The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected an appeal by South Korean gymnast Yang Tae-young, who says a scoring error cost him a gold medal in the recent summer Athens Olympics.

The Switzerland-based court posted a ruling on its Website Thursday that said the court panel had decided to dismiss Yang's appeal, leaving the final standings of the men's individual gymnastics all-around event unchanged with American Paul Hamm holding on to the gold. The court's ruling is considered final and cannot be appealed.

A three-judge panel of the court said Yang's appeal was submitted too late and that the court was not able to correct the results, which were due to an admitted error by judges at the Olympic competition.

Yang said he would respect the court's ruling.

Earlier on August 28th, Yang filed the appeal with the world's highest sports arbitration court shortly after the International Gymnastics Federation found a scoring error had been committed in the men's all-round gymnastics final.

Even though the mistake was subsequently confirmed to have been made, the International Gymnastics Federation refused to change the results, saying that South Korea didn't file a protest in time.