After Kohei Uchimura -- one of Japan’s most notable stars -- earned a surprisingly low score that landed his team in fourth place overall, his coach walked over to the judges with two things in his hand: paperwork and a wad of hundred dollar bills.
The judges reviewed Uchimura’s performance and bumped his score up by .70 shortly after the apparent payoff.
That seemingly marginal boost lifted Japan from their fourth place position to second place which was good enough for a silver medal.
In Olympic gymnastics, to appeal a judge’s ruling, you have to pay for the review beforehand. If you win the appeal, you get your money back. If you lose, you lose the money and it’s supposedly all legal.
It sure looks shady, however. One wonders if there were extra hundred dollar bills for the judges to keep for themselves - in this case, judges that bumped up the score enough to go from fourth place to a silver medal.









