Spirit of rules

Scrupulously following the rulebook eliminates any room for doubt. It adds a semblance of fairness to decisions even where fairness becomes a subjective matter. An objective decision on a subjective matter, however, can lead to a great deal of harm. This is evident in the world of sports than in any other area. One such objective decision on a completely subjective matter has marred the Winter Olympics 2010.
The 10,000 metres speed skating event that took place on Tuesday saw the Olympic record being broken twice. The first person to break it on the day was Lee Seung-hoon, who set a time of 12 minutes 58.55 seconds. It was a remarkable achievement, clearly deserving top honours at the podium. But he could not lay his hands on the gold medal. Sven Kramer of the Netherlands set a time almost six seconds faster than Lee, smashing the Olympic record in the process. He was the undisputed gold medal holder, at least until the race finished. After crossing the finish line, Kramer found to his horror that he had been disqualified, erasing his achievement in one swoop. His mistake? He crossed lanes for a split second during the race.
He was penalised for his indiscretion. This is an atrocious example of rules being followed to the letter with the spirit behind it being abandoned. Kramer had close to a six second lead over Lee, the brief lane change would have at most won him a fraction of a second. There is no way Lee would have caught up even if Kramer had not made that mistake. The error would have had no bearing on the result of the race. However, Olympic officials found it fit to nullify Kramer’s entire race and achievement on the basis of that irrelevant error.
Thankfully, there is a system of appeal in place at the Olympics. Let’s hope the appeal committee goes by the spirit of the rules rather than blindly following the rulebook.