Nastia Liukin Silver Not Nasty, but the Gymnastics Scoring System Is

Nastia Liukin was heading into the Uneven Bars competition at the Beijing Olympics. She had already won the All-Around Competition as Olympic Champion, winning the Gold Medal, but she had a special desire to win a gold on the uneven bars as well.

The Individual Apparatus Finals for Uneven Bars in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics was shown on NBC August 18. It was not shown live. Nastia Liukin was the only U.S. qualifier to compete on the bars. Nastia wore a flashy blue leotard with red and white star/flame graphics. Although born in Moscow, she was showing her true American colors.

Olympics - Nastia Flies on Uneven Bars
There would be eight women to compete on the uneven bars. He Kexin, of China, was first up. She performed an excellent routine with a high start value. She received a 16.725 from the judges. Nastia Liukin, of the US, performed next. She had a few small form breaks, and one somewhat noticeable leg separation when traveling from high to low bar. Overall, she had an excellent routine. She received a score of 16.725 as well. Both women had the same start value and the judges gave each woman the same score. Moments later, the unseen display ranked the women and you could see Nastia mouth the question, "They have me in second?" to her dad/coach.

The other world class athletes performed awe inspiring routines with many release skills. Another Chinese gymnast, Yilin, received a score of 16.65 and ended up with the bronze medal. One highlight was Great Britain's Beth Tweddle, who really let loose with an original routine complete with complicated high-flying release moves that made the crowd gasp. She scored a 16.625, just out of the medals.

Controversy: Chinese Gymnasts Too Young?
The night was a controversial one. Members of the Chinese gymnastics team are rumored to be under the age of 16, which is the minimum age a gymnast must now be to compete at the Olympics. The FIG enacted this rule to prevent little girls from competing in gymnastics at the Olympics. However, the Chinese appear to have gotten around this rule and provided the athletes passports, which proclaim their ages to be 16.

Controversy: No Gymnasts Can Tie in the Olympics
In gymnastics, often gymnasts' scores are very close, only separated by hundredths of a point. In past Olympics, there have been ties, but now, the FIG has instituted a new rule called the "tiebreaker". The software built into the scoring system does a math calculation and throws out some high and some low scores and ends up with a new total. In the case of Liukin and Kexin, it came down to the Australian judge's score acting as the tiebreaker. Bela Karolyi was interviewed later and voiced his disapproval over the fact that one judge, who didn't have a lot of experience in scoring international competitions ended up placing Liukin in second place. Karolyi really went crazy at the thought that the two could not tie. The general consensus was that Nastia had done the better routine, with fewer errors and form breaks. Both gymnasts' start values were the same.

Controversy: New Code of Points
People that haven't watched gymnastics since the last Olympics were surprised over the new scoring system. The viewers are confused and don't know when to get excited over a score. The commentators try to explain the new system. I've followed gymnastics for a long time and have difficulty understanding it. The commentators said there is no maximum. I think the score is a combination of the start value (which has no maximum), plus the score for artistic impression (which has a maximum of 10.0). A high score at the Olympics would be anything over 16.0.

All in all, Nastia Liukin did a great routine, was awarded the same score as the gold medal winning Kexin, and should have received gold herself.