Notes were scrawled across palms. Marked-up answer sheets were filled with suspicious adjustments. Exams were mysteriously missing pages.
The International Gymnastics Federation found suspicious marks on tests by experts hoping to judge rhythmic gymnastics.
It might sound like a middle-school math test gone wrong, but it’s a fresh scandal in the Olympics world, implicating as many as 60 experts …
The International Gymnastics Federation, known as F.I.G., spent months investigating the episode. Much of their findings, spanning hundreds of pages, were obtained by The New York Times.
The documents showed that in Bucharest, Romania, test takers clearly copied answers from one anothers’ papers, including the mistakes. In Moscow, 114 answers were changed on dozens of tests; in Alicante, Spain, 257 answers were changed.
The exam sheets themselves served as evidence of the suspected cheating — crude markups, blatant copying, unexplained bonus points — that proved as clumsy as a botched rhythmic routine.
One test clearly had been touched by more than one person — it was filled with at least two different handwriting styles, the report said. …
The fallout has been swift, with one top Olympic official already expelled and six others suspended. They include Caroline Hunt of the United States, along with officials from Egypt, Japan and Russia. Dozens of judges who took the tests have been implicated and questioned by F.I.G. investigators.
Ms. Hunt plans to appeal the punishment. …
Investigators found that Maria Szyszkowska of Poland, the former president of the governing body’s rhythmic gymnastics technical committee, interfered with the computer program that calculated the scores. As a result, Mrs. Szyszkowska was stripped of her membership and prohibited from “any form of participation in all F.I.G. events and activities.”
Her lawyer, Sébastien Besson, issued a statement to F.I.G. officials denying any wrongdoing. He argued that bonus points were not awarded arbitrarily and followed common practice. He called the missing answer sheets “obviously regretful, but nobody knows what happened.”
read more on the NY Times – Judges of a Graceful Sport, Caught in a Clumsy Cheating Scandal
Bad press for Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics. 😦
Where there’s this much smoke, there’s most likely fire.
I hope this scandal clears some deadwood, and cleans up the Rhythmic judges pool.
The girls deserve better.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 