Netizens give Olympic judges an earful

Chinese audiences were astounded when gymnast Chen Yibing won a silver medal in the men's rings final at the London Olympic Games on Aug 6, while Brazil's Arthur Nabarrete Zanetti won gold.

The difficulty score of both gymnasts was the same. The final score of Zanetti was 0.100 better than Chen's, despite the fact that Zanetti stepped backward when he landed while Chen produced a faultless routine. According to International Gymnastics Federation's rules, contestants can only appeal for their own difficulty score, rather than execution score.

He Kexin, the champion of the 2008 Olympic Games, had a similar experience and got a silver in the women's uneven bars final. Her difficulty score was 0.1 higher than gold medal winner Aliya Mustafina but her execution score was lower.

Former Olympic and world champion Liu Xuan said on her Sina Weibo there was no doubt that defending champion Chen would win. When she saw the results, she wrote that she couldn't understand the judges' final scores and the judges may be so eager to spend their holidays in Brazil that they fawned on Brazilians.

Live commentators from China and abroad were also dumbfounded. BBC's live broadcast host and hostess of the Games commented that Chen was "a very charming guy, no sign of the dissatisfaction with the judging," and "Chen Yibing made a silver in the ring's performance, but it's a gold in sportsmanship". They also said the Brazilian contestant "steals gold from Chen Yibing".

Chinese netizens were outraged about the injustice.

"Chen is the champion in our heart. The Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games is so unfair", netizen Cherry-jieru said on her microblog.

"Can I use bad language? No? Fine, then I have nothing to say. When I saw He Kexin was the first one to perform, I knew her destiny was the same of Chen's", netizen Paomokuangkuang commented online.

A netizen summarized the London Olympic Games as the worst in history, and gave various examples, such as British cyclist Philip Hindes admitting he fell on purpose so the competition could restart, and his team won the gold.

London Global Times posted on its Sina Weibo on Aug 4, "do you think the London Olympic Games is a success?" It received nearly 28,000 comments, most of them complaints about the injustice towards Chinese athletes, and its blunders.

"It only successfully stirred the patriotism of Chinese," posted by a netizen named Buaiwenshui.

Some Chinese netizens want to compensate Chen in their own way.

Ji Bingjian, CEO of a social media promotion company in Chengdu, Sichuan province, posted on Sina Weibo that he would give a gold medal to Chen on his own as a gift. Meanwhile, a netizen named Caominxingbao started raising 6,000 yuan ($942) to make a gold medal for Chen, and collected 2,530 yuan within two hours.

However Liang Shan, president of an IT company in Shenzhen, said on his micro blog it was a fair result as it was decided by several judges, but the media is misleading the public. When we win, we're domineering; when we lose, we say they are unfair. It's the typical attitude of being a weak nation, Liang said.