“I don’t like the fact that a 10 score is no longer possible as that was the system under which I competed,” said Nemov, who compiled an impressive tally of 12 Olympic medals before bowing out in 2004.
Nemov laments demise of perfect 10
Public criticism of Nemov’s horizontal bar score in Athens was as much as anything else the impetus for the new code of points where the scoring is virtually open-ended.
But I agree with him. Disposing of the 10.0 brand brought to us by Nadia is a colossal mistake.
2 comments ↓
I actually see some good in it, in that gymnasts will be forced to do more difficult skills AND perfect them in order to get both scores high enough. We will have the same competitive spirit going for the execution score, but we will also have a total added score of… whatever.. which will become the source of great competition, always one-upping each other.
However, what I have against the system is that I think it’s alienating gymnastics from popular culture even more. As if not having gymnastics in our schools wasn’t enough, now the world-renound and coveted scoring system is gone, replaced with one that is far too complex for somebody to grasp unless they really care about the sport.
In trampolining we can still aspire to the perfect 10. Which is great in terms of making it more of an audience friendly sport. However as the sport develops in years to come we will probably lose the perfect 10 system aswell.
Leave a Comment