At the 2004 Olympics, Marian Dragulescu performed his eponymous vault. He completed it nearly flawlessly and earned a 9.900, a ginormous score at the time. For his second vault, Dragulescu did a Kaz 1.5. But he went over the lines, put both hands to the mat, and stepped off the vault mats.
Magically, Dragulescu still scored a 9.325 on his second vault. Many thought that Dragulescu should have scored a maximum of 9.100 on the Kasamatsu. The Canadian gymnastics federation lodged a protest on behalf of Kyle Shewfelt who was in fourth place. Two judges had given Dragulescu a 9.5 on his second vault, when there were clearly more than 0.5 in errors.
Adrian Stoica, a Romanian, was the FIG's Men's Technical Director at the time, and many believe that Dragulescu's score was a show of partisanship.
About today's results, Coach Rick on GymnasticsCoaching.com has said:
I had many feelings about this, as well.This is worse than the Uchimura pommel dismount scandal at the 2012 Olympics.On par with the Dragalescu 2nd Vault scandal at the 2004 Olympics. Four judges were sanctioned that time.
China wins with a fall on floor and a pancake splat on p-bars. W.T.F.
— Uncle Tim (@uncletimmensgym) October 7, 2014Had Kato not messed up his Tak 1/1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… GAH!
— Uncle Tim (@uncletimmensgym) October 7, 2014 Overall, Japan was the more consistent team. But, with some distance between myself and the event, I can say that Japan had their fair share of mistakes and missed opportunities. Let's take a look at some numbers…
As you can see, China performed more difficulty than Japan, especially on rings.
| Event | CHN D-Score Avg. | JPN D-Score Avg. |
|---|---|---|
| Floor | 6.633 | 6.900 |
| Pommels | 6.233 | 6.333 |
| Rings | 6.833 | 6.300 |
| Vault | 6.000 | 5.867 |
| Parallel Bars | 6.900 | 6.633 |
| High Bar | 7.100 | 6.733 |
| Overall | 6.617 | 6.461 |
Dang! The Chinese on rings are hot.
What the Japanese lacked in difficulty they made up in execution. Correction: almost made up in execution.
| Event | CHN E-Score Avg. | JPN E-Score Avg. |
|---|---|---|
| Floor | 8.289 | 8.677 |
| Pommels | 8.341 | 8.780 |
| Rings | 8.677 | 8.544 |
| Vault | 9.355 | 9.389 |
| Parallel Bars | 8.541 | 8.711 |
| High Bar | 8.219 | 8.222 |
| Overall | 8.571 | 8.721 |
Japan's execution scores, though better than China's, just weren't enough to overcome China's difficulty. Unfortunately, that's not where this story ends.
Like moths to a flame, gymnastics fans are attracted to the faintest whiff of controversy. If you look closely at the high bar execution scores, they are awfully close: an 8.219 average for China and an 8.222 average for Japan. On top of that, Zhang Chenglong's execution score was only 0.044 behind Kohei Uchimura's. (8.466 to 8.500.)
So, we sit down at our laptops and compare high bar routines in slow motion. We watch Kohei's routine:
Then, we watch Zhang Chenglong's routine:
And we compare pirouetting skills. How much did they twist? How crooked and whackadoodle were their swings out of the pirouettes?
And we'll compare release catches. How early did they catch? How bent were their arms? Did they almost kiss some pipe?
And, in the end, we, the couch gymnasts of the world, blame the judges.
(And some of us open up old wounds because we are masochistic like that. We remember that time, in 2011, when Zhang Chenglong was last to go on high bar. He managed to beat Epke Zonderland in Rotterdam. And we get our tighty whities in a bundle because "the judges really messed that one up.")
But we don't blame the gymnasts. We're reluctant to blame the gymnasts – when, to be quite frank, the Chinese team left the door wide open for Japan. And Japan tripped walking up the stairs.
Shirai Kenzo stepped out of bounds on floor. There went three tenths right there.
Ryohei Kato competed a 5.6 vault instead of his 6.0 vault. There go another four tenths right there. (Though, he did score a 14.966 in finals compared to his 14.866 in prelims.)
Yusuke Tanaka "bombed" parallel bars. He scored a 15.700 in prelims and only a 15.166 in finals. That's 0.534. (Personally, I would die a happy man if I scored a 15.166 on p-bars.)
Ryohei Kato missed his Adler 1/1 into his Yamawaki, dropping his difficulty score from a 6.4 to a 6.3. There's another tenth.
As I said on the Worlds preview show of GymCastic, the team title was Japan's to lose, and lost it they did.
That's right. The judges did not lose the meet. The gymnasts did.
Contrary to what we might believe, gymnasts do have agency in competitions. Contrary to what we might believe, gymnasts are not the marionettes of some maniacal puppeteer judges.
Sure, judges will mess up from time to time. They are human – just like the gymnasts. When it is crystal clear that the judges did mess up, they should be castigated.
But was Zhang Chenglong's high bar score as painfully wrong as the Marian Dragulescu's 2004 vault score situation?
No. De ninguna manera.
Don't be so dramatic.
Like moths to a flame, gymnastics fans are attracted to the faintest whiff of controversy. If you look closely at the high bar execution scores, they are awfully close: an 8.219 average for China and an 8.222 average for Japan. On top of that, Zhang Chenglong's execution score was only 0.044 behind Kohei Uchimura's. (8.466 to 8.500.)
So, we sit down at our laptops and compare high bar routines in slow motion. We watch Kohei's routine:
Then, we watch Zhang Chenglong's routine:
And we compare pirouetting skills. How much did they twist? How crooked and whackadoodle were their swings out of the pirouettes?
vs.
vs.
(And some of us open up old wounds because we are masochistic like that. We remember that time, in 2011, when Zhang Chenglong was last to go on high bar. He managed to beat Epke Zonderland in Rotterdam. And we get our tighty whities in a bundle because "the judges really messed that one up.")
But we don't blame the gymnasts. We're reluctant to blame the gymnasts – when, to be quite frank, the Chinese team left the door wide open for Japan. And Japan tripped walking up the stairs.
Shirai Kenzo stepped out of bounds on floor. There went three tenths right there.
Ryohei Kato competed a 5.6 vault instead of his 6.0 vault. There go another four tenths right there. (Though, he did score a 14.966 in finals compared to his 14.866 in prelims.)
Yusuke Tanaka "bombed" parallel bars. He scored a 15.700 in prelims and only a 15.166 in finals. That's 0.534. (Personally, I would die a happy man if I scored a 15.166 on p-bars.)
Ryohei Kato missed his Adler 1/1 into his Yamawaki, dropping his difficulty score from a 6.4 to a 6.3. There's another tenth.
As I said on the Worlds preview show of GymCastic, the team title was Japan's to lose, and lost it they did.
That's right. The judges did not lose the meet. The gymnasts did.
Contrary to what we might believe, gymnasts do have agency in competitions. Contrary to what we might believe, gymnasts are not the marionettes of some maniacal puppeteer judges.
Sure, judges will mess up from time to time. They are human – just like the gymnasts. When it is crystal clear that the judges did mess up, they should be castigated.
But was Zhang Chenglong's high bar score as painfully wrong as the Marian Dragulescu's 2004 vault score situation?
No. De ninguna manera.
Don't be so dramatic.
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