Drop Dead!

How about the other guy - competed fairly and was screwed by the Judges. What if the roles were reversed and we got the short end of the stick?

In all fairness, assuming no scoring error, he should have been the winner from what I understand. Sure life is not fair. Sure rules are rules, but this is not about money or returning next year to defend your title.

I think Hamm should be the bigger man and give his medal back. He is the one that is going to have to live with this. To me, it would be better to be the guy that said wait a minute, fair is fair, and swap medals than to be the the guy with the disputed gold medal and forever listed as the "declared" winner, but actual second place finisher. Is there any honor in not giving it back?

Perhaps the only thing tougher than winning the medal would be to have to give it back when you were not legally obligated to do so. But, is that what we have come to: doing only what we are legally obligated to do?

I am not saying I would have the strength of character to give it back. Obviously, none of us have had to face this issue on the world stage in our own lives.

Nevertheless, giving it back early this week would have made Hamm an absolute hero both for his accomplishments and his integrity.

I think sometimes we get carried away with the "just win baby" mentality. What message are we sending? Winning by technicality is the same as winning fair and square?

Strangely, I am reminded of the post a couple weeks ago about the oversized red that won the tourney.

There are two things here- objective and subjective. The determination of the start value is objective. Done before the event based upon the tricks in the routine. Thats where the mistake was made. Its verifiable and not subject to interpretation.

The actual judging is subjective. Each judge is entitled to his own opinion. I agree that you can't argue a subjective judgment call. Just like you can't argue balls and strikes.

I have also heard that the Koreans did dispute the scoring immediately after the event in question. They claim that they were told by the officials that the issue would be taken into consideration later. Then again, I was not there and don't know whether it was a timely protest or not.

Based on the objective information, the Korean won. The only way Hamm won (based upon the objective info) is by questioning the subjective calls by the officials during the Koreans routine.

In an era of corked bats, doping, pay offs to Judges and Olympic officials, assaulting competitors prior to events, points shaving, and the like, Hamm is missing a huge opportunity for himself and for sports in general to do the right thing.