OT: Olympic Outrage

[tomcat]

Didn't see the event myself, but has anyone else heard about the Korean fencer, a woman, who lost to a German in the match qualifying the winner for the match for the gold? According to news reports, she was ahead by one point with one second left when the clock froze, giving the German more time in which to win, which the German eventually did.

The Koreans protested and the judges, amazingly, decided the German was the victor. The Koreans protested that, and had to put up money to get their appeal heard by whatever body hears such things. The Korean fencer, who was understandably devastated by the unfair turns of events, sat on the stage weeping. And worse, some arcane rule forced her to remain on the stage, for 30 minutes until a decision was rendered, weeping for fully half that time. The decision? In favor of the German.

The next time I want to complain about Bonita Spence, I will remember this day. What the hell kind of alleged sport has no rules to cover a clock failure, charges the appealing team for filing an appeal against an obvious injustice, and humiliates the player by making her sit on stage in all her discomfort, for all the world to see?

Meanwhile, I plan on checking other news accounts to see whether this is, in fact, a true account. If it is, my estimation of the Olympics has dropped a lot. This kind of injustice makes me think the Olympics are really a fabulous opening ceremony with some meaningless competitions attached. or maybe I've just been naive all these years.

 

[cardfan]

I saw the story and had the same reaction. So incredibly sad, and wrong.

 

[MilfordHusky]

That does sound like a bad and highly unfair competition. They should have the best judges in the world and back- up systems.

When I first read about a fencer losing unfairly, combined with outrage, I thought maybe it had gotten really, really ugly.

 

[tomcat]

No, the outrage was mine. And possibly other people's, too. I'm sure there is nothing we can do, but I expected better, somehow. How can the German fencer accept that outcome without rejecting the victory that obviously was not hers? How can the judges do anything like that? Honest to God, I have never wanted to do anything to do anything congratulatory for Olympic winners, ever, but I'd send flowers to that Korean woman in a heartbeat.

 

[MilfordHusky]

No, the outrage was mine. And possibly other people's, too. I'm sure there is nothing we can do, but I expected better, somehow. How can the German fencer accept that outcome without rejecting the victory that obviously was not hers? How can the judges do anything like that? Honest to God, I have never wanted to do anything to do anything congratulatory for Olympic winners, ever, but I'd send flowers to that Korean woman in a heartbeat.

I think the true Olympic spirit would dictate that the German decline to accept the victory.

 

[BugsyCT]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olymp...-while-waiting-incredibly-191228265--oly.html

Here's the story. Poor S. Korean girl got hosed.

 

[cardfan]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olymp...-while-waiting-incredibly-191228265--oly.html

Here's the story. Poor S. Korean girl got hosed.

I saw the story on ABC news; and story and pictures in this article. It is so incredibly so sad and so very unfair. Is this the spirit of the Olympics?

 

[Adios]

The German should have handed the win to the South Korean. She exposed her true sportsmanship.

 

[BugsyCT]

Here's the video. Stupid announcers were a little too giddy about it.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/fencing/highlights-heidemann-shin-controversy.html

To add insult to injury, after all that, she had to go right back out and compete for the bronze medal, which she didn't get either. These Olympics can be cruel as well as corrupt.

 

[cferraro04]

The same sort of thing happened in the men's gymnastics. The British Team had sewed up at least a Bronze medal. During the final floor routine of the British Gymnast the improbably happened on the dismount of the pummel horse...Japanese who in second...slipped and his dismount was completely discombobulated. He was the final gymnast for the Japanese. This meant that he did not complete the required move. The result was the British moved up to a completely unexpected silver medal, the Ukrainians who were in fourth moved up to bronze and the Japanese were dropped to 4th. The Japanese filed their protest complete with cash. The video was reviewed by the judges...it was clear to my untrained eye that he never made it to vertical and consequently never held a handstand on the dismount which was the question...Did he make it to a hand stand. Somehow it was determined that he had...the Japanese were re-instated for silver, the Brits were dropped to bronze and a dejected Ukrainian Team left the arena.

 

[Forty_four]

Clock failure, sounds like what happened decades ago to the USA mens basketball team. The final seconds were replayed and eventually the USA lost the gold metal to the Russian team.

 

[Icebear]

Clock failure, sounds like what happened decades ago to the USA mens basketball team. The final seconds were replayed and eventually the USA lost the gold metal to the Russian team.

Replayed more than once.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Replayed more than once.

Yeah, 2 or 3 times. Keep trying until you win. Infamous.

Years later, the LVs played the role of the Soviet Union.

 

[OneTrickPony]

The same sort of thing happened in the men's gymnastics. The British Team had sewed up at least a Bronze medal. During the final floor routine of the British Gymnast the improbably happened on the dismount of the pummel horse...Japanese who in second...slipped and his dismount was completely discombobulated. He was the final gymnast for the Japanese. This meant that he did not complete the required move. The result was the British moved up to a completely unexpected silver medal, the Ukrainians who were in fourth moved up to bronze and the Japanese were dropped to 4th. The Japanese filed their protest complete with cash. The video was reviewed by the judges...it was clear to my untrained eye that he never made it to vertical and consequently never held a handstand on the dismount which was the question...Did he make it to a hand stand. Somehow it was determined that he had...the Japanese were re-instated for silver, the Brits were dropped to bronze and a dejected Ukrainian Team left the arena.

Welcome to the world of subjectively scored sports! That's why I ran track...

 

[CTyankee]

I watched the whole thing live... My recollection is that the score was tied with 1 second left. I don't pretend to understand the rules, but I think the clock started when the referee said "aller" (go).. And it stoped with the touch. The problem seemed to be that there were touches registered by both fencers at identical times. I don't know if the clock was supposed to be reset because it was still tied, but the referee was confused because the clock was still at 1 second. She restarted the fencers and identical touches were registered again. The clock was still at 1 second. I think she got guidance from other assistant referees and match officials and restarted again until the German girl had a single touch.

The Korean coach was berserk... The officials all consulted with one another for quite a while leaving initially both fencers on the piste. If ether left, they would have forfeited. Finally they awarded the win to the German and told the Korean coach that he could appeal. The Korean fencer had to stay on the piste until the Korean coach submitted his appeal otherwise she would have deemed as accepting the decision made. Her departure was delayed even longer by a late decision that the appeal needed to be accompanied by a fee (check???). .

It was ridiculous. The poor fencer was on the piste by herself in her protective clothes for an hour. Someone had to bring her a towel (she had been sweating and then crying, finally probably getting cold after sitting motionless in her uniform for over an hour). The crowd was very sympathetic to her situation.

After the decision on the appeal, they gently escorted the Korean fencer off, she had initially refused to leave and with her coach's urging she retired to the dressing rooms...

Addendum: It was probably less than 15 minutes later that she was asked to fight again for the bronze. To her credit the took the first points and looked as if she had put it behind her. Unfortunately in the end she lost in that match also.

 

[BugsyCT]

FIE to award protesting Shin a medal

"The FIE (Federation International d'Escrime) will give an FIE medal to Shin A Lam," a spokesman said. The exact date, location and who would make the presentation have not yet been worked out yet. "It will probably occur during the Olympics," the spokesman added, giving the first official indication that the FIE recognized there was a problem with their timing systems. The inscription is to say: "For aspiration to win and respect of the rules."

Oh, yippie-skip. Big consolation for her.

What crap. It was their screw-up with the clock stop. Sure they're in a tough situation now, but it never should have happened. She should get a REAL medal.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Any accusation of poor sportsmanship by the German fencer is silly. If there is fault it is with the officials.

Perhaps the timekeeper was trained in Tennessee.

 

[CTyankee]

Any accusation of poor sportsmanship by the German fencer is silly. If there is fault it is with the officials.

Perhaps the timekeeper was trained in Tennessee.

The German girl and her coach stayed out of the problem. They just waited for a decision.

The problem lay with the match officials and the timing of the extra period. Initially they ran a one minute extra period. When they had clock problems with one second to go they should have recognized it and reset their system to another one minute period I suspect.

 

[warbler1055]

What a sorry story, at least FIE suits are trying to do the right thing!!!