Should Paul Hamm give up his gold medal even though it was awarded to him?

[JulieL]

[JulieL]

I thought the events that happened to Paul were so aweful! I couldn't believe they said the judges made a mistake. I thought this was a thought provoking dilema. I'm not sure he should give the medal back since he was awarded it. But then again is it fair that he should have a medal that should be someone elses? To make matters worse the Olympic Panel won't allow them to share the medal as both countries said they would be willing to do. What are your thoughts? I think I'll vote no...but not sure...

[tinkerbell1217]

It wasn't his fault the judges made the error in start value and if they had noticed it before the medal ceremony it might have been different, but it was way afterwards. I think they should just award the Korean gymnast a gold too and they can share the honor of all around champion. I mean, with the figure skating pairs competition two years ago they ended up awarding a gold to both pairs teams. Why not do the same thing now?? Both gymnasts were awesome. If the countries are willing to share, they should settle it and share!

[lizajane]

paul said it best himself. **HE** didn't do anything wrong! he is willing to share, which is the right thing to do.

[jec2]

Dh and I had this discussion too the other night. I offered that it would be a lovely gesture to volunteer to swap medals. DH made the point that ideally, the judges would not error. However, part of the competition and the Olympics is the judging...if the judges error, well, the judges error and Paul should keep the gold.

[s7714]

It's my understanding that the S. Korean team had every opportunity to contest the original DD score during the event and even after the routine. NBC said the US contested several of the DD scores the judges came up with before their athletes preformed. If they did it, why didn't the S. Korean team? I mean this is the Olympics for pete's sake. If hundredths of a point matters, shouldn't they be looking at everything and questioning everything right off the bat, instead of waiting until it's all said and done and then try to change things? If they did try to do something about it earlier and something happened so things didn't go according to proceedure, the media hasn't mentioned it. I feel bad for the S. Korean athlete, and perhaps he should be given a gold medal as well, but I do not think Hamm needs to give up his medal.

Jennifer
Mommy to Annalia 03/03/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif

[mudder17]

I agree with what most people have said here: Paul Hamm should not give up his medal because he earned it, even if it was in part due to a judging error. Since both athletes and countries have agreed to share the gold, I think the IOC should at least consider it. But judging is in part subjective, especially when it comes to hundredths of a point and I think Paul Hamm earned the gold honestly.


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
born 22 February 2004

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050222/2/16/0/+10/.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_garnet_6m.gif Breastfed 6 months and counting

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[redhookmom]

I have been giving this some thought lately. In the end I would say, no. If it could be concluded that NO other mistakes were made in either his scoring or his oppenents then I would say yes. But, I am sure other mistakes or subjective scores could be argued.

It is like when the ref makes a mistake in the last 10 seconds of a game and he/she gets blamed for the outcome. WAIT, there were a 100 other plays and most likely some other mistakes...

[amazz]

ITA with everything you just said!!

Angela
EDD 10/15/04
A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg

[Tondi G]

He should keep his GOLD! He earned it.... whether the judges made a mistake or not, it isn't his fault and I think it is rediculous how he is being treated by fans..... he had NOTHING to do with it! They have now gone back and looked over the tapes of both routines and it shows that there was a fault in the other guys routine.... more than 4 holds that would have lowered his score..... After that mistake and the one last night after the high bar routine and them changing Alexi's score...... those judges should be on point right about now.... not making further mistakes!!!!! In my opinion the Koreans waited too long to contest it.... and now the tapes are being scrutinized..... it's just wrong. The medals were awarded.... thats the end of it... better luck next time!!!!!

~Tondi

[TaChapm]

Last night I felt so bad for Alexi and thought he showed such class. I really wanted him to get a medal.
They did say that if everything had been judged fairly that Paul Hamm would have still won the Gold since the S Korean did make the extra holds on the parallel bars. There were mistakes all around but if all had been judged fairly, with that extra hold, Paul Hamm is the Gold medalist. I hate that his medal will forever be tainted.
Tara
Mommy to Jackson 11-10-02

http://lilypie.com/baby2/021110/1/5/1/-6/.png

[COElizabeth]

There's also the factor that it's impossible to know how different scores in the contested event would have affected the rest of the competition. The gymnasts went into the subsequent events knowing their point totals and relative standings from the earlier event, and who knows how they would have been affected psychologically (and how they would have performed) if those had been different?

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04

[parkersmama]

That was *horrible* last night! I felt so bad for both Alexi and Paul! Alexi is a true class act...a real Olympic hero! And Paul seems like a really great guy. Too bad there's been so much controversy. I heard that he had said after the all-around debacle he felt like the whole world was against him and I thought that was just terribly sad. :(

[hwin708]

I had read on some news site that the S. Koreans had complained to someone working for the Olympics, and were advised to wait until after the event was over to file their complaint. Then, when they went to file the complaint, they were told by the people in charge that they had to complain earlier. I really felt their rage over that one - it's like dealing with the people at the returns counter at Target...only much much much bigger.

[wencit]

>I had read on some news site that the S. Koreans had
>complained to someone working for the Olympics, and were
>advised to wait until after the event was over to file their
>complaint. Then, when they went to file the complaint, they
>were told by the people in charge that they had to complain
>earlier. I really felt their rage over that one - it's like
>dealing with the people at the returns counter at
>Target...only much much much bigger.
>

This is just my opinion, but the South Koreans should have known better. Even if one uninformed official told them to wait until the competition was over, it was up to the Koreans to know the FIG rules. Start value discrepancies happen every so often in gymnastics competitions, so it's not like the procedure was a complete surprise to the Koreans.

In fact, at last year's World Championships, nearly the exact same thing happened. One of the Hamm twins (I forget if it was Morgan or Paul) was supposed to vault a 2 1/2 twisting Yurchenko, but he only did 1 1/2 twists. The judges didn't realize that he left out an entire twist and gave him credit for the higher start value. One of the coaches from another country brought this to an official's attention immediately. After some deliberation, they reduced Hamm's score by the difference in start values after the rotation had ended, but before the competition was finished.

So there is definitely an avenue for contesting start values that's clearly spelled out in the rule book. If a country doesn't follow those rules and then cries foul after the competition is over, then I say tough luck.

[bburke]

Paul deserves to keep the gold. Although the judges did make a mistake in the starting value, which they caught only by watching the videotape, they also made a mistake in NOT catching a deduction which should have been awarded to the Korean gymnast which actually would have made his score .1 lower than what he did get. If Paul has to share the gold, I think that is ok, but to give it up would be ridiculous. Maybe they should change the rules about judging and do it all by videotape then they can go back and make sure that they catch every deduction too. If the officials only look at this one routine on videotape to find a judging error, then they need to look at all the routines. I bet they will find numerous errors on many different routines that would either benefit or harm the gymnast's score. Who knows what could happen then? Judges are human and can't see everything, but that's just the way the sport is. One of the pp was right too in that the Koreans should have contested the score before the competition was over.

Well that turned out to be really long. Can you tell I am so upset about this whole controversy? Way to take the best moment in someone's life and ruin it. BTW I was both a gymnast and a coach for many years so I understand the issues here.

Brenna