What's in a medal?

(Ensayo/Essay. Note: On 21st October, the CAS ruled the final standings of the All Around event at the Olympics 2004 to remain unchanged. Paul Hamm remains the sole gold medal winner of the event and All Around Olympic champion.)

The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, Greece have gone into oblivion save for some important things here and there. As stated in the official Games’ website,

“These Games broke many records. Athens hosted 11,099 athletes, the largest number ever and also the most women athletes ever. Representatives of 202 countries took part, more than any other sport event. The Olympic flame traveled for the first time to all continents. Shot Put was held in Olympia and women competed there for the first time.”

Great games, indeed. Who can forget Michael Phelps on a world record-setting swimming rampage? We won’t forget the South African swimming team coming out of nowhere and winning the gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Can anyone forget Puerto Rico taking the U. S. basketball team to the ISB (International School of Basketball)?

These Games were stamped with a record-breaking zone from day one. It added for an incredibly thrilling Olympiad that showed the caliber of the 21st century athlete and the results of the rigors of training and discipline, but this Olympiad was also filled with not so thrilling moments.

Can we forget the final stretch towards Panathinaiko Stadium and the hopes for Brazilian gold in the men’s marathon being robbed by a lunatic? What about the record-breaking doping scandals and athletes being stripped of medals and kicked out of the Games? Not a pretty picture considering that a trip to the Olympics, besides being a top athlete’s hard earned wage, is a privilege too.

Sadly enough, we’ve also had back to back scandalous Olympics that once promised to be entirely otherwise. Just a couple of years ago, the Winter Games in Salt Lake City reached its peak not out of Olympic joy but right out of the opposite. On the last day of figure skating, eyes were fixed on TVs all over the world to see the high profile final and then, one judge screwed up the numbers! The effects of her actions reverberated like tornados across Midwestern America.

It’s interesting that Athens can be called Salt Lake City’s déjà vu. The president of the IOC claims they are quite distinct situations, but the scandal (he would rather called it controversy), once more, was caused by judging ineptitude. Of course, the judges get a pretty hard slap on the hand, but the spotlight remains on the athletes with the wrong medal on their necks.

Sometimes, Olympic Committees and Federations can solve the problems in a way that satisfies all parties, like in Salt Lake City and even if it’s not the very best of resolutions. At other times they just, plain and dumb, drop the ball, as in Athens. Sometimes (and there is precedent), the athlete intervenes when awarded a medal incorrectly and corrects the mishap. Sportsmanship is served and the athlete grows in estimation before his or her peers not to say the world’s sports-loving community.

Isn’t that what the games should be about? Sportsmanship? Why, yes. But the dreams of Olympic glory are sometimes too recurrent for some athletes and sportsmanship may be laid down at the sacrificial altar of Olympic glory.

The American Paul Hamm, the men’s gold medalist in the Gymnastics All-Around event, proved just that. We can all rightfully blame the judges, but Sportsmanship still belongs to the sportsmen. Mr. Hamm is not even willing to share a gold medal (the USOC did consider it at one point) with whom, had the judges been able to put their act together, would have been, at least, the by-the-numbers gold medalist, the South Korean Yang Tae Young. A very, very sad case of mistaken medal identities that could have been avoided.

At the Olympics, a silver medal (Mr. Hamm’s rightful award) is not bad at all, but don’t make the mistake, my friend, of thinking it’s Olympic glory. While the podium with its 1st, 2nd and 3rd steps signaled Olympic glory not too long ago, nowadays Olympic glory seems to have shifted towards the gold rush.

The glory, however, has come at a high price for Mr. Hamm. The South Korean Olympic Committee has taken the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, always the last resort when disputes among athletes remain unsettled, and it will be heard by the end of this month. I’ll go right ahead and say it is likely the Court will dictate a duplicate gold medal for Mr. Young; something Mr. Hamm is opposed to. What he might not be seriously considering is that the Court may rule that he be stripped of the gold medal in exchange for the silver. No one in the world will be surprised or outraged (except the USOC, of course) because that is what should have happened on the floor the day the All-Around event took place.

Both Mr. Young and Mr. Hamm have left Athens with a common sour experience. So much for Olympic glory. The failure of the organizations in charge, the FIG and the IOC (which in particular moved swiftly towards a resolution at Salt Lake City) to deal with their crass management of this Olympic scandal will be dealt with in time… sometime. Perhaps, the anti-doping entities of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games should submit judges to the same screening athletes undergo. Meanwhile, Mr. Hamm wants to dodge the bullet, and he has reason to dodge it, but the truth is that (on Olympic principle) he can’t. All eyes are on him not on the Koreans or the regulating bodies with jurisdiction.

It is good that values like sportsmanship and magnanimity exist in the field of Athletics as in all other areas of life. In a situation like his, Mr. Hamm would do well to assail himself of these high values and still retain a medal. The former are worth much more than ten gold medals combined; yet, I am afraid those are not the priorities when it comes to the medal count and Olympic glory. Besides, as the situation gets farther removed from the its Olympic scenario, timing starts working against Mr. Hamm.

The South Koreans do have a case against the Americans, as did the Canadians against the Russians in Salt Lake City two years ago. That’s why they have pushed the envelope so far.

Mr. Hamm’s athletic capabilities are not in question here. His comeback in the All-Around event was nothing short of miraculous. He can take credit for being among the best athletes who participated in Athens, but he knows, however reluctantly, that in one particular event he came out on top while not being the very best. It simply prompts the questions, Is Olympic gold really about glory? Or sometimes, like a wolf, does greed come in sheep’s clothing?