympics editor at ESPN.com.