WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Why did Michelle Kwan win her group in women's qualifying on Wednesday at the World Figure Skating Championships? Hard to tell.

	Elena Sokolova was technically superior but came in second artistically.

She had six triples but fell out of her second combination. Russia's Elena Sokolova, who placed second, made seven triples. She landed two triple-triple combinations, which no other woman did.

Can Kwan's artistry account for the difference? There's no way to determine why judges voted as they did because it's anonymous and, under the interim system, quite varied. Sasha Cohen saw a range of 5.1 to 5.9 on presentation.

International Skating Union president Ottavio Cinquanta isn't speculating on the wide variations under the interim system.

"You'd have to ask the judges, not me," he said. "I'm not responsible for a judge's 4.6 or 5.8. Cinquanta is not guilty."

What he is guilty of varies on whom you talk to. Fans are confused by new system that they don't see as improving credibility.

"I think their attempts to make the judging fair is ill-conceived," said Californian Pam Pfohl, sporting a "Secret Judging" buster button in the MCI Center. "I don't think they are having an effect at all. Judges need to be held accountable for the marks they give. You know they used to -- if they were way out of line with the other judges -- they'd have to provide a written statement about why they gave the score they did. I think that's an excellent thing to do."

Pfohl isn't alone in her concerns. Kwan has expressed concerns about no longer having feedback on performances. And some members of the ISU are breaking off to form a new federation, the World Skating Federation.

Referee Ron Pfenning, a co-founder of the WSF, resigned from the ISU technical committee on Friday after being dismissed from working at the Worlds. He and others say they don't appreciate being overseen by Cinquanta, a speed skater who at Salt Lake City said he does not know figure skating.

"Little by little over the last dozen years," Pfenning said, "the authority that rested with the technical committee to suspend and sanction people for misconduct, poor judging, national bias ... those rules have been watered down, so now the technical committee has little authority."

A Hungarian judge has already paid the price for her support of the new federation. Judit Furst-Tombor was yanked 15 minutes before she was to report, in a letter from the president of the Hungarian skating federation withdrawing her from the panel. The ISU did not comment.

However, it's Cinquanta who is supporting reforms in a system that the members of the WSF helped perpetuate, says Ted Barton, a former world-level skater and Canadian national team coach. The original concept for judging reform was actually floated in December 2001, but the figure skating scandal at the Olympics caused them to expedite it, Barton said.

It was Pfenning who discovered discrepancies in the pairs event at the 2002 Olympics. As referee, Pfenning discussed the marks with the judges to determine competence and occasionally sniff out bloc voting. But this role has basically been eliminated by the interim system.

"There isn't much to talk about if you don't know what the judges did," Pfenning said.

But there's a valid argument that those very discussions place pressure on judges to ensure beforehand that their marks will be in line with the others. It's all too easy to sit together at a practice and discuss the level of various skaters, and then judge them accordingly.

"Are they that insecure?" Pfenning said. "I think the judges are very knowledgeable and know what they are doing, but if you have to be in collusion with someone else on the panel to know how you are supposed to vote, I think that shows great insecurity."

Pfenning and the WSF propose to use a system of checks and balances to maintain judging integrity. Plus, the new federation would sever its affiliation with speed skating, and return to the majority system in use before 1998 with judges selected in five world zones instead of along national lines. An evaluation committee would create a report card and incompetent or cheating judges would not be allowed to judge the next year. Incidents of alleged impropriety would be handled by an ethics committee.

"There'll be a zero-tolerance policy for serious violations," Pfenning said. "But the individual could still take it to an appeals commission."

The problem with that setup, Cinquanta said, is that they're going back to a system that didn't work before. Cinquanta looks to use technology to solve the problem.

"We have devoted and dedicated a lot of our reserves," Cinquanta said. "We are working very hard for the new judging system."

"They don't like it, but they want to go back to it," Barton agreed.

Barton has been working on the ISU's New Judging System. It's a mathematic system with specific criteria for technical and artistic marks that even a beginning skater should be able to understand and implement. Judges would be accountable for following the criteria.

As judges vote, they create a pattern that would make cheating or incompetence easily discovered. So one offense would be deemed a mistake, while repeated errors would be revealed.

On Monday, a committee will vote on whether to implement the system that has been in the works since Feb. 18, 2002. It would make its debut in Obertsdorf, Germany, and would be used at all of the Grand Prix series events.

After further adjustments are made, the ISU congress will vote in June 2004 on whether to implement it for the 2004-05 season -- the year before the next Winter Games.

In the meantime, Cinquanta asks fans to be patient.

"On ice and off ice we are very, very much committed and sometimes maybe we face some growth -- that's normal -- but please do not desert us for lack of interest or dedication because this we do not deserve."

Cynthia Faulkner is the Olympics editor for ESPN.com.