updated 1:54 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - So much for all of the negotiating.

No sooner had the U.S. Olympic Committee announced it was trying to reach an “equitable solution” with the South Koreans in the dispute over Paul Hamm’s gold medal than the head of gymnastics’ ruling body all but shot it down.

Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, told The Associated Press on Monday night that rules prevent him from asking for another gold medal to make up for the scoring error that cost Yang Tae-young the all-around title.

“I don’t have the possibility to change it,” Grandi told The Associated Press. “Our rules don’t allow it.”

Hamm won the gold Wednesday after judges incorrectly scored Yang’s parallel bars routine, failing to give him enough points for the level of difficulty. Yang ended up with the bronze while Hamm became the first American man to win the event.

The federation, known as FIG, admitted the judges made a mistake, but said it couldn’t change the results. But that wasn’t good enough for the South Koreans, who want a gold medal for Yang.

They’ve promised to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, though CAS already has indicated it wouldn’t take the case because it involved a “field of play” decision. So they also approached the USOC about finding a diplomatic solution.

“We have indicated to them that we would be willing to consider the notion of a second gold medal being awarded,” USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. “It’s up to the Korean Olympic Comittee to determine how it wants to proceed. There’s a willingness to at least consider this idea.”

Jae Soon-yoo, an official for the South Korean delegation, was in a meeting Monday and didn’t immediately comment.

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But don’t go minting a medal for Yang yet. If the USOC and South Koreans reach an agreement on awarding a second gold medal, FIG would have to propose it to the International Olympic Committee.

And, Grandi said, he can’t do that.

Under FIG rules, protests have to be filed immediately, and the South Koreans waited until after the meet to lodge their complaint. FIG rules also prevent scores from being changed once the meet is over.

“If the athlete does not agree to give up his medal, I don’t know what we can do,” IOC member Alex Gilady said.

Grandi seemed to indicate that’s what he would like.

“For me, the best situation would be for Paul Hamm to take this medal and give ...” Grandi said, pretending to remove a medal from around his neck and leaving the sentence unfinished.

But Hamm said he has no plans to give up the medal unless someone asks him.

“I truly believe in my heart that I am the Olympic all-around champion,” Hamm said. “I did my job, and I competed with pride and integrity.”

The federation has made an exception at least once before. When Irina Karavaeva learned that a judging error had wrongly given her the title at the 2001 trampoline world championships, she asked that it be given to the rightful winner, Anna Dogonadze. Grandi gave his OK, and the results were officially changed.

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At issue is the tenth of a point deducted from Yang’s start value in the fifth of six events in the all-around. He received a 9.9 for a routine that had been given a 10 start value in team preliminaries and finals.

He finished third, 0.049 points behind Hamm, who came back from 12th with two events left for the victory. With the extra 0.100, Yang would have finished first and Hamm second, and Kim Dae-eun of South Korea would have won the bronze instead of silver.

The federation admitted the error and suspended the two judges who determined the start values — Benjamin Bango of Spain and Oscar Buitrago Reyes of Colombia — along with the judge who oversaw the panel, George Beckstead of the United States. But nothing more can be done, it insists.

The case has drawn comparisons to the figure skating scandal at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, when Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were given duplicate gold medals after a French judge said she had been “pressured” to put a Russian couple ahead of them.

But there are no such signs of impropriety in this case, only human error.

“All of this, it opens a whole Pandora’s box of future challenges that aren’t within the rules,” said Peter Vidmar, the silver medalist in the 1984 Olympics. “What’s the statute of limitations for grievances in sport now? There have to be rules.”

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