Angry Swedish Wrestler Stripped of Medal
August 16, 2008 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Sports Rumors
Well, here’s a lesson for all the medal winners who think they deserved better at the Olympic Games – don’t throw the prize on the floor! Ara Abrahamian of Sweden did just that a couple days ago and the International Olympic Committee was so unimpressed that they have chosen to punish the athlete by taking the medal from him.
“It was felt that his behaviour on the medal podium and during the medal ceremony was not appropriate,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. “His behaviour 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.”
All english speaking new-outlets have refused to look at the entire story, including CNN or bbc. Only the Swedish ones have the entire story.
. Let’s look at the facts, shall we?
1) Pelle Svensson, former member of the FILA board of for 16 years, and former President of Fila’s Disciplinary Committee, left his position when his proposal was completely ignored by the FILA board. His proposal? That the referees should be selected randomly just before for each match. Why? So that they cannot be bribed.
2) The President of the Italian Wrestling association is M Pellicone. He is also vice president of Fila. His best friend, the Italoswiss R Martinetti, is president of Fila. Together these two ASSIGNED the referees for the match.
3) Jean-Marc Petoud, the MAIN REFEREE, is a COUSIN of Martinetti.
4) The swedish team PROTESTED against the assignment of referee already in good time BEFORE THE MATCH started, but was left unheard.
5) When “randomly” selecting which wrestler should in parterre, the referees glance into the bag before picking up the ball.
6) Minguzzi was clearly in the blue zone early in the match but no warning was made. Abrahamian had ONE hand in the blue zone, which is normally not penalized.
7) At that point the referee first awards Abrahamian with a point. But after a few moments, AFTER the round, assigns the point and the match to Minguzzi.
8) The referees refused to review the recording of the incidences, despite the fact that they would have come to another conclusion if they had! Why?
Pierre de Coubertin said
The important thing is not to win, but to take part.
Take part in WHAT, exactly??
Why did the referee in the semi final suddenly decide to give Minguzzi an extra point AFTER the second period had ended?
Why did Fila refuse to even read the swedish protest?
Why did the referee laugh in Abrahamians face after the match?
In my opinion Ara Abrahamian did the only thing he could do if he wants to open the eyes of the world for how corrupted Fila is! Honestly, would you even have noticed if he would just have complained about it? -I doubt it.
For all Americans who whine about unsportman-like conduct, the entire AMERICAN basketball team did the SAME THING to the Russians in the 1972 olympics. They refused the silver medal. They were appluaded back in the US. I guess hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Regardless of whether Ara was justified in his actions, I’ve never seen Swedes get so fired up before. Having lived there for a year I’ve noticed a few things about the Swedes: They show little emotion. They keep their feelings to themselves. And they generally avoid controversy. All that went out the window with Ara’s protest. I’m glad to see them cut loose. Although if this would have been a natural born Swede (Ara is originally Armenian and didn’t get his Swedish citizenship until his 20s), I doubt we would have seen that fire.