The Olympics came along at just the right time, the time when agood deal of us had to scratch that four year itch for watchingsporting events we'd never be caught dead viewing weekly.Naturally, an event such as the Olympics can't go on without someform of controversy. But this year, certain events went pastcontroversy to the sublime and even into Loony Tunes territory.
Paul Hamm entered the Olympics as the prohibitive favorite towin the men's gymnastics gold medal. No American man had everascended that pedestal and Hamm had plenty of pressure on him. Hequickly validated the expectations taking the overall lead until hedid a wounded duck landing on the vault.
Hamm faded to 12th, but then forged an amazing comeback built onopponent's errors and his tremendous performances to win the gold.He achieved the pinnacle of his sport and seemed poised to headdown the tunnel of greatness. Nobody told him he was about to runheadlong into a mirage on a wall. The champion suddenly becameWiley Coyote.
The South Koreans claimed foul because of judging error thatreduced Yang Tae-young's parallel bar start value by one-tenth of apoint, enough to cost their athlete the gold. The result wasallowed to stand, but the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)cut three judges loose. Hamm suddenly had to answer questions as ifhe'd somehow cheated his way to gold. To say he was defensive wasthe understatement of the fortnight.
Then Hamm took his shot at individual medals and it got evenweirder. Hamm was getting ready for the high bar when Alexei Nemovbrought the house down... on the judges. After a routine, the crowdbooed for 10 minutes when Nemov's score was lower than they thoughtit should be.
The chastened judges kicked Nemov's score up and then Hamm hadto somehow follow the fiasco. Somehow, he pulled off silver and hadto wonder if his score was higher than it should have been sincethe judges were still smarting from the crowd. Oh, but it stillwasn't over.
The FIG was now under pressure from the South Koreans to award aduplicate gold medal to atone for their error. So, they decidedupon a fitting solution: they asked Hamm to give up his gold medalas "the ultimate demonstration of fair play." Their reasoning,according to FIG president Bruno Grandi, was that "the true winnerof the all-around competition is Yang Tae-young."
Hamm must feel like he'd gotten bopped over the head with ahammer. The organization that judged him the best that night werenow saying he wasn't and he should have to rectify the gaffe, notthose responsible. Not surprisingly, the reaction against this movefrom the USOC was fairly harsh.
Hamm must have simply been happy to get out of Greece alive.After having his effort attacked and nearly getting tied to thetrain tracks by the FIG, he's probably going to lay low. But he maylook and make sure an Acme anvil's not coming straight for hishead, too.
Write to Jeff at
mannedarena@yahoo.com
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