We were very, very close to seeing a World Gymnastics All-around Champion … who fell on her last tumbling pass.
But she had some “bad luck”.
Rebecca Bross of USA falls as she competes in the floor exercise during the Women’s All Round Final on the fourth day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 at the O2 Arena on October 16, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
1 SLOAN Bridget USA 57.825
2 BROSS Rebecca USA 57.775
The worst medal despite a fall I can recall was Cheng Fei at the 2008 Olympics.
Whatever rules we use in our sport, most coaches feel that a full fall on a routine is a failed routine. It should not be awarded a medal, despite any insanely high start value.
That said, I remember Nastia winning Beam at a VISA Championships with a fall. Yet it truly was the “best” routine of the Final.
Related: IG Forum – Winning/Medalling with a fall
What do you think? Should our rules medal routines with a fall?
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23 comments ↓
I don’t see any difference between NAstia Liukin and Bross’ falls and Cheng Fei’s. A fall is a fall and it should put you out of the medal standing right away. It’s an embarrassement for the sport. I’m very surprised that a lot of people that was in rage when Cheng Fei medalled, suddenly seems to have a leniency on the matter and are not so bothered with Bross medalling.
The only competition I think it could be accepted is Team competition, but in any case, penalty should be higher.
The penalty for a fall should be at least 1.5, and 2.5 on vault. On top of that, Execution must be taken more seriously on the elements with a fall. See Bross fall on FX:
Fall 1.0+Opened legs 0.1+Incorrect tuck position 0.3+lack of amplittude 0.3 + lack of precision 0.1+flexed feet 0.1. That’s a possible 1.9 deduction. I don’t think they applied that.
Why?
I agree mrsolis 100% with you but it will never happen.
Nastia is not better then everyone else with a fall
Think back to the 80s when a wobble on beam or a step on landing put you out of the medals. Some would say gymnastics was not as exciting then, but it was definitely more beautiful.
I would argue that gymnastics was actually very exciting then – think about the breath of fresh air and innovation someone like Priakhina brought to the sport. AND she mostly executed her big skills well. Gymnasts were trying new skills and making the sport progress but they were doing it well because to do it badly meant that there was no point doing it at all.
Deductions for falls should be much higher, and I would agree with mrsolis that this is even more important on vault. Gymnasts should not be medalling with falls, even if they are the best in the world on that piece.
Ugh. There’s always a Nastia exception isn’t there? I agree with Mrsolis: falls should not be rewarded with medals.
I know in Tumbling and Trampoline, if you fall, your pass is considered to be terminated – meaning that you are done, and your score consists of your skills performed up to that point. That would definitely eliminate the possibility of medaling with a fall, and more importantly, contribute to better, cleaner routines.
Remember something ever worse than Bross medalling with a fall: Vanessa Ferrari actually getting the gold medal in the all-around in Worlds 2006!
i can understand the frustration, but with an open-ended scoring system, it can perfectly well happen. vanessa ferari did it in 2006. i personally would prefer the truly best gymnast in the world to win regardless of one mistake on one bad routine, especially when the other three were so great. why should a gymnast with considerably simpler routines win because they hit, while the truly best gymnast had one mistake but was otherwise great and had much more difficulty. and i just mean that hypothetically, not in regards to sloan winning. good for her for being right there to win.
I think that winning a medal in the AA with a fall is more acceptable than an event medal with a fall. In major competitions, it can be rare for all the top contenders to get through all apparatus without a major break (like 09 Worlds). In Event Finals, you’re only expected to hit one routine- on vault, one skill correctly. I think that’s why people were more upset about Cheng than Bross.
“The worst medal despite a fall I can recall was Cheng Fei at the 2008 Olympics. ”
How short your memories! Paul Hamm won Gold in 04 with a sit down on vault. Now granted I still think he was the best But that’s a whole other argument…
Yes I think falls should count more.
Agreed. ESPECIALLY when someone can put together a whole meet, clean and with no falls… to be beaten by someone who fell is ridiculous.
I think what people fail to see is that Bross was near perfection on 3 events and happened to fall on FX. While other gymnasts were sloppy across all 4 (like Lauren Mitchell). Would you rather see Lauren Mitchell on the podium with a ratty vault, missed handstands, loose form on UB with a LARGE hop forward, wobbles through BB with execution that’s not the greatest, and a wonky floor routine with landing problems throughout get a medal over someone who NAILED 3 events but came to grief on the 4th? Hell, even in older codes Bross would’ve came out on the podium. The only person that went clean all the way through was Tsurumi but even she didn’t have very much difficulty and had a couple of large faults on FX and wouldn’t have won it anyway. Even back in the 1997-2000 code a weak vault was a big hindrance on your AA capabilities. Just ask Liu Xuan, she could’ve outright medalled in 2000 with a harder VT (and floor routine, for that matter).
I agree with Marcus.
i think if you saw someone fall on all 4 events and medal THAT would be crazy
but a person who can hit 3 strong nearly perfect routines and then have 1 fall and that fall being the only mistake in the 4th routine.. (granted i know bross has other mistakes i nher routine im talking in general here)
that person should be able to still contend for a medal.
all in all
would i rather see someone go out and hit 4 amazing perfect hit routines to win the medals.. yes
but think of the code these days and what is being asked of these gymnasts..
your not likely going to see that with the level of difficulty that is required.. someone is going to win a medal who had a fall, or a noticable error, a missed connection..
thats just the way the scoring system seems to work now
thank you marcus and gymnast43, i share that same sentiment. that’s exactly what i was trying to say!
A fall is a fall is a fall! Stop making excuses for being perfect on the other 3 events. If you can nail all of your routines, you were the best of the night, or one of the top gymnasts.
“The worst medal despite a fall I can recall was Cheng Fei at the 2008 Olympics. ”
I personally think the worst ever medal with a fall was Hollie Dykes in the AA at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, when she fell on all 4 events and still received the bronze over Imogen Cairns who didn’t fall once.
I agree with a few of the first comments that a fall on vault should definitely have a higher deduction, and there’s no way that it should be rewarded with a medal. Cheng Fei’s medaling in 2008 olympics was a joke.
However, in terms of the all-around and the other three events, I think it is more like the long program in ice skating. There have been several skaters over the years who have won major competitions with one fall on a triple jumping element but with a clean and technically and artistically superior execution throughout the rest of the program than those who skated without a fall at all but who are obviously less skilled artistic athletes. I think gymnastics is the same way, it’s not all or nothing and hit or miss. There’s a lot of other considerations in a full beam, bar or floor routine. The best gymnasts can still be the best gymnasts — even with a fall — as long as that fall doesn’t have many other deductions — as mrsolis pointed out about Bross’s floor routine. I would agree that that particular fall should have received a number of deductions because it took away from the grace and execution of the overall routine, and came at the end, which sort of left a bad overall impression. There have been other falls on floor or even on beam, where the athlete seems to step back into the routine in a way that makes the fall seem less impactful to the overall presentation.
Doesn’t anyone think that gymnasts would start watering down their start values if falling dropped you from the medal stand?
Yep, and it might make the skills they do perform look really, really nice!
Bross was not near perfect. She has bad form and many execution errors and sloppy skillz.
Dana you are so right. IMO Hamm’s win with a fall was a joke. Yang Tae Young was robbed.
I agree with Marcus, gymnast46, and the others. A fall is a major mistake in a routine and flaws it, however- there are few routines that are flawless. My impression is that the All Around is just that the ranking of gymnasts in order of how well they perform their difficulty minus their flaws. It’s simply just the sum of it all.
It’s a different story in my opinion when talking about an individual event final. I don’t think you can be called the best on an event with a fall over others who did not have a fall.
Side Note: It actually would be nice if the code mandated compulsory vault in the event final: make the gymnast chose from either a front entry vault or back entry vault valued out of say a 5.3 then allow the second vault of their choice and of what ever value. To me this will help avoid something like Cheng medaling.
Very interesting point ST – routine is terminated by a fall and score determined by skills successfully accomplished…
Would look forward to how that would change the game!
Mistakes are a part of any sport. In baseball you can strike out and still hit a grand slam later on in the game. In NASCAR you can crash and still win the race. Even in ice skating you can fall and still win.
My team competed last night. Wasn’t our best performance, but we still won. Nobody is going to take that away from us.
I like the concept of which ST spoke – would be interesting to see how coaches responded to that when designing routines.
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