Opinion | Inside Incheon: Medal antics turn Games into a farce
Indian boxer refuses to accept her bronze while Malaysians are reluctant to return wushu gold
One athlete refuses to accept her medal while another refuses to give hers back. What on earth are these Games coming to?
Indian boxer Sarita Devi snubbed organisers when she refused to accept her bronze medal in protest at what she called "biased judgment" after losing her semi-final against South Korea's Park Ji-na, who won on a unanimous decision.
At the medal ceremony, Devi took the medal in her hand and then walked over to Park and appeared to slip it over her head. Boxing officials have now said they will look at taking action.
A few columns ago I mentioned the doping case involving Athlete X. At the time I didn't want to disclose the name (though an Asian Olympic source had revealed it to me) because she had asked for her B sample to be tested after she was found positive for a banned substance.
Organisers have now disclosed that Malaysia's wushu gold medallist Tai Cheau Xuen as the guilty party. Her B sample was also tainted. But the Malaysian National Olympic Committee is refusing to return her gold medal.
They insisted that Tai was innocent and claimed that on the day she was tested, there were five other samples on the table and that hers was accidentally switched.
It is a far-fetched theory, as drug-testing officials know a positive result could end a career. But Malaysia took the case to higher authorities, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
