Hamm Wins Silver Medal Amid Boos, Angry Fans
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ATHENS, Greece – For 10 minutes, the crowd booed and whistled, creating a deafening roar. Paul Hamm sat around and waited to start his routine.
A week’s worth of controversy in gymnastics boiled over into the stands yesterday during a bizarre, extraordinary evening. Hamm was able to block out the noise and win a silver medal on high bar, and four-time Olympic gold medalist Alexei Nemov finished fifth, much to the chagrin of the crowd. On a night when American all-around champion Carly Patterson won silver on the beam to give the U.S. women their sixth medal, and Romania’s Catalina Ponor won gold on beam and floor, it was the high bar routine that everybody wanted to see.
Hamm scored a 9.812, tying Igor Cassina for first, but the Italian won a tiebreaker to take the gold.
The showdown on the last event of the night was supposed to be between Hamm, the all-around champion, and Yang Tae-young of South Korea, who won bronze instead of gold in that event last week because of a scoring error.
But it was Nemov’s routine that caused the uproar – the crowd was furious over his score. Hamm, scheduled to perform next, waited until the Russian asked fans for quiet before going ahead with his routine.
“I’ve never heard it that loud in my life,” Hamm said. “I felt like I was in a movie.”
Flying like a circus acrobat, Nemov put together the riskiest, most daring performance of the 10 men on the high bar. He did six release moves – four in a row and two more in which he did full somersaults while flying over the bar.
To the untrained eye, they all looked perfect; the only hiccup in the routine appeared to be a slight step forward on the dismount. Or at least that’s what the fans thought.
When his score came up, a 9.725 that made him last of the three competitors to that point, the booing began. At first, it seemed funny and Nemov laughed along, even bowing to the crowd, many of whom waved Greek and Russian flags and chanted in their native tongues.
“My opinion is that it was a little unfair,” Nemov said.
Hamm was up next. His name was announced and he stepped up to the podium, but the booing didn’t stop.
