Jeff Baum

If you'd like to say hi, email me at:
jeffdbaum at gmail com
Jul 31
Permalink
theatlantic: The Olympics Should Probably Stop Coaches from Handing Judges $100 Bills Of all the strange things that happened at the men’s team gymnastic finals last night, perhaps the strangest was the sight of a Japanese coach approaching the judges while holding a stack of cash while arguing that they had gotten a decisive call wrong. As the competition wrapped up, the British team thought they’d won an astounding silver medal, only to have it taken away minutes later following the appeal by the Japanese team delegation. It seems there was some sort of scoring error that the judges corrected after viewing playback of Kohei Uchimura’s dismount from the pommel horse. These things have happened before and they’re always surprising, but for the viewer at home, seeing a stack of hundies involved was, as Mitt Romney would say, disconcerting. Especially when Olympic judges do not have a perfect ethics record. Turns out, though, this money exchange was all on the up and up. Read more. [Image: NBC]

theatlantic:

The Olympics Should Probably Stop Coaches from Handing Judges $100 Bills

Of all the strange things that happened at the men’s team gymnastic finals last night, perhaps the strangest was the sight of a Japanese coach approaching the judges while holding a stack of cash while arguing that they had gotten a decisive call wrong. As the competition wrapped up, the British team thought they’d won an astounding silver medal, only to have it taken away minutes later following the appeal by the Japanese team delegation. It seems there was some sort of scoring error that the judges corrected after viewing playback of Kohei Uchimura’s dismount from the pommel horse. These things have happened before and they’re always surprising, but for the viewer at home, seeing a stack of hundies involved was, as Mitt Romney would say, disconcerting. Especially when Olympic judges do not have a perfect ethics record. Turns out, though, this money exchange was all on the up and up.

Read more. [Image: NBC]