Comparing 2008 and 2012

Ever since the Fierce Five won Gold in London, people have been disputing which team was better, the 2008 Silver-Winning Beijing Team or the Gold Medal Winning 2012 Team.  As code changes makes it hard to compare between codes, I've coded the routines competed in Beijing and those performed in London to see who had the higher difficulty.

Vault

Bridget Sloan	5.8	Jordyn Wieber	6.3
Shawn Johnson	6.3	Gabby Douglas	6.3
Alicia Sacramone	6.3	McKayla Maroney	6.3
Total	18.3	Total	18.9

Bars

Shawn Johnson	5.8	Jordyn Wieber	6.3
Chellsie Memmel	6.2	Kyla Ross	6.1
Nastia Liukin	6.3	Gabby Douglas	6.4
Total	18.3	Total	18.8

Beam 

Alicia Sacramone	5.7	Kyla Ross	6.2
Nastia Liukin	6.0	Gabby Douglas	6.4
Shawn Johnson	6.4	Aly Raisman	6.4
Total	18.2	Total	19.0

Floor

Alicia Sacramone	5.8	Gabby Douglas	6.1
Nastia Liukin	5.7	Jordyn Wieber	6.1
Shawn Johnson	6.2	Aly Raisman	6.4
Total	17.7	Total	18.6

*Thank you to  SportEverywhere and The GymnastFan Hub for their videos on the correct coding of these routines, which allowed me to check if I was correct or not. *

Keep in mind that these routines were not designed for this code of point, many skills were downgraded/ upgraded so these difficulty charts are not 100% representative of the difficulty capabilities of these athletes.  

Just for kicks, I know a people argue, "Difficulty is not the only important factor of Gymnastics!", so I included the execution score given to these routines and the Olympics.  

Vault

Bridget Sloan	9.4	Jordyn Wieber	9.433
Shawn Johnson	9.5	Gabby Douglas	9.466
Alicia Sacramone	9.375	McKayla Maroney	9.733

Bars

Shawn Johnson	9.05	Jordyn Wieber	8.266
Chellsie Memmel	8.725	Kyla Ross	8.533
Nastia Liukin	9.2	Gabby Douglas	8.6

Beam  

Alicia Sacramone	8.6	Kyla Ross	9.033
Nastia Liukin	9.375	Gabby Douglas	8.833
Shawn Johnson	9.275	Aly Raisman	8.433

Floor

Alicia Sacramone	7.925	Gabby Douglas	8.966
Nastia Liukin	9.0	Jordyn Wieber	8.9
Shawn Johnson	8.5	Aly Raisman	8.8

Looking at these execution scores, the 2012 Team has higher vault and floor execution, while 2008 wins on bars and beam.  It is important to note, however, these routines were judged under different Code of Points and different deductions, so the routines were not judged the same.  So, lets call execution between 2008 and 2012 a tie, as both teams had higher execution scores on two event.  The 2012 team had higher difficulty scores on each event compared to the 2008 team.

Lastly, I made charts showing the complete scores by adding the execution given at the Olympics and the difficulties I found under the 2013-2016 Code of Points.

Vault

Bridget Sloan	15.2	Jordyn Wieber	15.733
Shawn Johnson	15.8	Gabby Douglas	15.766
Alicia Sacramone	15.575	McKayla Maroney	16.033
Total	46.575	Total	47.532

Bars

Shawn Johnson	14.85	Jordyn Wieber	14.566
Chellsie Memmel	14.925	Kyla Ross	14.633
Nastia Liukin	15.5	Gabby Douglas	15.0
Total	45.275	Total	44.199

Beam

Alicia Sacramone	14.3	Kyla Ross	15.233
Nastia Liukin	15.375	Gabby Douglas	15.233
Shawn Johnson	15.675	Aly Raisman	14.833
Total	45.725	Total	45.299

Floor

Alicia Sacramone	13.725	Gabby Douglas	15.066
Nastia Liukin	14.7	Jordyn Wieber	15.0
Shawn Johnson	14.7	Aly Raisman	15.2
Total	43.125	Total	45.266

2008 Team Total                                                            2012 Team Total

180.7                                                                               182.296

In conclusion, 2012 was a better group of gymnasts overall, "beating" the 2008 Team under this code of difficulty by 1.596.