Under the current judging system, France's Brian Joubert won the men's 2007 world championship without controversy. (Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images)

Canada's Jamie Salé and David Pelletier retired from the amateur ranks five years ago, yet are indirectly responsible for permanently changing the world of figure skating.

Back in 2002, the Canadian pairs team was awarded a second set of gold medals after a judging scandal rocked the sport to its very foundation at the Salt Lake Olympics.

Amid reports of voting manipulation, French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne admitted to being pressured when she awarded the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze first-place marks before fleeing from the Games in disgrace.

While process took time, the International Figure Skating Union – possibly feeling the wrath of a red-faced International Olympic Committee – implemented a new scoring system that would never again allow one judge to affect the outcome of a competition.

"Jamie and David were very likeable and had it been another set of athletes or a team with no personality, the [new judging system] probably wouldn't have happened." CBC figure skating analyst and four-time world champion Kurt Browning told CBCSports.ca.

"It was the right athletes, the Olympics were in North America and there was an outcry from the media."

The new system has been in place for three years, but didn't receive attention until the 2006 Torino Winter Games – a time when a world-wide audience witnessed a sport finally devoid of controversy.

Marks graded on the old 6.0 scale for technical and artistic performances were scrapped in favour a more complicated system.

Jamie Salé, front, and David Pelletier indirectly changed the sport of figure skating after a judging scandal initially robbed them of gold medals at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. (Amy Sancetta/Associated Press)

Using instant replay televisions as an aid, a panel of 12 judges grade every element of a skater's performance, assigning points for each spin, jump and footwork progression.

The computer then randomly eliminates three of the judge's marks and also dumps the high and low scores, leaving only seven on the panel to grade the competition. The judges themselves don't even know whose marks will count.

Better system

Tracy Wilson, who earned a bronze medal in the ice dance competition with the late Rob McCall at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, acknowledges the current judging system allows the athletes to better critique their performances, despite its complexities to the average fan.

"I think it's been quite successful," said Wilson, also a CBC analyst. "For the skaters, it's an easier way to understand how they're being measured and it's a concrete way. They can look at the breakdown of the marks and see specifically what the issues were.

"In the past, you just didn't know. You're left guessing as to what the judges saw."

Canada's Jeffrey Buttle skated to a bronze medal at the Torino Games under the current system.

Buttle, one of the many skaters competing at the Skate Canada International event beginning with CBC Sports' coverage Friday in Quebec City, has never questioned any marks he's received and believes the system is fairly straightforward.

The Sudbury, Ont., skater also thinks controversies – like the one in Salt Lake City – are a distant memory.

"It makes more sense," said Buttle. "We receive grades on an element to element base. If I did it bad I get a bad score for it, and if I did this element well I get a good score for it.

"I think in that sense I'm able to come back after a competition and say, 'All right, this is obviously what I need to work on and this other area is something that's stronger for me.' It helps you develop a sort of a system for improving."

No personalities

Although he likes the new system in a number of areas, Browning differs from most of the athletes and analysts when it comes to grading every element – a rule he feels has taken a performer's personality out of the sport.

During Browning's era, Olympic and world champions like Brian Boitano, Brian Orser and Katarina Witt dazzled audiences with flare equal to their technical mastery.

"I don't like it because it puts too much work on these kids," said Browning, who is also Joubert's choreographer. "There's no room to rest or time to enjoy the program. They literally have to work every second, even their steps in between are being marked.

"In my generation, the spins used to be sort of a rest. Once you're in a spin position you're like 'OK, I've got the next five or six seconds to breath.' I feel like we as fans of figure skating are getting robbed of the skaters' personalities. I would like to see programs that free up the skaters within the system."

Wilson reasons that the new system has been tweaked every year since its inception and is always flexible for fine-tuning.

But unlike the old days, the often-maligned ISU is actually willing to listen to suggestions on how to improve the system - getting input from judges, coaches and the competitors.

While Wilson would like to see the panel split its responsible rather than judge every aspect of the performance, she's still pleased with the process.

"With the old system, it was the same for 100 years and really nothing was changing," she said. "For me, one of the best things that have happened with the new system is that there is room for improvement."

All thanks to a likeable Canadian team that never competed under the new structure.