The lady was no tramp.

All sports fans know that officials are deaf, dumb, and blind, especially in water polo and team handball. So why do we expect perfection from them?

Aren't our sports too rough, too fast, too acrobatic, and played by too many monsters to expect perfect officiating? Okay, so we have poor officials, but don't we also have poor coaches, poor players, and poor fans?

Why does the media start howling every time an official blows a big play? Remember the 2004 U.S. Open, when a lady judge "robbed" Serena Williams of the championship? Should we allow such people to officiate?

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Our answer is, yes. The lady was no tramp. She actually rated among the better officials in tennis--which was why she was sitting in the judge's chair. She simply had the terrible luck to have the worst day of her career in front of the biggest crowd of the season.

And she did not rob Serena of anything. The errors happened early in the set and Serena had plenty of time to catch up to her opponent, Jennifer Capriati. But she wasn't exactly playing like a champion.

You don't win medals when you make 58 unforced errors--which Serena had done. You become very vulnerable to disaster.

In the middle of all this wailing about the officiating and the injustice to a player who had just made 58 unforced errors, everyone forgot about the lady who played a great match and deserved to win it as much as the lady who couldn't overcome the bad call and deserved to lose the match.