Kind of a downer man... GO KOREA~! http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/oly/2751333 Scoring goof taints gold 3 judges' errors gave U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm a win By DAVID BARRON Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle ATHENS, GREECE - One of the feel-good stories of the Olympics turned sour Saturday, becoming the latest in a long line of scoring controversies that seem to show up in every games. In this case, Paul Hamm's miraculous come-from-behind victory in the men's all-around gymnastics final Wednesday should never have happened. Three judges were suspended by the International Gymnastics Federation, or FIG, on Saturday for a scoring error that kept third-place finisher Yang Tae Young of South Korea from winning the gold medal. But Hamm, the first American male gymnast to win the all-around, remains the gold-medal winner because the protest was not filed in time to change the results. Yang will keep his bronze medal. "The FIG rules do not allow for a protest against judges' marks," according to a statement released by the federation. "The judges' marks have to be accepted as a final decision and cannot be changed. ... The FIG regrets that such an occurrence took place." The federation said it had suspended the three judges, including one from the United States, as a result of the error. The federation's inquiry discovered that Yang did not receive full credit for his parallel bars score. The lost one-tenth of a point put him in third behind countryman Kim Dae-eun, the silver medalist, and Hamm, whose .012 margin of victory was the smallest in the event's history. Yang was 0.049 behind Hamm. Had Yang been scored correctly, he would have won the gold, with Hamm getting the silver. If the error had been discovered Wednesday, the results could have been altered. According to gymnastics rules, teams can make an "inquiry" into a judging error, but it must be done no later than one event after the routine in question. However, a member of the South Korean delegation, Jae Soon-yoo, told the Associated Press the routine was questioned immediately but that a judge told the Koreans to file a protest letter after the meet. "They said that was the best they could do right there on the spot," she said. "It was a real basic injustice in judging practices." So the finish will stand. It is the latest in a long line of Olympic scandals that tend to overshadow the games themselves. It's also the second time South Korea has been on the wrong end of a judge's call involving the United States at a recent Olympics. Kim Dong-sung of South Korea was disqualified from the 1,500-meter speedskating race two years ago in Salt Lake City, and Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States was awarded the gold medal. The outraged South Koreans protested the call, but it was not changed. The most notorious recent example also occurred in Salt Lake City, when the international skating federation approved the awarding of an extra gold medal in pairs figure skating after a French skating judge said she was pressured to favor a Russian team over a Canadian pair. Now, Athens has its own scandal. FIG spokesman Philippe Silacci said judging errors have occurred at past world championships, most recently four years ago, but never, to his knowledge, at the Olympics. Jae said the South Koreans would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. "We want obvious mistakes to be corrected," she said. But Matthieu Reeb, general secretary of the court, said it was unclear whether the court would hear the case. Officials with the international federation and USA Gymnastics have compared the scoring mistake to a bad call by a referee in football that wasn't discovered until after the game. "Our regular practice is that field-of-play decisions cannot be reviewed by CAS," Reeb told the AP. "We'll see if the Korean delegation has other legal arguments to submit to the court. We haven't had a similar case involving a problem of judging or scoring." Regardless, one of the games' brightest moments has been tainted. Hamm, in 12th place with two routines left, completed one of the greatest comebacks in the history of his sport to win the gold. Now, it appears it should have been silver
The female Russian Khorkina is now whining that she was robbed of the gold. After supposedly being graceful that she was second best, she has shown her true colors by being spiteful. She is showing a lack of class by her outburst. She says it was decided before the event that she wouldn't win. She is pathetic. Sports - Reuters Gymnast Khorkina Says 'Judges Robbed Me' By Gennady Fyodorov MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Svetlana Khorkina (news - web sites), who was second to American Carly Patterson (news - web sites) in the women's all-round gymnastics competition, has accused the judges of robbing her of the gold medal and said "everything was decided in advance." "I'm just furious," Khorkina, who had been favorite for the coveted title, was quoted as saying in the daily Izvestia. "I knew well in advance, even before I stepped on the stage for my first event, that I was going to lose." "Everything was decided in advance. I had no illusions about this when the judges gave me 9.462 for the vault after conferring with one another at length. "I practically did everything right, still they just set me up and fleeced me," she said in the interview published on Saturday. Asked why she felt she was marked down by the judges, Khorkina said: "You better ask them. I think it's because I'm from Russia, not from America!" When Khorkina won her silver medal on Thursday, she showed no outward signs of disappointment and said: "I think it's the best day of my life." The Russian was also favorite for the all-round title four years ago in Sydney, where her hopes were dashed after she crashed to her knees from the vault. It was later discovered the horse had been set five centimeters too short. She said she was hoping Sydney's experience would cause the judges to be more sympathetic to her plight in Athens -- her third and last Olympics. Khorkina did not think Patterson was a deserving winner. Asked if the American was a worthy opponent, she said: "I've seen a much tougher opposition than her. Let's see how long she can remain on top. Can she keep going and compete in two more Olympics like myself." "No, well, you better write that Patterson is a great champion and she has a great future," she added sarcastically. Khorkina confirmed that Athens were her last Olympics but she wants to remain in the sport. "I'd like to work for the International Gymnastics Federation. These competitions have shown the sport needs a lot of changes," she said. "It should be judged primarily on grace, elegance and beauty rather than simply on mechanic tumbling." On Sunday the Russian will compete in her last event -- the uneven bars, where she is hoping to become the first gymnast in history to win three consecutive Olympic titles on the same apparatus.
What's it matter now anyway. Even if they give you the gold, it isn't the same, it's the moment that lasts forever. If I was the Korean I'd just let it be. He knows he won. Sometimes that has to be enough.
If possible, this Hamm guy should just relinquish his medal and accept the silver....why would he want to keep a gold medal only won on a judge's error
That's how I feel. I'm amused by people's responses to this. If the shoe was on the other foot, could you imagine the uproar by the Americans? Hell, they still show specials about the '72 basketball game and that was 32 years ago!
just give them both golds. On a somewhat related note I just want to say that Seth Wickersham sucks! But the men's gymnastics team not only did their best, but did their best ever. The 1984 games, in which the U.S. silvered, were at home in Los Angeles, and the Russians boycotted. Winning a medal back then was like being the NBA champs when Jordan was playing baseball. It came with an asterisk.
The problem is that things might have been different had the Korean gotten the extra 1/10 of a point. Perhaps Hamm would have done something different on the high bar to try and get a better score. Perhaps the Korean would have done something different had his score been correct to begin with. Whenever something changes in the past, the subsequent actions would have possibly changed as well, therefore you can't assume that everything would have played out EXACTLY the same had the Korean gotten the proper score. That being the case, you cannot punish Hamm or the silver medal winner.
Well, 2 gold medals were stolen from German horseback riders because of protests by other teams...stuff happens.
Great idea, especially since there have been 16 years between both incidents and Yang Tae Young and Park Si Hun are two different people. Just punish Yang Tae Young for whatever happened 16 years ago. Brilliant!
to add onto what bobrek said, which i completely agree with, scoring is already such a subjective thing. i'm not saying it happened here, but how often do the announcers say "oh that's much too high" or "that's much too low a score" or just say "yeah, that's fair." i mean, we're talking about winning by .0875 even with his tenth back. who's to say the judges deducted enough from some of his stuff or too much from hamm, or who's to say hamm wasn't given too many points and shouldn't have won gold anyway. with something this subjective and adding onto what bobrek said, it's hard to say he should just get the gold and that's that.
I know, but I'm just not fond of the idea of a competition that can not be decided by the participants. Ditto my previous statement for figure skating as well. We'll call them "performances," how about that? Give them both gold medals and call it a day.
