The night wasnʼt looking good for Paul Hamm after his first event in the menʼs gymnastics individual all-around. He had fallen on his vault landing, receiving a score of 9.137, knocking him to 12th place in the standings.The chances of winning a medal looked slim. “I honestly thought I cost myself a chance at a medal,” Hamm said in an interview.
The next four events went smoothly and Hamm began to rise in the standings. When it came time for the final event, the high bar, is looked as if Hamm had a chance of winning a medal. His routine was flawless and his landing was perfect. Hamm just captured the gold medal, the first American to ever do so.
Days later, the South Korean team appealed to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the International Olympic Committee, saying that their gymnast, Yang Taeyoung was wrongly scored. A scoring error made by at least three judges put Tae-young in third place, giving him the bronze.
Yangʼs parallel bar exercise had a starting value of 10, but received only a 9.9 starting value in the final competition. If the judges had given him the starting value of 10, Yang would have won the gold medal. Instead,
Hammʼs total for the evening was 57.823, while Yang finished with a 57.774.
After reviewing the tapes of the all-around, FIG admitted that there was a scoring error made by the judges. However, Spokesman Philippe
Silacci said that the scoring cannot be changed and that they will not take Hammʼs medal back. “Judges can make mistakes. Thatʼs human,”
Silacci said. “But itʼs like football. They cannot change the score once the game is over.”
The situation for Hamm got worse. The FIG wrote Hamm a letter, asking him to give back the gold medal, saying that it was the fair thing to do. They gave the letter to the United States Olympic Committee and asked them to give it to Hamm.
The USOC refused to relay the letter, stating that they refused to strip Hamm of his all-around gold medal. “He is the Olympic champion,” USOC acting chief executive Scherr added. “He will always be the Olympic champion … as far as we are concerned, this matter is closed.” A hearing has been set for Sept. 27 with the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne, Switzerland. The South Koreans will be there, hoping that the gymnastics officials will correct the errors made and award Yang his medal. Hamm will be there as well, along with the USOC, who has said that they will do whatever they can to make sure Hamm keeps his medal.