He Kexin and Nastia Liukin: More Weird Gymnastics Judging

The Chinese, the men and women (little girls), have dominated in gymnastics.

To be sure, the American men's and women's teams have had their share of successes.

The U.S. men's team won bronze and the U.S. women's team won silver. Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson picked up gold and silver respectively in the all-around. Johnson and Liukin got the silver and bronze on floor exercise. All are tremendous achievements.

So what's the problem?

There are a few.

There are legitimate questions about the ages of some of the Chinese "women" gymnasts.

The IOC has chosen to look the other way. OK, but it's hard for me to watch the competition and not be distracted by the fact they look like children.

Beyond this age controversy, there's the matter of judging. It's been inconsistent and sometimes glaringly unfair.

In my opinion, Alicia Sacramone was robbed of a bronze medal in the vault. The gold medalist in the event stepped out of bounds on both of her vaults. The bronze medalist fell to her knees on the landing of her second vault. Sacramone wasn't perfect, but she didn't fall and she stayed in bounds.

In floor exercise, Shawn Johnson put in a gold medal performance but finished with the silver.

In the uneven bars, Nastia Liukin did a superior routine compared with one of China's little girl gymnasts, He Kexin; yet she found herself placed in a tie with He.

Beijing, August 18: Confusion over gymnastics' new scoring system overshadowed another golden night for China at the Beijing Olympics on Monday.
China won three of the four gold medals, but the United States and France were denied places on the top of the podium under a complicated tiebreak system never before used at the Olympics.

...In the uneven bars final, He and US gymnast Nastia Liukin both scored 9.025 for execution and 7.7 for difficulty, to give each a final score of 16.725.

But instead of sharing gold, officials implemented a countback system where the highest and lowest of the five judges marks were progressively removed until a winner emerged.

"I don't know if anybody understands what the hell is going on," Liukin's father and coach Valeri said, pointing out that he tied and shared an Olympic gold on the high bar competing for the Soviet Union in the 1988 Seoul Games.

"I tied in my Olympic Games but I guess they don't want it now," he added.

His daughter, who won the women's individual gold medal last Friday, was also at a loss to explain the situation.

"I honestly was in shock," she said. "I knew I didn't have my best routine (but) when I saw we got the same score and my name was second, it was weird."

It's been frustrating watching the gymnastics.

The judging has been such a mess.

Of course, the athletes realize that they're at the mercy of the judges. It's subjective. They know that going in to the competition and so do the viewers of the sport.

Still, on so many occasions, the Americans have received inexplicably low scores. Nastia Liukin shouldn't have been tied with He Kexin to begin with. There never should have been a tie to break.

I expect at least some degree of fairness and consistency in judging, not a consistent anti-American bias.

I really admire the way the American athletes have dealt with the adversity or situaion or whatever you want to call what's going on in Beijing.

From the Associated Press:

Nastia Liukin's loss of an Olympic gold medal couldn't have come in a closer or more convoluted manner.

The Beijing Games all-around champion from the United States received the same 16.725 score as China's He Kexin on uneven bars Monday.

A tiebreaker was used because dual medals are no longer awarded in gymnastics.

And that tiebreaker was so complex that long after the medals were handed out, International Gymnastics Federation officials still were explaining it.

..."For me, it's not correct," said FIG president Bruno Grandi, who noted the rules for dual medals were dropped in 1997 at the direction of the IOC. "When two people arrive on the same level, they are champions. But this competition doesn't belong to us. It is the IOC's.

"I believe it's correct to have two gold medals, but this is my modest opinion. The IOC is different."

Liukin would not criticize the scoring system.

"It's nothing I can control, and honestly, I can say it has been very fair to me, and I got the biggest gold medal of them all," said Liukin, winner of the gold in women's all-around gymnastics.

Liukin isn't whining. I haven't heard any of the American gymnasts whining or making excuses by blaming biased judges.

That's admirable.

The judging in Beijing, however, has not been.