The Controversial Faces of The Beijing Games
One thing that most people expected the Beijing Games to be was controversial and this week has accomplished just that. I must admit I found it rather interesting to see and read the reactions to the news that Lin Miaoke, the little girl in the red dress who sang “Hymn To The Motherland” to start the Opening Ceremonies, was only lip-syncing during the presentation. The singer who we heard that night has been revealed to be Yang Peiyi, who won the competition to sing this song during the Opening Ceremonies, but who at the last minute was replaced by Miaoke because of her physical appearance.
As expected, many commentators who spoke out against this deception by the Chinese organizers used this to prove their point that the Chinese government couldn’t be trusted and as such, the Beijing Games were a sham. Really. Someone had better tell Michael Phelps to put a hold on the celebration then. Granted, this is a disappointing revelation, but a bit of context is needed here. What we’re talking about is the manipulation of a staged performance, not a sporting event. After all, the Opening Ceremonies is nothing more than a glorified party to celebrate the arrival of the Games in the host city. That’s why many athletes opt out of participating as they’d rather get their rest before their event. The fact that Miaoke lip-synced her performance or that certain fireworks effects were digitally added to the live footage has no bearing on the real purpose of this event – the athletic competitions now underway. To dismiss the Beijing Olympics as a whole because of the Opening Ceremonies fiasco is an insult to the efforts of all the athletes who are presently competing for the honour of their country, if not for their own future.
And speaking of athletes, it should be interesting to see what the reaction is to the news out of Beijing today regarding the conduct of Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian who took his bronze medal during the awards ceremonies and dropped it on the center mat before walking out to demonstrate his disgust over the judges’ rulings that he believed denied him his gold medal. As this athlete isn’t from China, I somehow doubt this will get much focus for criticism. And that’s too bad because if any of these actions should be criticized, it should be Abrahamian’s conduct. It’s not a question of whether he was robbed of a gold medal or not since there are avenues at his disposal for such disputes. Instead, this is a matter of good sportsmanship, something all athletes are expected to exhibit as Olympians. Watching footage from the medal ceremony, it’s obvious his actions were premeditated and that he wanted to use that opportunity to make a statement. And he did – just not the one he might be hoping for.
While most athletes do arrive at the Olympics with high hopes at landing a spot on the podium, we should expect that all of them act with good sportsmanship and respect to the institutions therein. If Abrahamian really wanted to prove that he was a victim of “politics”, he should have demonstrated far more class than he did since all I saw was a sore loser having a hissy fit because he failed to be the best athlete in his event at the Beijing Games.
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The swedish people stands behind Ara since the decision was all about obvious corruption and bribes, nothing new in the world of wrestling. The Italian wrestler, who should be ashamed for recieving the gold medal, and especially the judges are responsible for this scandal, Ara just showed the world what is going on the so-called games of sportmanship. If he hadn’t they could have gone away with this repeating behaviour once again.
Sweden are a small country and that is why the italian bosses of FILA thought they could get away with this, but a man with such a big heart as Ara won’t bow when they are stealing his dream away, when they are stealing four years of his life away. He knows he’s the best so why should he care about a bronze medal. Let’s hope they take the medal away, as they are threatening to do, to show the world what a bunch of corrupt low-life little creeps they are. Ara couldn’t care less, he’s a hero and not a puppet as most of the others in this ridiculous games are. Personally I think all Swedes should quit the games and leave so the big kahunas can carry on with their charade.
Cheers
If Abrahamian was cheated as you believe he was, he has the right to lodge a formal protest against the judges. He also could have made his point clear by not appearing at the medal ceremonies. But that wouldn’t get him front page coverage now would it?
Regardless, the argument that he was cheated of a medal is irrelevant to his conduct at these Games. If I were Swedish, I’d be embarrassed that such a person was representing my nation on the international stage as I’d expect those representing my country to act with decorum and respect for others, something Abrahamian showed nothing of at today’s ceremonies.
Guess by the logic of Anders and Mikael, anyone who feels slighted should not be reprimanded for behaving so immaturely, but instead we should cheer it on.
Oh, what a world that would be.
He actually posted a formal protest, which was ignored. They showed the video to the head-ref and other officials, which ended with them storming off not wanting to talk about it.
The protest at the ceremony was not aimed at the other wrestlers, it was aimed towards the officials in FILA and it was Aras way to say goodbye to a corrupt sport. I don´t think Ara cares about his bronze and he couldn´t care less if they take it away.
He made a stand and pointed out the shortcomings of FILA. It´s easy to talk about sportmanship but when you take away the essence of the sport and let corrupt officials rule it´s easier to understand his actions.
Go Ara!
So once again, accusations of a corrupt sport justify immature behaviour on an international stage. The reality is wrestling is not the only sport to face such accusations – at the Salt Lakes Winter Games in 2002, Canadian skaters Sale and Pelletier were awarded the silver medal and Russian skaters Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze the gold medal even though they made many mistakes in their performance. The entire world was shocked by this decision and eventually, it was discovered that the judges were in fact fixing the results.
But here’s the punchline for you Swedish fans supporting such pathetic behaviour from an Olympian – Sale and Pelletier although shocked and upset by this decision didn’t cause a scene or have a temper tantrum like your apparent hero. Instead, they went to the medal ceremonies and graciously accepted the medal and put their best face forward out of respect to the host country and to their fellow competitors. Watch that footage and see how they were cheered by the crowd in attendance and how the Russian team embraced them – everyone knew this was a wrong decision and yet, they were all impressed with what a class act Sale and Pelletier were. Later that year, they were awarded the gold medal to which the whole world cheered. Why? Simple – they saw two athletes take a situation that was out of their control, where they were robbed of their rightful achievement and yet handle it with dignity, respect and class.
There’s also the example of the United States’ mens’ basketball team from the 1972 Olympics. In the gold medal match against the former USSR, the team had to deal with so many screw-ups by the referees that it ultimately cost them the game and instead of getting the gold medal, they were awarded silver. Like Abrahamian, the US team filed a formal protest and the judges voted for their Cold War ally and the US protest was voted down. When the time came to hand out the awards, the US team decided not to show to accept the award to demonstrate their disgust over the whole affair. Again, another demonstration of class and respect for the institutions, but as I wrote above, it certainly doesn’t give one the press attention like Abrahamian’s conduct does, the clear reason why he behaved like that.
So, please spare me all this crap about the judging being corrupt as if Abrahamian is the only athlete and Sweden the only country to ever have to face such an issue. That frankly has no bearing or justification for such crass behaviour. I for one am delighted to know Abrahamian is quitting. The Olympics deserves better than to have someone like him competing with other athletes who know how to behave on the international stage and as a guest in someone else’s country.
Abrahamian was robbed not just once, but twice by a corrupt sport. In the 2004 olympics the russian leader was constantly telling one of the refs how to judge (not allowed), that ref was later suspended for having accepted bribes. Abrahamian lost that 1-1 game due to refs calling the other wrestler the winner.
The russian leader is now one of the top guys of FILA. FILA which has an italian leader, his cousin is swizz with italian ancestry and was also the ref who judged the semifinal. The CANADIAN point-ref disagreed with the decision to award the italian the point but was outvoted by the third ref.
The swedish team filed a protest, which was in their right. The refs refused to accept the protest and wouldn’t even have the situation reviewed by watching the tv footage which proved they were wrong, something which is REQUIRED by the rules when a protest is filed. They then started inventing new reasons why Abrahamian was given a penalty point, the head of FILA tried to convince the swedish team later at a metting that Abrahamian had been off the ring (he had an arm outside, which is allowed, whereas the italian had crawled fully out of the ring earlier in the round and didn’t receive any punishment).
The only crass behavior was from the ref judging the match, who laughed at Abrahamian and the swedish leader when they tried to protest, who sat there smug and happy having given italy a medal.
Abrahamian (who is from Armenia originally) even congratulated the turkish wrestler on the podium before stepping down and dropping his medal in the ring. An ARMENIAN congratulating a turkish wrestler, and you’re talking about crass behavior…
“but as I wrote above, it certainly doesn’t give one the press attention like Abrahamian’s conduct does, the clear reason why he behaved like that.”
To fight corruption in a sport that isn’t as widely popular as basketball you might have to actually gain the attention of people. As Abrahamian himself said “People need to ask why someone who has taken a bronzemedal at the olympics doesn’t want to accept it.”. Him not showing up would certainly not have gained any press attention.
Greco-Roman wrestling and FILA needs to clear up its act or it should be removed from the olympics altogether. This is far from the only incident of corruption and bribery in the sport.
This tired argument that Abrahamian was justified in his conduct because he was cheated, and now apparently the claim that this is the second time, due to a corrupted sporting organization only serves to raise one question – if he knows they are going to rob him of his efforts, why bother competing? How has this demonstrated a corrupt agency? Also, why is it that only Abrahamian and his supporters are making such a claim. Again, look up the two sporting incidents I mentioned in my previous reply and see how many cried foul over the results.
Regardless, the claim that the judges were corrupt only addresses their behaviour, not Abrahamian’s. The reality is that Abrahamian’s conduct at the medal ceremonies has not cast any doubts on the wrestling sport; instead, he’s just proven himself to be a sore loser with fans who are just not willing to demand he show better sportsmanship as others have when faced with a similar predicament.