Gold medal challenge all-around surprise

It was two days after the 2004 men's gymnastics all-around gold medal had been won by American Paul Hamm that Hamm and his U.S. teammates first heard that the South Korean team and gymnast Yang Tae Young were questioning Hamm's right to the individual championship.

The Americans thought little would come of it at the time, said Guard Young, the BYU product who was a member of the Olympic silver medal-winning U.S. team.

"At the time, it wasn't a big deal, and we didn't think it was going to become a big deal. Unfortunately it was not handled in the best way by the FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastics)," said Guard Young, in Salt Lake City promoting the T.J. Maxx 2004 Tour of Olympic Champions, which stops at the Delta Center Friday night at 7.

Hamm, who recently won his case in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, is not with the Maxx tour. That court ruled that, as FIG rules provide, the protest over Yang Tae Young's start value on parallel bars, one of the six events that make up the all-around, should have been made during the competition and not afterward.

"I felt like all of sports was on trial," said Guard Young, "because if you don't like the outcome of a sporting event, you let the courts decide who was the winner. There's going to be errors, human mistakes, in all sports at all levels. Who's to say what's the statute of limitations? Why can't you go back 50 years and sue for those points?

"I'm just extremely happy for him," Guard Young said. "I witnessed his performance in Athens, and he was clearly in my mind the best gymnast in the world, with or without a technicality, and he deserved the gold medal."