People Power

People power put a temporary stop to yesterday's Olympic gymnastic horizontal bar final, as spectators jeered and booed the judges.



The rumpus began after judges awarded Alexei Nemov of Russia 9.725, putting him in third place.



The jeering continued as Paul Hamm got ready to follow. Despite pleas for silence from Olympic officials, the fracas continued. The judges attempted to bring the fracas to an end, when they changed their scores; giving Nemov 9.762.



Unfortunately, Nemov was still last; and so the noise continued. There was a brief cessation when Hamm went through his routine; only to return when he was awarded 9.812, putting him into the lead.



Nemov came fifth in the end, feeling that he had been marked down deliberately.



The scoring matter was exacerbated by the fact that 3 judges had been suspended last week for judging errors.



The most troubling element of this story, is the fact that the spectators were able to intimidate the judges into changing their scores.



What happened to impartiality?



This bodes ill for the future.