What a little BITCH!

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

Angry Swede throws down medal, quits.

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/4605/15682321du2.jpg

 

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as “politics.”

 

Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.

 

“I don’t care about this medal. I wanted gold,” he said.

 

A bitter Abrahamian, silver medalist at Athens 2004 who had high hopes of top honors in the 84kg competition in Beijing, announced he was quitting the sport.

 

“This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure,” he said.

 

The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by teammates earlier when a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semifinal bout at the Chinese Agricultural University Gym with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on the take gold.

 

Abrahamian shouted at the referee and judges then went over to their seats to speak to them up close. He angrily threw off the restraining arm of a team official then turned and left.

 

Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.

 

Abrahamian later said he believed his loss to the eventual gold medalist Minguzzi was “totally unjustified.” The wrestler said his friends “called me just 20 minutes before the (bronze) competition, begging me to compete.”

 

“I decided that I had come this far and didn’t want to let them down, so I wrestled,” he said.

 

Swedish coach Leo Myllari said: “It’s all politics.”

 

Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba.

 

Other favourites went out in the semi-finals or earlier.

 

Athens 96kg gold medallist Karam Gaber of Egypt failed to make it to the quarterfinals. Aleksey Mishin of Russia, who took Athens gold in the 84kg class, was beaten by Minguzzi. Ramaz Nozazde of Georgia, who took silver in Athens, succumbed to Marek Svec of the Czech Republic, still fighting at age 35. Svec then lost to Russia’s European champion Aslanbek Kushtov, who caught him with a spectacular fall.

 

In the heavyweight 120kg class, Armenia’s Yuri Patrikeev and Dremiel Byers of the United States, both favored as finalists, failed to go through.

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

Banned from the sport for life. Stripped of the medal he threw to the floor. Supernanny could not have done better with this spoiled little brat. (he does look hot though: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/swe/Ara+Abrahamian/231301/gallery )

 

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Swedish wrestler stripped of bronze medal

By STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer

8 hours, 19 minutes ago

 

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BEIJING (AP)—A Swedish wrestler was disqualified and stripped of his bronze medal Saturday for dropping the prize in protest after a disputed loss at the Beijing Olympics.

 

Ara Abrahamian was punished by the International Olympic Committee for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony, becoming the fourth athlete kicked out of the games and bringing the number of medals removed to three.

 

Abrahamian became incensed when a disputed penalty call decided his semifinal match against Italian Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 84-kilogram division Thursday.

 

During the medal ceremony, the Armenian-born Abrahamian—who also lost a 2004 Olympic semifinal match on a disputed call—took the bronze from around his neck and, angrily, dropped it on the mat as he walked away. He did not take part in the rest of the medal ceremony.

 

 

The IOC executive board ruled Abrahamian’s actions amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

 

“It was felt that his behavior on the medal podium and during the medal ceremony was not appropriate,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. “His behavior 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.”

 

The IOC said no athlete will receive Abrahamian’s medal because his disqualification was not connected to the competition itself, meaning there will be only one bronze medalist, Nazmi Avluca of Turkey. Normally, there are two at each weight class.

 

The 28-year-old Abrahamian had to be restrained from going after matside officials following his loss to Minguzzi. He stormed away from the area where interviews are conducted and slammed a door to the dressing rooms so hard it shook an entire wall. He weighed whether to skip the bronze medal match, only to have friends talk him into competing.

 

The IOC said Abrahamian violated two rules of the Olympic charter, one which bans any sort of demonstrations and another which demands respect for all Olympic athletes.

 

“The awards ceremony is a highly symbolic ritual, acknowledged as such by all athletes and other participants,” the IOC said. “Any disruption by any athlete, in particular a medalist, is in itself an insult to the other athletes and to the Olympic Movement. It is also contrary to the spirit of fair play.”

 

Abrahamian never expressed regret or offered an apology, the IOC said. The international wrestling federation was asked to consider any further sanctions against the two-time world champion.

 

His medal was the third stripped at the Beijing Games so far.

 

On Friday, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su had his silver and bronze medals taken away after failing a doping test. Also expelled for doping violations have been Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.

 

Abrahamian’s case is not the first of its kind.

 

A weightlifter at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was stripped of his bronze medal after rejecting it during the medal ceremony. Ibragim Samadov, competing in the light heavyweight category for the Unified Team of the former Soviet Union, was upset with his performance and refused to have the medal placed around his neck and only accepted it in his hand. He then put it down and walked off.

 

Samadov later apologized, but the IOC decision upheld its decision to disqualify him. He later was banned for life by the sport’s governing body.

 

AP Sports Writer Alan Robinson contributed to this report.

[Guest zipperzone]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

>Banned from the sport for life. Stripped of the medal he

>threw to the floor. Supernanny could not have done better

>with this spoiled little brat. (he does look hot though:

 

I agree that his behavior was idiotic. But banned for life? Give me a break! I find the IOC is often a pain in the ass. Someone must have whispered in their ear that they were God. Sadly they are far from that - just a bunch of pompus farts who are drunk with the fumes of their own importance.

[fedssocr1]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

well, he retired anyway so I am not sure how much a ban means unless he is also banned from coaching or something like that as well. He did, after all, say that the people running the sport were corrupt. So you can see where they are coming from in banning him.

 

On the other hand calling him a whiny brat doesn't seem right to me either. If he really did get cheated he's got every right to be pissed off and tell them where to put their medal. The reports I read seem to indicate there were some irregularities. Likewise everyone has been bitching about the boxing scoring system and pointing out how odd it is that the Chinese, who have never been known as good boxers, have been winning their bouts under very strange circumstances.

[+ Italiano]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

Well, the Italian Minguzzi who got the Gold and who caused his anger is MUCH hotter than him.

 

:9 :7

[CT Dick]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

>Well, the Italian Minguzzi who got the Gold and who caused

>his anger is MUCH hotter than him.

>

> :9 :7

 

Agreed!

Dick

http://www.fijlkam.it/uploads/tx_photogallery/Kg_84_Andrea_Minguzzi.jpg

[KMEM]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

I agree that he is entitled to be unhappy with his results but NOT IN PUBLIC. He has dishonored himself and his country with his behavior. There are plenty of things to be dissatisfied about with Olympic judging but the medals ceremony is not the place to cure the problem, is it?

 

Best regards,

KMEM

[JT Brooklyn]

RE: A well deserved TIME OUT!

 

I'd Polish Miguzzi's Medal among other thing's any day! :9 :9 :9 :9