Skaters who don’t finish shouldn’t medal

Apolo Ohno was robbed in the final Olympic 500-meter short-track race. While defending himself from the aggressive attack of a Canadian skater, trying to cut him off, he put his hand on the skater's hip. The skater fell and Ohno was disqualified. Then the coup de grace was that the Canadian skater, who didn't even finish the race, was awarded a medal.

However, if you think about what really might have happened to bring about this unjustified result, you have two additional possible factors: the Canadian, knowing the rules, faked falling down, knowing he could be awarded a medal and the decision in favor of the Canadian was made by a Canadian judge (Is he going to choose an American skater over a Canadian skater?).

The bottom line is that the rules need to be re-examined and changed, so that a competitor who does not finish an event can't get a medal. Ohno was robbed by the Canadian conspiracy.

Gary Fischer

Iowa City