Day: August 25, 2004

Props to Stace and Dale for sending out the link to the SI blog.

It seems our occasional French correspondent, Madam LeRiche, has beat me to something I was working on. I had crafted a lengthy announcement Paul Hamm should make each time he’s asked about the scoring controversy. It was closely worded to J’s, although I did not include the option of giving up his gold medal. Rather, I left him open to whatever options the international gymnastics federation thought most appropriate for resolving the crisis in a manner that was fair to all competitors.

What Paul really needs to do is shut up for awhile. His statement yesterday that a review of the South Korean’s performance showed at least one deduction that was missed was totally inappropriate. He needs to let his coach, the US gymnastics federation, and the USOC make these statements. I understand he’s trying to get the point across that reviewing performances after the fact will open a pandora’s box of lunacy, but by him pointing out flaws in his competitors’ routines, it makes him come across like a sore winner.

So from now on, Paul, smile, thank the media for their interest, express your concern over the issues in scoring events consistently and fairly in international competitions, say you believe your performance was worthy of the gold medal, and leave it at that.