Win some, lose some

Hamm misses second gold on high bar tiebreaker

Paul Hamm added a second medal with a strong performance in the high bar. AP SI.com's E.M. Swift Let me be clear here, since some self-righteous columnists who wouldn't know a handstand from a night stand have entered the fray: Paul Hamm should not give up his gold medal. FULL STORY Roundup: Patterson wins silver ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Romania picked up two more medals in the floor exercise finals, with Catalina Ponor winning her second gold of the night and teammate Nicoleta Sofronie taking silver. Patricia Moreno of Spain won bronze. Ponor's floor exercise victory marked her third gold of these games. She won another on beam Monday to go with the team gold medal the Romanians captured earlier this week. All-around champion Carly Patterson won her third medal of these Olympics and the sixth for the U.S. women's team, taking silver behind Ponor on the beam. Alexandra Eremia of Romania took bronze. Romania also won six medals overall to match the United States for the highest total among the women. Gervasio Deferr of Spain won the men's vault title, giving Spain its second Olympic gold medal in men's gymnastics. Evgeni Sapronenko of Latvia won the silver, while former world champion Marian Dragulescu of Romania took the bronze. Valeri Goncharov of Ukraine won the gold medal in parallel bars, defeating Hiroyuki Tomita of Japan by 0.012 points. Two-time reigning world champion Li Xiaopeng of China took bronze.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- For 10 solid minutes, the crowd booed and whistled. Paul Hamm sat around and waited to start his routine.

A week's worth of controversy in gymnastics boiled over into the crowd Monday night during a bizarre, extraordinary evening in which Hamm won a silver medal on high bar and four-time Olympic gold medalist Alexei Nemov finished fifth, much to the crowd's chagrin.

On a night when American all-around champion Carly Patterson won silver on the beam to give the U.S. women their sixth medal, and Romania's Catalina Ponor won gold on beam and floor, it was the high bar routine that everybody was anticipating.

Hamm scored a 9.812, tying Italy's Igor Cassina for first, but Cassina won a tiebreaker to take the gold. Japan's Isao Yoneda won bronze.

The showdown on the last event of the night was supposed to be between Hamm, the all-around gold medal winner, and Yang Tae-young of South Korea, who won bronze but was embroiled in a protest over a scoring error that the Koreans hoped could give him a duplicate gold.

Nemov's routine changed all that.

The Russian, "Sexy Alexei" as he's known, put together the riskiest, most daring routine of the 10 men on the high bar. He did six release moves -- four in a row and two more in which he did full somersaults while flying over the bar.

To the untrained eye, they all looked perfect; the only hiccup in the routine appeared to be a slight step forward on the dismount.

Or at least that's what the fans thought.

When his score came up, a 9.725 that ranked him last of the three competitors to go to that point, the booing started. At first, it seemed funny and Nemov laughed along, even bowing to the crowd, many of whom waved Greek and Russian flags and chanted in their native tongues.

Hamm was supposed to go next and his name was announced, but the booing didn't abate. He stepped off the podium, paced, then finally took a seat, realizing the whistling and jeering wasn't going to end soon. Then, something strange, a new score popped up -- a 9.762 thanks to a slight change by the Malaysian judge -- but that didn't change Nemov's ranking.

More booing. More delay. The public-address announcer came on and implored the crowd for silence. Twice. It didn't work either time. Nemov just sat there smiling, but minute by minute, the outburst became embarrassing.

Finally, Hamm and his coach, Miles Avery, motioned Nemov to the podium and he asked for silence that the crowd finally gave.

Hamm finally went, performing under the most awkward of circumstances, after being iced for 10 minutes, and he was practically flawless. He brilliantly executed his trademark three straight release moves without any problem, took a slight step forward on the landing and received a 9.812, a mark that easily outdistanced Nemov.

It was also met with raucous boos.

Next came Cassina, who put on a great performance that also netted a 9.812. A complex tiebreaking formula used in gymnastics put him ahead of Hamm and gave him a surprise championship.

Yang was the last competitor of the night, but his routine was anticlimactic. He banged his foot on the bar during a release move, almost hit his knees on the landing and finished last of the 10 gymnasts, a result that nobody from any country can protest.

After the gymnasts cleared the floor, the judges followed them off and were greeted again by boos. During the medals ceremony, officials put the silver around Hamm and the gesture was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos -- a strange ending to an awfully strange night.