Never easy. Some of the most bizarre judging stories I’ve ever heard have come out of Central and South America.
Here’s one from the Women’s Team Competition:
From judge Grace Chiu who’s there as photographer:
The straddled Weiler was supposed to be devalued from a D to a C, according to the FIG WTC since Tokyo. It did not get applied yesterday to Shawn Johnson because Steve Butcher, MTC acting on behalf of absent Nellie Kim, clarified that the change can only be applied after six months‘ notice. Johnson benefits with a 0.4 and one placement ahead of Peng Peng Lee because of the timing of these Pan Am Games. I will be curious to see what Shawn does in 6 months.
That’s significant because vaunted Team USA nearly lost this meet. From Amanda Turner’s wrap-up post:
… The U.S. outscored the field on vault and uneven bars, but performed disastrously on balance beam and floor exercise. Olympic champion Shawn Johnson, who won four golds at the 2007 Pan American Games, dropped off on her standing full and slipped off again on a simple switch leap. Newcomer Jessie Deziel posted the top scores for the U.S. team on balance beam (13.275) and floor exercise (13.150).
Peng-Peng Lee led Canada, which could have won with a stronger performance on uneven bars. The team had the top totals on both balance beam and floor exercise, with Mikaela Gerber posting the best floor score (13.950). …
Congratulations on the strong prelims competition.
… the only Guatemalan classified to participate in gymnastics Pan American Games …
… finished with a total of 55,425 in their classification, which exceeded the Canadian Christine Lee and Kristina Vaculik also be relegated to fourth place in the American favorite Bridgetee Caquatto. …
In the past I’d say Ana Sofia Gomez would be a strong candidate for a “wild card” to the Olympics. Right now I’m totally confused on whether or not there will even be any wild card spots.
Dr. Michael Canales interviews the likeable Jon Horton after surgery. They’ve repaired the damage from a Lisfranc injury he suffered landing short on Dragulescu Vault at the 2011 Tokyo World Championships.
A montage showing some named skills from the Code of Points that were actually performed by other people earlier. Generally this happens when people never get to go to a world championships but occasionally the FIG like to remind us how dumb they can be and just name the skill after the wrong Romanian. Smooth.
I understand Nastia is coming costumed as a GYMNAST.
… The Progressive Skating & Gymnastics Spectacular, coming to … Moline, Ill., on October 29, is part of the Pandora NBC Skating Series and will feature Olympic, world and national medalists in figure skating and gymnastics, including Olympic hopefuls for the London 2012 Summer Games.
Leading the cast of world-class gymnasts is 2008 Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin, returning for her fifth appearance in the show. …
Four guys “hit” well enough to be considered for medals. If you asked a group of 8yr-old gymnasts which was the “best” routine, all would agree it was Kohei Uchimura. Even if they had no idea who he was.
BIG tricks. Great swing. Stuck dismount.
What kind of a judging system would give the gold to the guy with poor toe point, average swing technique, poor “positions” and much less impressive difficulty (aside from the Jaeger 1/1) … ?
Zhang swings great. I’m happy to award him the Silver.
It’s a toss up for me for the Bronze.
When oh when will FIG “fix” the rules on Horizontal Bar?
Here (again) are those responsible for awarding Uchimura 9.033 execution and Zou Kai 8.741:
HUANG Liping (CHN) – Horizontal Bar Supervisor
Execution Judges:
DOBROVOLSKYI Edvard (UKR)
POP Augustin (ROU)
KELEMEN Zoltan (HUN)
MITEV Dimitar (BUL)
ROCHA Joao (POR)
FIG was very careful not to release the detailed execution scores for each judge, knowing some would be lynched. If you’ve somehow got your hands on all execution scores for routines at Worlds, contact me. I’ll give them to WikiLeaks.
Thanks to American Head Coach in Tokyo, John Geddert, for giving us so much insight into what happened behind the scenes:
… We have lots of work to do. For the past 3 cycles the USA has captured the World Title the year prior to the Olympics (2003, 2007 and now 2011), yet have failed to defend that title when the flame is lit. …
A good portion of our future success will be tied to the health and well-being of our athletes. “Upping our Game” does not equate to increasing the work load, increasing the numbers or the training time. It equates more to “training smart” so that we place the best possible combination of athletes on the floor at the right time.
It’s win or nothing for him and the Russian program.
Perhaps all the whining (not typical of him in the past) is all part of a bigger strategy to lose the battle, then win the war. The Olympic team title in 2012.
With a healthy Moustafina back perhaps by December, Russia will again be favourites in London.
Mixed Martial Arts, or M.M.A., is a full contact combat sport that was once banned in much of the United States. Today, it’s one of the fastest growing sports among men… and now women. But why would any woman climb into a cage for all-out combat for what amounts to almost nothing? …
“Fighter Girls” is one of four riveting stories airing on CNN Presents hosted by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and Dr. Sanjay Gupta this Sunday, October 23 at 8:00 pm ET, re-airing at 11:00 pm ET and 2:00 am ET.
