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SPORTS ZONE 1: Gynmnastics Judges Suspended

The International Gymnastics Federation, also known as FIG, suspended three gymnastics judges on Friday, March 11, 2005. FIG officials decided to hand out bans to judges after reviewing the men’s all around competition scoring at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

Before gymnasts step out on the floor, judges determine the start value of their routine depending on its difficulty. For example, say your teacher gives you two options: you can either take an easy test or a difficult test. If you choose the easy test, you’ll only receive a maximum of 50 points. But if you take the hard test, you could have the opportunity to receive 100 points! It’s the same in gymnastics: the harder the routine, the higher your start value and potentially the higher your score.

With only two events remaining in the men’s all around, American Paul Hamm was in twelfth place. He had hoped to win the gold. On the second to last event, the parallel bars, judges incorrectly scored South Korean Yang Tae-young’s start value one-tenth (.100) of a point less than it should’ve been. Hamm eventually beat Yang in the all around by only .049 points. If the judges had given Yang the correct start value, he would have won the gold by .051 points ahead of Hamm. Instead, he won bronze.

American judge George Beckstand oversaw the panel determining the start value of Yang’s routine. Two other judges, Spain’s Benjamin Bango and Columbia’s Oscar Buitrago Reyes, were on the panel that determined the start value. Beckstand and Bango serve suspensions until the end of this year, and Reyes suspension will end in August.

--Written by Sarah Kurachek

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Read SPORTS ZONE 2: Forty-Three Horses Quarantined