Hamm's medal win under review

By THOMAS O'TOOLE AND JILL LIEBER

USA TODAY

ATHENS, Greece - The International Gymnastics Federation is investigating the scoring of the men's all-around competition, and a USA Gymnastics spokesman said in a ``worst case'', American Paul Hamm might have to share his improbable gold medal with a Korean.

Executive committee members met Friday to discuss the issue and decided to proceed with an in-depth review. A statement from FIG said no further information would be available until the inquiry was complete. A decision is expected Saturday.

``In the case that judging errors have occurred, appropriate steps will be made immediately,'' the statement said.

Hamm became the first American man to win the Olympic all-around by the razor-thin margin of .012, closest in Games history, barely defeating Koreans Kim Dae-eun and Yang Tae-young.

According to USA Gymnastics spokesman Brian Eaton, the disputed score involves Yang, the bronze medalist, on the parallel bars.

Word spread Thursday that the Korean federation might be protesting. But USA Gymnastics officials said there was no appeal at that time. FIG then decided very late Thursday night to call what it termed ``an extraordinary'' Friday morning meeting. USA gymnastics president Bob Colarossi met with FIG officials Friday evening.

It was not clear if Korea had filed a protest or why the decision to proceed with the inquiry was made, but Korean officials were complaining about the scoring after the event Wednesday night.

``According to FIG rules, if you are going to ask for an inquiry, you have to submit it by the end of the rotation following the event in which you have a question,'' said Eaton. ``Anything that FIG is doing now is in effect throwing out their own rules. The reason you are supposed to protest before the next event is so that people don't go back and review things five days later on video.

``The worst-case scenario in our minds is that they will give the Korean the gold and they will share gold medals.''

Hamm was in a gym training Friday for the Sunday and Monday individual events and could not be reached. But USA officials did tell him of the inquiry. FIG spokesmen could also not be reached.

``If Paul Hamm loses his gold medal, it will be the worst thing ever to happen to gymnastics,'' said American gymnast Blaine Wilson.

The 2002 Salt Lake Games were rocked by a judging controversy in pairs figure skating that resulted in gold medals being awarded to Canadians and Russians.

In the Barcelona Games of 1992, a situation occurred with a judge's scoring in synchronized swimming. According to the ``Complete Book of the Summer Olympics,'' by David Wallechinsky, a judge claimed she had punched in the wrong score for Canadian Sylvie Frechette, but the meet referee ruled that once the score was made public, it could not be changed. American Kristen Babb-Sprague was awarded gold.

The international swimming federation appeals board decided the judge should have been allowed to correct her error, and a year later, a second gold medal was awarded to Frechette.