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.
And the rules provide for such a protest -- but it has to be done in a timely fashion. When the score is posted, so too is the start value that score is based on. The team has until the end of the rotation to challenge the start value (the score itself cannot be challenged). South Korea did not file a timely challenge, so their whole case is moot.
Didn't a tape review show a mistake by the Korean that the judges missed?
If there is to be a retroactive review, it should be all inclusive.
It is NOT tainted.
The South Korean was not given deductions he should have been given, so even if the incompetent judges had started with the correct start number, if they had then applied the correct judging, the South Korean would NOT have surpassed Hamm.
The fact is the judges were awful. The head judge also had informed two of our gymnasts that their routines did not qualify for a certain ranking when they had both just performed them at the World event and had been judged at that level. So our two guys change their routines on short notice in order to bring them up to the judge's level and they were thereby handicapped.
The judges need to get their own house in order before taking medals away that they awarded.
You make an excellent point!
This is the International Gymnastics Federation's only recourse before suggesting that the IOC award a second medal to the Korean. Because their own rules state that the scores cannot be changed.
Only by anti-American bigots.
They kinda left that part out of the story. You are correct, so why is this still an issue. IMO because Hamm in American, one of the evil ones. (sick)
Let's see, Hamm sticks to what is right and doesn't cave to unseemly and unwarranted pressure. I'll guess he's a conservative. A lib would have cravenly said "OK! I am not worthy, I am a lowly American. Take it away".
The right thing is to keep a medal that he won outright.
I thought they were both excellent. I hate the stupid tie-breaker rules (it gives too much weight to the judges that over-score the routine) -- juts give 'em both gold if they get the same score.
See post #80
Are you saying the Koreans did actually file a protest, or are you posing a hypothetical?
And with that .2 deduction Yang would have finished 4th, out of the medals altogether.
I disagree...I thought that the Italian was clearly superior to Hamm. It seemed to me that Hamm's score was slightly inflated following the Russian's fiasco.
Really, the Italian was awesome!
I agree with you on this! I also thought it was inseemly to have 5 in row with the exact same score, setting things up for ties.
So why not give gold medals to all the athletes. That would resolve the political crisis! (/sarcasm)
So we have to pressure the guy with the silver to give it up?
There are a number of factors involved, so if you have any questions about specific aspects of the game I can address them as I remember the documentary.
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