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Judging change puts perfection out of reach
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-16 10:23 ATHENS CONTROVERSIES
The decision to dump the 10.00 format, which has been in place since the 1920
Antwerp Games, was sparked by two major controversies in Athens.
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Nemov singals angry
crowd to calm down in Athens
| The FIG
admitted American Paul Hamm had been awarded the men's all-round crown in error
after South Korea's Yang Tae-young had been incorrectly docked a tenth of a
point from his parallel bars routine.
Despite acknowledging the mistake, the federation refused to redistribute the
medals and it came under further attack when chaos erupted during the men's
horizontal bar final.
"People Power" held up the competition for almost 10 minutes as fans forced
the judges to change the score of four-times Olympics champion Alexei Nemov.
"Before the system took care of (well-executed but) average exercises by
gymnasts and we kind of forgot about high level performances...as there was a
maximum ceiling of scoring 10 points," said Kim, who also earned perfect 10s
during the 1976 Games.
"So even if a gymnast had a fantastic routine, they could not score higher
than a 10, which is what happened in Athens to Nemov on the bar.
"Everyone understood that his exercise was much more interesting and risky
but judges did not have the tools to appreciate what he had done.
"It was a signal for us to start doing things differently."
While there is no doubt something had to be done to reward those who were
willing to stretch the boundaries with their innovative displays, critics fear
the new scoring system could also make the sport dangerous.
The abolishment of the 10.00 could encourage gymnasts to chase after higher
and higher scores, thus risking injury.
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