Helen Colagiuri (Australia) has been selected by the FIG as one of the 8 judges to officiate at the World Cup Final, Dec. 15-16 in Madrid.. Helen will be A2 on Beam and B panel on all other apparatus. Only the top 8 gymnasts on each apparatus are invited.
Recall the name?
Helen Colagiuri was the judge singled out by Valeri Liukin, Tim Daggett and others in the American Camp after Nastia finished Silver behind He Kexin in the Olympic Bar Final.
original – flickr
There are no ties allowed in the Olympics. In Beijing, if a tie occurs, it is first broken by start value…which in this case was identical. Then it’s broken by the deductions taken by the middle four judges…which were also identical. The third tiebreak was the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges’ deductions and this is where the difference was made.
Colagiuri awarded He 9.300 and Liukin 9.000, while none of the other five judges scored He’s execution better than one-10th of a point above Liukin.
I defended Colagiuri and the judging panel at the time, even though I personally wanted Nastia to get the Gold. The pirouette angle deductions are so debatable, that any of the top 3 could have won.
I still believe no “Australian Judging conspiracy” against the USA exists.
Sadly, it became a huge media storyline: Nastia’s score correct, says beleaguered judge
Seems FIG believes Helen Colagiuri is one of the very best judges in the world. Otherwise they would have found a way not to select her for the World Cup Final to appease the Americans.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 