Why did Nastia Liukin get such a low Execution Score on her perfect vault during the All-Around Finals?

Question

All the U.S. commentators agreed that the Execution Score was way too low. I'm sure even the Chinese would concede to this. In any case, you can tell that Nastia Liukin is a really great gymnast because she still won the All-Around Gold Medal despite the shocking incompetence of the judges. Many people have suggested that the judges were paid off by the Chinese. After all, the judges were from countries that weren't wealthy, in a relative sense, and I can't help but brush aside the feeling, based on my observations, that they favored the Chinese gymnasts with respect to scoring.

Answer 1

well they were explaining why all the scores were so messed up.. like why Alicia Sacramone came in fourth and the girl that fell on her vault came in 3rd. since you can't have a judge from your own country judge you then you get judges from countries that don't really have experience in gymnastics.. like african countries and stuff. they don't judge properly because they don't really know how to. i think Bela Karoyli was explaining it. that is why Nastia got 2nd on the uneven bars even though her routine was better than the chinese girl and also why her perfect vault was too low.

but it did seem they favored the chinese. Bela also said maybe the large amount of cheering from the crowd for the chinese gymnasts made the judges think "hey she did really well, listen to that crowd!". which also relates to them not being great judges..they don't really know what to score so they go based off the crowd and i think that is why the chinese girls got such high scores that they did not deserve.

Answer 2

Well, actually, on the uneven bars it was the Australian judge who gave Nastia the particularly low score, and I'd say Australia is actually one of the wealthier countries, with a better standard of living.

I really don't think that the judges have been paid off.  I do agree that they probably aren't terribly experienced.  Most of the truly experienced judges come from countries where gymnastics are really popular.  But, because most of these countries advanced athletes, their judges can't be used due to conflict of interest.  They can't allow them to judge their own countrymen - there is always the question of bias.  The best thing would be to get these judges from other countries MORE experience.  Get them to go to more meets, more competitions.  So that they're better at identifying problems and deductions.  Or the judges should be able to use the same slo-mo play back technologies the broadcasters get to use.

I also think the scoring system needs to be tweaked.  Bailing on a bigger difficulty routine shouldn't get you way more points than landing a perfect, easier routine.  That just doesn't make any sense.  The artistry is really falling, because it doesn't get you any points these days.  It's all about how HARD it is, not how cleanly you perform.

Also: sorry, but the NBC commentators are c**p.  They're INCREDIBLY biased and often don't really know what they're talking about.  For instance.  I watched the men's springboard diving on NBC and CBC.  On NBC they'd ***** and whine about how deductions weren't made on a diver whose legs crossed during a twist.  They said it would be a HUGE deduction.  The other commentator on the other channel said "his legs crossed slightly on that twist, but he's spinning so quickly I don't think the judges at pool side would see.  They don't get the slow-motion playback.  I really doubt they saw that".  They didn't.  The Americans commentators were appalled that such a 'huge error' would go unnoticed.  The NBC commentators are blinding by their own national pride.  Their not trained judges, they get slow motion playback.

Answer 3

Because television commentators are not qualified, experienced judges.

It can *look* perfect to you, but there can be things you are not seeing because you don't know to look out for it, such as crossed legs during a twist, shoulders aren't straight, legs apart on landing.

Just because it looks perfect to the average parochial television viewer who only watches the gymnastics once every 4 years - does not mean that it is.

Answer 4

Only the judges really know the answer to that :(

Answer 5

Nastia did an excellent vault.