August 22, 2004

Lighten Up

It is extremely unfortunate that a significant mistake was made the other night in the men's all around gymnastics competition that robbed Yang Tae-Young of the gold medal, awarding it instead to Paul Hamm. I hope they give Yang a gold medal, a second gold medal at the very least. He earned it. But so did Paul Hamm, so taking his away isn't the right answer either. It would be a bad precedent that will have someone protesting almost every Olympic result if the IOC starts revisiting results days after the competition, no matter how good the reason. Note: disqualifying athletes for failing drug tests is an entirely seperate issue.

But the South Korean reaction is a little over the top. I have two words for all the South Koreans who think they've been jobbed; two words they should be very familiar with: Roy Jones.

DOWNDATE: Dual medals? Hardly an original thought.

Posted by Charles Austin at August 22, 2004 01:14 AM
Comments

Despite Hamm's incredible efforts, his scores did not EARN him the gold. Bottom line.

Posted by: JP at 04:28 PM

Maybe, maybe not. According to the latest story, maybe Yang got a better score than he deserved based upon his actual performance since he wasn't docked for doing something wrong, the lower starting point notwithstanding.

Posted by: charles austin at 06:34 PM