Grappling with the Gray

What happens when technical performance clashes with technical problems?

That's the question that drives the conversation when Sam Ardery, JC Glick, and S. Scott Mason join the ethics panel to Grapple with the Gray.

Here is our topic:

Imagine that you’ve just completed your skating, diving, or gymnastic event to win Olympic Bronze. You are elated to have earned the right to stand on the podium and receive your medal. Minutes later, you discover that, because of a scoring error, the athlete who had ranked fifth actually came in ahead of you to take third.

Would you argue that once the results have been announced, the decision is irrevocable, or would you graciously return the medal that you hadn’t actually earned in the first place?

This, of course, is exactly what happened in the recent Olympic games, when judges misscored U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles and awarded the bronze to Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu then, moments later, stripped the medal from Ms. Barbosu and gave it to Ms. Chiles… until the next day, when the judges reversed themselves again, instructing Ms. Chiles to return her medal because she had failed to submit her review request within the 60-second filing period, missing the window by four seconds.

Days after the debacle, the International Gymnastics Federation President finally addressed the issue, blaming the controversy on the lack of technology used in the judging process… a non-apology apology which satisfied virtually no one.

Judges are human beings, so judging errors can happen, painful as they are. But it’s often what we do after we make mistakes that matters most, and how we plan ahead to minimize mistakes when they happen.

Is a 60-second window for filing an inquiry reasonable – especially considering that every athlete except the one who goes last is given four minutes? Does it matter that the judges accepted the inquiry when–because it was late–they shouldn’t have accepted it at all? Should there even be a limit when a judging error deprives a deserving athlete of a medal? And once the error has been made, should the feelings of the undeserving athlete who was told she had won figure into the resolution?

Both Chiles and Barbosu asked to share the bronze medal. Is that the right decision, or should actual performance scoring be the only criterion?

Meet the panelists:

Sam Ardery is a national mediator, trial lawyer, consultant, speaker, and author. He teaches negotiation at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law and is author of Positively Conflicted: Engaging with Courage, Compassion and Wisdom in a Combative World.

Scott Mason, aka the Myth Slayer, is a speaker, podcast host, and coach working with executives and entrepreneurs to Magnetize & Monetize Professional Freedom by Dislodging Toxic Myths to Ignite the Charisma Within.

JC Glick is a retired Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel. He is a leadership, strategy, and culture advisor, as well as CEO of the Commit Foundation, an organization that helps high-performance veterans find their next adventure.

#ethics

#accountability

#culture

#values

#olympics