Olympics-Wrestling-Angry Swede throws down medal, quits

Why?click more to find out...(C)

BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his Olympic bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for greco-roman gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as "politics".


Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.


"I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold," he said.


A bitter Abrahamian, silver medallist at Athens 2004 who had high hopes of top honours in the 84kg competition in Beijing, announced he was quitting the sport.


"This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure," the 33-year-old said.


The Swedish wrestler had to be restrained by team mates earlier when a row erupted with judges over the decision in a semi-final bout at the Chinese Agricultural University Gym with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on the take gold.


Abrahamian shouted at the referee and judges then went over to their seats to speak to them up close. He angrily threw off the restraining arm of a team official then turned and left.


Swedish fans booed loudly as the judges filed out of the arena. Abrahamian said nothing to waiting reporters but whacked an aluminium barricade with his fist as he left the hall.


The gold medallist, who kissed the Chinese medal bearer after receiving his gold, said Abrahamian's walkout "did in a way spoil the victory ceremony for me".


"Certainly one can always question decisions made in the course of refereeing, but in sports it is appropriate to show sportsmanship and accept the results," Minguzzi said.


Hungary's Zoltan Fodor, an outsider who said he "never dreamed of reaching the final" won the silver.


The International Olympic Committee said it was investigating the dispute with the wrestling federation FILA, which Abrahamian said "does not play fair".


"We are in contact with the wrestling federation to establish the exact facts," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said.


Abrahamian later said he believed his loss to the eventual gold medallist Minguzzi was "totally unjustified". The wrestler said his friends "called me just 20 minutes before the (bronze) competition, begging me to compete".


"I decided that I had come this far and didn't want to let them down, so I wrestled," he said.


Swedish coach Leo Myllari said: "It's all politics."

Myllari did not say if he intended to lodge a formal protest over the decision by referee Jean-Marc Petoud of Switzerland, judge Lee Ronald Mackay of Canada, and mat chairman Guillermo Orestes Molina of Cuba. (Additional reporting by Simon Denyer; editing by Keith Weir)

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• news
• 2008
• beijing
• olympics
• Wrestling-Angry
• Swede
• throws
• down
• medal
• quits

[ruchieru]

What exactly happened? The description of this video only talks about his angry actions (sounding really biased btw).

What happened to cause his anger? Does anyone know?

[horsecowgirl]

b cuz he thought he was better and he was gonna have gold but they give him bronze so he was soo not happy so he put his bronze medal on the floor and say he wanted gold. but i would of kept it anyways lol he is no more aloud to go in all the next olympics he has been banned. plz reply

[jiggyshit]

because it was a bullshit call.. the ref gave the other guy points cos he reckons that abrahamian broke the rules, which all the camera angles show he didn't... how the ref missed it is unbelievable.. it's an outrage and embarresing so the wrestling community.. and the fact that the ref is cousin with the chairman of Fila is a disgrace.. he'd get away with murder...

[loppanloppan]

fuck you everybody thats talking shit about ara he is one of the best wrestlers we have in sweden. Do you even know what hapend no you dont but i do. he is going in to the ring to do his match and sudenly the judge gives him a warning out of no where. that warning was no mistake the.(italien was the judge cusin) now you can go and fuck your self if you are talking shit of swedish wrestlers agian

[SuperAli169]

he didnt throw the medal he put it on the ground

[MrWainwright95]

@horsecowgirl You stupid disrespectfull fuck. You know nothing about wrestling at all. Did you even watch the semi-final? He got robbed for fuck sake. He WAS the better one of them and the only thing that was in the blue zone was his hand. The italian guy was in the blue zone with his whole body many times. Ara Abrahamian left the bronze medal to show the corrution in this sport. Why would he want it when he shouldnt even have lost that semi-final. Ara is the only man thats been brave enough

[swassontelus]

@nbkcq28 Trust me, as you get older, sports is starting to look like baby drama queen videos (whether NHL, NFL, MLB, Boxing, Soccer, etc...). Figure skating has more testosterone that many babies who play todays 'pro' sports.

[nbkcq28]

@swassontelus Then you should be watching videos about pollution instead of responding to sports vids.

[swassontelus]

@nbkcq28 Who gives a sweet jesus about sports on TV (I play sports btw). We should turn our passion against those who pollute.

[swassontelus]

Are you saying Swedish meatballs don't necessarily go well with Italian meat sauce?

[iHye1]

@azerbaijan1000 I Bet Your Mad Because Your Mom Didn't Get Awarded A Gold Medal For Not Sucking Enough Armenian Dicks, So Why Don't You Just Man Up And Help Her Out, Rather Than You Just Being a lil Fag on YouTube..

[Tagueledechintock]

I didn't know Youtube also shares comic books.

[nbkcq28]

He was cheated of his rightful place. I don't blame him for reacting in this way. You never know when crooked politics will show up in sports. I still remember the gold medal going to Russian a few years back in figure skating. There was a deal between 3 countries predetermining who would get what medal. Thankfully, it was exposed and the Canadians got the gold medal that they deserved. It sucks when it is blatant and nothing is done about it. Sweden should have won! I'm American btw.