Ok, the old gymnastic scoring system on a scale of 1 through 10 wasn't working very well (and led to a couple of huge controversies during the Athens games) ... but after sitting through multiple 5 minute stretches of dead programming while waiting for scores during the live coverage of the men's gymnastic team finals tonight, I'd take it over the new system in a heartbeat.As just your average American sports fan, I could at least make sense of the old scoring system, and I could compare scores from one event to another. In the new system, I'm still not sure what a good score is from event to event unless the commentators let me know - and as a nice bonus, I'm apparently going to have to spend five minutes watching the next competitor wander around the apparatus while waiting for the score to be posted. During the men's competition tonight, I swear I saw more of the judges sitting behind laptops looking at who knows what than I saw of the actual competitors. Maybe they found the Fanhouse Attractive Olympians?
I understand it's basically impossible to make everyone happy with gymnastics scoring, but I'm with Bela Karolyi and Mary Lou Retton - I hate this new system. Making it an excruciatingly slow for scores to be posted only compounds the problem.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2008 @ 9:36AM
Terry said...
I agree with the commentator last night who said they ought to let the floor judges do their jobs and stop micro-managing with their slow motion replays to obtain different scores.
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8-12-2008 @ 1:01PM
gymgeek said...
What I like about the new scoring system is A) no one is perfect. Does that discount or belittle the perfect 10's achieved of the past - no way. The sport has evolved and the difficulty increased... but in the end, no one can do it perfectly... and B) I love the "idea" of having a difficulty score determined... but so far they don't have that figured out quite right yet. Some "one" should determine how many C's or Super E's they have, combinations, bonus etc. Clearly... the 8 judge panels of the past has the inability to agree on that more than anything - so given the A score is a great starting point I think. It helps make the scoring less subjective. A simple yes or no - did they have it or not. Each skill is assigned a value... added up, done.
What I don't like is adding these scores together... it's like this new A score or difficulty score should be the start value and deductions for execution and penalties subtracted from there for the overall score. I don't like the penalties either... how big your step is on landing? How far you go out of bounds? maybe how much you bounce or thud after a fall should be in there. You either are on your ass or not... don't think it matters how far out of bounds you land.
What I hate is replays... judges need to take responsibility for the job they are being paid for and the officials, coaches and gymnasts need to accept and respect the critique and score. Judges need to be able to simply watch the routine, score it and be confident in their decision. If you can't honestly judge a routine and be happy you made the appropriate call then maybe they shouldn't be a judge.
Unfortunately, gymnastics has always been a negative scoring system... one of deductions for doing it wrong rather than reward for doing it right. FIG needs to look outside the box if they want to come up with a "new" scoring system... make it new and unique not tweaking the old.
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9-07-2008 @ 8:39AM
Issy said...
The new scoring system stinks! As an avid gymnastics fan, this was the worst experience I've had watching the Olympics. Bring back the old system.
And while we're waiting for the score, why not show replays instead of watching the gymnasts stand around?
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8-13-2008 @ 5:10PM
Artemis said...
I think it is ludicrous to have this "difficulty" rating be straight starting points that are simply added to your execution score to achieve your final score.
Having it this way I feel weights the difficulty part too heavily. For instance for balance beam, if a routine is rated a difficulty of 8.0, the gymnast can fall of the beam completely 5 times and receive an execution score of 6.0 (0.8 * 5, providing she makes NO other mistakes) which would grant her a final score of 14. This is only .1 points lower than the score obtained by one of the American girls who fell off of the beam 1 time with a few other .1 point deductions.
As you can see, simply adding these 'base' points for difficulty affects the score greatly, and choosing routines with higher difficulties have a much much higher chance of providing a higher outcome. We also see that China on average had more difficult routines than the Americans, taking advantage of this backwards scoring system.
Oh well.
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8-15-2008 @ 12:29AM
Heather said...
I agree, this scoring system is ridiculous. I'm watching the women's all around and the scores are all over the place, its absurd. Nastia is getting screwed and still a contender for medaling its just so strange. I think the judges opinions play too much of a role in the scoring. I agree with the person who said each skills should have a point value and they either did it or they didnt with maybe a slight difference in scoring for a bobble or legs separating etc. vs a complete fall. They just have got to fix the scoring because this system is just not working. The judges seem to be idiots as well. They should have specialist for each apparatus that judge it every time and one judge from each country (I don't know if they already do that). I just wish they would get it together because its very frustrating with an American looks almost perfect and a chinese girl almost falls off and gets a higher score by far. I realize start value comes into play but its absurd.
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8-20-2008 @ 5:05AM
Aussie_Matt said...
I really think that the American culture is nothing but bad sportsman ship..... I think its time you realise you are not the dominating country you once was.... Step aside and get on with it..... What is with a whole heap of blame going towards the Australian judge.... Just like the scores, no one is perfect, you can only judge on what you see and believe is fair.. face it the whole world is not against you, that is nothing but a cope out and a way or laying blame.
Take it on the chin and try harder next time...
From Aussie
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8-21-2008 @ 9:57AM
kelly said...
Aussie Matt-
Go back to your kangaroo races. Every Olympics there is at least one sport where the scoring is badly biased toward the US (last Olympics it was pair ice skating). What would you know about it other than it was your judge who needs glasses or who, I hope, is at least getting a nice bonus. We are gonna have to live with this royal screw as well. We'll come right back next year and deal with it again.
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