Athletistic / Artistic gymnastics. Before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (Greece), a generational change was underway in Russian artistic gymnastics. The legends were preparing to end their careers, but the lack of change forced Svetlana Khorkina and Alexei Nemov to go through the entire four-year cycle and prepare for their performance in the Greek capital.

Alexey Nemov arrived in Athens as one of the favorites for the medal and was the undisputed leader of the Russian team. Interestingly, during the preparation for the 2004 Olympics, Nemov suffered an injury, but still managed to approach the last major tournament of his career in excellent form. As a result, he will return from Greece without medals, but with the awareness of his well-deserved greatness.

Nemov’s star lit up during the Soviet era. In 1990, he became the winner in some types of all-around competition at the Spartakiad of Student Youth of the USSR. In 1993, Nemov won the RSFSR Cup in the all-around competition, and at the international meeting “Stars of the World 94” he became the bronze medalist in the all-around competition. In 1995, Alexey became world champion for the first time and also won four gold medals at the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg. During his first Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta (USA), the then 20-year-old gymnast became one of the main heroes of the competition. Alexey will win six medals from these Games: two gold, one silver and three bronze. This time, Nemov managed to win gold in the team all-around and vault.

Photo source: IOC

Four years later, at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney (Australia), Alexey Nemov would again win six medals: the same two gold, one silver and three bronze. This time, he will climb to the top of the podium in the individual all-around and the high bar exercises. And it is on the horizontal bar competition that Alexey will rely on the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Horizontal bar exercises closed out the 2004 Olympic Games program for gymnasts. Alexey easily reached the final on this apparatus and was perhaps considered the main favorite to win. The Russian was the only participant in the final who had six spectacular and difficult flights in his arsenal. In those years, there had not yet been a revolution in gymnastics, and therefore judges evaluated athletes on a 10-point scale (now athletes receive a score that includes points for the complexity and purity of the program executed).

Nemov arrived on the platform fully charged with the result and was simply inimitable. During the entire program, he only made one small mistake by taking a step upon landing. This stain should have deprived him of a tenth of a point. After finishing his speech, Alexei was visibly happy and the stands gave him a minute’s ovation. Many managed to believe that a new five-time Olympic champion was showing off on their television screens.

But something happened that will still be remembered today. The judges’ score was displayed on the scoreboard in the Olympic arena: 9.725. It allowed Alexey to take only an intermediate third place. An important point was the distribution of points in the judges’ scores, which was too large for gymnastics of those years – the judges rated the Russian’s performance from 9.6 to 9.8 points. It should be noted that none of the other participants in the competition on the horizontal bar had this gap exceeding 0.1 point. Disappointment immediately appeared on Alexei’s face, but for the first time in the history of gymnastics, the packed stands almost disrupted the Olympic tournament. The public not only supported Nemov due to the unfair decision of the judges, but also forced the judges to fidget and confuse in their testimony. Literally, the 12,000 people did not give the next gymnast the opportunity to perform, and the reputation of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the entire Athens Olympics was in serious jeopardy.

Photo source: New York Times

A team of six referees worked on the crossbar – coming from Romania, France, Iceland, Cuba, Malaysia and Canada. Many of these countries are still far from the artistic gymnastics elite. But this choice of judges was explained simply: at that time there was a rule according to which only representatives of countries whose participants were not represented at the decisive stage of the competition could work on the final. And it was not the most experienced judges, nor the most qualified, who were subjected to the righteous anger of the fans.

Nemov would later say that at that moment he was thinking exclusively about how he would have to return from Afrin without an Olympic medal. This had never happened before in Alexei’s brilliant career. The video footage shows how Alexei, during the ongoing storm in the stands, mechanically adjusts his uniform and wants to leave the place where the athletes, standing next to the camera, are waiting for the scores to be announced. It was only after a few minutes that the Russian understood what was happening around him. For nearly 10 minutes, fans whistled and honked their horns, demanding that the judges reconsider their scores. The announcer kept asking them to calm down, but 12,000 people weren’t going to calm down. It was so unexpected for the organizers that they simply didn’t know what to do next. In fact, the continuation of the competition was threatened.

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As a result, the judges had to make concessions. After long meetings, for the first time in the history of gymnastics, they decided to change Nemov’s grades. This has never happened in the history of artistic gymnastics. However, the referees once again showed their incompetence (or bias?) by increasing the Russian’s points in exactly such a way that he could not rise higher in the final protocol. This “document” was made to calm people down, but the trick didn’t work and the public became even angrier. It was like a real riot…

At that moment, only Alexei Nemov could save the situation. Immediately after him, Paul Hamm of the American team was to perform on the crossbar. Alexey had been friends with Hamm for a long time, so the American approached the Russian and asked him to somehow influence the stands. Alexei, without thinking, agreed to help stop the anger of the tribunes. The Russian again came out on the stage and gestured to the audience to give him the opportunity to continue the competition. Nemov did this, showing the nobility that only a true champion can have.

Photo source: Sport Express archives

After the Nemov incident, serious changes occurred in world artistic gymnastics. First, the judging system has been revised. It was this incident which prompted the FIG, in addition to the technical score, to introduce a difficulty score in order to make the judging more objective.

And Alexey Nemov ended his sports career after the Olympics. One can only imagine how disappointing it was for him to come out of the last competition of his life without a medal, even though he truly deserved gold. However, the episode with the reaction from the stands and the subsequent behavior of Alexey gave the Russian much more. Few people now remember the name of the winner of these competitions (it was the Italian Igor Kassina, and the same Paul Hamm won the silver medal), but the act of Alexei Nemov will forever be remembered in the history of world sport.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic


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