OMG, did anyone else watch the mens gymnastics tonight?

[Cheswick2.0]

I have never seen anything like that. Alexi Nimov (sp?)who has 12 olympic medals did his highbar routine and it was fantastic. He does 6 release moves. I don't know what deductions they should have take due to technical errors, he had a little hop on the landing, but the rest of it looked perfect to me. The judges scored him really low and the audience went wild. They were whistling and booing and would not stop until the judges changed the score.
So after about 10 minutes the judges did change the scores because the big man in charge forced them to (two judges had scored him very low which pulled him down). But the changed did not change that standing. The audience would not stop and the next gymnist had to wait and wait while this was happening.
It was Paul Hamm. Finally he just had to go and he was good of course so eventually the audience started cheering him. He landed and there was a little hop and he ended up with the silver.
It seemed to me that the gold should have been between the Italian guy who won it and Nimov. Hamm should have been in third.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

1. Completely Agree

The poor Russian guy got hosed. He was very gracious too... tried to help settle the crowd down. Even the announcers were saying the judging was very uneven.

[Cheswick2.0]

2. It was horrible...........there had to be something fishy going on

Like they said, it started right on the first night when they changed people difficulty scores before they ever started.

[Awsi Dooger]

12. I don't like that concept, a maximum base score

If they want to put a assign a degree of difficulty, like diving, that's fine, but these base 9.8 and base 10.0 numbers have too many built-in flaws. As you mentioned, they changed the base of two American routines with almost no warning on the very first night, and the Americans hastily altered their long planned routines and failed.

That delay and scoring adjustment was amazing tonight, but hardly unprecedented or the longest ever. I remember the boycotted 1980 Games in Moscow, when a more mature Nadia Comaneci was not the perfection of 1976 and was struggling to win the all-around title. It looked like she had gold until the final performer, a little Russian. It was a full 20 minutes, and plenty of persuasion, after the Russian's effort that a score was posted, 5/100 of a point above what she needed to defeat Nadia. That theft was a primary reason Romania did not honor Russia's boycott of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, the only major Eastern European country to attend.

[Cheswick2.0]

13. I meant I had never heard prolonged protesting by the audience

like that.

[truebrit71]

4. Absolutely...Nemenov got screwed...

Paul Hamm's routine was good, but he did HALF the number of release elements, and just like Nemenov he bobbled the dismount. In no way, shape, or form was it better. The Italian definitely won it, Nemenov should have won the silver and Hamm and the Japanese fella tied for third.

It was absolutely atrocious, and a complete travesty.

[Cheswick2.0]

7. Nemenov? Is that how you spell it ? Gee I missed whole sylables

It was horrible. Those judges were paid off or something. It made no sense.

[truebrit71]

14. Actually it is Nemov....

I got carried away with the "en"s....:sheepish grin:

[murielm99]

8. I saw it and I agree.

But think about how Hamm has been put on the spot twice now, through no fault of his own. It makes an American athlete look bad, even though no American judges had a hand in it. The rest of the world already had enough good reasons to hate us.

There has to be some way to revamp how they score these things. And some judges should be barred from ever scoring a competition again.

[LastKnight]

3. after the korean gymnast got screwed, and now this... messed up nt

[barackmyworld]

5. as they described it "outrageous gymnastics"

that was insanity tonight. So much drama in gymnastics! Definitely makes it exciting

[PVnRT]

16. Actually

His four holds on the parallel bars (you only get three) means he should've been deducted 0.2 - Hamm still wins.

We should be focusing on the bad judging, but the truth is that people here just want to bitch about those damn American bastards and how evil they are. Something tells me if the situation were reversed, this place would be very silent on the issue.

[kcr]

18. Yeah

Screw it -- this isn't worth the time.

[edbermac]

6. It was as about as accurate as the Florida recount...

:kick:

[Selwynn]

9. OMG 9.8 for the US guy after that???????

[Selwynn]

10. Sorry I'm watching real time (mountain time) right now....

insane.

[Cheswick2.0]

11. can you believe it? Poor Nemenov and poor Hamm

Paul did nothing wrong and he had to compete with everyone still protesting!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. I fully agree that Nemov should have gotten the silver

His release moves were heart-stopping!

[AgadorSparticus]

17. i just saw it and still can't believe how screwed up it is!!!

and nemov didn't even get a medal! so did hamm get his score because he's american? because I certainly don't see how he could have won silver. watching all the routines, hamm looked way out of his league. those other guys were doing phenomenal releases. it is so obviously tainted.

it's unfortunate that the athletes have to endure that. i bet hamm can't be too happy about this silver, either. i would hate to be him out there in that competitive field knowing that i'm getting a boost because of my flag. and even if people don't say that to him, how can you NOT think it?

[barb162]

19. I never saw anything like that

a very interesting evening. And I was very surprised that head judge came over to the other judges and the mark was changed (first time I ever saw that).

[shanti]

20. it was like a wwf wrestling event

i'm appalled at the olympics this year. it seems....cheapened.

[Dookus]

21. Just finished watching here on the west coast...

wow!

How bizarre. I agree The Italian deserved the gold, but Nemov deserved the silver, then Hamm.

I've never seen such an audience display as this. Nemov was a total class act.