WE STOLE THE GOLD!: Judging Error Gave Hamm Gold

[Louis Cypher]

Sat, Aug 21, 2004

By EDDIE PELLS, AP Sports Writer


ATHENS, Greece - Paul Hamm's gold medal just lost its luster. A scoring mistake at the all-around gymnastics final cost South Korea's Yang Tae-young the gold that ended up going to Hamm, the International Gymnastics Federation ruled Saturday. Yang got the bronze instead.

Three judges were suspended, but the results will not be changed, the federation said. The South Korean Olympic team will ask the Court of Arbitration for Sports to determine if Yang deserves a gold medal.

"We want obvious mistakes to be corrected," said Jae Soon-yoo, an official with the South Korean delegation.

The error Wednesday cost Yang a tenth of a point on his parallel bars score that made the difference between third and first.

South Korea failed to lodge a protest during the event, so the scoring was not changed, said the federation, known as FIG. The South Koreans, however, said they did question the scoring as soon as the routine was over and were told by the judges to file a protest letter after the meet, Jae said.

If the mistake hadn't been made, Hamm would have won the silver and South Korea's Kim Dae-eun would have received the bronze instead of silver.

USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi compared the mistake to a bad call in football that wasn't discovered until after the game. He insisted the decision by gymnastics' governing body should not put an asterisk on Hamm's gold medal.

Hamm scored 9.837 on parallel bars and high bar to close the meet, rallying from 12th place to first and becoming the first American man to win the event.

"Paul Hamm's performance the other night was absolutely incredible," Colarossi said. "It's unfortunate the judges didn't have the right start value."

A start value is based on the difficulty of the routine. Yang received a start value of 9.9 on parallel bars, a tenth lower than he got for the same routine in team qualifying and finals.

After reviewing a tape of the all-around, federation officials determined Yang should have been awarded a start value of 10. With the extra 0.10, he would have finished with 57.874 points and defeated Hamm by 0.051.

Matthieu Reeb, general secretary of CAS, talked to the South Korean team about an appeal and expected it to be filed by Sunday. Still, he said it was unclear whether the court would hear the case.

"Our regular practice is that field of play decisions cannot be reviewed by CAS," Reeb said. "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."

Hamm, practicing Saturday for event finals, was not available for comment. He was asked Thursday about the judging and his close victory.

"I feel like I just barely edged them out," he said. "If you go back and look at the tapes, people can analyze it, and they'll all come to that conclusion, I think."

The case brought back memories of the figure skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. A French judge said she was pressured by her federation's chief to favor the Russians in pairs over the Canadians. Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada were ultimately awarded duplicate golds.

In Athens, however, there were no signs of impropriety. The scoring error was made with one event left, and there was no way the judges could have known the significance of reducing Yang's start value on the parallel bars.

In another case at the 2002 Games, South Koreans fumed when short track speed skater Kim Dong-sung was disqualified in the 1,500-meter race, allowing American Apolo Anton Ohno to win the gold.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director for the Olympics, said the IOC had not been approached by the South Koreans or gymnastics officials. He said the figure skating case bore little resemblance to this one.

"In Salt Lake City it was a decision from the federation to change the ruling," he said. "The IOC never changed any results on its own. It's up to the federation if they feel the need to change something. It has to come from the federation."

Felli said the IOC would only consider changing results on its own "if there is an obvious manipulation, not a human mistake in judging."

Hamm won the meet over Kim by 0.012 in the closest men's all-around in Olympic history. Yang was 0.049 behind Hamm.

The South Korean delegation asked for a review of the scoring after the meet, and the gymnastics federation's executive committee met Friday to look at the tapes.

Messages left for the South Korean delegation by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

A news release announcing the federation's decision said the rules "do not allow for a protest against judges' marks. The judges' marks have to be accepted as a final decision and cannot be changed."

Still, the suspensions were necessary to protect the integrity of the organization and "maintain and ensure the highest possible judging standard at the Olympic Games," the group said.

The federation did not release the names of the suspended judges, who will not be on the panel for event finals.

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. But because the other judges agreed on the 9.9 start value, Beckstead would have had no cause to step in.

Countries can complain about the scoring but only before the following rotation is over. After that, scores cannot be changed.

"Judges can make mistakes. That's human," federation spokesman Phillipe Silacci said Friday. "But it's like football. They cannot change the score once the game is over."

[TTinCO]

Pathetic.....get some checks & balances in place you incompetent morons.

Geeeeezzzzzzzzz

[Loman]

Give them both a gold.

[Bostongambler]

Does that mean he won't be on a Wheaties box?

[TTinCO]

I agree.....they DEFINITELY have to give the Korean a gold.

[BuzzRavanaugh]

Not that I would ever consider myself an expert in gymnastics.

I just can't understand how a guy can win the gold after he basically sat in the judges lap after the vault. Shouldn't that score have been like 0.

[El Diablo Blanco]

He should be a man and offer the Korean the gold. The lousy excuse that gymnast gave on the interview was crap. The Korean guy got screwed.

How bout this an even trade, Hamm gives his gold to the Korean, and the Korean boxer gives his gold to Roy Jones, Jr.

[Louis Cypher]

Saturday, August 21, 2004


ATHENS, Greece -- Paul Hamm thought his fantastic finish was too good to be true. Maybe he was right.


The International Gymnastics Federation ruled Saturday that Yang Tae-young was unfairly docked a tenth of a point in the all-around final, costing him the gold medal that ended up going to Hamm. The South Korean got the bronze instead.



The federation suspended three judges, but it said the results will not be changed in a case that brought back memories of the figure skating scandal at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.



Although there are no signs of impropriety by the gymnastics judges, the South Koreans will now ask the Court of Arbitration for Sports to determine whether Yang deserves a gold medal.



"We want obvious mistakes to be corrected," said Jae Soon-yoo, an official with the South Korean delegation.



Hamm came all the way back from 12th place with two routines left Wednesday night to become the first American man to win the Olympic all-around.



He won the meet over South Korea's Kim Dae-eun by 0.012, the event's closest margin ever. Yang was 0.049 behind Hamm.



The 0.100 points deducted from Yang's start value in parallel bars -- the difficulty of the routine -- was the difference between third and first. Without the mistake, Yang would have won gold, Hamm silver and Kim bronze.



Teams can make an "inquiry" about a start value, but it must be done no later than one event after the routine in question, according to gymnastics rules.



South Korea failed to lodge a protest in time, so the scoring could not be changed, said Philippe Silacci, spokesman for the federation, known as FIG. But Jae said the South Koreans did question the scoring as soon as the routine was over and were told by the judges 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."



At the Sydney Olympics, American Blaine Wilson was awarded an extra tenth of a point on pommel horse after his coach filed a protest, claiming his starting value was too low. The change didn't affect the medals; Wilson finished sixth in the all-around.



USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi compared Wednesday's mistake to a bad call in football that wasn't discovered until after the game. He insisted FIG's decision should not put an asterisk on Hamm's gold medal.



"Paul Hamm's performance the other night was absolutely incredible," Colarossi said. "It's unfortunate the judges didn't have the right start value."



Yang received a start value of 9.9 on parallel bars. But after reviewing a tape of the all-around, FIG officials ruled he should have gotten a 10, the start value he received for the same routine in team qualifying and finals.



With the extra 0.10, he would have finished with 57.874 points and defeated Hamm by 0.051.



Matthieu Reeb, general secretary of CAS, talked to the South Korean team about an appeal, which was expected to be filed by Sunday. Still, he said it was unclear whether the court would hear the case.



"Our regular practice is that field-of-play decisions cannot be reviewed by CAS," Reeb said. "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."



Hamm, practicing Saturday for event finals, was not available for comment. He was asked Thursday about the judging and his close victory.



"I feel like I just barely edged them out," he said. "If you go back and look at the tapes, people can analyze it, and they'll all come to that conclusion, I think."



Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director for the Olympics, said the IOC had not been approached by the South Koreans or gymnastics officials. Both he and IOC president Jacques Rogge said the figure skating case bore little resemblance to this one.



"The IOC never intervenes on a ranking issue," Rogge told The Associated Press. "The only time is in a case like that in Salt Lake City, which involved manipulation. That is not the case here."



At the 2002 Games, a French judge said she was pressured by her federation's chief to favor the Russians in pairs over the Canadians. Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada were ultimately awarded duplicate golds.



In Athens, however, there were no signs of intentional wrongdoing. The scoring error was made with one event left, and there was no way the judges could have known that reducing Yang's start value would cost him the gold.



In another case at the 2002 Games, South Koreans fumed when short track speed skater Kim Dong-sung was disqualified in the 1,500-meter race, allowing American Apolo Anton Ohno to win the gold.



FIG said the suspension of the judges was necessary to protect the integrity of the organization and "maintain and ensure the highest possible judging standard at the Olympic Games."



Technical judges Benjamin Bango of Spain and Oscar Buitrago Reyes of Colombia were suspended, along with George Beckstead of the United States.



Beckstead was the panel chairman, and therefore had ultimate responsibility for all the judges. But because the other judges agreed on the 9.9 start value, Beckstead had no cause to step in.

[Halifax]

Paul Hamm = NO CLASS

Link

"ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Tainted gold? Paul Hamm certainly doesn't think so.


In fact, he's downright angry his Olympic all-around gymnastics title is being disputed at all.


"I shouldn't even be dealing with this,'' Hamm said Sunday after failing to win medals in event finals for pommel horse and floor exercise.

Hamm simply wants the dispute to be over. He doesn't feel his gold medal has been marred.

"It would have been nice to not have to deal with it,'' he said. "I'm glad I'm able to clear the air here and make sure everyone in the U.S. understands that I'm not a silver medalist. I'm a gold medalist, and once the meet is over, it's over.'' "

[nostaw1952]

Boy, is this guy in denial. Shabby, very shabby. There'd be a lot more bitching and moaning if the screwed over person was an American...

[chris@thegreek]

Payback for them stealing Gold Medal from Roy Jones Jr, different sports but still payback

[hockeystl]

Originally posted by: chris@olympic
Payback for them stealing Gold Medal from Roy Jones Jr, different sports but still payback

Damn Chris. Was going to post the same. When I read this, I immediately thought of RJJ / Si-Hun Park screw job.

[big action]

Originally posted by: chris@olympic
Payback for them stealing Gold Medal from Roy Jones Jr, different sports but still payback

Chris........that is exactly what I was thinking. [img]i/expressions/beer.gif[/img]