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.
Sorry, the Koreans are sore losers. Before each performance, the starting score is posted on a big scoreboard for everyone to see. For some reason, the Koreans did not point out the mistake that the starting score was a 9.9 instead of a 10, like they were supposed to at the time. This is a case of the Koreans being sore losers and crybabies. They probably still hold a grudge against the U.S. for the speedskating incident from the last winter games.
I didn't take it that there was booing of Paul. If you are talking about the the night Nemov was robbed in the scoring, I think the people were still booing the low score given to Nemov when Paul was preparing to perform. The people booed before and after the low score adjustment for Nemov, not Paul, imho.
It is a tried and true commie technique.
Hamm should give it back when the Soviets give back their medals from the 1972 basketball game where they got three tries after time had run out to finally sink a basket.
Are they freakin kidding!
"The booing directed toward Paul and the US..."
The booing I remember was at a later event when the crowd was enraged at a low score given to the Russian.
Paul just happened to be next in line, and had to wait for some time for the crowd to calm down.
Unless you are referring to another incident?
Taken right from Stalin. "If you're going to lie, LIE BIG!"
And when all of South Korea's Olympic Apparatus Publicly apologizes to Roy Jones Jr.
Did the Koreans give back the gold medal Roy Jones should have won? Jones was declared the best fighter in the Games, but he didn't win the gold medal due to crooked judging.
See above...lol GMTA!
Actually that would be at least 2/10's and here's why:
On the parallel bars you are allowed only 3 release moves. Release moves can bump up your score, depending on how well you do them just like they can lower your score if you do them poorly. Since the South Korean did 4 release moves he should have been docked 2/10's. But, not ONE judge caught that. This also means they may have given him an EXTRA tenth for the release move rather than deducting 2/10's like they are supposed to. Since you get scored for each release, he could possible have ended up down 3/10's or more.
Any gymnast competing at that level knows this rule. It is learned way back. Yang knew he was doing 4 release moves. His motives should be questioned.
Plus, not only are the Olympics supposed to showcase the top athletes in the world, the judges are supposed to be the top in the world. However, this is no longer the case. Judging has degenerated into payoffs, trading points for power, and deducting or adding points based on the judges personal political beliefs.
The only solution I see is replace human judges with electronic ones, or if that cannot be done, eliminate all events that use human judges. Drastic yes, hurts the athletes yes, but they are being hurt already. I do not have any confidence in the Olympic organization or the gymnastics federation abilities to "fix" this problem.
No one can watch the Olympics now without questioning any judging results. Two Olympics in a row with serious judging problems!
LOL Exactly.
How about the Koreans give Roy Jones Jr the Gold medal they stole from him in Seoul, after he beat their guy like a red-headed stepchild?
Are you familiar with the Equestrian scandal? It reads as follows:
"On the 21 August at 16:30, the FEI received the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the appeal of the National Olympic Committees of France, Great Britain and USA on the Eventing competition of the 2004 Olympics Games in Athens. The appeal was accepted by the CAS. Consequently, France earns the Team Gold Medal, Great Britain the Silver and USA the Bronze. Leslie Law (GBR) is the new Individual Olympic Champion; followed by Kimberly Severson (USA) and Pippa Funnel (GBR)
The background of the decision made by the CAS is that the FEI Appeal Committee had no jurisdiction to deal with the appeal lodged by the German Federation, against the time penalties awarded to Bettina Hoy (GER) at the conclusion of the Eventing Team Jumping and Individual Qualifier. Bettina Hoy had crossed the starting line twice before commencing her round.
The FEI Appeal Committee had concluded that, as the stadium clock had been restarted when she had crossed the starting line for the second time, the rider had no way to note that her round had already started. In order not to penalize the rider for a problem in the starting procedure, the FEI Appeal Committee had removed the 14 points penalties.
While accepting the decision of the CAS and their interpretation of FEI General Regulations on the duties of the Ground Jury and the Appeal Committee, the FEI wishes to emphasize that the decision taken by the Appeal Committee was based on the Fair Play and the best interest of the sport, as well as on a different interpretation of the rules.
According to the IOC procedure, the medals will be returned by the respective National Olympic Committees to the IOC and the FEI will redistribute them in due time during a dedicated ceremony."
This is a scandal, and Germany was betrayed for two gold medals.
I hope you are being sarcastic.
What the story doesn't mention is that two mistakes were made on the Korean's routine. One deprived him of 1/10 of a point and one gave him an extra 2/10 of a point. Maybe he should give back the bronze. Definitely Hamm should keep the gold.
Exactly right.
There were two Hamms starting. I´ve also heard of the booing directed toward the US, and it was not the booing after the unfair results for the Russian. However, Paul Hamm should have won gold instead of the Italian - according to my commentator (German TV).
They may have and it may have fell on deaf ears. There were three judges suspended over this. I think Spain, Columbia and the US. The US judge was in charge of the other two and gives them the info they need, including the start points. They were given bad start points in their packet, the 9.9
Now, fast forward and the South Korean coach approaches the judges saying the 9.9 is in error. They each look at their papers and find that 9.9 is what is listed. So they tell the South Korean coach to go away and the events continue.
Just because both of those papers suggested that the 9.9 was correct doesn't mean it really was.
Three judges were suspended, but the FIG said the results would not be changed, and that Hamm would keep his gold medal.But Spain's Benjamin Bango and Columbia's Oscar Buitrago Reyes were responsible for determining the start values. America's George Beckstead was the panel chairman, and therefore had ultimate responsibility for all the judges.
From the article posted here
Also of note, notice that in the earlier article the FIG said that the results would NOT be changed. Wonder why they are now trying to change the results?
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