Questionable judgments

We take a break from Japanese politics to bring you this rather lately translated story about Olympians and their disagreements over sporting judgments.

I confess I did refer to an English language article to get the proper transliteration of the fencer's name, which brings up an interesting question. When translating the name of an individual from another languish, when the name in question is foreign to the language being translated from, what are the rules regarding transliteration? My original transliteration in this case was Shin Aram but the Associated Press translated it Shin A-lam. Since I'm far from an expert on Korean, I'm going with their version since I'm assuming there's a Korean speaker, or at least someone who knows the accepted rules for transliterating Korean names into English who reviewed the article for the AP. I guess you just give it your best shot or else find someone else who can help in such cases. That's what I did and will probably continue to do.
Enjoy!

涙で抗議の韓国フェン シング選手に特別賞 も、選手は拒否

韓国はロンドン五輪の女子エペ個人準決勝 で延長のすえに敗れたシン・アラム選手の判定 を不服として、国際フェンシング連盟に抗議を 提出した。連盟は同選手に特別賞を授与すると 発表したが、同選手は受け取りを拒否する意向 を示した。中国メディアの千龍網が1日付で報じ た。

国際フェンシング連盟は韓国体育協会と協 議を行い、シン選手の試合における問題を認 め、シン選手に特別賞を授与することを申し出 た。

国際フェンシング連盟は判定に問題があっ たことを認めたものの、韓国代表団による不服 申し立ては却下した。韓国側も「判定は変更で きないうえ、シン選手も団体戦が控えているた め、今回の件はこれで一区切りつける」と表明 したが、シン選手は連盟が用意した特別賞は受 け取らないと表明した。

韓国メディアは、1秒を争う競技であるフェ ンシングにおいて、「時代遅れの設備と制度を 用いており、結果として今回のような明らかな 誤審が生まれる」と主張。「制度を変えて、今 後はシン選手のような犠牲者が出ないようにす べき」と非難した。

http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi? y=2012&d=0802&f=national_0802_070.shtml

Korean fencer refuses special award, protesting in tears

Korea lodged a protest with the International Fencing Federation (IFF) over the decision that fencer Shin A-lam lost after the conclusion of the match in the women’s individual semifinals at the London Olympics. The Federation announces that they would award the athlete a special prize but Shin showed no intention of accepting it. China’s Qianlong Network reported this on the 1 st .

The IFF held discussions with the Korean Athletics Association and admitted that a problem did occur in Shin’s match and proposed offering Shin a special prize. Even though the IFF admitted the mistaken judgement, the Korean delegation rejected the proposed solution. “Given that the judging can’t be altered, Shin is refusing to participate in team competition, and we would like to put an end to this,” the delegation announced, but Shin refused to accept the special award prepared by the federation.

With regard to fencing where matched are decided within a single second, Korean media complained, saying “When you use outdated equipment and systems, this kind of judging mistake is bound to come to light. The system must change so that no more athletes are victimized like Shin was.”