david14700
Regular Member
I know this is nothing to do with badminton, but as most of us here are serious about sport and understand competitiveness and sportsmanship more than most, I wanted to know what everyone thought about the Hamm affair?
This is the US gymnast who won gold because of a simple mathematical error by three judges (one of whom was an American) who were then suspended for it. Without the mistakes, he would have won silver instead, but he is refusing to hand the gold medal back and there are no rules about correcting this sort of error after the event has finished, so the governing body can't act. The head of the body said he 'hoped' Hamm would hand the medal back as a sign of sportsmanship, but Hamm has refused.
What has upset me has been the outcry from many in the US media saying that Hamm is being victimised for being American and that he has every right to hold onto the medal. This is unbelievable because America was one of the countries who appealed in the Bettina Hoy incident in the Equestrian Three-Day eventing. If you don't know about this, she was a German rider (3 times Olympic champion) who won the gold medal, but had mistakenly ridden through the start line during her warm-up. The timing officials realised she was still warming up and reset the clock. If they had told her to keep riding, she would just have started, but they reset it and she continued her warm-up. She had a perfect round and won gold, but then the US (along with France and UK I think) appealed to have her medal taken away. This was soooo wrong! She was clearly the best rider and had gained no advantage but they were insisting she be stripped of her medal.
Now, when an American athletes benefits from a mistake, their media is portraying the other countries as somehow being petty and unsportsman-like.
This is all very telling in light of what's happening in Iraq and the difference it's made to everyone's perception of America around the world.
Sorry if it's off subject, Kwun. If you feel it's inappropriate, please delete.
Thanks
This is the US gymnast who won gold because of a simple mathematical error by three judges (one of whom was an American) who were then suspended for it. Without the mistakes, he would have won silver instead, but he is refusing to hand the gold medal back and there are no rules about correcting this sort of error after the event has finished, so the governing body can't act. The head of the body said he 'hoped' Hamm would hand the medal back as a sign of sportsmanship, but Hamm has refused.
What has upset me has been the outcry from many in the US media saying that Hamm is being victimised for being American and that he has every right to hold onto the medal. This is unbelievable because America was one of the countries who appealed in the Bettina Hoy incident in the Equestrian Three-Day eventing. If you don't know about this, she was a German rider (3 times Olympic champion) who won the gold medal, but had mistakenly ridden through the start line during her warm-up. The timing officials realised she was still warming up and reset the clock. If they had told her to keep riding, she would just have started, but they reset it and she continued her warm-up. She had a perfect round and won gold, but then the US (along with France and UK I think) appealed to have her medal taken away. This was soooo wrong! She was clearly the best rider and had gained no advantage but they were insisting she be stripped of her medal.
Now, when an American athletes benefits from a mistake, their media is portraying the other countries as somehow being petty and unsportsman-like.
This is all very telling in light of what's happening in Iraq and the difference it's made to everyone's perception of America around the world.
Sorry if it's off subject, Kwun. If you feel it's inappropriate, please delete.
Thanks