The Olympics

The Olympics

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News, information and stories about the Olympic Games.

Tuesday 24 August 2004

Judges Biased Towards Rich Nations

It seems that the "People Power" protest about lousy Olympic judging, noted in my previous post, has had some resonance with the Russians.



It is reported that Russia is to lodge a complaint with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), over biased judging throughout the Athens gymnastics competition.



Whilst the complaint will not be specific to the Monday debacle, it will cover all gymnastic judging over the course of the Olympics.



The Russians have a certain feeling that the judges are showing favouritism to those competitors from the wealthier nations, ie those offering the more lucrative commercial contracts.



Should their suspicions be well founded, the complaint will rock the very core of the Olympics. Amateur competition between athletes, not corporate marketing and product placement, is after all what the Olympics claims to be about.



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