About Effing Time!
Apr. 28th, 2010 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeTHIS is pretty incredible. A few months ago, FIG (the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, the governing body of international elite gymnastics) ruled that the 2000 Olympic women's team bronze medalists had falsified the age of one of their gymnasts and recommended to the IOC that they strip this team of the bronze and award it to the 4th-place team, the US. Today the IOC did so. The country? Take a wild guess. China, of course.
I'm not at all surprised that China was proven to have cheated--one of their other Sydney gymnasts, Yang Yun, had already slipped up and admitted herself on TV that she was underage at the time. What shocks me is that 1) FIG gave a crap, and 2) that the IOC actually acted on it.
FIG is a shady, badly-run organization--their president, Bruno Grandi, is a complete mess and does stupid shit like having gymnastics meets in Iran. You know, Iran, where women aren't going to be able to wear the leotard, or even compete. So naturally half your athletes can't compete, your judges and coaches can't be there. Good thinking, Einstein. Grandi also pushed for the 6-3-3 system, so that teams with fewer good consistent gymnasts can win more, thus making the whole TEAM concept irrelevant! He hates the All-Around and Team competititons and wants to eliminate them completely--I doubt this will happen, but that's just such a stupid idea anyway. No AA means no Nadia, no Mary Lou, no gymnastics heroes for little girls to idealize and lead them into the sport. And I personally dislike him and FIG because when Paul Hamm won the gold AA in Athens, and it was then discovered that a judge had neglected to give the South Korean bronze medalist the correct start value on one of his routines, which lowered his score (and after that, it was discovered that another judge had negelected to penalize the SK gymnast for an extra hold, which meant his score was actually higher than it should've been--it's confusing, I know, but basically Yang Tae Young got a gift overall and should not have even won the bronze). FIG sent Hamm this sleazy letter "suggesting" he give back the gold he'd won. They ignored the second hold for which Yang was not penalized and acted as though Hamm was cheating somehow. Unbelievable. Basically FIG likes to make a dramatic show when the spotlight is on them, but after the meet is over, they do nothing.
And the IOC is like this as well. They make a fuss about drug testing and zero tolerance--and to the point of ridiculousness, as when they stripped poor Andreea Raducan of her AA gold for taking a cold tablet which 1) had been prescribed to her by the team doctor, 2) hindered, rather than helped, her performance, and 3) IS NO LONGER A BANNED SUBSTANCE. But when the heat dies down, they do nothing. Look at East Germany in '76. It has now been not only proven but admitted that the East German women's swim team juiced. One poor swimmer was so messed up, she actually underwent sex-reassignment surgery. But has the IOC vacated the results? Nope. Shirley Babashoff deserves the golds she should've won that year, but the IOC will never do anything about it.
But I am happy for the US Sydney team. They were dogged quite a bit for not medalling at all, some nasty gymnastics fans out there, and this is some nice vindication.
I'm not at all surprised that China was proven to have cheated--one of their other Sydney gymnasts, Yang Yun, had already slipped up and admitted herself on TV that she was underage at the time. What shocks me is that 1) FIG gave a crap, and 2) that the IOC actually acted on it.
FIG is a shady, badly-run organization--their president, Bruno Grandi, is a complete mess and does stupid shit like having gymnastics meets in Iran. You know, Iran, where women aren't going to be able to wear the leotard, or even compete. So naturally half your athletes can't compete, your judges and coaches can't be there. Good thinking, Einstein. Grandi also pushed for the 6-3-3 system, so that teams with fewer good consistent gymnasts can win more, thus making the whole TEAM concept irrelevant! He hates the All-Around and Team competititons and wants to eliminate them completely--I doubt this will happen, but that's just such a stupid idea anyway. No AA means no Nadia, no Mary Lou, no gymnastics heroes for little girls to idealize and lead them into the sport. And I personally dislike him and FIG because when Paul Hamm won the gold AA in Athens, and it was then discovered that a judge had neglected to give the South Korean bronze medalist the correct start value on one of his routines, which lowered his score (and after that, it was discovered that another judge had negelected to penalize the SK gymnast for an extra hold, which meant his score was actually higher than it should've been--it's confusing, I know, but basically Yang Tae Young got a gift overall and should not have even won the bronze). FIG sent Hamm this sleazy letter "suggesting" he give back the gold he'd won. They ignored the second hold for which Yang was not penalized and acted as though Hamm was cheating somehow. Unbelievable. Basically FIG likes to make a dramatic show when the spotlight is on them, but after the meet is over, they do nothing.
And the IOC is like this as well. They make a fuss about drug testing and zero tolerance--and to the point of ridiculousness, as when they stripped poor Andreea Raducan of her AA gold for taking a cold tablet which 1) had been prescribed to her by the team doctor, 2) hindered, rather than helped, her performance, and 3) IS NO LONGER A BANNED SUBSTANCE. But when the heat dies down, they do nothing. Look at East Germany in '76. It has now been not only proven but admitted that the East German women's swim team juiced. One poor swimmer was so messed up, she actually underwent sex-reassignment surgery. But has the IOC vacated the results? Nope. Shirley Babashoff deserves the golds she should've won that year, but the IOC will never do anything about it.
But I am happy for the US Sydney team. They were dogged quite a bit for not medalling at all, some nasty gymnastics fans out there, and this is some nice vindication.
