Horrible judging mars the Olympics

Date published: 8/27/2008

THE GAMES of the XXIX Olympiad are now over, and the memories of remarkable human achievement linger. Sport at its best is drama without death, fantasy without fiction. Yet ugliness intruded, not least in the judging of several events.

Scoring an amateur boxing match takes no rare ability. If a legal blow lands cleanly on an opponent's head or torso, the boxer who threw it gets a point. Yet NBC boxing commentator Teddy Atlas, summarizing the judging he witnessed in Beijing, offered only two possibilities: "corruption or incompetence."

The officiating was so horrendous--in the light-heavyweight finals, Irish boxer Kenny Egan landed four good shots on China's Xiaoping Zhang, and the judges gave a point to the wincing Mr. Zhang, who "won"--that Mr. Atlas wondered if the judges' real agenda wasn't to destroy Olympic boxing.

Famed gymnastics coach Bela Károlyi confirmed what many viewers thought when judges gave high marks to Chinese vaulter Cheng Fei--who botched the vault at issue so badly she landed on her knees instead of her feet. "A rip-off," Mr. Károlyi said of the inflated marks that prevented American Alicia Sacramone from medaling.

A Cuban tae kwon do competitor from Cuba, along with his coach, received a deserved lifetime ban from the Olympics after he kicked the referee who disqualified him in the face. Yet the reffing in tae kwon do was so confused--one Chinese female competitor who had her hand raised was later ruled to have lost because the referee scored a kick that actually missed--that the frustration in the venue was palpable.

Olympic athletes sacrifice much to excel. Most can accept defeat by an equally committed opponent. But no athlete should lose to official bumbling, prejudice, or dishonesty. Let's hope the XXX Olympiad, despite its inauspicious designation, is free of that obscenity.

Date published: 8/27/2008