Rogge says no to duplicate golds
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-27 21:49

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on Friday that the IOC had rejected South Korean requests for the awarding of duplicate gold medal to South Korean Yang Tae-Yong, who lost the men's all-around gymnastics gold to American Paul Hamm because of a judging mistake.

"We are not going to give medals for so-called humanitarian or emotional reasons," Rogge said at a breakfast meeting with reporters.

Hamm won last week after judges mistakenly scored the start value of a parallel bars routine by Yang, who picked the bronze.

The world gymnastics body FIG had suspended three judges, but said the results were final.

The Olympic chief reaffirmed the IOC "zero tolerance" policy on drug cheats.

So far more than 20 athletes have been expelled from the Games for drugs.

"Today the general public know we mean business," said Rogge. " It is more and more difficult to cheat in the Olympics. What counts is we act against this evil drug use."

Rogge said highly of Japan's performance but said he was not surprised.

Referring to 34 medals including 15 in gold, the most ever for Japan in a single Olympics, Rogge said, "I am absolutely not surprised to see this result."

He inspected the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences in Tokyo when he visited Japan in 2002 and was impressed with the facility' s technology and sophistication.

"This is the most hi-tech sports center I've seen in my life... and I think it shows in the huge increase in the medals and the performance of the Japanese team, also in sports where they were not traditionally present," he said.