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It was an Olympics gymnasticsroutine thatany armchair athlete could have performed with precision.
In bizarre scenes inthe men"s gymnastics team final in Rio de Janeiroon Monday night, Ukrainian Maksym Semiankivwalked up to the high bar, jumped up,grabbed it, then immediately dropped back to the floor.
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The elite athlete, performing at the pinnacle of his sport on the world stage,then bowed to the judges and walked off.
So fast was his "routine" that his name was still flashed up on television screens to introduce him when the 24-year-oldwalked away, leaving commentators and fans alike baffled.
Ukrainian gymnast Maksym Semiankiv, pictured here in 2015, left fans baffled in Rio.Photo: Getty"That was strange. I"mnot sure what just happened," NBC"s gymnastics commentator said.
It was only the start.
Onto the parallel bars, andSemiankiv did it again:Jump up, touch the bars, drop down, walk away.
Ukraine had qualified seventh out of eight teams ahead ofthe final, in which each country selects three gymnasts from their five-men squads to compete on each of six apparatus.
Ukraine, however, had only two gymnasts competing in three of the six apparatus.
Unsurprisingly,they finished last,72 points behind gold-medal winning Japan.
Amid the confusion, conspiracy theories about what had happenedimmediately started spreading online.
Was this some kind of political protest? Was the Ukrainedeliberately tanking,hoping to keep their gymnasts fresh for the individual finals?Was the team airing their grievances four years after the London Games, whenUkraine was denied a bronze medal in the men"s team finalafter Japan appealed a score on pommel horse that was ultimately changed?
NBC gymnastics analyst Andy Thornton tweeted that the move was a planned strategy by Ukraine.
Ukrainian gymnast VladyslavHrykolater claimedthat Semiankivhadinjuredhis hand.
"Just before the start, he had problems with his hand," Hryko said. "Even at the qualification, he was still able to work fine, but now before the start he couldn"t even support himself with his hand."
Ukraine"s Oleg Verniaievalsosaidon Instagram that a member of the team had to go to a hospital, but provided little other explanation.
"I would like to personally apologize for the situation in today"s team final competition. There was unpredictable circumstances. We found out that we won"t be competing as a full team 15 minutes prior to start of the competition when one of our team members came back from the hospital. At that point we weren"t able to change our line up.
"I would like to personally apologize in front of Switzerland team as well. I"m sure they were disappointed to see this situation tonight."
However, the international gymnastics federation told the Wall Street Journal that it was Ukraine"s choice -not the federation"s rules -to skip parts of the men"s gymnastics team final.
The Ukrainian team would have been allowed to shuffle their line-up due to an injury simply by filling out a form and speaking to medical staff, the federation said. If they had withdrawn, the Swiss team - ranked ninth after the preliminaries - would have competed in their place.
Swiss fans were furious that Ukraine simply threw in the towel.
One tweeted: "I am so mad at Ukraine and so gutted for Switzerland right now."
Amid the confusion, there were comparisons to ascene in the 2006 film Stick It, when a group of gymnasts revolt anddeliberately earn a string of zeroes in competition.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/ukraine-gymnast-maksym-semiankiv-baffles-with-bizarre-routine-at-rio-olympics-20160809-gqoud2.html
