I was about to post a comment about Sarah Stevenson's loss in the Olympic quarter-final in Taekwondo and questions of fairness in sport. She had clearly won the bout, but the judges somehow missed her winning kick giving the Chinese player victory. Her dreams of an Olympic gold seemed to have been destroyed by incompetence or worse. BUT, amazingly, this unfair result has been overturned after a British protest! Any neutral spectator must have felt a terrible sense of injustice until the reversed decision.
Fairness is crucial to our notion of what sport is and why it matters - the reversed decision is a clear victory for the spirit of sport. Had the decision stood, the Olympics and the sport of Taekwondo would have been badly damaged. There would always have been the suspicion that the fact that the reigning Olympic champion was Chinese had been a factor in the bizarre initial result.
Taekwondo need to evolve. Next world championship in 2009, will introduce elettronic scoring system like fencing. But I think a camera review it's a necessary support also.
Posted by: Taekwondo Tricolore | September 29, 2008 at 12:20 AM