Like drug issue, judging controversies need major IOC intervention

ATHENS, Greece - Has anyone seen Jacques Rogge the past week or so? Do you know if he is still here? If you do happen to see the International Olympic Committee president, would you mind telling him that the gymnastics arena has turned into the figure skating venue right before our eyes, and it might be a good idea if he decides to let someone know what he intends to do about it sometime between now and Beijing in 2008, when perhaps the diving venue can erupt in self-imposed chaos as well.

Wouldn't you know, another judged sport has self-destructed during another Olympic Games.

It's believed that despite the surreal lack of urgency from Rogge, the IOC has indeed been informed that there have been a string of controversies in gymnastics, one ugly day after another. In fact, IOC member Kevan Gosper of Australia, proving that the IOC has some knowledge of what is happening at these Games, said, ``If it's judged in some sports there is a shift in credibility, then the IOC should quietly, quietly take that up with the federation.''

May I suggest that ``quietly, quietly'' went out the window Monday night, when, for the first time in memory, an unruly crowd loudly, loudly and quite literally altered the scoring of an Olympic event? For nearly 10 minutes, the cacophony in the gymnastics hall prevented competition from continuing in the men's high bar. The last time a crowd held this much sway over a sporting event, the Stanford band was involved.

And, yes, there's been a ``shift in credibility'' in gymnastics, Mr. Gosper: From some to none.

In this latest gymnastics fiasco, two judges actually raised their scores for Russia's Alexei Nemov, apparently to try to make the fans feel better. (How the International Gymnastics Federation, otherwise known as FIG, suspended three judges involved in the Paul Hamm controversy but hasn't thrown out these two crowd pleasers is another issue entirely.)

Nemov, who finished in fifth place, said later that he ``would like to thank all these people for what they did.'' Who knew that the gymnastics competition had become the Olympic version of ``American Idol''?

Gymnastics today has about as much respect as figure skating had in late February 2002. Which is to say, zilch. But this situation is potentially more devastating for gymnastics than it was for figure skating because skating was renowned for its judging controversies and chicanery in the old days of compulsory school figures. Gymnastics never used to have that kind of reputation.

What Rogge and the IOC should do is announce that the organization is going to take on judging scandals the way it has decided to attack its performance-enhancing drug issue. Centralize the matter. Examine all judged sports and their problems. Establish a separate arm of the Court of Arbitration for Sport to oversee all judging controversies. Most of all, treat this seriously, from the top down, not from the bottom up, piecemeal, federation by federation. That approach puts too much power into the hands of the federation presidents, who are hardly able to see their way out of their own little fiefdoms, much less press for significant changes that could reflect badly on the way they were running their organizations.

Take FIG President Bruno Grandi. He has been running around for days saying Hamm can't share or give up his gold medal because FIG rules won't allow it. But at the 2001 trampoline World Championships, run by FIG, the woman who was declared the winner eventually gave up her medal when it was determined that the judges made a mistake. Grandi allowed the result to be changed, and the woman who gave up the gold later received the International Fair Play award from Rogge himself, according to FIG records.

Meanwhile, the unwitting beneficiary of the daily soap opera at the gymnastics venue is none other than Paul Hamm. With his sport mired in confusion, the question of whether he would share his gold medal or nobly give it back is not nearly as defined as it was a few days ago. It would have been much easier for FIG or the IOC or Hamm himself to alter the result of just one important event. Now, with confusion reigning over scores and medals in several events, a decision to make amends might resemble an elementary school's holiday gift exchange.