There is a huge difference between "incomplete" and "complete with deduction". Lots of gymnasts can't complete those most difficult moves some of the top ones did. If someone claims to do a 6.5 as Johnson does, but fails to execute, she would probably get a 4.5 instead, how's that going to help? On the other hand, if they really have a shot with high difficulty moves, do you think they would hold back? This is Olympics final, not practice.
The system rewards hard routines. For these top players, it's probably easy to have flawless execution on easy routines .
they have to allow different difficulty to let the better gymnasts stand out, but there has to be some sort of separation in the execution scores. when a perfect vault loses .475 and a complete disaster loses 1.4, what's the point of nailing an easier vault? landing on your knees should basically end your chances. not get you 3rd (granted about 3 other people fell even worse). man, if sacramone just doesn't step on one of those she might win gold.
she would have gotten a medal, but probably not gold. one of her vault difficulty was 5.5. that's 1 point off right there.
so what? if you flawlessly execute a 5.5 or a 6.5 you should get a 10. you don't get a 9.6 just because it only started at a 5.5. you basically seem to get double-penalized for an easier vault when difficulty and execution are supposed to be separate. i'm not saying they favored anyone, it just seems the scoring isn't done how it should be.
she lost by .225 total (.1125 average). i don't know what one of those hops is worth but probably .2 or .3. could've gone from 4th to 1st. of course she should've been 3rd anyway.
I agree that the difficulty change to the scoring is unfair. But then again, the original system which was all about execution can be construed as unfair too. I remember this gymnaist in the last Olympics who did a ridiculously awesome routine, but didn't get gold because he got too much taken off on execution. And a lame routine by another gymanist got the gold. Btw, just because the scoring is biased towards hard routines doesn't mean athletes can just do them. For example, one of the vaults the Chinese girl did was the same as Shawn Johnson's, except he added 180 degrees to the twist. I have to say, if anything else, gymnastics has become a lot more colorful with all the ridiculous acrobatics and people falling on their asses.
You sit or knee down, you get 0.8 deduction, it doesn't matter how pretty or ugly you knee down, that's the rule. That's why Alicia was deducted 0.8 in group final, not as you claimed that a fall should end US's chances of any medal.
Well if you think it is not fair, then you should do a difficult routine. It is much harder to do some of the routines with difficulties such as 7.7 7.2 vs a 6.0 routine. Do you know how hard it is to add another twist or turn in the air?
I believe they changed the execution scoring system. I remember in Sydney there were quite a few 10s for some excellent routines. Nowadays, gymnasts can only score 9.3~9.5 on virtually flawless routines. This resulted in barely any separation in execution score, and forced gymnasts to try hard routines.
i remember hearing that the Chinese girl did 2 x 6.5 difficulty vault. that's 16.5 max per. the first one, she did good. she got 16 or something, .5 deduction for a little movement. 2nd one, she messed up. she got 1.5 off. 2 x major deductions. ended up with 15 something. that seems about right. the average was a little bit higher. home court advantage? sure. also reputation since she is 3 time world champion in this event. the judges are known to favor champions. in this kind of event, you can't give the judges any room to hold you down. Alicia should chosen harder jumps. her first one, 16.5 max, she got close to 16. 2nd one, 15.5 max, she got close to 15.5. seems about the right score. they can't give her any higher. just had bad luck that the average was a little bit lower.
Did you see that pic I posted of her and the other team members in the 'Girls of the Olympics' thread? Let's just say, phat cat.
Listening to Bela b**** and complain everytime the U.S. girls didn't get the Gold or Silver is getting really old.
