Lots of buzz on the internet right now about this competition. (There is much more interest than in the American Cup, for example.) Results are important for those athletes wanting to qualify for their respective Olympic Teams.
For example, the Canadians have only two berths for Beijing. Who will get them?
Canadian women’s artistic team at San Jose City Hall for opening ceremonies on March 26. From left: Christine/Peng Peng Lee, Kristin Vaculik, Charlotte Mackie, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, Nansy Damianova, Brittany Rogers.
posted on Facebook – 2008 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships – by Grace Chiu – GraceClick
Related post: Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships – NBC TV
Former coach, now Gymnastics Canada boss, Jean-Paul Caron, president of the Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Federations, was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. JP is always the diplomatic gentleman:
Missing is South Korea. Caron denied that the Koreans are skipping the Pacific Rim Championships to protest the presence of Paul Hamm on the U.S. team.
“They almost always participate,” Caron said. “I don’t know why they’re not here. They’ve always been here.”
At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Hamm became the first American male gymnast to win the gold medal in all-around, but almost as soon as the medal was around his neck a scoring controversy erupted.
It was discovered that the bronze medalist, Yang Tae Young of South Korea, had been given an incorrect score in the parallel bars. He should have received a credit of 0.100 for a move at the start of his bars routine. Because Hamm won the closest competition in Olympic gymnastics history – 0.012 – that was the difference between first and third for the South Korean.
The International gymnastics federation said in a letter to Hamm that it would be an “ultimate demonstration of fair play” if he would give his gold to Young. An outraged U.S. Olympic Committee refused to even pass the letter on to Hamm.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ultimately ruled Hamm could keep his gold. …
(via mandmsjello on Gym Chat)
Americans are always surprised to hear me speak truth about Paul Hamm. But the fact is that many individuals and nations (not just Korea) are still ticked off about how he “won” the Olympics in 2004.
The best answer to those critics would be for Paul to do his best to win Olympics 2008.
UPDATE: As Coach Sommer says in the comments, the primary error was made by the Korean coaches. That’s true. But the nations of the world did not hire nor elect the South Korean coaches. We did elect Adrian Stoica from Romania as Chairman of the Men’s Technical Committee. It was on Stoica’s watch that the blunders in Men’s Judging occurred in Athens.
Why did so many judging mistakes happen at the 2004 Olympics Mr. Stoica?
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