Disrespect

"A Swedish wrestler was disqualified and stripped of his bronze medal Saturday for dropping his medal in protest after a disputed loss at the Beijing Olympics.

Ara Abrahamian was punished by the International Olympic Committee for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony, becoming the fourth athlete kicked out of the games and bringing the number of medals removed so far to three.

Abrahamian became incensed when a disputed penalty call decided his semifinal match against Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division on Thursday. During the medal ceremony, Abrahamian — who also lost a 2004 Olympic semifinal match on a disputed call — took the bronze from around his neck and angrily dropped it on the mat as he walked away. He did not take part in the rest of the medal ceremony.

The IOC executive board ruled that Abrahamian's actions amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

"It was felt that his behavior on the medal podium and during the medal ceremony was not appropriate," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "His behavior was not in the Olympic spirit of respect for his fellow athletes. Whatever grievances you may have, this was not the way to go about it." - AP"

When I was doing my laundry at the bar on saturday I got into a discussion about the above story. One guy was telling me how he thought that Abarahamian acted correctly in his behaviour and that because he disagreed with the judges decisions he was justified in acting the way he did. I couldn't agree less.

I understand being upset at the judges, and it really sucks when the biggest moment of your sporting life is decided not by how you compete but by a panel of judges. I get that he was angry and upset and if I were him I would be upset too. But if you don't agree with the decision or you think that you were cheated then don't accept the medal. Don't show up to a ceremony to honor you and the other place winners and then act like a child. That's disrespectful to far more then just the judges who wronged you, that's disrespectful to your fellow competitors, the people who organized the event, and its even disrespectful to your coaches and countrymen who are supporting you. Like it or not all of those people either stood behind you or against you as a equal competitor and if you decide to accept the accolades that they want you to have then accept them, don't take them and then throw it back in their face.

You can say what you want about the Olympics being about professional athletes and all that mess but at the end of the day in the spirit of competition you should respect those around you. if you have a problem with how you were wronged then don't accept it. Do what the U.S. basketball team at 1972 Olympics did when they felt they were cheated by the refs against the Soviet Union, don't show up to take the medals. That way you are showing you don't accept their decision, you don't accept their accolade and you live with that. But you don't throw it back in their face because you don't like it. It's like your time card, if you don't like what you are doing and you don't think that it accurately reflects what really happened then don't approve it.

I think some people wouldn't see the difference between not accepting the medal and acting like this guy did. But I see it, and the International Olympic Committee saw the difference as well. There's a difference between feeling like you've been disrespected and wronged, and acting out and disrespecting others. In this case the difference was that at the premiere world sporting event a man's name was scratched from the records for his disrespect.