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.
Why do I have the suspicion that the FIG is based in France?
The IOC returned those gold medals to his descendants decades later. What made this story interesting was that the IOC didn't have to take the gold medals away from other athletes, or retroactively declare that there were two gold medal winners from the 1912 Olympics in those events. The gold medals were sitting in a vault somewhere, because every silver medalist in those 1912 events -- to a man -- had refused to accept the gold medals that were stripped from Thorpe.
The took his medals away from Jim Thorpe in 1912, but they could never take away the title that had been bestowed upon him by the King of Sweden . . . "You, sir, are the greatest athlete in the world."
The "sour grapes" by the South Koreans really do not demonstrate sportsmanship, so it should be up to THEM to admit that gymnastics is a sport with no slo-mo instant replay, and is, and always has been subjective. The slow motion video shows the South Korean executing too many holds, for which he should have received a deduction, but didn't. There could be no end to the second guessing.
The South Koreans should congratulate Paul Hamm on a fantastic routine and a magnificient comeback. He, and He alone, is Olympic Champion.
I saw a fascinating documentary on that USSR-USA game from 1972, and I was utterly stunned to learn -- after reviewing slow-motion clips and hearing the official explanations for the events that transpired at the end of the game -- that the USSR won that game fairly.
It is not tainted. Replay shows that the Korean athlete performed a straight arm hold 4 time and the maximum allowed number is 3. This calls for an automatic deduction of either a tenth or two tenths of a point however, the judges did not deduct for it. So if we are gong to nit pick, let's REALLY nit pick. Give the guy his tenth and then subtract it for his fault. Hamm still wins.
The South Koreans are trying to do a Democrat Florida recount. That is--just correct the mistakes that would help them win and ignore the ones that would make them lose. Either the original scoring should stand or they should look at all the videotapes and rescore everyone.
The IOC (and to a lesser degree the USOC) are "the Olympics", not FIG.
"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."
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.Thank you for adding some facts to the biased article posted at the top.So, the errors cancel each other out. Hamm wins Gold fairly.
Omitting relevant facts is the most obnoxious M.O. of the mainstream press.
The scoring error in his routine -- where the judges gave the wrong starting score -- is similar to a baseball game in which a run is scored that isn't counted by the official scorer for some reason.
The first case is based entirely on the judgement of an official, and can't be undone. The second one is a procedural problem that would be held up under formal protest.
"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. "
Help bring me up to speed on this. What was his score? How do we know he was not penalized for the "holds" error?
It is said the Olympic rules state that the tapes are not supposed to be reviewed after the tape is over. But that is what they did. Plus, there is that deduction on the Korean, as well.
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.
And then what would they do for fun? The booing directed toward Paul and the US indirectly was just shameful. But so many love to bash the US and believe, despite the EU Olympic site and EU judges and EU IOC committees, that they are biased toward the US that it will be hard to convince them otherwise. No point in trying, the math prevails here.
If I were Hamm I would have called a press conference and offered to pair up against the South Korean in a winner-takes-gold re-match.
THAT IS CORRECT!! The judges MESSED UP on his parallel bar routine and SHOULD have deducted 0.2...so kiss off IOC!!
They went through the routine frame by frame and noted all the deductions the judges took. Then they made note of the fact that he had at least one if not two additional releases over the allowable three.
They therfore determined that had the routine been rated and judged properly he would have gotten either the exact same score or been a tenth of a point lower than what he got.
The little crybaby should be happy he got the bronze at all.
To be completely fair, its not the IOC who is asking Hamm to return his gold medal. Its the FIG (gymnastics federation), the ones whose flawed judging caused this screwed-up situation to occur in the first place. They're the ones asking Hamm to cover for their mistakes, not the IOC.
BREAKING NEWS---THIS JUST IN!!
The 1986 Super Bowl Champ Green Bay Packers will have to return the Lombardi Trophy because a REPLAY showed a holding penalty in the backfield during the winning touchdown....
Also, 34 of Hank Aaron's HOME RUNS will deducted because taped replays showed his left foot was out of the batter's box when he hit the ball. Rule 23(A)C.4.56.a.subpart II of paragraph 67.3a(c) was violated....
Get a grip...life happens..
G
BREAKING NEWS---THIS JUST IN!!
The 1986 Super Bowl Champ Green Bay Packers will have to return the Lombardi Trophy because a REPLAY showed a holding penalty in the backfield during the winning touchdown....
Also, 34 of Hank Aaron's HOME RUNS will deducted because taped replays showed his left foot was out of the batter's box when he hit the ball. Rule 23(A)C.4.56.a.subpart II of paragraph 67.3a(c) was violated....
Get a grip...life happens..
G
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