Two judges from the recent 2008 Olympics in Beijing have admitted that most of the time they haven’t the foggiest idea which of the athletes deserves the gold medal! Willing to speak only under condition of anonymity, Olympics gymnastics judge Peter Grigorio (a pseudonym), explains, “I can only describe the judges’ scoring sessions to be filled with chaos, shouting and confusion. We seldom agree on who’s best, and nine times out of ten, we choose the gold-medal winner simply by flipping a coin.†Grigorio estimates that a good 95 percent of this summer’s gold medal winners were chosen either by a coin flip, the rock-paper-scissors game or by playing Eeny-Meenie-Miney-Moe. “And in almost every one of these cases, it could easily have gone to the second or third place finisher. After a while, we judges get so tired, hungry and horny, we just want to get it over with and go home.†Aquatics judge Pamela Polopoulos (a pseudonym) adds, “Many times, during the scoring process, we judges will even pick up the phone and call our friends and relatives at home to ask who they think is best. My grandmother helped me choose the platform, springboard and synchronized diving gold medalists this year, even though she is legally blind.â€