South Korea Files Protest Over Gymnastics Score (My Title: Korean whining brats cry foul again)

Korean Times ^ | 8-20-04 | Kim Hyun-cheol

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South Korea's Olympic delegation has filed an official protest with the FIG (International Federation of Gymnastics) regarding bronze medallist Yang Tae-young's score in the parallel bars during the men's individual all-around final, the Korea Gymnastic Association (KGA) said Friday.

Following a report by International Gymnast Magazine on Thursday, the KGA confirmed the filing but added that it doesn't expect the decision will be repealed. Even though it was the last routine of the high bar that decided the color of Yang's medal, the protest concerned the scoring for his parallel bars routine, his fifth.

The Korean delegation sent the FIG a formal written inquiry on Yang's parallel bars start value, arguing that the routine should have been rated a 10.0 and that it was wrongly set at 9.9 by the judges. If correct, gold medallist Paul Hamm of the United States would have needed at least a 9.889 to beat Yang. Yang did the same composition as in earlier qualifications but they started from 10.0 points at that time.

Yang was in first place after five events with a combined score of 48.336, 0.35 point ahead of Hamm. In the last event of the high bar, however, Hamm scored a 9.837 while Yang earned a 9.475 after making a mistake.

The result dropped Yang to third while Hamm beat out South Korea's Kim Dae-eun by 0.012, the narrowest margin for the gold in Olympic gymnastics history.

Yang earned 9.712 in the parallel bars.

``We consider this case hard to accept and also contrary to the spirit of the clean Olympics, heavily stressed by Jacque Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee. That's why we decided to file the protest," said Shin Bak-jae, manager of the South Korean Olympic team.

No notification or explanation has yet to be received from the FIG, only an informal statement that official conclusions of the competition cannot be changed by protests.

The men's individual all-around final provoked another big controversy in South Korea. Many sports fans are questioning the reliability of the scorings and also have expressed their feelings of disappointment on the judgments both online and offline.

[valleygal]

Thank you for correcting me on the exact make and model of the BIG TV's up there that everyone can see. I realize the officials aren't using them, that spectators were reacting to to what they saw.

Did you check my post for grammar and spelling, too?

[Bobby Chang]

I did forget to disclose:

I am a shareholder in Daktronics (NASDAQ : DAKT), and the firm is a worldwide leader in the field, with the ProStar VideoPlus display.  Daktronics is a partner with Swiss Timing  (Swatch) with the Swatch-Daktronics video boards used around the facilities. 



And much to the anti-Americanism in Europe, a major French and German facility each ordered a ProStar VideoPlus.  Officials of Paris' famous Hippodrome harness horse-racing facility had a ProStar shipped across the ocean to Paris for use at their facility, and Olympiastadion in Berlin was also retrofitted with one for the 2006 Weltkup fussball championships.  That stadium was the facility where Jesse Owens scored four gold medals in 1936, irritating Adolph Hitler.

The giant has now worked eight Olympic Games, including the past three.