Yang Tae Young
He also participated in the 2003 Worlds in Anaheim, where he helped the Korean squad qualify a full team to the 2004 Olympics with a twelfth-place finish. At the 2004 Olympics, Yang contributed to the Korean team's fourth place finish, placed tenth on high bar, and won a bronze medal in the all-around.
He won a bronze medal at the team event in the 2006 Asian Games.
2004 Olympics controversy
Yang is perhaps best known for being one of the athletes involved in a major judging scandal at the 2004 Olympics. In the all-around, Yang finished third, behind his teammate Kim Dae-Eun and American Paul Hamm.
When Yang performed on the parallel bars, one of his elements was mistaken for a simpler skill.
The identical routine had received a 10.0 SV in both the team qualifying and team finals sessions at the Olympics. If it had been valued at a 10.0 during the all-around, and the rest of the meet had proceeded the same way, Yang might have finished in first place.
The Korean Olympic Committee, Yang and his coaches filed a protest about the results, and an investigation was opened. After reviewing the situation, International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) officials acknowledged that the SV for the routine had indeed been incorrectly calculated, and suspended the three judges responsible for the error, but ruled that there was no way to change the results after the meet had concluded.
A major point of contention was the time at which the score protest was filed. The Korean Olympic Committee claimed that one of the judges on the parallel bars panel, Kim Dong Min, noticed that the Start Value was amiss during the competition, informed Yang's coaches directly after the meet, and that a protest was lodged around the time of the medal ceremony.
The FIG stated that in fact, no protest had been filed until later in the day, when the athletes were leaving the arena. Members of the Korean delegation consulted the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Dr.
The IOC stated that it would not intervene, and would uphold the FIG's decision, unless there was evidence of deliberate underscoring or other judging impropriety. The possibility of awarding a second gold medal to Yang was discussed, but was not endorsed by Rogge.
The United States Olympic Committee also withdrew their support of this idea after FIG President Bruno Grandi suggested that Hamm give his medal to Yang as a gesture of goodwill. The USOC maintained that Hamm had done nothing personally wrong, he had merely competed in the meet, and that he should not be punished for the errors of the gymnastics officials.
Furthermore, Grandi's suggestion went against the FIG's official ruling on the case. On August 28, 2004, Yang and the Korean Olympic Committee filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.