Olympic Travesty: What Drove a South Korean Fencer to Tears and Cost Ukraine's Men's Gymnastics a Medal?

By Gregory John "G.J." Vitale on August 6, 2012

Many of you Olympic viewers saw the Japanese appeal during the Men’s Gymnastic Team Finals go their way.  They were 4th after their team’s “sturdiest” member, Kohei Uchimura, apparently failed to perform a required component in his pommel horse routine: the handstand dismount. It is one thing to hesitate or even fall on off the device, but completely leaving a component out warrants the strictest of penalties. Uchimura’s pommel horse error was completely unexpected and gave a surprising Great Britain squad the silver and Ukraine the bronze. What happened next, however, was even more surprising: Japan appealed the scoring.

Official appeals in the Olympics, although not commonplace, are by no means extremely unusual. When a decision appears to one country’s side to be unequivocally wrong, they may submit to the judging panel an appeal with a cash sum to be considered. The judges then join together and view video replays of the play/event in question.

In the case of Kohei Uchimura, the judges determined his raise on the pommel horse was high enough to be considered a handstand and awarded him the appropriate points. These additional points put Japan in 2nd behind the Chinese and ahead of Great Britain, consequently knocking Ukraine out of medal contention. Here are the events being quickly covered in a video from a British simulcast (since NBC has a monopoly on Olympic coverage, this was the best I could muster).

Taking this situation at face value, I assumed there was a detail in the official gymnastics definition of handstand that I simply did not and could not understand. I felt terrible for the Ukranians who essentially had a medal stripped from their hands, yet, it was not as terrible as I would feel for South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam. Her’s was a snafu not many saw live, but the Internet has since been flooded with information defending and attacking the judges involved.

Basically, Shin was ahead in the bout with very little time left. Her opponent, German Britta Heidemann, needed one more touch to advance to the gold medal match, but time ran out…or did it? With one second left, Heidemann launched an attack which failed. Instead of calling the match, the timer was reset back to 0:01, because fencing timers does not have tenths or hundredths of a second. In that extra second, Heidemann landed a strike, winning the bout. Immediately following the strike, Shin’s coach was at the judges table submitting an appeal. This all took place in front of an obviously knowledgeable audience who filled the auditorium with a mix of boos, awkward cheers, and a resounding “Aww” when Shin was touched. The best replay I could manage was this bootleg video from a spectator at the match, but it illustrates my point and the events as they took place.

The jury turned down Shin’s appeal, but visually, that was not the worst part. For the entirety of the jury’s decision making process, Shin sat on the piste (the fencing playing area) waiting and crying. She was not trying to evoke empathy nor was she being a sport; she was forced to do so by fencing rules which state that the appealing party cannot leave the piste until a ruling is delivered. After nearly an hour of the agonizing scene, the judges ruled to reject the South Koreans’ appeal. Sadly, Shin went on to also lose in the bronze medal fight. Officials are defending their call, but it is hard not to sympathize with such a visibly committed individual who got the short end of the stick, or rather, the épée.

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