Posted on 08/27/2004 7:19:37 AM PDT by technomage
ATHENS, Greece (AP)
EDDIE PELLS
Gymnastics officials asked American Paul Hamm to give up his gold medal as the ultimate show of sportsmanship, but the United States Olympic Committee told them to take responsibility for their own mistakes.
In a dispute over scores that has turned into a political squabble, the head of the International Gymnastics Federation wrote a letter to Hamm on Thursday night that suggested giving the all-around gold medal to South Korea's Yang Tae-young "would be recognized as the ultimate demonstration of fair play by the whole world."
FIG president Bruno Grandi tried to have the letter sent to Hamm through the USOC, but the USOC refused to deliver it.
In a letter back to Grandi, USOC secretary general Jim Scherr called the request "a blatant and inappropriate attempt on the part of (FIG) to once again shift responsibility for its own mistakes and instead pressure Mr. Hamm into resolving what has become an embarrassing situation for your federation."
Yang, the bronze medalist, was wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his parallel bars routine. If he had received the proper score, he would have won gold and Hamm would have won silver. Three judges were suspended, and FIG said the results would stand.
Through his agent, Hamm declined comment.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Grandi said he felt the issue was closed until he saw a quote from Hamm, who said earlier this week he would abide by FIG's decision, and give the gold back if the federation said he must.
Although Grandi's letter says "the true winner of the all-around competition is Yang Tae-young" the FIG president insisted he's not pressuring Hamm to give back the gold.
"There is no doubt he has won the medal," Grandi said. "He
deserves the medal and the ranking is clear. . . . "I respect totally Paul Hamm and all the decisions he makes. If he says give back the medal, I respect it. Don't give back the medal, I respect the decision. He is not responsible for anything."
The USOC had a much different interpretation of the letter. "I don't know of any comparison in any sport anywhere where you crown an athlete, crown a team and then say, 'Oh, that was a mistake. Would you fix this for us?"' USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said.
Uberroth said the USOC considers the case closed, based on the FIG ruling - that the scores could not be changed - and from a statement from International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who said the IOC would stick with the results turned in by the federation and wouldn't step in unless there were clear signs of impropriety.
USA to World: KISS MY GRITS!
Take the Silver. No one wants a tainted medal.
How about: "DNC Officials Ask Kerry to Give Up Medals"
I thought Yang was also wrongly NOT docked two tenths for having too many holds?
No way in hell should Paul Hamm give up his gold medal.
IOC is a socialist run bunch of American haters.
It's absolutely making them ill that we are running away with the medal count in such a balanced fashion.
That's what Tim Daggett pointed out during the apparatus finals.
Do baseball scores stand if the ump admits, a day later, that he blew a call?
In the competition, at the time, Hamm won the gold.
Case closed.
Thanks, but no thanks. The Korean was penalized when he shouldn't have been and wasn't penalized when he should have been. These things happen. When the final tally was made, Hamm was the winner. End of story.
"Yang, the bronze medalist, was wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his parallel bars routine. If he had received the proper score, he would have won gold and Hamm would have won silver."
This lie was refuted the other night during the mens individual competitions. It was noted that while the judges had not rated the routine properly that they could have also deducted TWO tenths for an error that they failed to see.
Had they properly rated it and properly judges it he would have bene in fourth and not received the bronze.
It's time for the FIG to shut the hell up and stop tainting this medal.
No judgement is perfect on every possible fault...you would need more judges, cameras at every angle...and a super-computer analysis..
Keep the gold....you earned it....
imo
He always be an asterisk.
Who would want to take a medal under these circumstances?
Anyone want to bet who Hamm will vote for for president? Liberals seem to fancy men with tainted medals.
They showed on NBC that the Korean actually did 4 "holds" during his routine, the max is three, with an auto deduct of 0.1 for more. He was not docked the 0.1 due to another error by the officials. They started him out 0.1 too low and then didn't dock him the mandatory 0.1.
So, the errors cancel each other out. Hamm wins Gold fairly.
I don't know if this is true or not but they showed it and he clearly had four (maybe even five) "holds".
What you say is true, but if the IOC admits that then they have no ground for the opportunistic USA bashing they just love so much.
The Koreans protested only after it was clear their guy wasn't going to win, not immediately after the score was posted.
Heck, he didn't taint it. Too, it's been shown that had they correctly scored the South Korean, he would have lost anyway.
They already ruled that the gold stays with Hamm, case closed. On a side note, kerry's flip-flopping record supports this nuanced stance from the Olympics.....
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