A Fencing Filibuster

Alcohol of the Day: Magners (it's become my new favourite)

There's something about the events I chose to see.  There's been controversy everywhere.  If we had gotten the tickets in time to see the Glasgow football match, we would have seen the North Korean protest about the wrong flag.

Tonight we saw fencing, specifically the women's individual epee.  And in the second semifinal match, there was more controversy, this time involving the South Koreans.  It was between the South Korean girl and the German girl.  It was a really close match, and in the end after an extra minute to settle the tied score, there was a technical issue with the clock.  It was stuck at 1 second left, which allowed the German more time to score the winning point against the South Korean.  We were all wondering how they could have drawn three times in that 1 second, and the South Korean girl was gesturing something to the referee.  When the German scored, the South Korean girl took off her mask and started to cry.  Her coach was irate.  It took a while for the officials to decide what to do, and then they decided to award the win to the German.  That's when the South Korean decided to hold the equivalent of a filibuster.

By refusing to leave the piste, she was officially indicating that she didn't agree with the decision.  This is totally within the rules of fencing, apparently.  Meanwhile, her coach and other South Korean athletic officials launched a protest.  The thing was, it had to be in writing.  So we all waited while she sat there on the piste and cried some more.  The camera guy was trained on her the entire time.  Some might think that she was being a sore loser.  That would be true if she had actually lost fair and square.  But when you lose due to some kind of technical malfunction, then that's not cool.

The announcer kept us informed, including the fact that some kind of payment had to accompany the official letter of protest, and so they were in the process of scraping together some cash, or something.  The whole thing delayed the medal rounds by about an hour and a half, and at the end they had to escort her off the piste, which was pretty harsh.  And THEN she had a few minutes to get it together and face the Chinese girl in the bronze medal round.  By then, everyone (well, except maybe the Chinese) were supporting her, cheering loudly every time the piste lit up green, which signals that she scored a point.  But in the end, she lost to the Chinese girl 15-11.  So, instead of winning a gold or silver, she got nothing.

I felt so badly for her, and then I felt badly for the referees, who were booed when they were being introduced at the start of the match.  It really had nothing to do with them, and booing is just poor form.  Still, I felt a little better when the Ukrainian girl beat the German girl and won the gold.

"Light up, light up, as if you have a choice"