by Brooke Lorren

Created on: September 11, 2009

Up until 2005, gymnasts of the world strived to achieve a perfect score of 10. Perfect scores were only awarded for flawless performances, and were rarely given out. Some of the most famous gymnasts to receive perfect scores include Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton. The scoring system changed after the Athens Olympics. A judging mistake created a lot of controversy at the time, and ended up in a complete overhaul of the judging system.

During the Athens games, Paul Hamm took home a gold medal in the overall individual competition. With a total score of 57.823, Hamm beat out his closest competitor by only 12-thousandths of a point. Yang Tae-Young received the bronze medal with a score of 57.774, only 49-thousandths of a point behind Hamm. It was the closest finish in the entire history of men's Olympic gymnastics.

Yang's third place finish was a result of judging mistakes. His routine should have been given a start value of 10, but judges gave it a start value of 9.9 for the all-around event. Had judges given him the correct start value, he would have received an overall score of 57.874, which would have put him 51-tenths of a point ahead of Hamm, giving him the gold medal. He appealed the judge's decision, but only after the deadline to make an appeal had passed.

The two judges who came up with the erroneous start values were suspended by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). Although Yang and the South Korean gymnastics federation asked for either duplicate gold medals to be awarded, or for Hamm to be awarded the silver medal while Yang received the gold, the scores could not be reversed.

As a result of the judging errors of the 2004 Olympic Games, FIG decided to overhaul the way that gymnasts received their scores. Gone were the days of the perfect 10 start value. Every gymnast's routine would now receive both a score for difficulty and a score for execution. The difficulty score would be calculated by giving all of the skills a point value. Higher point values were given to the more difficult skills. The 10 most challenging skills would contribute to the difficulty score. The only perfect tens that could be achieved now would be in the execution score. The execution score would always start with 10 and points would be deducted whenever a gymnast made a mistake.

Not all gymnasts are thrilled with the new scoring system. Some think that it is too difficult for the casual gymnastics fan to understand. Others think that it will cause gymnasts to push themselves to the technical limits, while concentrating less on the physical beauty of the sport. FIG officials claim that the new system allows more of a separation between challenging routines; in the past, two challenging routines could have received a start value of 10, even though one might have actually been more difficult than the other.

Sources:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2005- 04-27-gymnastics-scoring-changes_x.htm

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3876

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/gymnastics/ne ws/story?id=1863695

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=gymnasti cs&id=2010173

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