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Swede wins sailing bronze despite protest

Published: 6 Aug 12 16:57 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42460/20120806/

Swedish sailor Rasmus Myrgren's bronze medal win was tainted on Monday afternoon as a complaint about his boat threatened to see him being stripped of the medal.

The equipment inspection committee had filed the complaint against Myrgren’s boat prior to the race, which according to the Sydsvenskan newspaper could potentially have lead to a warning, point deduction, or a disqualification.

After an hour's deliberation, Mygren was only deducted one point which enabled him to safely take home the bronze - Sweden's fifth medal in the games so far.

The protest was filed after the committee had inspected the mast of Mygren's laser boat.

“The mast on a laser is divided into two parts. This means that the mast almost always bends a bit after a while. The sailors bend it back with their hands, and despite the rules saying that the mast must stand straight, it’s still forbidden,” said Stefan Rahm of the Swedish Sailing Federation (Svenska Seglarförbundet) to the TT news agency.

However, Rahm explained that bending the mast on a laser sail boat is not uncommon among racers.

“Everybody does it. The problem for Rasmus is that he did it when the boats were in the so called quarantine zone before the race so several people saw it,” he said.

The race was won by 27-year-old Australian Tom Slingsby with Cypriot Pavlos Kontides taking the silver.

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06:29 August 7, 2012 by JohnGrey
Just pulling the 'race' cart a bit - to tickle the fancies of my right wing friends. Its come to my attention that team Sweden in the Olypmics just like the football team is rather homogenous - almost all are 'native' Swedes. According to Eurostat figures (2010), 14.3% of the total population in Sweden were foreign-born residents, corresponding to 11.3% and 19% of the immigrant populations of UK and France respectively.

But one only has to look at team GB and France to notice the difference. So, how comes we don't see the 14.3% represented in the Sweden's teams? It can't be that they're all rubbish in sports. Don't get me wrong, I think Sweden's a great country with a lot of good, but how comes immigrants fare so badly in almost all domains especially in sports? And don't give me its because they come from cultures were 99% of problems are solved by violence because that only runs away from addressing the real issue.
08:01 August 7, 2012 by guldlock
Well, here are a few; Jamina Roberts, Isabellah Andersson, Salomo Ntuve, Kosovare Asllani, Alhaji Jeng, Dalibor Doder...... All great athletes that we are proud of having in the swedish Olympic team!
08:51 August 7, 2012 by Migga
@ JohnGrey

Well if you look at the sports that Swedes have taken medals in then it`s four out of six where it`s basically sports that depends on the equipment or is expensive to participate in. Minorities from war-torn countries hardly have the tradition or means to train at sports like horsebackriding, clay pigeon shooting and sailing. Then again are you sure that out of the entire swedish olympic team there isn`t 14% that are from a minority group or immigrant?
21:18 August 7, 2012 by Emerentia
@ Guldlock. Well, Jamina Roberts, Kosovare Asllani and Dalibor Doder are not immigrants they were born in Sweden.
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