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August 27, 2004Can that Hamm!
Without a TV of my own, I've seen only a tiny sliver of the 2004 Olympics. Still, it would seem that the Paul Hamm medal controversy is a big enough deal to have even penetrated the relative media blackout that has passed for my day-to-day life for the last year.
The latest development involves the International Gymnastics Federation suggesting that Hamm hand over his gold medal to Yang Tae-young, the South Korean gymnast who rightfully deserves it—and who would have won it, had it not been for a scoring error on the part of the judges. They're invoking the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship, but the U.S. Olympic Committee is basically of the opinion that they can stick fair play and sportsmanship where even a gymnast would be hard-pressed to place them.
Here’s my two cents' worth on the subject. Although it's unfortunate that a scoring error resulted in Hamm receiving an undeserved gold medal, and although that error was in no way Hamm's fault, he should relinquish the medal—in fact, he should have done it long before now, back when it still could have appeared that his decision was being made for the right reasons. Even if he hands it over now, I think folks will have a tough time believing he did it to be magnanimous; most will probably just assume he capitulated under the pressure and the attention.
Let’s say Hamm and Tae-young are both in the check-out aisle at the supermarket, one right behind the other. Somehow, the clerk makes a mistake and one of Tae-young's items ends up bagged with Hamm's groceries. Is it right that Tae-young has paid for the item, but not received it? Is it right that Hamm gets that item free of charge? Neither Tae-young nor Hamm are to blame for the grocery snafu, sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that Hamm unfairly prospered off of Tae-young's misfortune.
What's more, an Olympic medal isn't a mere commodity, like an extra box of Cheese Nips or one more carton of Tropicana. You can say it's purchased by the athlete's hard work, but there's still that irreplaceable element of having deserved it. Why would Hamm—whose standing in the competition jumped from twelfth place to first place, thanks to the scoring error—want to hang onto a medal that he received by mistake, and that he neither earned nor deserves? He's said he'll relinquish it if the International Gymnastics Federation orders him to do so, which makes him sound even more unreasonable and petulant: "Yeah, I'll do the right thing, but only if I feel that my hand is forced." Good job, Hamm—if you hand over the medal, at least you've made it very clear that you're not doing it because it's the right thing to do.
Gymnasts aren't a tall bunch to begin with, and Paul Hamm's becoming a smaller man with each passing day. Better an honest twelfth place than an undeserved gold medal, I say.
Posted by patrick at August 27, 2004 06:04 PM
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