Olympics
Gymnastics: Jeering crowd disrupts event

By Michelle Kaufman
The Miami Herald

Alexei Nemov of Russia motions the crowd to quiet down after a loud 10 minutes of jeering following his controversial score in the high bar.

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ATHENS — The Olympic men's gymnastics competition, already swirling in controversy, took a truly wild twist last night when the high-bar final was held up for 10 minutes as the crowd booed and jeered the judges for a score that kept Russian Alexei Nemov ("Sexy Alexei" to his fans) from winning a 13th Olympic medal.

As it happened, the gymnast most affected by the Nemov lovefest was American Paul Hamm, who was distracted enough with the Koreans hotly contesting his all-around gold medal. Hamm followed Nemov in the bar rotation, and was unable to begin his routine because the crowd, egged on by a Russian coach waving his arms in the air, was so loud.

Two judges wound up changing their scores — the Malaysian from 9.6 to 9.75 and the Canadian from 9.65 to 9.75 — and raising Nemov's score from 9.725 to 9.762, but it did not improve Nemov's standing. The Malaysian judge had raised his hand immediately upon seeing the scoreboard, indicating he had an error he wanted to fix. The Canadian followed suit. But the dissatisfied fans continued to vent.

Hamm eventually asked Nemov to try to restore order, and Nemov obliged, stepping out on the platform and shushing the audience with his finger to his lips.

	Paul Hamm of the U.S. won silver in the high bar.

Hamm performed his routine as some whistles continued, and got through it with hardly a flaw. The crowd resumed booing when Hamm's 9.812 score was posted, putting him temporarily in first place. Hamm wound up with the silver medal behind Italian Igor Cassina, who received the same score but won the tiebreaker. Nemov finished in fifth place, and the Russian federation is protesting the marks.

"Nemov put out the most exciting routine out there, and the crowd wanted to see that routine win a medal, but the crowd are not experts and they don't see the technicalities the judges see," said Hamm's coach, Miles Avery. "He is very entertaining, and if the crowd was awarding the medals, he would have gotten gold for sure."

Hamm once again was unable to fully enjoy his medal. He was bombarded with questions about the Nemov controversy and his own saga. The Korean federation is appealing to the International Olympic Committee and the Court of Arbitration in Sport to either strip Hamm of his all-around medal or issue a duplicate one to Yang Tae Young, the victim of a scoring error gymnastics officials said cannot be corrected once the meet is over.

In the women's event finals, American all-around champion Carly Patterson won a silver on the beam and 17-year-old Romanian Catalina Ponor won golds on the beam and floor with innovative, high-difficulty routines that brought the crowd to its feet.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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