[School of Rational Thought]

Upon hearing the news, Presidential candidate and hero John Kerry called American Paul Hamm to offer his congratulations for "winning" the gold.

[HarryCaul]

I dunno. If there was a mistake, a real mistake, it should be corrected. And it does seem there was a real mistake.

[RichInOC]

Three words: Roy Jones, Junior.

[Jim_Curtis]

What a bunch of irrational nonsense. They are saying it was supposed to be judged higher based on some criteria before the actual performance. Libnastics.

[Pukin Dog]

I predict that before the Olympics end, Paul Hamm will make the gesture of giving his gold medal to the other gymnast in a demonstration of the American spirit.

[Tallguy]

If Hamm is smart and after all the rulings are handed down, he should get together with the 2 Korea gymnasts & offer to swap medals. It would be a great gesture of sportsmanship & Hamm would get tremendous press for it. I know he worked hard for it, and the comback from the vault was heroic, but the Judges' error gave Hamm the gold and an asterix.

What's more valuable to Hamm: the Gold, or a Silver with a huge celebrity bump?

The only obstacle is that the Korean with the Silver would have to be willing to accept the Bronze. Don't know if he'd do that. Also, the governing bodies might suspend the gymnasts for such an unsanctioned deal.

I don't like this "give both a Gold". That was BS when they did it with the figure skaters, and it would be BS now. There can only be one winner.

[Paleo Conservative]

Why isn't Al Gore asking for a recount?

[Tazlo]

They ought to have a do-over.

[School of Rational Thought]

Did no one get my comment or was it just not funny? Too obscure?

Did no one see the connection between Kerry's medals and the gymnist medals?

[rawhide]

No one really knows what the S Korean score would have been if he had started with a difficulty of 10. To automatically say he should have another .1 point added to his score, because he started with 9.9, is wrong. The judges may have still given him the same score or maybe just a small bump higher, but not the full .1 of a point. No one will ever know. Also, Hamm went into his final routine knowing how well he needed to do to come in first, based on the error the judges made with the S Korean, but Hamm had no way of knowing his score was in error. Who is to say that maybe Hamm would have given just a little bit more effort if he knew ahead of time what the real score the S Korean would have had. I say leave the results the way they are. Judges make mistakes, just like everyone else. You cannot undo what has already been finalized. I just hope the S Korean is man enough to accept this and does not pull an Al Gore for many years to come.