Olympic Champion Hamm would accept CAS decision

The all-around Olympic Champion now would accept to return his medal in case the CAS comes to the decision that the mistake of the judges had cost his South Korean competitor Yang Tae-Young the victory. . 'If a decision will be made according to the regulations of artistic gymnastics, I will accept it', said Paul Hamm after the 12-hour long hearing in Lausanne.

The FIG had suspended 3 judges in Athens who obviously gave the wrong start value (9.9 instead of 10.00) for the bars- routine of the 3rd-ranked gymnast Yang, Tae Young from South Korea. However, the score has not been corrected.
With one 10th of a point more Yang would have become Olympic Chamion; in his home country he already was awarded like a gold medalist.

The National Olympic Committee of the USA has provided US$ 300,000 to defend the gold medal of their star gymnast. «We are extremely proud on Paul’s performance and will fight for the gold medal until the end», mentioned a spokesman.
The president of the US- gymnastics federation Bob Colarossi stated before the CAS- hearing:«Fact decisions can’t be changed! This whole story surprises us a lot. The competition is over, the results have been published for a couple of weeks now». He also mentioned that the National Olympic Committee of South Korea had filed their protest only after the end of the competition.
In case an according decision would be taken by the CAS in accordance with the regulations of international gymnastics, Olympic Champion Paul Hamm however now would return his gold medal.