RealGM

Other than an affinity for cigars and a knack for surviving bungled CIA coup attempts, Fidel Castro and I don't have much in common. But on one topic we can agree: Olympic judging is a joke.

After watching two of his country's boxers succumb to (perceived) judging error, Castro wrote today:

It's a good thing no Cuban gymnasts were involved in the gymnastics judging controversy; Fidel was liable to have cut off Sino-Cuban trade relations following the awarding of the bronze medal to Cheng Fei.

Blame Rasho wrote:Roy Jones Jr....

He got screwed out of a gold metal due to the host city wine and dining the judges before the contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cNugcG6zg

Here is the fight... you tell me he doesn't deserve the gold...

Most overachieving (or the opposite of robbed) overall team: How does a country like China go from winning one bronze medal in '04 to winning two golds, a silver and a bronze in '08? Maybe it dramatically improved its boxing program in four years. Or maybe it hosted the Olympics.

As NBC analyst Teddy Atlas said on several occasions, the judges' fingers just somehow seemed to work better on the keypads when the Chinese were fighting. Eventual light flyweight gold medalist Zou Shiming might not have reached the quarterfinals if not for some friendly scoring, and featherweight Yang Liu's un-penalized grappling in his second-round match with Ecuador's Luis Porozo enabled him to hang on -- literally -- for an infuriating 6-5 win.

Plus, in the two bouts involving Chinese fighters that ended in tie scores, the crowd favorites prevailed under the mysterious "countback" system, where total punches recorded by the individual judges are supposedly tallied up, but the numbers are never revealed. It doesn't get much fishier than light heavyweight Zhang Xiaoping celebrating his semifinal fight ending in a tie, as if the announcement that he'd prevail in the tiebreaker was a mere formality.