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Monday, July 30, 2012

Park Tae Hwan- Fortunately There's Video

Wow...the London Olympics sure have gotten off to a rocky start. There were a couple of upsets within the first couple of days alone.

Swimming icon Michael Phelps didn't win gold in the Men's 400m Individual, he didn't even get on the podium! His team mate, Ryan Lochte, took home the gold.

Jordyn Wieber, the favorite amongst the U.S. women's gymnasts, had an off start with little mistakes on beam and vault. She was ousted from going to the all-around individuals final. Teammates Gabby Douglas and quiet warrior Aly Raisman will be representing the U.S.

But what I thought was the most embarassing, lucky, and newsworthy event of the first couple of days, was the "DQ" (disqualification) of South Korea's aquatic hero, Park Tae Hwan.

In a qualifying heat for the 400m on Saturday, Park swam his best, clearly out-swimming everyone else in the pool. As he was waiting for the times to post, he was given the bad news that he was disqualified for a "false start". Ok, what?

Immediately, footage of the start rolled and again, the question, "what?" From my point of view, and I'm sure most others, it was a clean start.

The South Korean's immediately contested the ruling, which I am so glad they did, and FINA, the sport's global governing body, overturned the ruling.

How embarrassing for the officials watching the event. But that's the Olympics for you.

Park advanced to the final and went on to win Silver, just behind China's Sun Yang.

Jja, Park Tae Hwan, lucky they have video these days.

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