Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin Medal Confusion; Opinions in Gymnastics
As the commentators stated there is a certain amount of personal opinion involved in the giving of the scores to the gymnasts at the Olympics. As with anything artistic there will be opinions, however how can a routine with relatively low falters and large difficulty obtain a lower overall score than one with the same difficulty and more mistakes? I am not saying that Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin were without mistakes; however in the overall the scores kept coming in low.
The question in all of this is whether the issue is due to the opinions in gymnastics, or whether it is politics in Beijing, China that has really made Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin suffer. Now of course they still won medal after medal at the 2008 and Olympics however as with any Olympian your overall score and ending up with the gold medal is what they are working towards.
It appears that the newer scoring system still appears to have its flaws as Nastia Liukin found out last night during the uneven bar competition where she received the same scores as He Lexin of China and yet Nastia received the silver medal while He received the gold.
Even the men's gymnastics are seeing several ties and issues about tie breakers and their refusal to award two of the same medal to the tied Olympians. Although Shawn Johnson has yet to receive a gold medal she has handled everything with grace and kindness to the people who have won. Nastia Liukin although quieter and more morose still has handled the whole judging system and tie breaker mess with aplomb.
Hopefully with the beam being the last event for Shawn the judges will have worked on some of the judging quirks so that we are not all left with a sense of wondering who should have really won.
Published by Chloe Thorn
I am 33, I have a wonderful daughter who is 14..... I love to read, write, cook, and dance. I also enjoy listening to music as loud as I can crank it. All genres of music interest me but especially, rock, po... View profile
2008 Beijing Olympic Schedule of the Gold Medal MatchesA Schedule of Team Events and When all the Gold Medal Matches are Scheduled.- Is Gymnastics a Team Sport? 2008 Olympics Women's GymnasticsIs gymnastics truly a team sport? This article discusses the drawbacks of a team that is put together right before the Olympics.
- Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson Shine during Olympic Women's Gymnastics FinalsWhen asked for an adjective to describe the Women's Gymnastics All-Around Finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, several words readily come to mind: Incredible. Astounding. Beautiful. Shocking.
- 2008 Olympics: Nastia Liukin Wins Gold for U.S. In Women's Gymnastic All-AroundThe Bejing Olympic gymnastics All-Around competition finally played out like it was supposed to for the women on Thursday. Nastia Liukin came through ...
It's Gold for the United States Women's Gymnastics, as Nastia Liukin Tak...Rebounding from a few sad moments at the team competition, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson showed the World they are the best.
- Congressional Gold Medal Recipients: Notable African-Americans
- Olympic Trials 2008: Women's Gymnastics Night One - Johnson, Liukin, Memmel Top 3
- Olympic Trials 2008 Women's Gymnastics Night Two: Johnson, Liukin Top 2
- 8 of the Best American Gymnasts: From Rigby to Liukin
- 2008 Olympics NBC TV Schedule - Men's and Women's Gymnastics
- Beijing Olympics Softball Opens with Team U.S.A. Taking on Venezuela
- Alica Sacramone, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin Deserved Better Than Silver
15 Comments
Post a CommentGood article! I felt so frustrated watching the Americans get lower scores for obviously less-flawed routines. I felt so bad for Alicia Sacramone when Chung Fei got the bronze after that knee-landing >,<
However, Shawn and Nastia did rack up a good amount of medals, and one gold each at that!
I believe the unfair scoring has more to do with the world's perception of America than a flawed system. We have turned into a nation of corporate bullies and Nastia and Shawn paid the price for it. The Olympics should be an eye-opener that forces the American people to take back America. After all, we no longer own this country, the corporate-owned political machine does.
I agree. There definitely was something weird going on -- and also the vault for Alicia Sacramone-- that other gymnast landed on her KNEES and got the bronze?? What was up with that? Nice article.
I don't know a thing about scoring gymnastics, but I know a great performance compared to a mediocre one when I see it. Shawn Johnson was robbed. Some very strategic things happened with gymnastics scoring, delaying mounts on beam, etc. Further, the "women" of the Chinese team were little girls. I don't care what their passports say, and I don't understand why the IOC isn't being much more cautious and at least investigating. The Olympics should not be about politics. I also wrote an article on women's gymnastics. It can be accessed from my CP page. Nice job on your article.
Great article on a subject that needed to be addressed. I covered the gymnastics and posted over 20 articles on AC. I was furious from the git-go the first night prelims when they constantly overscored the Chinese and underscored the Americans. It was blatant prejudice against the Americans and for the chinese because I didn't see over or underscoring of any other country. I mentioned the unfairness in every article on the women's gymnastics. Would be pleased to have you check them out through my CP page.
*laughs* I am not jumping up and down in anger here just making an observation that several have made, something seems off. And now that the ages of the Chinese gymast team are being called into play again I just wonder...
With anything artistic unfortunately there will always be differing opinions, I just wish there was a better way to do tings that would be better for the gymnasts, they had several ties this year that they had to break because they refuse to double medal the winners.
But I agree that it needs to be explored further and that there should be clearer standards that treat all competitors with fairness.
This has happened before many times, from ice skating to gymnastics. There have been questions about judging in many sports and remember when the judges were put on the spot when it came to ice skating after the audience booed and the clear unfairness was exposed? It happens and I don't know how or why they'll get control over it.
I think Shawn is adorable and incredibly genuine, not saying that the Chinese team wasnt I just dont see how the judging wasn't off at least a little.