In the women’s floor final, gymnasts had a rare tie – Angelina Melnikova and Mai Murakami tied for bronze due to having the same difficulty and execution scores. During the medal ceremony, flags of four countries were raised as a result. The height to which the flags are raised normally corresponds to the athletes’ placement – the golden flag is the highest, silver goes a bit lower and so on. However, since the organizers did not have means to put the two flags of bronze-winning athletes on the same level, the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee was placed lower than that of Japan.
Valentina Rodionenko took offense with that:
“I’m outraged after yesterday’s incident with the flags when our team’s flag was hung lower than the Japanese flag. Why was it done this way? Murakami and Melnikova had the same results, then, I believe, the flags should be at the same level. It wasn’t technically possible for the organizers to put the flags at the same level? That’s their problem, Then they should’ve put the host’s flag lower than ours.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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