At the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, Chinese gymnast Zhang Chenglong and South Korea’s Kim Soo-Myun finished in a tie for the gold medal in the men’s floor exercise final. But several months later, the result became the center of a judging scandal. The FIG alleged that Chinese judge Shao Bin, who was serving on the difficulty panel, had altered an execution score before it was posted, without consulting the execution-panel chair or the superior jury. According to the FIG, the change raised Zhang from second place into a tie for first.
Initially, the Chinese Gymnastics Association distanced itself from Shao’s actions, describing the score change as his own unilateral decision and promising further action once the FIG completed its investigation. But Shao later offered a very different account. He acknowledged changing the score but argued that he had done so to correct an injustice, insisting that Zhang had performed better and deserved the gold medal. Chinese team officials, including head coach Huang Yubin, publicly defended him, while also questioning why FIG technical delegate and superior-jury president Adrian Stoica had ultimately approved the competition results.
The dispute, therefore, became about more than whether a score had been changed: the parties disagreed over who knew about the alteration, who bore responsibility for allowing the changed score to stand, and whether Shao’s stated desire to correct what he regarded as a judging error could justify bypassing established procedures. In August 2011, the FIG ultimately found Shao guilty of fraud, downgraded his judging status, and ordered him to pay $8,800 in legal costs.
Here’s some of the press coverage of the judging controversy.
