Was Liukin Robbed?
19
Aug
2008
5 Comments

I guess some people got really angry that Liukin didn't get the gold medal (uneven bars). China's He did.

Their scores were identical, but the tiebreaker gave the medal to He. So many Americans (not all, of course) are complaining about the decision. But here's the thing.

  1. The tiebreaker wasn't just something that the IOC or FIG just made up on the spot to favor He.
  2. If the tiebreaker had given the gold medal to Liukin, all the complainers from the States would've been like “W00t! Go Liukin!”

Liukin handled the final decision like a true Olympian. Can others do the same?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pm in Miscellaneous. Tagged: . You can feed this entry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 comments to “Was Liukin Robbed?”

  1. Chelle
    August 20th, 2008 at 3:59 am · Link

    I’m ok with it, but can’t help feeling a little upset about the decision. We watched several events and there were a couple of scores that were questionable because of the judging. You can’t please everyone all the time.



  2. Nadia Lee
    August 20th, 2008 at 8:23 am · Link

    Hey Chelle,

    Every sport that gets judged will have “issues”. But I do think it comes with the territory. The U.S. team knew about the tie-breaker, so if they didn’t like the rules, they could’ve tried to change it. The rule’s been around for…years, I think?

    I think it was in Athens, but a Korean gymnast literally got robbed (because someone on the judging panel made a math error), but Paul Hamm basically told the guy “F-you”. I don’t remember the U.S. media covering that this extensively. The general attitude was more like “Sucks to be you” and “you didn’t file complaints in time and rules are rules.”

    So I kinda feel the same way about the decision, too. Maybe I’m getting cynical LOL.



  3. Chelle
    August 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm · Link

    What I hate…is that the attitudes trickle down and begin with children watching their parents go balistic in little league.



  4. Nadia Lee
    August 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm · Link

    Ugh. Tell me about it. Some of the behaviors I’ve seen from the children’s parents left me speechless.



  5. Chelle
    August 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm · Link

    We allowed the kids to back away from participating in sports because the parents can get too intense for us. Even with our little one…when he was four! The parents screaming on the sideline scared the crap out of him.



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