The backlash continues after Paris 2024. And of course, even though the Olympic Games have already ended, there are still athletes who have expressed their disagreement either with the Olympic Village or even with their own results. This is the case of the British Amber Jo Rutter, who declared that she felt disadvantaged by the judges after taking silver against the Chilean Francisca Crovetto in the skeet shot.
“There have been thousands of comments and images shared of me clearly hitting my last shot in the tiebreaker of the gold medal match,” the British woman began by saying in an extensive post on her social networks. According to her, in the definition of the gold against Crovetto, a target that she hit with her shot was not counted, which would have ultimately benefited the South American.
“Due to a poor and incorrect decision by all three referees, I was denied the opportunity to continue in the tiebreaker and the opportunity to win Olympic gold,” Rutter shot. “Having sat through so many of your comments with clear photographic evidence that I hit the target, I feel like I owe it to not only myself, but the entire shooting community to highlight and address the issue,” she added.
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Furthermore, appealing to justice in sport and Olympic values, the silver medalist expressed her interest in apologizing and avoiding these types of errors, in her opinion, in the future. “I think there is a need to take some responsibility and apologize for the wrong decision that ultimately cost me the opportunity to win an Olympic gold medal. Also, a plan to prevent something like this from happening again in the future.”
CROVETTO’S RESPONSE
Despite Rutter’s regret, the truth is that the gold medal belongs to Francisca Crovetto, the Chilean who became the first woman from that country to win the gold medal at the world’s biggest sporting event. In the midst of her activities back in Chile, the shooter also addressed the situation.
“The truth is that they should apologize to the three medalists, because the same thing happened to all three of us,” Crovetto began by saying. “The first to be affected was the American Austin Smith, who when she finally finished third was given a plate that would have perhaps meant that Amber Jo Rutter finished third. Then it happened to me in the definition, before we ended up in shoot outs and then to Amber. So, I think it is a call to hopefully begin to reduce those margins of error in the future, but if you owe her an apology, you owe the three of us an apology,” the gold medalist concluded.
