Ruminations in Korea

This originally started out as a reply to a comment made by Jaemi to yesterday’s post. However, the reply got out of hand and developed into its own post.

Jaemi.

Perhaps you should invest a little time and effort into a reading comprehension course.

Yes I watched the gymnastics. So, whatever you were trying to imply by incorrectly suggesting/assuming that I didn’t is completely useless.

Although I have a little sister who was involved in gymnastics, had a friend in high school that was into gymnastics, and briefly dated a girl that tried out for the US olympic swim team, I have no idea how to judge or score gymnastics. As Zdunk said above, I “just marvel and am told the winners.”

I don’t think anyone DESERVES to win anything. You earn it, or sometimes you catch a lucky break. I don’t know if Hamm was scored too high, or if the Koreans were scored too low. Frankly, I don’t care. Really, I couldn’t care less. My point is not who should get the medals. I really really don’t care. My problem is with how Korean athletes and fans react to sporting events.

Again, what I care about is the way that a huge number of Koreans, including the athletes react. It is disgustingly poor sportsmanship for athletes to scowl, rip their medals off their necks, file protests, throw their nation’s flag on the ice, etc. And Koreans are also internationally known for being not just sore losers, but also sore winners, acting like childish jackasses when they “show up” an opponent. Korean fans sending death threats to athletes, crashing Olympic Committee internet servers, etc. is even more disgusting. In a brilliant article written by Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he comments on this type of behavior present at the 2002 Olympics in my relative home town of Salt Lake City. His article features the ridiculous behavior of….you guessed it, the Koreans:

Yesterday the Russians threatened to pull out. The Koreans threatened to sue in federal court. By the time you read this, Carjackistan probably will have filed a protest over the judgment call that ice should be cold and hard.

First, brief perspective. All Olympics have been speckled with judgment errors. Ask the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team that was jobbed against Russia, or American boxer Roy Jones, who lost his 1988 gold medal to a South Korean who was as surprised as everyone else in Seoul. Examples from all nations and all Games are many.

I couldn’t help but notice that Mr. Thiel diplomatically avoided mentioning that a South Korean judge in the Roy Jones match was almost certainly bribed to be sympathetic to the Korean boxer and that strict regulations were put in place to prevent corruption in olympic boxing as a result.

As long as we are on the subject of protests, whining, boxing, and the 1988 Olympics, Should I mentioned the legendary bantamweight fight involving Byun Jong-il? (Yes, Jaemi, I watched that one too) Byun felt that the New Zealand referee unfairly deducted a point for Byun using his head. How did Byun react? Like a complete idiot. He sat on the mat in the ring for 67 minutes after losing. Byun gave up on his protest only after the organizers turned off the area lights and went home. (incidentally, the Koreans also protested the US television action of continuing to show the protest to its humorous end on world-wide TV) Byun’s episode wasn’t limited to the sit down protest. The referee was physically attacked and beaten up by the Korean trainers after the bout. As if that weren’t enough, participating in the beat down was one of the security guards assigned to protect the referee.

This isn’t without precedent. In the 1964 flyweight competition, South Korea’s Choh Dong Kih was disqualified in a second round bout against the Soviet fighter Stanislav Sorokin for holding his head too low. He sat in the ring in protest for 51 minutes.

Mr. Thiel then points out two aspects of the 2002 games that are equally applicable to the 2004 games:

The Internet and TV are now so pervasive that, instead of throwing a shoe at a bad call, people of many nations can complain directly to national organizing committees.

American success here at the Games, and influence generally, is, as always, resented.

What isn’t America’s fault these days? I challenge readers to find a single Korean that knows the referee in the Ohno incident was Australian and not American.

On the second point, we’ll be brief again. Nearly all of the complainants have politely skirted what they think is overwrought sympathy or boosterism for America that they believe influences judges and outcomes. But watch what happens when all are safely back home and not subject to insulting the host country to its face. Guaranteed, they will assert it was all America’s fault. But that point is familiar and frankly less interesting than the first point.

Although it may be less interesting to others, it seems to be the focus of many Korean fan’s lives. Koreans don’t wait until the get home. They are insta-whiners.

Mr. Thiel ends with a very appropriate conclusion.

The … Koreans did what ‘most all officials do under pressure — they grandstand and attempt to fix blame elsewhere.

The news conferences yesterday were attempts to show the folks back home that bygawd, they’re angry about bad calls too, and they’re in Salt Lake doing something about it.

The question is, will it get anywhere?

The likely answer is no.

The Koreans’ protest was rejected within hours by the ISU last night, a spokesman saying the decision of the referees was final. The Koreans still can sue, but the action seems ridiculous on its face, however justified their indignation might be.

So what yesterday amounted to was sound and fury signifying nothing.

Sure, they might sit out the closing ceremonies, but so what?

Still, the gestures, however empty, will nevertheless have a souring effect on a Games that on many fronts have gotten on splendidly.

Bad calls? You bet.

Welcome to sports.

Welcome to life.

One thing that far too many Korean fans and athletes seem unable to wrap their minds around is the fact that, in sports, bad calls go both ways. Sometimes you benefit from them. Sometimes they kick you in the head. From my experience, it seems to just about balance out in the end. Judges, referees, umpires, and other officials are not omnipresent, omniscient gods. They may miss things that cameras catch, they may think they see things that don’t really happen. But a bad call, particuarly in a multi-judge sport like gymnastics, is not a national insult, nor is it part of a conspiracy to elevate the US and single out poor, weak, helpless Korea and humiliate them before the eyes of the world.

Whether Koreans can accept the reality or not, sports are only sports, and Americans simply don’t care enough about olympic gymnastics (and I bet 90% of Americans had never heard of short-track skating until Koreans started acting like imbiciles) to go to the trouble of arranging the results. If it was pure sympathy on the part of the judges, blame the judges, not Hamm or the US. Better yet. blame your athletes for not doing .0012 better to ensure the win.

Regarding the protest, International Gymnastics Federation Spokesman, Phillipe Silacci said, “Judges can make mistakes. But it’s like football. They cannot change the score once the game is over.”

Korean gymnast Yang, who was allegedly robbed of the gold, said “What I want is justice and fairness in the judging.”

As long as Koreans are demanding fairness and justice in judging, and as Silacci brought up football, why weren’t Koreans protesting when Spain had a goal disallowed during its 2002 World Cup match with Korea when Morientes headed in from close range and the referee judged that the ball had gone out of play before being crossed in by Joaquin, when replays clearly showed that the ball had not gone out of bounds. Oh yeah… we don’t call for “justice and fairness” when bad calls benefit our side. Whining when bad calls go against us and winking and looking the other way when bad calls benefit us is sad, shameful, and hypocritical. Either protest everything good and bad, or shut up and accept what comes.

So…what to do about this alleged bad gymnastics call? Let it sit? Forget about it and hope for a lucky break next time? No. Yang’s coach has a better idea. “If we take a gold medal from Paul hamm, his heart will be broken, and my heart would also be broken by that. So, I think there should be two gold medals.”

Giving two gold medals, one to Hamm and one to Yang. Wouldn’t that be nice? Why quit there? Why not do as Mr. Thiel suggested in the opening paragraphs of his article two years ago and “just give gold medals to all at the Winter Olympics, and let’s go home early.” Well, if not everyone, just make sure all Korean athletes get gold medals so that we don’t have to listen to this crap every olympics.