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OT: Hamm asked to return gold


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Who asked him to give it back?

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ATHENS, Greece - Gymnastics officials asked Paul Hamm to give up his gold medal as the ultimate show of sportsmanship, but the U.S. Olympic Committee told them to take responsibility for their own mistakes.

In a dispute over scores that has turned into a political squabble, the head of the International Gymnastics Federation suggested in a letter to Hamm that giving the all-around gold medal to South Korea's Yang Tae-young "would be recognized as the ultimate demonstration of fair play by the whole world."

 

FIG president Bruno Grandi tried to send the letter Thursday night to Hamm through the USOC, but the USOC refused to deliver it.

 

In a letter back to Grandi, USOC secretary general Jim Scherr called the request "a blatant and inappropriate attempt on the part of (FIG) to once again shift responsibility for its own mistakes and instead pressure Mr. Hamm into resolving what has become an embarrassing situation for your federation."

 

"The USOC finds this request to be improper, outrageous and so far beyond the bounds of what is acceptable that it refuses to transmit the letter to Mr. Hamm," the letter continued.

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He should give it back just as soon as the Patriots give back the Lombardi trophy for the officials' errors in officiating the AFCCG against the Colts. IOW it ain't gonna happen.

 

In any case, I saw on TV last night that on review, while the starting score for the SK gymnast was 0.1 lower, the judges missed mistakes that would have lowered his score even more than that, so in the end, no harm, no foul. I just wish Hamm had even not fallen-off the mat in the vault, so as to leave no doubt he was the rightful champ.

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I hope he keeps his medal...

 

But why don't they just give the other guy a medal? Didn't something like that happen with the wintergames and the Canadian skaters?

 

and didn't the other gymnast bang his feet on the bar during the exhibiton?

 

Hmmm...

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Everyone should keep in mind that Paul Hamm had a score to beat when he got on the high bar. Even if he did not know the score, if the South Korean had gotten a better score than was initially published, Paul may have been able to get a better score on his high bar routine.

 

Judges, umpires, and referees make mistakes, even at the highest level and of this magnitude. The South Koreans should complain for at least the next four years. I am still complaining about the "just give it to them" phantom first down in New England several years back. I did not hear NFL suggest that Miami come to Buffalo for the WildCard Playoff game because only an officiating error caused Miami to have home field for that game.

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I agree.

 

Add giving Roy Jones Jr. his rightful gold medal as well.  Fuggin' South Koreans have little credibility whining about this after that travesty.

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Forgot that one. Seoul Games the worst ever, and the Roy Jone's screw job ranks as one of the bigest reason.

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Forgot that one. Seoul Games the worst ever, and the Roy Jone's screw job ranks as one of the bigest reason.

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I'll never forget it. I stopped watching sports for awhile after that one.

 

The other time I got really disgusted was the last baseball strike. I didn't have anything to do with MLB for a few years after that. Then a buddy of mine and I were in Dallas on business and he scored some box seats at The Ballpark. He didn't tell me where we were going until we were pulling up to the place. Spectacular.

 

I forgot how good MLB is in person. Great park.

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I hope he keeps his medal...

 

But why don't they just give the other guy a medal?  Didn't something like that happen with the wintergames and the Canadian skaters?

 

and didn't the other gymnast bang his feet on the bar during the exhibiton?

 

Hmmm...

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Yeah, Hamm watched the Korean's routine, and he did something wrong that he did not get docked for. If the judges had found that and took points off for it, Hamm would have won gold anyways.

 

Hamm definitely should keep the medal.

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He should give it back. What a classless piece of cr!p to hide behind the technicality that S.Korea didn't protest in time. That's absurd, and completely the opposite of good sportsmanship. He's a great athelete, and a selfish poor sport.

 

If this happened at the child level, I would insist that my kid give back the medal in fairness. Not run off with something he didn't earn. In the events, Hamm won a silver medal, not a gold- he won the gold because of someone's adding mistake. Gee, that's something to be proud of. Meanwhile, the person who won the gold in the events goes home with bronze. Again, nice sportsmanship Hamm. The USOC should be ashamed to set such a poor example.

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He should give it back. What a classless piece of cr!p to hide behind the technicality that S.Korea didn't protest in time. That's absurd, and completely the opposite of good sportsmanship. He's a great athelete, and a selfish poor sport.

 

If this happened at the child level, I would insist that my kid give back the medal in fairness. Not run off with something he didn't earn.  In the events, Hamm won a silver medal, not a gold- he won the gold because of someone's adding mistake. Gee, that's something to be proud of. Meanwhile, the person who won the gold in the events goes home with bronze. Again, nice sportsmanship Hamm. The USOC should be ashamed to set such a poor example.

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See the post above. The judges also made another mistake, they didn't take off for a mistake by the Korean gymnast. If BOTH mistakes by the judges would have been found, Hamm would have won anyways!

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See the post above.  The judges also made another mistake, they didn't take off for a mistake by the Korean gymnast.  If BOTH mistakes by the judges would have been found, Hamm would have won anyways!

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Totally different. The judge's "judgment" error is part of the game (like when Andre Reed stepped two feet out of bounds and Reich found him for the TD in the Bills/Houston game- he was ineligible but the ref. didn't see it/chose to ignore it).

 

An easily correctable non-judgment error that was not made *during* the routine should be corrected. Imagine if the computer that averages the scores made a miscalculation. That's a technical glitch, not a judgment mistake. This was the same.

 

Hamm is a poor sport. We all know he didn't win. Still, he'll keep his tarnished gold like the punk he wasn't when he worked so hard to earn the silver.

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Paul Hamm has now been asked to give back his gold medal........I say sure when the Soviets give back their 1972 Basketball Gold Medal.

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After that fiasco, the Olympics have become a minor note in the grand scheme of things to me. The Roy Jones theft is yet another example. Where judges determine the outcome, the games have been compromised, for a long long time now. Politics, errors, and blatant stupidity have ruined many events and will continue to do so.

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Apparently, the Korean did in fact touch the parellel bars one time too many and there should have been a deduction of .20 for this. Even if the Korean received the extra points for the error in question, he would have still fallen short of Hamm's total. If your gonna review a portion of their performances, you should review it all.

It would have been a class move for him to give it back if in fact it was an error, but given the above info, he gets to keep it. No if, ands or buts.

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