New scoring system gets first test
Gymnastics’ new scoring system is getting its first big test.
The open-ended format that replaced the traditional 10.0 scale is being used at a major international meet for one of the first times this weekend at the American Cup. Many of the world’s top gymnasts are in Philadelphia for the all-around competition, and everyone is going to be keeping a close eye on how they’re adjusting to the new system.
“There are a lot of countries flying in just to watch that meet,” said Ron Brant, coordinator of the U.S. men’s team. “It’ll be a first big step to it. You’re going to put athletes together from different countries. Then you’re going to be able to compare differently designed routines. Then you’re going to see judges from different countries sit down together and compare.
“Everyone is going to be challenged,” Brant added. “It’s going to be a pretty good step, but not the biggest until you see more events around the world occur.”
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ditched its 10.0 scale after several judging errors marred the Athens Olympics. Not only was Paul Hamm’s gold medal in limbo for two months because of a scoring error, but routines that were vastly different all had the same value on paper, making it difficult for judges to separate them.
Instead of a single score based on a maximum start value of 10.0, there’s now a two-mark format that is supposed to give a truer representation of the worth of a routine.
One mark represents the difficulty of a gymnast’s routine, combining the preset value of the 10 highest elements and adding points for connections or required skills. The second mark is for execution, with judges starting at 10.0 and taking deductions for presentation, artistry and technique.
The difficulty and artistry marks are then added together for a final score.
“I’m one of the people who, from the beginning, said that it’s not bad that we will be counting the difficulty skills. This system also gives extremely big importance to the precise execution,” said Martha Karolyi, coordinator of the U.S. women’s team.
Though there had been talk of retooling the judging system since Athens, the new code of points wasn’t approved until last October. That means gymnasts and coaches have had only a few months to decipher the new code, and have had to scramble to create routines that maximize point values.
That makes the American Cup so interesting.
The American Cup routinely draws some of the top talent in the world, and this year is no different.
U.S. champion and world silver medalist Nastia Liukin finished first in the women’s preliminary competition Friday, and Olympic champ and world silver medalist Hisashi Mizutori of Japan led the men’s qualifying.
Liukin, the world champion on the uneven bars and balance beam, has changed her routines to comply with the new points system. She earned the highest scores of the meet on the balance beam and floor exercise and finished with an all-around score of 61.100, 1.10 points ahead of American Shayla Worley.
Rounding out the top eight women qualifiers were Lais Souza of Brazil, Elsa Garcia of Mexico, Aisha Gerber of Canada, Daria Bijak of Germany, Elena Zamolodchikova of Russia and Zhuoru Zhou of China.
In the men’s competition, Mizutori will be joined in the finals by Americans Jonathon Horton and David Durante, Sergey Khorokhordin of Russia, Fabian Hambuechen of Germany, Junhao Li of China, Nathan Gafuik of Canada and Florent Maree of France.