Grandi on London

FIG President, Bruno Grandi, shares “a few thoughts and impressions from the London 2012 Olympic Games”:

I was particularly impressed by the Rhythmic Gymnastics judging panels. …

The judging in the Trampoline Gymnastics is worthy of special praise …

Turning to Artistic Gymnastics, I must, by contrast, express my regret and disappointment at the incident relating to the score awarded to Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura in the Team Pommel Horse. This disagreeable situation unfolded right before the eyes of the IOC President, who was present in the arena.

We urgently need to undertake a comprehensive review of the way we handle appeals. … so that the spectacle of coaches crossing the competition area, waving banknotes in the air, is not something that is ever repeated. …

Recall in that embarrassing incident that Uchimura’s score on Pommels was raised and — as a result — Japan took the Silver medal as a Team, over host GBR.

I’ve since spoken to a number of experts convinced that Kohei’s score should not have been raised. Japan should not have won Silver.

I’m less than incensed over that, however. Considering how many times Kohei has been under-rewarded for Execution, over the years.

I would also like to touch on the appeal by Team USA over the score awarded to Alexandra Raisman in the final of the Beam. The Jury accepted the appeal, which meant that Raisman ousted Romania’s Catalina Ponor from the bronze medal position on the podium. …

It’s easy to argue that Ponor should have won that medal.

I’d like to know exactly what happened there. 😦

… the rules applied in tie-break situations. Do we really need to separate two gymnasts who are locked together on identical scores, down to a thousandth of a point?

Take, for example, Mustafina and Raisman in the final of the All-around competition, who were locked together on 59.566 after the four pieces of apparatus. There was a similar situation with Mustafina and Ferrari in the final of the women’s Floor exercise; then there was the case I referred to above involving Raisman and Ponor in the Beam, not to mention the situations involving Berki/Smith and Uchimura/Ablyazin.

The issue of how to resolve ‘dead-heat’ situations has long given risen to debate, but the FIG has taken a firm position, and chosen to adhere to the principle of equal ranking. …

I’m confused on that. Who is stopping the FIG from awarding ties. The IOC?

If so, leave a comment with link explaining that rule.

Personally I’d like to see it made more mathematically difficult for ties to arise. Tie breaks wouldn’t be needed so often.

I thought the Artistic judging MAG and WAG was lousy. The D-panels giving credit for almost anything. And the E-panels boxing the scores, penalizing those with good execution (e.g. Uchimura) and rewarding those with poor form & extension.

If the Execution judges had a wider range from best to worst, it would help. A lot.

It was a relief to get through — for Grandi — with no worse scandals in the mainstream media. Of course those reflect badly on him. And he’s running for reelection in October.

Read the entire open letter.