Passions 300-year old witch, Tabitha, and her “one-of-a-kind” friend, Timmy, should be warned. Push over Hope and Bo, a new duo is taking the NBC center stage: “Like corruption through the judging system, so are the days of our lives.” The figure skating scandal has become one of the biggest soap operas in Winter Olympics history.

For those of you who missed last week’s episodes, here’s the storyline:

Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier had to share the Olympic podium – and the gold – with Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia. The Canadians’ silver was exchanged for gold medals once reports of corruption in the judging system surfaced.

Reliable sources within the International Skating Union (ISU) reported that French judge, Marie Reine Le Gougne, told ISU members that she had voted for the Russian pair skaters at the direction of the French skating federation and its president. It is alleged that the French and Russians agreed to trade votes: pairs skating for ice dancing. In effect, Le Gougne favored the Russian couple to ensure a gold medal for the French in the ice dancing competition.

We’ve seen it with horse racing and boxing – and now the Olympics. It’s called “fixing.” The standing ovation and crowd roar following the Canadian performance made it clear, Sale and Pelletier won the gold… or so one would have thought. It was only on the part of the Canadian Olympic delegation, after requesting an investigation as to why the Russians won the gold medal despite Canada’s worthier performance, that “Viva les Canadiens” could be heard.

The International Olympic Committee has just officially licensed a new video game. Salt Lake 2002 allows up to four players to compete in reproductions of six outdoor venues currently underway in Utah. Available for Sony Playstation 2 and personal computers that run Microsoft Windows software, players can compete for the gold in the world’s finest winter sports events. Producer of the game from Eidos Interactive, Tom Marx, released a statement that it has taken two years of hard work to make the game a reality.

But let’s explore the changing reality of the Olympics.

Will the new video game be featuring drug testers in green jackets at every finish line? Samples brought to the Olympic drug testing lab, where it is determined whether or not the athlete is clean, already cost United States bobsledder Pavle Jovanovic his seat after testing positive. He is banned from the sport for two years for trying to boost his performance with drugs.

Five months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics closed air space above Salt Lake City to aircrafts and involved a search of all spectators. Security is tight. However, the question now posed is whether there are sufficient security measures to secure the integrity of the Olympic games.

Hippias of Elis, a sophist of the fifth century B.C., was the first to compile the initial victor list of the Olympic games. From him, we learn that the first athletic contest, the foot race, was held in 776 B.C. at the sacred place of Olympia in western Peloponnese in honor of the Olympian, Zeus. Olympic festivals later gained considerable importance, ranking among the largest and most famous Panhellenic festivals by the early fifth century. The Olympic festival and being victorious in the games became a symbol of spirit and unity. To gain victory was not only a major achievement that gave credits to the athletes and the city, in addition to crediting the personal achievement and wide recognition of the athlete’s physical and moral values.

To what credit can we give the French and Russian judges who have tarnished a world sport founded on spirit and unity? To what credit can we give the athletes from around the world augmenting their physical performance with drugs?

Though an international event, the opening ceremonies at Salt Lake City adopted a patriotic tone due to last year’s terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “United We Stand”…or do we? Sale and Pelletier must share the status of “gold medallist” with the Russian pair skaters who were chosen in order to guarantee a place on the Wheaties box for a French ice dancing pair. Are the Olympics becoming just another arena in which countries can inject personal and national prejudices against one another?

I can remember watching the Winter Olympics as a young girl. Figure skating has always been my favorite. I would put on my dad’s floppy white socks and glide across my parent’s wooden bedroom floor, envisioning an awed audience before me. I would think about my flying quad jumps, elegant spins and intricate footwork. I would think how honored I would feel to be a part of such a respected world tradition. I would think about representing my country. Never in these childhood fabrications did I think that my technique and artistry would be tainted through the scoring of a corrupt judging system.

I suppose the value of young idealism can never be compromised.

It’s only once you’ve grown up when you realize how most other things can be.

Sharon Stimpfle is a Collegian columnist.