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August 27, 2004
Gymnastics Group Asks Hamm to Give Up Gold
By JULIET MACUR

THENS, Aug. 27 - The letter from the International Gymnastics Federation to the United States Olympic Committee arrived on Thursday night and, as soon as the U.S.O.C. officials read it, they were furious.

In the note, the federation's president, Bruno Grandi, asked the gymnast Paul Hamm give up his gold medal in the all-around event. Grandi wrote that ``such an action would be recognized as the ultimate demonstration of fair play by the whole world'' and that ``you are the only one who can make this decision.''

Hamm won the gold medal last week after a scoring error by the judges that may have cost a South Korean gymnast, Yang Tae Young, the victory.

Grandi asked U.S.O.C. officials to deliver the letter to Hamm, but they refused. Instead, they sent a letter back to the federation, known as the F.I.G., calling Grandi's request ``a blatant and inappropriate attempt on the part of F.I.G. to once again shift the responsibility for its own mistakes and instead pressure Mr. Hamm into resolving what has become an embarrassing situation for the Federation.''

Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the United States committee, called the federation's action ``deplorable'' and said, ``They are deflecting their own incompetence.''

``I don't know of any comparison in any sport where you crown an athlete, crown a team and then say, `Oh, that was a mistake. Would you fix it for us?''' Ueberroth said.

In the days after the all-around event concluded, the international federation acknowledged a scoring error on Yang's parallel bars routine after a videotape review of the event. One-tenth of a point had been wrongly deducted from the difficulty value of Yang's routine; after discovering the error, the federation, the sport's international governing body, suspended three judges involved.

After the South Koreans launched their protest last Friday and began their campaign for a shared gold, Hamm was hit with a deluge of questions, including whether he would give up or share his medal.

On Wednesday, Hamm's final day in Athens, he said he felt alone, left to stand up for himself during the controversy and that his Olympic experience had been ruined.

`I felt really horrible that no one was defending me, not USA Gymnastics, not the F.I.G. who caused the whole thing, nobody,'' he said.

In the end, Hamm said he felt ``in his heart'' that he was the rightful Olympic champion, but that would agree to share the medal, if the federation required him to do so.

But Grandi had said all along that a shared gold was not possible because, according to F.I.G. rules, scores cannot be changed once an event is over.

Still, there was precedent for a change. During the trampoline world championships in 2001, the federation changed the results at the request of the gymnast Irina Karavaeva, after she learned that she had won the gold because of a judging error. She gave up her gold medal.

In Athens, it seems that the F.I.G. was looking for the same result. But the U.S.O.C. officials weren't going along with it. They felt that Hamm had been placed in an unfair and untenable position.

They said the letter was an ``inappropriate request'' that only continued to cause Hamm grief at a time when he should be celebrating. Repeated calls today to the F.I.G. offices and the South Korean delegation were not returned. But speaking to The Associated Press, Grandi said: ``He deserves the medal and his ranking is clear. I respect totally Paul Hamm and all the decisions he makes. If he says give back the medal, I respect it. Don't give back the medal, I respect the decision. He is not responsible for anything.''

Still, in Grandi's letter, he wrote: ``the true winner of the All-Around competition is Yang Tae Young.'' Jim Scherr, the U.S.O.C.'s chief executive, said of the letter: ``It was a thinly veiled suggestion to our athlete that he should solve the problems of the F.I.G. through his own actions. We find that request to be callous disregard for the welfare for one of their own athletes in the F.I.G., as well as our athlete, Paul Hamm.

``We believe he has competed with honor and dignity and represented our country well and that this matter should be closed.''

Grandi also mentioned in his letter that the F.I.G. and the International Olympic Committee ``would highly appreciate the magnitude of this gesture,'' but I.O.C. officials said they did not agree.

``This is not the I.O.C.'s position and we were not consulted about this letter,'' an I.O.C. spokeswoman, Giselle Davies, said. ``The position of the I.O.C. remains the same. The F.I.G. documented and validated the results of the competition and those results will stand.''

At Hamm's home in Waukesha, Wis., his father, Sandy Hamm, said: ``We have no comment whatsoever on everything. That's it. We are done.''

Though Hamm came back to win the silver medal in the high bar individual event, he said the controversy ruined his Olympics, prompting him to leave one day early feeling like less than an Olympic champion.

``We believe that Paul Hamm competed well, competed within the rules and did nothing wrong,'' Scherr said. ``He took no improper action and should have no role in solving this issue. He is the Olympic champion by the results of their own statements, he will always be the Olympic champion.''

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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