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Controversy has tarnished Hamm's gold in all-around

By Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

Gymnastics controversy
How should the controversy over Paul Hamm's all-around gold medal be resolved?






ATHENS, Greece--Tainted. What a lousy word it is. Tainted means something has been � if not outright ruined � compromised, lessened, diminished.
Sorry, Paul Hamm. But that Olympics all-around men�s gymnastics gold medal you won is less lustrous, less regal, than when it went around your neck Tuesday night.

It has to do with a flap over judging � apparently, these frays are mandatory at each Olympics � which earned suspensions for three of the judges who were part of the men�s overall competition.

South Korea is upset because its gymnast, Yang Tae-young, finished with a bronze medal when � had proper start value been credited to him � he would have received an extra one-tenth of a point and beaten Hamm to take gold.
The issue over start value breaks down accordingly:

A gymnast putting together a routine decides on a particular mix of elements, stunts, etc., that carries with it a certain value. The higher the start value, the greater the risk-reward dividends can be. Judges then take care to make sure everything the gymnast said was going to be in the routine was, in fact, there.
That�s where the fight centers. The South Koreans say Yang�s start value on the parallel bars was 10.0. The judges said, at the time, it was 9.9.

Rules specify that, in the event of a disagreement or protest, the grievance must be made no later than one event after the routine in question. The South Koreans say they alerted the judges to the discrepancy when it was discovered and got the run-around.

That�s where everything now hangs � on arguments over procedure. And had procedure not been an issue, you can argue convincingly Yang would have won the gold medal. Replays have confirmed as much, which is why three judges are being suspended.

Hamm and his U.S. cohorts argue that all kinds of variables exist in any gymnastics performance. It thus makes any after-the-fact review a ripping-open of Pandora�s box. It also explains why the United States on Sunday night was charging Yang with missed holds during his parallel bars venture.

�If they�re going to review for one thing, they need to review for all things,� said Ron Gallimore, the U.S. men�s team coordinator. �He (Yang) stopped four times and you�re only allowed three. They should have deducted two-tenths of a point.�

The problem with Gallimore�s explanation is that South Korea�s beef has nothing to do with technical or artistic matters, which, in so many cases � even this one � are somewhat subjective.
This is a he-said, she-said matter. It�s about when something happened.

The United States was ready there, as well. The U.S. team protested start values on two gymnasts last week, Brett McClure and Jason Gatson.

�We didn�t get the answer we wanted,� Gallimore said, �but we turned it in at the proper time. The Koreans did the same thing the day before. They knew how to do it.�

No one from South Korea has suggested they didn�t know how to file their protest. They claim they were given a lot of double-talk that prevented their protest from ever being properly acknowledged.

And now we have three judges suspended by the International Gymnastics Federation, which agreed with the South Koreans that one-tenth of a point was excluded from Yang�s score.
�I personally feel I was the champion that night,� Hamm said. �I was incredible.�

Perhaps. But, hey, Paul, think about this for a second. If you really want to be �incredible,� how about sending that gold medal to Yang?

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The IOC has asked Hamm to give the gold to Yang. Hamm has refused.

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