Gymnastics tiebreaker questions?

Question

Ok, I'm going to try to leave any sense of nationalism out of this, and I'd appreciate it if your answers could do the same. Let's all forget about the countries involved in last night's gymnastics fiasco, and look at this abstractly.

1) Should gold medal ties be allowed in olympic gymnastics? (as I think they are in most/all other events)

2) Does it make sense to immediately throw out the score from the highest judge and the lowest judge? (this is prior to any tiebreaker, from what I understand...and note that the two gymnasts were NOT tied, prior to dropping these extremes)

3) If the gymnasts are tied, does it make sense to throw out the NEXT lowest score?

4) If this tie-breaker procedure does not make sense to you, then what is a better alternative? (assuming that ties are not allowed)

I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone with a background in statistics on this question. Please don't just respond with "_____ cheated!"

Thanks!!

Answer 1

I haven't been following the Olympics this year, so I don't really know what you're specifically talking about.  

However, the highest and lowest scores have been thrown out in gymnastics for as long as I can recall.  This prevents an individual judge from playing favorites or trying to hurt a particular gymnast (at least very badly.)

I think that the rules have been in place for a while and I would say, so long as they're applied consistently, then that's how they should be applied now.

Each sport has its own rules & governing body, so you have irregularities between them.  It's meet->meet consistency that is important.

Incidentally, there's always been a strong home-field advantage in the Olympics regardless of which country has played host.  So, I don't think it's unfair if the Chinese are winning a lot of medals this year.  Look at all the medals America has won when it's hosted.

Answer 2

1)yes. i don't see a reason why they shouldn't

2)no

3)no

4)let them do another routine and see who gets the higher score that time.

Answer 3

1. yes If two people received the same score and tied for first that means they both worked hard and did great why not reward both of them

2. no

3. no

4. I guess the best way i would see fit to break a tie is to reevaluate the two and give the gold to the person i truly feel did the best

Answer 4

1.) I don't see why not, they both performed the same routine brilliantly, so they should both get a gold medal, all the other events have this.

2.) The highest and lowest scores are automatically dropped as they are considered to be deviations (outside the normal range), they then take the averages of the of the middle scores, this gives a better average to closer reflect the given scores. So if someone gave a 4.5 when everyone gave 9.0's the 4.5 would dramatically drag down the average. This is the same in diving.

3.) It would be possible, but then the average would not be as accurate, as it has one less sample (score) to take. The more samples (scores) that are taken, the more accurate your average will be at the end.

4.) The tie breaker system to me is confusing for many people, it's based on penalties that are given by the judges, so whoever has less penalties is the winner. If it's the final i don't think this system should be used as it fine combs too much. A sudden death should be used so that the girls who are tied can perform another routine to determine a winner.

In all honesty i think both girls should get the medal, as i don't think the Olympic spirit should be brought down to the finest of margins when both girls did the same thing, with the same excellence, and yet they're worlds apart.