Paul Hamm is NOT the silver medallist.
Who'd have thought gymnastics could be so exciting. There was almost a riot at the horizontal bar finals last night in Athens. Everyone was doing so-so, and the judges were awarding some bizarre points. And then the Russian, Alexei Nemov did his routine, including no less than six releases, four of which were extremely complex somersault-twist combinations. He made a small step on landing, which could have knocked off a little, but when the scores flashed up, he was only awarded 9.725.
The crowd starting whistling and booing, and it went on from there. 5 minutes later, the crowd were on their feet, gesturing thumbs-down, booing, shouting, whistling, jeering and causing a hell of a racket. The chief Olympic scoring judge came out and had a huddle with the Canadian and Malaysian judges - the two who scored Nemov extremely low. They eventually revised the score, but only to 9.762. That made the situation worse. Those who weren't already standing in the crowd, stood up. Those who were got even more vocal. All the time, Paul Hamm was waiting to go and do his routine. In the end, Nemov had to step up to the aparatus again and signal the audience to calm down. They sort of did, but it wasn't until Paul Hamm started his routine that it went a bit quieter.
Hamm's routine was nothing special - certainly not on a par with Nemov's, and when he finished, the judges awarded him a 9.812! I thought the crowd were going to flood the stadium floor and lynch the judges. The jeering and booing started again, and shouting, and throwing of objects. It was unbelievable!
Eventually, the Italian Igor Cassina did his routine, which was also an order of magnitude better than Hamm's, but he also got scored a 9.812. The booing and jeering started again. In the tie-break, he came out on top, Hamm came second and Nemov got knocked off the podium.
Nemov was cheated. Everyone knows it, and he's since said as much in a post-event interview. Paul Hamm pissed away the chance to become an Olympian who would have had his name in the history books. If he'd given up his silver to Nemov on the podium, people would have been talking about it for the next 3 or 4 olympics, and he would have gone down in the history books as the medallist who knew he didn't deserve his position and gave it up to the actual winner. Instead, Hamm came across as a spoiled child.
The scoring and medal positions for that event have to be changed. Hamm is not the silver medallist - he shouldn't even have been on the podium. Nemov should have the gold, Cassina should have the silver, and the Japanese guy should have had the bronze.
I overheard someone talking about this in the gym this morning. He was quite enlightened when he said "the reason the judges keep scoring America so high is because they're afraid El Busho will invade their countries if they give a low mark."
Very good.
The Russians are going to protest to the Olympic committee, and in a quirk of fate, the Greek god Zeus is obviously also displeased with the result, because he sent a 4.5 richter scale earthquake to Athens today :-)
The crowd starting whistling and booing, and it went on from there. 5 minutes later, the crowd were on their feet, gesturing thumbs-down, booing, shouting, whistling, jeering and causing a hell of a racket. The chief Olympic scoring judge came out and had a huddle with the Canadian and Malaysian judges - the two who scored Nemov extremely low. They eventually revised the score, but only to 9.762. That made the situation worse. Those who weren't already standing in the crowd, stood up. Those who were got even more vocal. All the time, Paul Hamm was waiting to go and do his routine. In the end, Nemov had to step up to the aparatus again and signal the audience to calm down. They sort of did, but it wasn't until Paul Hamm started his routine that it went a bit quieter.
Hamm's routine was nothing special - certainly not on a par with Nemov's, and when he finished, the judges awarded him a 9.812! I thought the crowd were going to flood the stadium floor and lynch the judges. The jeering and booing started again, and shouting, and throwing of objects. It was unbelievable!
Eventually, the Italian Igor Cassina did his routine, which was also an order of magnitude better than Hamm's, but he also got scored a 9.812. The booing and jeering started again. In the tie-break, he came out on top, Hamm came second and Nemov got knocked off the podium.
Nemov was cheated. Everyone knows it, and he's since said as much in a post-event interview. Paul Hamm pissed away the chance to become an Olympian who would have had his name in the history books. If he'd given up his silver to Nemov on the podium, people would have been talking about it for the next 3 or 4 olympics, and he would have gone down in the history books as the medallist who knew he didn't deserve his position and gave it up to the actual winner. Instead, Hamm came across as a spoiled child.
The scoring and medal positions for that event have to be changed. Hamm is not the silver medallist - he shouldn't even have been on the podium. Nemov should have the gold, Cassina should have the silver, and the Japanese guy should have had the bronze.
I overheard someone talking about this in the gym this morning. He was quite enlightened when he said "the reason the judges keep scoring America so high is because they're afraid El Busho will invade their countries if they give a low mark."
Very good.
The Russians are going to protest to the Olympic committee, and in a quirk of fate, the Greek god Zeus is obviously also displeased with the result, because he sent a 4.5 richter scale earthquake to Athens today :-)
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