Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

[boatneck]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

I don't know how I would do, but the facts about the fifth down in the football game need some clarification. According to what I read in Who's the Real Winner?, the Cornell team who got the benefit of the fifth down gave up the win and ceded the game to Dartmouth, showing real class. I think Paul Hamm can do the same.

 

[Bassy]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Deductions are deductions and they all count. Paul keeps the Gold. He had more points. He won by 1/10 of a point. <br />Bassy

 

[PW2]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Irrespective of the mathematics involved, judges in those events know when they award scores who they are saying should be in 1st place, 2nd place, etc. They thought they were awarding, and presumably meant to award, Hamm the gold.<br /><br />Whether that is right or wrong is a subjective judgement of course, but the judges awarded him the gold, and you can't go back and recalculate it from a cold mathematical perspective. It does not work that way.<br /><br />Paul absolutely should keep the gold, and feel good about it.

 

[tylerin]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Exactly PW2 thats why they don't give the first athlete a 10.0 to leave room for the next person. They knew doggone well what Hamm needed to win the Gold and thats what they gave him (because they thought he deserved the gold) . If they were to strip his medal (and they shouldn't) they would have to start from that point or start over completely.

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

There is a key point in this whole discussion that seems like it should be highlighted but isn't, even by the experts/ commentators. That being the difference between a subjective error by the judges (unfortunately part of almost any judged/ referred event) and an administrative error. <br /><br />Subjective mistakes (like missed deductions in a routine) must be accepted as a limitation inherent to the subjective nature of human judging. I can live with that (as long as I don't think there is actual cheating or bias involved). <br /><br />But I find it very objectionable for the outcome of an event to be changed by an administrative error instead of the athletes performances. I see this mistake as being little different from one where the judges scored someone with say 9,9,and 9 but whoever added them up came up with a total of 26 and then let the incorrect score of 26 stand instead of the earned score of 27. Even if the coaches didn't catch it in time, this penalizes the athlete and skews the result for an administrative mistake totally unrelated to the athlete.<br /><br />On the other hand, the dudes point is also valid. Since the mistake happened mid competition it's impossivble to gauge how the 'butterfly effect' might have effected the rest of the competition.<br /><br />To me the only fair solution would be to award a second gold to the Korean. <br /><br />But Hamm in no way should be criticized personally. And shame on FIG for asking Hamm to take resposibility for fixing the mess they made and didn't have the guts to rectify. <br /><br />And what about the Silver medal guy? The decision affects him just as much as it does Hamm. Did they ask him if he would be willing to give Hamm his silver medal and take the bronze instead if Hamm were willing to give up the gold? Or were they they planned on awarding duplicate silvers (in which case why not award duplicate golds instead)?

 

[DustyJacket]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

Don't forget, there is a 3rd guy involved.<br />The one who has the silver, and would have to trade it for the bronze.<br /><br />There are so many factors, included how peoples' later performances may have changed, should the mistake not have been made. <br /><br />Who really knows who would have won?

 

[Stumpknocker]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

What olympics? Some kind of paint?

 

[radar750]

Re: Your Paul Hamm, what do you do?

As a former Gymnast and father of a young Gymnast I know how things work. They just dont take medals, they are awarded them based on the final score. As we speak Hamms score was and still is higher. If that score is changed by the IOC or another ruling body and the actuaul numbers change<br />then and only them will he give up his medal.