I do not like Ara Abrahamian. Abrahamian is the Swedish wrestler who won bronze in the Olympics. He believed that he was robbed of a chance to wrestle for gold in his semifinal match. He stormed off after the match in question, but later returned to wrestle for bronze. He won.
It was his actions that followed his winning that disgusted me. Abrahamian went to the podium, momentarily accepted the medal, only to walk to the middle leave the medal in disgust and then leave the arena without so much as a word to any of his opponents. The epitome of class really.
I wrote three different posts about this:
Car Trouble, a Bronze Medal to Ara Abrahamian, and Swedish Disgrace
Swedish Olympic Wrestler Ara Abrahamian
Ara Abrahamian - Swedish Olympic Wrestler Loses Bronze Medal
The first of which generated some lovely comments demonstrating that there were a lot of Swedes that didn’t agree with me. At all. They see his actions as some sort of political protest against the evils of the wrestling world. They were, and continue to be, vociferous in their support for the man. Maybe it was because he walked out of the arena with his fist raised a la Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. I don’t know. Because it’s nowhere near the same level. And to compare it to that is frankly somewhat insulting to issues that actually deserve some sort of protest.
However you look at it, Abrahamian had a slight change of heart. At least to some degree. Because he made an effort to get his medal back. You know, after he left it on the mat in disgust. He was just kidding apparently.
Turns out the Court of Arbitration for Sport didn’t think he was kidding. They are keeping the medal. Abrahamian will not have his bronze medal reinstated. And I’m glad. He made his decision when he left the medal on the ground. He made his decision when he walked out of the ceremony. He made his decision when he made no effort to apologize in any way. Now he gets to live with that decision.
Welcome to Sweden. Where Swedish wrestlers have a change of heart. Six months later.
Only Norwegians are worse losers than Swedish. Sorry for me saying it, but that's how I see it from here.
ReplyDeleteI don't even know what that's supposed to mean???
ReplyDeleteAra did the right thing. The blatant disregard for the rules that the wrestling officials displayed disgust me.
ReplyDeleteHe won the bronze-medal, end of story. Oh he left it on the mat..someone call the police! What a ruffian. lol
so you win the broze, be a good sport and take the medel and congratulate your opponents don't leave it on the podium and walk away.
ReplyDeleteI guess it would have been more consistent with his complaint to not go the match for the bronze medal at all. That would have looked more sportsmanlike.
ReplyDeleteBut I wonder if that would have created the same media stir as now happened. I think the attention to this story from the media is what forced the officials to actually change the rules to the better.
Ara doesn't need his bronze medal anyway. He already has a silver.
Didn't Ara say that he did not want the medal, but wanted a discussion of the abuse of the rules and the partiality of the referees?
ReplyDelete@smek - a little nordic bashing. good times.
ReplyDelete@minh - smek is from finland. Im pretty sure its mandatory that finnish people poke a bit of fun at norwegians and swedes.
@anonymous - I disagree. definitely not the right thing. had he decided not to wrestle then fine. or even if he decided not to go to the medal ceremony then fine. but to go accept it and then interrupt and leave it on the mat was just selfish and ridiculous.
@anonymous - agreed.
@eklandisk - I think it would have still generated a lot of pres. or even if he had wrestled and then not gone to the medal ceremony. Im even ok with that. it was the whole going, accepting, and then leaving it in the mdidle that bothered me.
@anonymous - maybe in the beginning. but very quietly heseems to have made a request to have his bronze medal restored. which was refused.
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ReplyDeleteooh I like it. a coup d'etat if you will.
ReplyDeleteWell, one thing is for sure. I did'nt think or know much about wrestling before this. But now i see it as a corrupt disgrace to other sports. If you want to win, buy the referee? That's not OK. I will never watch or care about wrestling again. Olympic Wrestling is pretty much like the staged one you have in america. :D
ReplyDeletenoooooo....wrestling in the us isn't staged! at least santa is real.
ReplyDeleteAra did the right thing. And at the end of the day what an American thinks of him is largely irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't care about the medal. But he tried getting it back for his country's sake. :)
so he did the right thing by refusing it? but he did the right thing by asking for it back? which was done for the sake of the country? which is what plenty of people were arguing was his reason for refusing the medal.
ReplyDeleteyou cant have your cake and eat it too.
He refused the medal because of corruption in the sport. And FILA has taken notice and the rules will now be reformed.
ReplyDeleteHe asked for the medal back because in the protest SWEDEN lost a medal. He might not want it himself but he tried to get it back for his country.
It makes perfect sense to me.
ok.
ReplyDelete