Should Hamm Give Up The Gold Medal???

[strikeeagle]

I think so. It's abundantly clear he was awarded it by mistake. Time to rectify the mistake. How would he feel if the shoe was on the other foot?

Stop being a little girl. Step up and turn the damn thing over to its rightful owner. What's he thinking? This isn't some 5 year old's finderskeeperslosersweepers thing. This is about being a man...

 

[BOOSTBROTHER]

No he should not.

He has done nothing wrong.

they have rules to cover this kind of thing and they where not followed at the time and the games moved on.

we have rules we need to follow them

 

[strikeeagle]

I agree he did nothing wrong. That is, until it became clear he was awarded the medal due to a mistake - that's when he should have stepped up.

It's not clear whether Korea failed to follow the rules in filing their protest. They claim they made a verbal protest to an official during the competition, and were told to put it in writing after the competition, which they did.

It's splitting hairs. Hamm lost, and if he keeps dancing around the issue, he'll lose even bigger, as in no Wheaties box.

 

[Raven]

Absolutely - he should not keep it.

While Paul did nothing wrong, what happened to the North Korean was not a judgement call error - it was a scoring error of not adding in a correct value when that value was there to be added all along.

It wasn't as if one ref thought the S. Korean had a poorer routine and performance - it was that the CORRECT difficulty factor was not added in the overall performance score.

Also, it wasn't as if a judge is changing his score of the actual performance. It's just that Hamm received a value that gave him the gold that was correct based upon his difficulty while the South Korean was shortchanged by a clerical error only; an error that is easily fixed.

They aren't asking to fix as subjective opinion of a performance - only to correct an oversight on a given value.

This in turn makes me believe that if Paul Hamm is truly a good sportsman, he would realize that in fact he did NOT have the better performance of the game as laid out by the rules, that the South Korean did indeed have a better performance based upon difficulty, and therefore he truly is NOT the gold medal winner.

It's not Hamm's fault for being given the Gold Medal incorrectly but it is an error of judgement for him to insist he 'won' it.

How do you think Hamm would act if the circumstances were reversed? Don't you think he would demand that he be given the Gold? Of course he would! Who would blame him?

Therefore, why would he even want to keep what he TRULY DID NOT EARN???

He should give it back with graciousness and like a man. If he doesn't, he just perpetuates the perception that Americans are nothing more than greedy schmucks.

He didn't truly earn it - therefore, he does not deserve it.

 

[Turbo T/A 1543]

I'd say to award the South Korean kid a Gold after the fact, so even though he knows in his heart that he was victorious, so will the history books. Issue the judges new calculators . I saw Hamm's last performance (which was absolutely outstanding), but if I didn't EARN it, then I don't WANT it!

 

[CARTMAN]

Besides, does anyone believe that someone who screwed up as bad as Hamm did and fell down into the judges really deserves a gold?

 

[Pronto]

Since it was by no fault or deciet by Hamm I think they should award a second gold to the Korean, like what they did for the Canadian ice skaters that were robbed by decietfull judges.

 

[87We4ster]

The sad part is that he will know he really didnt win it and there will be an asterick next to his name in the history books. They should give them both a gold medals...

 

[GeneralB44]

supposedly, if they did a full audit of the competition, this wouldn't be the only error. Apparently, gymnast judges are no braniacs and routinely screw things up. Too many falls off the balance beam I guess.

 

[DCVING 6]

Did south Korea get silver? Will Hamm end up with the silver if he gives up his gold?
That would suck if did the right thing and gave up the gold, but didn't get any medal because you did the right thing.

 

[Raven]

Originally posted by DCVING 6
Did south Korea get silver? Will Hamm end up with the silver if he gives up his gold?
That would suck if did the right thing and gave up the gold, but didn't get any medal because you did the right thing.

I know what you mean. But if you actually DO the right thing, that is reward enough. To have been given a medal that you didn't actually earn only because of a clerical error and not because it was a subjective "I don't think he did a good job" reason isn't really 'earning' the gold after all.

Like I said before - if Hamm was the one who was shortchanged on the points due to a wrong factor being entered by a stupid judge, he would indeed be screaming "Foul!!!" and demanding he get the right one.

Instead, he's now saying he 'earned' what he got - which is not right - and he should keep it. On top of that, he is saying that the IOC should not even award the South Korean a Gold as well and let him keep his - HE should be the only one with a gold medal.

WTF???

He should give it back and be a man about it. It is not right to keep it with the absolute proof and knowledge he truly did NOT earn it.

 

[slim]

Of course he should give it back knowing what he now knows, namely, that the other guy scored higher. The Koreans noted the mistake immediately after their guys routine. The medals shouldn't even have been awarded until the dispute had been resolved.

It's sad because Hamm is making himself look like a spoiled little brat that won't give something back even when he knows it doesn't belong to him.

 

[Night Train]

Had the South Korean scored better, it's possible that Hamm would have altered his routine to be a little more difficult and still won if he executed as well. Olympians change their routines based on the competitive scores all the time. He has to play by the rules of the Summer IOC (apparently different than the Winter IOC). Now can someone tell me why they use paper and pencil for this and don't use computers for this to total things up? We have the technology. He should keep it. In baseball, basketball or football (replay's excepted in some cases), incorrect calls are made all the time that effect the outcome of games and there is really no appeals process. Those are just the breaks. I feel for the South Korean, but it's not the first time this has happend in this type of scoring system and probably won't be the last. Hamm should keep his gold unless the IOC says it should be surrendered. He has to play by the rules, such as they are.

 

[buickpower]

medal

as far as i'm concerned, hamm won the gold as soon as he was awarded it. Wanting to deny the korean of a gold is ridiculous, but not nearly as ridiculous as the bumblehead olympic committee. Personally i don't think Hamm stands to lose as much face by wanting to keep the medal which was awarded to him by the comittee as the committee that handed out a medal and now says "oops, sorry bout that, it was supposed to go to another guy". Now that is a ****ty way to play with someone's mind, mistake or not. These athletes have trained so hard and for so long that it would be like going up to them and saying "your mom made it through the surgery just fine" then a little while later " oops, my bad, she actually died". Both of them should get a gold.

 

[noslo6]

Re: medal

Originally posted by buickpower
as far as i'm concerned, hamm won the gold as soon as he was awarded it. Wanting to deny the korean of a gold is ridiculous, but not nearly as ridiculous as the bumblehead olympic committee. Personally i don't think Hamm stands to lose as much face by wanting to keep the medal which was awarded to him by the comittee as the committee that handed out a medal and now says "oops, sorry bout that, it was supposed to go to another guy". Now that is a ****ty way to play with someone's mind, mistake or not. These athletes have trained so hard and for so long that it would be like going up to them and saying "your mom made it through the surgery just fine" then a little while later " oops, my bad, she actually died". Both of them should get a gold.

Nail....head....smack!!! My thoughts exactly. The judging of these gynastic events are so subjective, it inevitably leads to mistakes. There is so much parity in competition thousandths of a point separate a great performance from an otherwise good performance. Audit both performances, award the Korean a gold also if deserving, but you can't take away Hamms gold. How would you feel if you worked your entire life at a goal, reached the pinacle, won the award, experienced the overwhelming gratification of success only for some moron who made the mistake in the first place tell you...uh sorry bout that man, my bad. I'd have been pissed, I'd have kept the gold and said, if you idiots are stupid enough to award it to the wrong person then it's your problem, not mine. Hamm claims that he rewatched the Korean performance and found a mistake of 4 "holds" or whatever where only 3 are allowed and should have been a deduction of .2. If that is true, then it is a mute point. Like I said, the judging is so subjective that misatakes are inevitable. Many boxers have experienced the same thing in the olympics when judges didn't score points for punches and the obvious winner lost.

 

[Buick From Hell]

I agree with Steve---AND I agree with Night Train....

tough call...

Give Yang a Gold, and move Suciu (Romania) up from 4th and give him the Bronze...

Hamm keeps his gold, Korea ends up with TWO medals, and Romania gets a medal out of the blue...

Everyone's happy! (maybe)