The Olympic officials did more damage to their image in the way they handled this situation than all the other bad decisions they have made through the years. This is worse than when they disqualified Jessica Hardy, the world record holder in a swimming event because of a failed drug test and did not let her compete only to find out after the Olympics that it was a false report and reinstated her, she missed the whole Olympics and all they could say is Oh well.

This ridiculous organization is not about fairness,

Although I admit readily to having little knowledge of how fencing bouts are scored, I have heard it on good authority that it wasn't as clear cut as it appeared. Something to do with the fact that the clocks in fencing don't count milliseconds so when the clock malfunctioned, the referees/judges had to decide exactly when the second had started and how much time was left. It was an unprecedented situation that had never happened before and no-one knew what to do so they argued back and forth endlessly. The fight could not progress to another round, it all had to be decided on whether that final hit was allowed or not. No, it wasn't fair. But an equal, though less emotional, case could have been made for the German had the decision gone the other way.

"Shin broke down in tears for the second time and while her opponent celebrated she remained on the piste"

It's really no surprise she lost, she was probably half-cut by that point.

Using the term "slow-handicapping" shows sloppy proofing and therefore sloppy journalism. Deleting my previous comment highlighting your lack of editing shows a lack of journalistic ethics and responsibility.

Slow-handicapping? Really?

what a load of rubbish... feel like vomitting .. watched it unfold... how unfair ... how pathetic.. poor woman has worked hard to get here only to have it taken away from her because of some inept plebs!!

Who is to be blamed? I see the situation like this. A gentleman host a house party and there would be so many guests that he needed to hire a caterer. So the party is on and the caterer is messing up the party.

Screw those judges, clearly there was something fishy going on to give Heidemann extra time and try to have the Korean coach pay for an appeal. Probably bribed judges from the start. They should hold an official victory ceremony for Shin Lam after this and give her the medal she deserves and broadcoast in on national TV!

Where's the fairness?

"BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport Everyone's favourite protestor Shin A Lam now back in action and competing for a bronze. Watch here."
"BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport
Shin A Lam is beaten in the bronze medal match of the women's individual epee by China's Sun Yujie. Lost, protested. Lost again"

cant understand the level of refereeing and attributes of bbc. additionally, australia refereeing was decided all game of german. pay off?

What's ridiculous is that Olympic fencing apparently only uses seconds, not milliseconds. Which means that that are behind my primary school sports day, Egg and Spoon race in terms of precise timing.

this is really unfair, i feel so sorry for south korea, the stange thing is a friend of mine said that they were gonna have K-pop artists for music, this year and now...i think they should for such an unfair round!

If it was a technical mistake then it should have been rendered null and void then put to a rematch.

I understand where many people are coming at, but even so I do not believe Germany or London should take blame for what has happened. Nor should the people living in those places be bashed for what has happened. If someone people were to be blamed it'd definitely be the referee, the judge panel, and Heidemann. The referee and judge panel being blamed for their poor decision making because no matter how you look at it, a person can only move so fast; but to make 3 double hits in 1 second is ridiculous. Then there's Heidemann whom I'm sure knows that she should of lost yet was proud when taking this "victory." What kind of athlete would be proud of such a victory? Sigh, disappointed.

if the timing was wrong... she shouldve won? im not familiar with the sport but from what i gather (admittedly... only from this article) this... is just wrong

I'm Korean. her name is Shin A Lam. not Shin Lam.

Well this shows Heidemann has no sportsmanship and the referee doesn't knows how to count and use simple human's logic.

Shame on Heidermann ~ No Controversy at all ! The equipment malfunctioned -
Shame on Heidermann she should have shown integrity and sportsmanship not shame and greed. I cannot believe she accepted the win she did not deserve or earn.

Yes, and from the TV live show, you can see how she shown her greedy face and rush to "shake hands" by grabbing Shin's hand like her last unfair hit.

her name is SHIN AH-RAM/AH-LAM, not shin lam. just puttin that out there.

I don't know what's up with this year's Olympic..
Decisions were made ridiculously..

WHAT IS THE POINT IS US OR REFEREE WATCHING whether at the actual games or on the television to WITNESS WINS when that WIN is decided later NO MATTER WHAT WE SAW? We might just well have score sheets and not show the games at all!!TO anyone! Not even the ref. Yesterday Judo was a disgrace now this. Gawd as a Londoner this is really embarrassing. 4 years training for a couple of idiots to make the rules up as they go....a joke

Don't cry. You were amazing. I'm so proud of you.

Don't cry. You were amazing! I'm so proud of you.

Once every 4 years esoteric minority sports like fencing get a free global publicity boost via the olympics. And how did the fat men in suits who run fencing use this wonderful opportunity? By giving us a ninety minute demonstration of pompous huffing and puffing throughout which the interests of competitors and spectators alike were treated with complete contempt.
Well done boys: Champagne and cigars all round

What is "slow-handicapping"?

Did German used some kinda bullet time skill or something? How can she attempt attack three times in a second? Totally amazing....

yo I don't think it's reasonable to bash on Germans. It's Olympic referees who have the problems. Don't go with Korea vs German. I don't think there's nothing to do with that

I think she means "the German fencer"...as in that particular person, not "Germans" in general.

I can't believe this happened at the Olympics... I don't understand why they didn't or won't recognize that the time was off. There's video footage that shows straight out that the timer's 1 second was not correct and that Heidemann had made her final move when it was over a second. I feel so bad that her hard work and training was all lost to this controversial one second... This isn't the Olympics that I've been waiting for 4 years to watch with family and friends.

I am feeling exactly the same..Just the other day I was telling my friend how much I loved the olympics for the fairness and equality in sportsmanship that it offers with so many countries being represented in one place. And then this happens! It's sad to say that if things like this continue, the Olympics will soon lose it's true meaning and no one will take it serious anymore. Its so wrong to see that "officials" allow things like this to happen, I mean come on! You don't have to be a professional referee to have noticed that this was a bad call! Shame on them!

I doubt there's ever a true fairness in Olympics. Look how many swimming games there are! 50m, 100m, 200m, etc.. And why is that?

this Olympic is the worst Olympic I've ev\er saw in my entire life. the referee should really go learn how to count, not just this fencing, but judo, along with the swimming.. i feel like they are almost purposely holding grudges against Korea and trying to destroy the hard-working athletes who've spent the past 4 years pushing themselves.

how can you say its the worst you ever saw? it was one misjudgment from the FIE and olympic comittee. neither presidents of which are british. and there is more than just one event at the olympics, all of which so far have been pretty unadventful. what happened to her was clearly unfair, but don't take it out on the rest of the olympics.

hj94kim also thought that judo and swimming were bad events for Korea...so 3(?) misjudgments from the Olympic Committee, and NO mention of "Britain" in a negative light. Yes, there is more than one event...that's where "fencing, but judo, along with swimming.. " come from.

lol.... what?
thats an opinion on this years olympics, not on britain. misjudgements = bad olympics
i dont see the logic....

London, the worst Olympic EVER.

Did you actually watch the match? I did.

If any one is to blame its the officals of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE). So direct your criticism at them.

Point scoring used to be done by several judges, but they have replaced these with an electronic touch system with sensors on the tip of the epee foil or sabre and a transmitter inside the bellguard of the handle linked to equipment and flasning lights etc, this makes the sport a bit more interesting for the spectators, as well as more accurate when it comes to knowing who has hit and when.

The judge an Austrian, was faultless, she judged the match perfectly according to what she saw, she saw one second on the clock when Heidmann scored the winning point so no problem there, the problem possibly lies within the time keeping of the round itself.

Usually the judge holds both a device to award the points and a second device to stop/start the clock.

However in Olympic events they have a seperate person keeping the time. So herein lies the problem, there will always be a small delay from when the ref starts the bout and the time keeper staring the timer and the same with the reverse when the bout is stopped.

Now it all came down to the last second of time, but here is something you may not know, the previous round in that match should have been 3mins long, but was stopped after 1 min and abandoned, this was due to 'non combat' this is where the referee basically cancels that round as the fighters are basically not fighting.

So the precious seconds which this match came down to were wasted by both fighters not using the whole time they had left in the previous round.

Maybe you should watch more fencing to gain an understanding of how difficult it is to judge such a fast paced sport.

I am an ex fencer as well by the way.

i think this is the only reasonable and accurate comment here. people are being overly and dramatic and emotional about this. If there had been one extra second on any round nobody would have batted an eye

in fencing, EVERY SECOND matters. if you had paid attention to anything- the article, even- then you would realize that the whole thing comes out of one extra second. to put it in perspective, *supposedly* it only took 1 second for the German fencer to score 3 double hits...and that one point was the decision-maker. One second was the difference.

then why did both athletes waste 120 precious seconds from the previous bout?

I am well aware that time was crucial,
the rules regarding time are as follows

1) Duration of the bout is held to mean the 'effective duration' that is the total of the intervals of time between the orders 'play' and 'halt' as given by the referee.

Also here is the crucial rule

t32 1) At the expiry of regulation fencing time if the clock is linked to scoring apparatus (obligatory for FIE competitions) it must set off a loud audible signal which cuts off the scoring apparatus and does not remove hits scored before the cessation of time. The bout stops with the audible signal.

'The judge an Austrian, was faultless, she judged the match perfectly according to what she saw'

What do you say about the distance between the fencers before the last action? Did you see how close did the German get? According to the rules they cannot be able to touch weapons with their arms straight. The weapons were almost touching with the arms bended. That's an evident mistake.

That's a bit harsh, but South Korea has had terrible luck with the referees, first in swimming, then Judo and finally fencing.

thats a bit harsh, there have been controversies of some form at almost every olympics. and besides, the officials arn't all british.

Almost none of the officials will be British, we aren't a fencing power. They will mainly be French, Italian, Russian and German.

Err.... do you think it was a 'fencing power' that made that decision? Surely anyone with any knowledge of the sport would have known better? Maybe it was a vindictive referee? An ex-boyfriend perhaps...? The world of fencing is a small one...

Still she wasn't blaming the brits themselves, shes just stating that this Olympics taking place in London is the worse one she's experienced.

where dose sportsmanship go like this unfair call in London Olympic?It's not the first one. I am seized with a rage.

How can this be possible? THIS IS TOTALLY UNFAIR! I thought the olympic is based on the justice but what I believed was wrong. I was too naive indeed. This olympic is really disappointing. OH, AND I LEARNED that 1 SECOND IN LONDON IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I KNOW.

clam down? Check the spelling please