Olympic Injustice

Korean boxer Lee Ok-sung's face mercilessly beat the white part of American Rau'shee Warren's gloves. Naturally, as a result, Lee got the victory.

With under a minute left in the bout and Warren down 1, he ran, not realizing the score. He figured he was winning because his fists repeatedly landed at their target. Three days ago I wrote about the unique scoring in Olympic boxing, saying, "Often you get a point for receiving a punch in the face. The key is to avoid your opponent's facial attack against your fists."

Warren must have thought the scoring was the other way around, but what he failed to realize is that would have made too much sense. The misunderstanding resulted in the painful display at the end of the match, where the man down was running away. Lee became confused and even (cautiously) chased Warren.

So Warren lost 9-8, because of a last second boner and atrocious judging. Terry Smith, who oversaw the judging claimed, “I thought the fight was extremely close, and I think the judges were quite close with their decisions,” which is the politically correct way to say the judges messed up. Lee received a couple of points while the two boxers were clenching and a couple of more points following exchanges that Warren appeared to get the better of and also received points. At one moment, Warren was punched in the face, lost his balance, and received a point.

Announcer Jim Gray theorized that the judges probably pressed the wrong button on occasion, giving the wrong boxer the point. His theory is consistent with the evidence. Warren didn't dominate the fight, but he should have won by about 5 points.

The U.S. women's gymnastics team can relate to Warren. Alicia Sacremone made a couple of mistakes which opened the door for the Chinese women to take the gold. But it never should have gotten to that point because the Chinese team had a few girls under the minimum age requirement of 16 years old. The one girl looked like she was 8 years old. You wonder if she ever saw the 1990s. You know, if you put makeup on an 8 year old, she's still 8 years old. In fact, I think that girl has had a few play dates with my 7-year old cousin. After she finished her vault, her mother changed the girl's diaper. She celebrated the victory with a glass of her mother's breast milk. I can keep going....