Olympic Wrestling: the new controversial event

[justnzane]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/otherspor...-hissy-fit.html

 

Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian throws away medal in Olympic hissy fit

While an Olympic medal would be seen by most athletes as the ultimate reward for a lifetime's work, Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian was less than pleased with the bronze he won at the Chinese Agricultural University Gym.

 

Abrahamian threw down his 84kg greco-roman bronze in disgust after his shot at gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as "politics".

 

Abrahamian took the medal from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the mat before storming off.

 

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team-mates earlier as a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on to the take gold.

 

Abrhamian, who won silver at the Athens 2004 Games, shouted at the referee, then went over to confront judges, angrily throwing off the restraining arm of a team official.

 

Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.

 

"It's all politics," said Swedish coach Leo Myllari.

 

Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba.

 

Other favourites went out in the semi-finals or earlier. Athens 96kg gold medallist Karam Gaber of Egypt failed to make it to the quarter-finals. Aleksey Mishin of Russia, who took Athens gold in the 84kg class, was beaten by Minguzzi.

 

Ramaz Nozazde of Georgia, who took silver in Athens, succumbed to Marek Svec of the Czech Republic, still fighting at age 35. Svec then lost to Russia's European champion Aslanbek Kushtov, who caught him with a spectacular fall.

 

In the heavyweight 120kg class, Armenia's Yuri Patrikeev and Dremiel Byers of the United States, both favoured as finalists, failed to go through.

 

Ahh... more corrupt judges in Beijing. Nothing like the IOC screwing up the Chinese coming out of the closet Olympics

[Bmwolf21]

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team-mates earlier as a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on to the take gold.

 

Abrhamian, who won silver at the Athens 2004 Games, shouted at the referee, then went over to confront judges, angrily throwing off the restraining arm of a team official.

 

What exactly happened?

[justnzane]

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team-mates earlier as a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on to the take gold.

 

Abrhamian, who won silver at the Athens 2004 Games, shouted at the referee, then went over to confront judges, angrily throwing off the restraining arm of a team official.

 

What exactly happened?

he got screwed by the judges because his opponent is italian and the head of the international wrestling board is from italy

[Bmwolf21]

he got screwed by the judges because his opponent is italian and the head of the international wrestling board is from italy

That's the part I don't understand. *How* did he get screwed? Did the refs (none who were from Italy) award his opponent points he didn't earn? Did they call a pin that wasn't an actual pin? What exactly went into the screwjob that led to a meltdown?

[justnzane]

That's the part I don't understand. *How* did he get screwed? Did the refs (none who were from Italy) award his opponent points he didn't earn? Did they call a pin that wasn't an actual pin? What exactly went into the screwjob that led to a meltdown?

the main judge is from the italian border of switzerland from I gathered who is buddies with head of the sport from Italy.

[Bmwolf21]

the main judge is from the italian border of switzerland from I gathered who is buddies with head of the sport from Italy.

I guess I'm going to have to wait and see a better article from Reuters or the AP, or a news clip from ESPN, NBC, etc., because I still don't get it. Everything I've read so far is pretty vague -- there was some dispute (a "row") the Swedish wrestler got screwed, and he left his bronze in on the mat and walked out. I still don't know WTF actually happened in this "screw job."

[Lori]

It looks like the Italian won the match by a single (disputed) point. Found this in the comments section of a Yahoo.com story:

Ok.. for you people out there that actually want to know what happend i will attempt to explain it all step by step. Its the OLYMPIC semi finals in greko roman wrestling on the 14th of august. Its the second round of 3 possible. Andrea Minguzzi(Italy) is facing former world champion, Olympic silver medalist and in all respects veteran greko roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian(Sweden). Andrea Minguzzi is lotted ontop Ara Abrahamian in submission.. the Italian tries everything to flip/roll the Swedish wrestler to gain 3 points. He only succeds in lifting the Swede bodily of the ground but not rolling him nor flipping him, at this time the rules say that the match should continue in standing. Sadly this is ignored. The Swede continues avoiding all attempts from the Italian by moving about. In the final 5-10 seconds the wrestlers are at the edge of the mat/circle area within which a wrestling match is faught. Abrahamian squirms about and stays within the circle with all of his body except with the palm of his left hand avoiding any further attempts by Minguzzi to roll him. The "MATT" judge calls the end of the round and awards 1 point and the round win to Ara Abrahamian for defending. They get up and make it toward their trainers.. This is when all of a sudden "after vehement complaints from the italian coaches" the judging panel start changing the first ruling and awarding Andrea Minguzzi the round win, by claiming that Ara Abrahamian commited some sort of foul.. a foul which is not explained until later on by the head judge or whatever they call themselves. Accusing the Swede of fleeing the circle in an attempt to evade. Their actually is a rule that says that if the wrestler in submission crawles over the outer circle barrier "plainly avoiding the fight" with a full 50% of his body he "may" be given a penalty. In this case the judges claim that Ara Abrahamian did so and gave the round win to Andrea Minguzzi(Italy) and by so doing aclaiming him winner of that semifinal. The thing is this at no time what so ever was Ara Abrahamian outside the circle with anyting more then part of his hand/arm to the elbow. Millions of people viewd this LIVE! as did I and it is a horrible shame that such a thing can occur in a OLYMPIC semi final.

 

Here's the video: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.ht...nelcode=sportwr

The entire video is 3 hours, 45 minutes; the disputed match begins at 3:25. The sequence in question is from roughly 3:35 - 3:37.

 

And since I know next to nothing about Greco-Roman wrestling, maybe someone can tell me how one guy crawling to the edge of the circle is awarded a point, and the other one is called for "fleeing the mat"? Something doesn't compute. Swedish dude may have a valid complaint.

[Chilly]

Good God NBC's olympics website sucks ass.

 

"You can only use this under Windows or Mac OS X".... its called standards you idiots.

 

Load it up on Windows XP, and it wants to install Silverlight (who the hell uses silverlight?)

 

Then it asks me for demographic information. If I choose not to give them Democraphic information, it plays some olympic intro commercial. When I finally gave it fake demographic info, it showed me the video I wanted.

 

!@#$ NBC, !@#$ China, !@#$ Sweeden, !@#$ the IOC, !@#$ the Olympics.

 

No, I'm not bitter.

[Bmwolf21]

It looks like the Italian won the match by a single (disputed) point. Found this in the comments section of a Yahoo.com story:

 

 

Here's the video: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.ht...nelcode=sportwr

The entire video is 3 hours, 45 minutes; the disputed match begins at 3:25. The sequence in question is from roughly 3:35 - 3:37.

 

And since I know next to nothing about Greco-Roman wrestling, maybe someone can tell me how one guy crawling to the edge of the circle is awarded a point, and the other one is called for "fleeing the mat"? Something doesn't compute. Swedish dude may have a valid complaint.

Thanks, those are the details I was looking for.

 

Sounds like he does have a valid complaint.

[Bmwolf21]

Nice to see the IOC has its priorities straight:

The International Olympic Committee says Ara Abrahamian has been kicked out of the Beijing Olympics for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony.

 

Abrahamian walked off the medals podium and dropped the medal on the mat after taking third in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division Thursday. He became incensed when a disputed penalty call decided his semifinal match against Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal.

 

The IOC executive board ruled Saturday the wrestler's action amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

 

LINK

----

 

So no investigation into the controversy in his match, but he gets kicked out and loses the medal he didn't want for actions the IOC says amounts to a political demonstration when he protested the screwup...

[justnzane]

Nice to see the IOC has its priorities straight:

The International Olympic Committee says Ara Abrahamian has been kicked out of the Beijing Olympics for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony.

 

Abrahamian walked off the medals podium and dropped the medal on the mat after taking third in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division Thursday. He became incensed when a disputed penalty call decided his semifinal match against Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal.

 

The IOC executive board ruled Saturday the wrestler's action amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

 

LINK

----

 

So no investigation into the controversy in his match, but he gets kicked out and loses the medal he didn't want for what actions the IOC says amounts to a political demonstration when he protested the screwup...

 

Wow, that is some bull sh--. I swear these Olympics seem more corrupt than the last few have. The aesthetic events have had some really odd double standards this time around. I do say this knowing full well that these events will always have some controversy, but it shouldn't be as bad as Bela Karolyi calling out the judges for questionable judging in gymnastics or Abrahamian being booted from the games.

[WellDressed]

Jules Dassin's "Gregorius the Great " from Night and the City

[Steely Dan]

It looks like the Italian won the match by a single (disputed) point. Found this in the comments section of a Yahoo.com story:

 

 

Here's the video: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.ht...nelcode=sportwr

The entire video is 3 hours, 45 minutes; the disputed match begins at 3:25. The sequence in question is from roughly 3:35 - 3:37.

 

And since I know next to nothing about Greco-Roman wrestling, maybe someone can tell me how one guy crawling to the edge of the circle is awarded a point, and the other one is called for "fleeing the mat"? Something doesn't compute. Swedish dude may have a valid complaint.

 

When I first heard about this I thought the Swede was being a crybaby. After that explanation and viewing the match I'm fully on his side. The only guy who was outside the circle during the whole match was the Italian.

[DPR4444]

at least in pro wrestling, these controversies are settled in a cage match, chain match, or the dreaded "loser-leaves-town" match.