Hamm-Stringing
You’ve probably heard about the ongoing dispute over the gold medal awarded to (I didn’t say won by) Olympic gymnast Paul Hamm. You remember how it all went down. In the all-around competition, Hamm blows his vault landing and ends up rolling in a ball across the platform and literally onto the judge’s table like one of the hedgehogs in “Alice in Wonderland”. The critical mistake drops him down to like 12th place or something. Completely out of the medal running. But throughout the final round, poor performance by some of his competitors moves him back up to 4th place and he’s finsihing with he best event, the high bar.
So he goes into this high-flying, daredevil like routine that could be worthy of Cirque du Sole [sp?] (only without the spooky makeup, eerie music, and baffling French storyline).
After everyone has done their bit, all the points are tallied and he wins by like a thousandth of a point or something. But a win is a win, right. Doesn’t have to be pretty, just has to be a win. So he has made this startling comeback to a dazzling finish to be the first Americam male to win the gymnastics all-around competition.
Not since teaspoon-sized Kerry Strugg wiped the floor with her raisin-breasted opponents by executing her glorious one-legged vault (You hear that Paul Hamm??? One leg! A virtual mono-plegic, and she held it together) in Atlanta in 1996 has there been such an opportunity for the swelling and beating of patriotic American chests.
But then there was the error. The mathmatical error. A judge mis-calculated the starting score of a South Korean (I won’t even attempt names here) causing the South Korean to win the bronze instead of the gold. Had things been calculated right, Hamm would have wone the silver.
No the South Koreans want the gold medal. And Paul HAmm (and the US Gymnastics Gestapo) are saying “No. It’s mine!”
But is it really? Now I love the dramatic-come-from-behind-flag-waving- against-all-odds finish by the underdog as much as anybody (see my blog entry “It Was The Best of Times” 9/19) but let’s step back and get some perspective.
The outcome of the event changes because of mathematical error. Now this is not something subjective. Math is black and white. It’s not a question of did a referee make a bad call like in baseball. It’s a mathmatical error. Something can be proved objectively. Had the error not been made, the outcome definitely would have been different.
I know I will be blasted and told to get out of America, but the South Koreans have a point. I think for Paul Hamm to not suck it up and deal with facts makes him a big baby. Sure, there are rules about disputes must be brought to the table by a certain time and the South Koreans failed to do so. But just becuase they did not catch it by a certain tick of some arbitrary clock doesn’t change the fact that there was still an error. A mathmatical error. (Can I say this enough?) .
I don’t understand how, with this knowledge, he can look at the medal and say “I won this.” I couldn’t do it. Why would you want to keep something that deep down you know is not really yours. (And you know, deep down he knows it. Where’s his Jiminey Cricket???) To me it would be forever marked by a statistical error. It wouldn;t be, “I won this.’” It would be, “They put this in my hands first.” Ultimately it’s all his won fault anyway, if he hadn;t been a hedgehog on that vault, the scores would have never been so close.
I thought the whole point of the Olympics is sportsmanship, fair-play, honor, and all that. So why waste the $300,000 dollars being spent to defend him? (That’s right $300K.) Be the big man, be the true Olympian. Turn to your South Korean brother and say, “Congratulations” and take the silver medal. I mean, MY GOD, what;s so bad about a silver medal??? There are countries and athletes that have only HEARD about silver medals. I’ll bet some of them swear silver medals are mythical.
But no we are AMERICA. The Varuca Salt of nations (The spoiled girl from Willy Wonka: I wan’t and Ooompah-Loompah, Daddy! I want and Oompah-Loompah, NOW!) and Paul Hamm is crying, “I want a gold medal. I want a gold medal, NOW!”
October 4th, 2004 at 10:14 pm
dude, you are right on. I totally agree with you about Paul Hamm. He would have shown real sportsmanship if he had given up the gold. Kinda makes him look even smaller than he already is hanging on to it like that when the whole world knows he didn’t really earn it.
loving your blog.