Cascade Failure

Haters gonna hate, failers gonna fail. In the wake of last week's three-second-long second that cost South Korean fencer Shin A-Lam a shot at the gold medal, the International Fencing Federation, which goes by the initials of its name in French, FIE, said they would award a "special medal" to Shin for her sportsmanship.

According to some reports, the FIE acknowledged the error in private, acknowledging that it came at the hands of a teenaged volunteer timekeeper. The London Olympic Committee said they don't have teenaged volunteers working in the capacity of event officials. Either way, the timekeeper's error was just that -- a mistake made in a moment. The brutal incompetence of the FIE and Olympic officials was much more deliberate. Eventually came the offer of the so-called special medal, which the FIE  said was all they could do.

Bunk, of course. They could have not made Shin sit on the piste, or playing surface, for almost an hour while they dithered over the appeal. They could have not made the Korean team put up money before they would even agree to hear the appeal. They could have replayed the final second without a timekeeper whose thumb was quite obviously somewhere other than the clock button. They could have reversed the match result because Shin's opponent "won" via a clock error. They could have declared the whole thing void and set a rematch. They could have admitted the error publicly and tendered their resignations en masse, effective immediately following the Games, taking responsibility for screwing up something as simple as having one second go by on the clock. They could have apologized to Shin personally, face-to-face.

Instead they chose to refuse to admit failure that everyone watching knows exists, making themselves look even less competent. When everyone knows you goofed, maintaining that you didn't is just a bigger goof. Shin, to her credit, refused the special medal offer, and went on to win a silver medal in the team competition. The FIE, meanwhile, continues to own the gold in buffoonery.

A quick PS to some folks who complained that the NBC television feed didn't show this story, instead opting for some of their silly human-interest packages and interviews: Try reading. It's good for you.

(H/T Opuszine)