Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Huh?

The gymnastics competitions at the Olympics has left me scratching my head wondering what the judges have been seeing that I haven't. Granted, I don't know where every deduction comes from, but let's face it this new scoring system has some serious problems. It's not only confusing, but downright unfair.

Any scoring system that rewards an athlete a medal after they fall to their knees on a vault and keeps another athlete who didn't fall from standing on the podium seems seriously flawed to me. Even if one vault was harder than another. A fall is a fall. Or should be, whether you're from China or somewhere else.

And it's not just the American in me complaining. I think the scoring on the floor exercise was spot on. Shawn Johnson did great, but she didn't stick her landings on her tumbling passes the way the Romanian gymnast who won the gold did.

Tonight, however, really baffled me. Judges who aren't really competent are judging the Olympics? That's what was suggested by the NBC announcers tonight. Did you know ties weren't allowed in Olympic gymnastics when other sports allow them? I sure didn't. What's the logic behind the no tie rule in gymnastics? Not enough endorsements to go around if there were two gold medalists? Whatever the reasoning, it's lame and Nastia Luikin will always be a gold medal individual winner on the uneven bars in my book.

With all this happening in Olympic gymnastics judging, it makes me remember what hubby said after the ice skating judging scandal involving the French. Hubby believed, and still does, that anything with subjective scoring should not be part of the Olympics. I hate how a panel of judges and/or stupid rules can mess things up so badly. Still I can't imagine the Olympics without those sports, and I bet neither could the networks. But something has to be done to fix the problems. And the sooner the better. London is only four years away.