In a subjective sport, controversial results happen, and with each come with their own waves of outrage and demands for a rule change. This, obviously, is easier said than done, but what would happen if the rules actually changed? What changes would be made? I decided to look into some of the more famous scoring controversies of the past quad.
2011 All Around Final
As soon as Viktoria Komova's floor score was posted, leaving her in second behind Jordyn Wieber by .033, the insanity started immediately. "Jordyn fell", they cried. "Jordyn is inartistic", they screamed. "Komova was totally robbed!", others argued. I'm not going into immense detail about how Jordyn outperformed Komova on 3 out of the four events, as the wonderful Spanny Tampson posted in 2011, but it's evident that Jordyn Wieber had less deductions on that day. And no, Jordyn did not fall. I personally agree with these results, but a lot people argued incessantly that Komova was the rightful winner, and demanded changes in the code. They demanded that artistry deductions should be bigger, although I personally believe Wieber's floor routine was more artistic than Komova's. Anyway, I don't believe that any change in the code is going to prevent this type of controversy. It just so happened to be a close final. I'm not sure how fans want to avoid this type final, but a change to the code is not it.
2012 Vault Final
After McKayla Maroney fell on her second vault and her score was still the highest thus far, Sandra Izbasa competed and beat Maroney by .108. Many were outraged that Maroney still received the silver medal despite not landing both her vaults. Many people wanted to change the code to prevent this from happening in the future. In fact, The FIG did did implement a new rule which made it harder to medal with a fall. However, the FIG revoked this rule change in early 2013. Another change that has been floating around the gymternet around that time is that a fall on vault should be more costly. This makes sense, as you only are being judged on one piece of gymnastics instead of 8-10 skills as on other events. I'm not quite sure how that would work, but it would make things interesting. Perhaps this is something the FIG should look into?
These are two of the biggest controversies in recent gymnastics history. If you think of anymore, let me know what you think! How do you think the Code of Points should change? In a subjective sport like gymnastics, controversies are impossible to avoid. How would the Code of Points adapt to these controversies? The gymternet has yet to see.
I guess there was a (slight) controversy over the floor final at the last worlds. Some people felt as if Skinner should have medaled over Mustafina.
ReplyDelete