NEW YORK Nov 30, 2004 � A bright symbol of the holiday burst to life in Rockefeller Center Tuesday night as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and three Olympians turned on the 30,000 lights decorating the center's famed Christmas tree.
Three Olympic gold winners ice skater Sarah Hughes and gymnasts Paul Hamm and Carly Patterson joined the mayor to light the tree at the annual ceremony in midtown Manhattan.
"It's amazing," said Jessica Mendelsohn, 20, who viewed the lighting ceremony from the crowd. "It's gorgeous."
This year's tree, a 9-ton, 71-foot-tall Norway spruce found on the property of a Suffern, N.Y. family, boasted a star at its top for the first time in its 72-year history. The star is covered in 25,000 crystals and is 9 1/2 feet in diameter.
gymnast's medal
October 19, 2004
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm will find out Thursday whether he can keep his Olympic gold medal.
Hamm won the all-around title in Athens, but South Korea's Yang Tae-young wants the Court of Arbitration for Sport to change the results and move him from third place to first because of a scoring error.
Hamm and Yang appeared before a three-judge panel of the CAS in Lausanne on Sept. 27. The court said Tuesday it will issue its verdict on Thursday.
Hamm has said he will abide by the ruling of the CAS, which cannot be appealed.
Yang was wrongly docked 0.1 points for the level of difficulty of his parallel bars routine in the all-around. He ended up 0.049 points behind Hamm.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) acknowledged the error and suspended the three judges. But FIG officials said they wouldn't change the results because the South Koreans didn't file a protest in time.
Then FIG president Bruno Grandi wrote a letter to Hamm asking him to surrender the gold medal voluntarily. That, in part, prompted the South Korean federation to appeal to the CAS.
Updated on Tuesday, Oct 19, 2004 12:40 pm EDT
