Korean gymnast goes to sport court to get gold

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The South Korean gymnast who lost the all-around title to Paul Hamm because of a scoring error appealed Sunday to a sports arbitration panel asking it to help him get the gold medal.

Yang Tae-young asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to order international gymnastics officials to correct the results from the all-around and adjust the medal rankings so that he gets the gold and the American gets a silver.

CAS said it would consider the appeal in Lausanne, Switzerland, where it is based. With the games ending Sunday, there wasn't time to hear the case in Athens. CAS put off setting a date for the hearing until the International Gymnastics Federation, known as FIG, and the U.S. Olympic Committee could prepare responses.

"We said we wanted this misjudgment to be corrected. That was very clear from the beginning," said Jae Soon-yoo, spokeswoman for the South Korean delegation. "We are talking about our own rights, our own medal, not anyone else's."

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the appeal was a moot point.

"We consider this a closed matter," he said. "The IOC and the International Gymnastics Federation have both indicated there is no basis by which the results will be revisited, and we see no reason why that would happen."

If CAS decides to hear the case, Seibel said the USOC will defend Hamm "to protect Paul's rights and his gold medal".

Hamm has repeatedly said he won't give up the gold unless ordered to.

FIG spokesman Philippe Silacci had no comment on the appeal.

USA Gymnastics president Bob Colarossi was traveling and could not be reached. Hamm returned to the United States on Wednesday, but his agent said he might release a statement later Sunday.

Yang, who finished with a bronze, was wrongly docked a tenth of a point on his second-to-last routine, the parallel bars. He finished third, 0.049 points behind Hamm. Add the extra 0.100, and Yang would have finished 0.051 points ahead of Hamm. That, however, assumes everything in the final rotation played out the same way.

Three judges were suspended after the error was discovered, but FIG said the results would stand because the South Koreans didn't protest the error until after the meet.

But the South Koreans continued to press their case. They appealed to the USOC and the International Olympic Committee, but IOC president Jacques Rogge rejected the idea of duplicate gold medals.

He reiterated that stance Sunday:

"Our position is extremely simple. The FIG has certified the result of the gymnastics competition. The IOC has awarded the medals according to the certified results. Paul Hamm was declared the winner and therefore he has received the gold medal, and for us that is final."

Rogge said the IOC would not be part of any effort to ask Hamm to hand back the medal.

"This is final," he repeated.

FIG, however, asked Hamm to give up the medal as a gesture of sportsmanship. But the USOC called the request "deplorable" and said FIG should take responsibility for its own mistakes.