(ATR) Poor sportsmanship costs Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian a bronze medal after a podium protest two days ago.
The IOC Executive Board, acting on the recommendations of an IOC Disciplinary Commission, has ruled the behavior of Abrahamian is against the spirit of fair play.
Abrahamian walked off the podium during the Aug. 14 medal ceremony, leaving his medal on the mat after the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram finals.
He became incensed after a disputed penalty led to his semifinal defeat by Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win gold.
“Mr. Abrahamian is a Swedish athlete who stepped down from the podium and laid his medal on the floor during the awards ceremony for the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 84kg event,” the IOC said in a statement.
“He had received one of two bronze medals awarded.”
According to the document outlining the IOC decision, the athlete told the three-member IOC Disciplinary Commission that he had nothing against the Games or other athletes.
Abrahamian said that he believed that during the semi-final match at the competition in Beijing, he was prejudiced by blatant errors in judging which caused him to lose.
“Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement,” the IOC said in the report.
“The fact that, in this case, the Athlete’s gesture was carried out in a calm manner does not diminish in any way the severity of the offense.”
The IOC Executive Board announced it had disqualified Abrahamian from his event and excluded him from the Beijing Games.
But his medal will not be awarded to another athlete, with the IOC noting “the sanction is not directly linked to facts which took place during the competition itself but during an awards ceremony.”
“Thus, it would not be justified to award a bronze medal to the wrestler who placed behind the Athlete.”
The IOC report noted that Abrahamian also complained about his silver medal finish at the Athens Olympics. The report says he told the commission that bad judging led to his failure to win the gold medal there.
The IOC Disciplinary Commission is comprised of IOC members Thomas Bach, Sergey Bubka and Denis Oswald.
Written by Anthony Stavrinos in Beijing For general comments or questions, click here
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