Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

[kenimpzoom]

As you may have heard, had they used the correct start value for the Korean guy, Paul Hamm would have won Silver, not Gold.<br /><br />So, if you were Paul Hamm, what would you do?

 

[dogsdad]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Why would I want to keep the Gold if I knew I didn't really win it? I'd feel like crap. I would insist that the guy who bested me get the Gold, and I'd take the Silver and be proud---knowing I EARNED it.<br /><br /><br />-dd-

 

[AK_Chappy]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

dogsdad<br />I agree full heartedly that what you say is the most correct thing to do. However, is it reality. It is easy for many of us to say he should give it back, or that we would in his shoes. <br />It is easy because we are not in his shoes. <br />What about the college football game many years back where the offense got five downs with the clock run out and scored a TD on the last down? Did they concede the game? No, it was an official's mistake. Same thing with the Stanford band, when they took the field early and BC ran through them to score a TD and win the game. Again it was a mistake beyond their control.<br />I do think that the Korean gymnast deserves to share the Gold Medal. I also think that Paul Hamm should be the one to stand up and say that. Or to say "Give me the Silver and him the Gold"<br /><br />Just my .02cents<br /><br />AK Chappy

 

[achris]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I have just read the statement by Paul Hamm's mother, about the decisions of the judges being final. This is exactly why more and more judges are being replaced by cameras and electronics. Everybody realizes that as good a job as the judges do (in all sports) they are NOT infallible. <br /><br />Have a read of this. It throws another angle on it all. <br /><br /> News article about the judging of Paul Hamm's event

 

[tylerin]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Its not his decision to make, It shouldn't be put upon the athlete to make that choice. Thats why they have an Olympic committee

 

[JasonB]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Judging of these events is highly subjective. There are too many variables. Did the judges goof? Yes. Should there be a shared Gold medal? Don't know. Should Hamm give up the gold? Don't know, I'm not in his shoes nor do we have all the information. We only have what the media sees fit to feed us.<br /><br />I hate to see something like a judging issue affect the outcome of a sports event. BUT- I was a basketball player in High School and knew that refs make mistakes (they are also considered part of the playing surface and there is no foul if you run over them... but I digress.) It's the human part of the game, and NO I don't think that they should do "Instant Replays" in any more sports. In the case of BBall, if you do instalnt replays of every call or non-call, you might as well drop certain calls like Offensive Charging from the books as many of those are carefullycrafted acting jobs by the defender....

 

[JasonB]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

BTW: for those in the world that have used this as a springboard for anti-american sentiment, If you want to get upset because this happened, direct it at the judges that screwed up. Not at the two gymnasts that just had their dreams forever tarnished because some wrote the number down wrong.<br /><br />Everyone has also forgotten the poor guy that would get bumped from silver to bronze.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I wouldnt feel right knowing I am holding onto some other guys gold medal. Exspecially after I didnt give my best performance on the vault (he totally blew that one and was lucky to get a score of 9.1).<br /><br />I would give the gold back and ask for the silver, knowing I came back from my disaster on the vault to earn a silver.<br /><br />Ken

 

[samagee]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Sorry, judges making mistakes or not, the athlete has to be the best sportsman he/she can be. We are human and make mistakes. If it was an honest error on the judges behalf, then yes give it back. If it's dirty pool behind the scenes, there really isn't much we can do about that either except with our wallets.

 

[PatPatterson]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

If I won a gold, I would want the gold. If I didn't win the gold, I would not want the gold. If it was the other way around, Hamm would be screaming his little helium filled voice hoarse, talking about the injustice that was done to him. He should be a man, and give it back.

 

[thedude7803]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I first agreed with most of you that Hamm should give the gold back. Then I heard an interesting perspective on this on the radio last night. The scoring mistake was not made in the last event of the competition. So if the scoring mistake was not made, how can we be certain that all else would remain constant. If the S. Korean had known he had the lead going into the last event, maybe he would have modified his performance to be more conservative, thus further effecting his total score. Conversely, Hamm may have been more aggressive if he thought he had more ground to make up. It is difficult to say that if the scoring error would not have happened, we are 100% certain of what the results would be.

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I have to agree with Jasonb and the_dude. Another point to consider is that this was most likely not the only mistake made during the competition. Points are supposed to be subtracted for every error made by the gymnast. If the judges were perfect, you would need only one. It's likely that errors were made to the detriment of Hamm during his routines as well as the other competitors. It is the average of all the judges' scores that applies so that no one judge's error has a significant impact. In this case the outcome was significant, but you can't go back and try and fix all the judging errors including this one.

 

[JB]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

After learning that the Korean committed an infraction for which he was not pealized, and which would have put him out of the medals altogether, I change my vote.<br /><br />Keep it, Paul.

 

[Barlow]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

after seeing the fiasco lastnight on the Men's High Bar ... I'm boycoting the rest of the Olympics.<br /><br />- what a sad situation all this has been..

 

[gaugeguy]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I want to hear Paul sing "we represent the lollipop guild"...now that would be hilarious <br /><br />Keep the gold Paul and be proud of it.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

The Koreans had a set time to apeal the results. They waited till after that time. If you accept the apeal now, then you have to go back and review each and every score on every event. If that is what we want, then lets get rid of officals all together. Just tape the events, review and judge the performances in slow motion afterwards, and give us the results in a week or three.<br /><br />Doesn't sound like fun, or very exciting to me. Shucks, lets forget about scoring altogether, after all, it might be bad for ones self esteem (oops, sorry, I am getting off track).

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Aspeck, news reports say the Koreans did appeal right after the guys performance, but were told to wait until the entire competition was done.<br /><br />The dude you make a very good point.<br /><br />Ken

 

[gaugeguy]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

They should have appealed before the Korean started the apparatus, because they gave him a starting score of 9.9 instead of the 10.0 he had recieved in the world championships.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Originally posted by aspeck:<br /> Doesn't sound like fun, or very exciting to me. Shucks, lets forget about scoring altogether, after all, it might be bad for ones self esteem (oops, sorry, I am getting off track).

Right on Aspeck. That will probably be the next UN edict.

 

[aspeck]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Now FIG is asking Hamm to return the medal as a show of Sportmanship, but USOC won't deliver the letter. Interesting how FIG is viewing the one mistake that was challenged, but not the other mistake that was not challenged. If they want to be fair, view them both and take away the South Korean's Bronze! South Korea should be happy they got the bronze at all in hindsight.<br /><br />Don't take away the human element to the sport. If you do that, then just do all the competitions on computer simulators and go by their results.