Scoring Scandals Mar Beijing Olympics

The Olympic Games have become involved in an increasing number of scandals involving scoring and event judging in recent years. Until the late 1980s, most of the athletic scandals at the Games involved cheating, obvious technical mistakes, or controversies regarding athlete accreditation. Now the pendulum has swung towards repeated allegations of judge or referee tampering to produce systemic high scores for a particular party.

The first truly egregious example of fraudulent judging was the robbery of Roy Jones's boxing Gold Medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Prior to that, while disputes over scoring were not uncommon, scandals and accusations of tampering or corruption were rare. However, the 2002 and 2004 Games were both rife with such accusations. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, three examples in particular stand out:

Boxing

Following past problems beginning with the infamous Roy Jones vs. Park Si-Hun incident, the scoring system in boxing has been undergoing continuous reform and tinkering. The irony is that one of the most recent reforms - open and transparent scoring - has made it much easier for those accusing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its federate Amateur International Boxing Associaton (AIBA) of corruption to document their case. Internet boxing forums are alive with statements from fans who used slow motion DVR technology to track punching and scoring, and they found a handful of instances where points were awarded when no punch was even thrown. Presentations drawn from CNBC's broadcasts are already appearing on YouTube.

As the Olympic boxing tournament was wrapping up, AIBA technical delegate Rudel Obreja of Romania made accusations of widespread corruption and tampering with officials at the Games. AIBA response did little to inspire confidence: they accused Obreja of corruption, suspended him, and began proceedings to expel him.

The two most outstanding examples both involved Irish vs. Chinese bouts. While Paddy Barnes was clearly outclassed by Zou Shiming, he clearly did enough to fend off the ridiculous 15-0 landslide that Shiming was awarded. Kenny Egan's bout with Zhang Xiaoping was much closer, with only a few points making the difference between Gold and Silver. In both instances, the fighters and members of the Irish team openly questioned the scoring, although now official protest has yet been filed.

Gymnastics

In an incident that was loudly decried and discussed, China's Cheng Fei won Gold despite an error-filled performance on the uneven bars. First He Kexin of China mounted the bars and performed well, earning a 16.725. Then American Nastia Luikin took the bars, and managed a score identical to He's: 16.725. They were tied, but the Gold was later given to He on the basis of subsidiary marks that have been questioned and even ridiculed in the press, because some of He's obvious errors were not noted in her score record. In another incident, American Alicia Sacramone was edged out of medal contention by Cheng Fei of China (who is involved in a separate scandal for being allegedly underaged), despite Cheng falling onto her knees in the balance beam competition. It has been widely observed that America's women gymnasts were routinely given lower scores than their Chinese competitors, despite glaring technical errors on the part of the Chinese. The IOC has defended gymnastics scoring with the specious claim that there are not enough experienced judges who are not from one of the three big gymnastics countries: China, Russia, and the USA.

Taekwando

The Korean martial art of Taekwando has been dogged by controversial accusations since its introduction to the Olympics at the 2000 Sydney Games. Briton Sarah Stevenson was ruled to have lost her quarter-final to China's Chen Zhong, but appealed after judges missed an obvious final-round high kick to the head which would have earned enough to win the match. Stevenson protested, and in an Olympic Taekwando first, the decision has been overturned and the decision and awarded the Bronze to Stevenson, despite loud booing on the part of the hometown Chinese fans. The scandal is prompting federate Taekwando bodies to examine reforming their rules and procedures.

Investigation and Reform, But No Punishment

The standard pattern of the IOC when confronted by scandals of this type is to suspend officials, but never to ban them; the investigate, but make no findings of wrong-doing; to reform scoring, but only in a way that shakes up the style and leaves the substance untouched. These incidents continue to gather because the fundamental question is not one of how the system is scored, but who is doing the scoring. The IOC itself has long been tainted with proven bribery regarding the selection of Olympic event venues, so it should surprise no one that referees and judges further down the food chain are also looking for pay-offs in exchange for favorable scoring. The IOC's most serious long-term problem is its own corruption, not the means it uses to decide the outcome of events. The questionable or flagrantly biased scoring that marred this year's boxing, gymnastics, and taekwando events will never be corrected by cosmetic adjustments of a particular system, although as in the case of boxing those adjustments do help in proving corruption allegations. Nothing short of cleaning up the IOC itself will do.

Sources: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i0J3PV86a7dw4ZTn7vPRG1NLLDAQ; http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/writers/em_swift/08/18/judging.controversy/?cnn=yes; http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/sports/94094.php; http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ih_4q3ExkNhq6JRaIcSOSymRKCrw