Why was the Gold awarded to He Kexin instead of Liukin?

Question

Nastia Liukin and He Kexin scored the EXACT same in both execution and difficulty.

So why was Kexin awarded gold and Nastia silver? Why not the other way around?

(this question has nothing to do with Kexin's age, we are ASSUMING she is 16)

Answer 1

because of the rules.......

if the scores are the same , then compare B score. if the same, then remove the lowest one, then compare.

(BTW, Asian always look much younger than Americans.....)

Answer 2

It's called a tiebreaker rule, nobody in gymnastics likes it but it's done, when the rules were modified a few years ago (well prior to the olympics), representatives from USA also voted for it. The rule was not made by Chinese.

The first tiebreaker is the B score(The score you saw that was the same was the A score, there are two judging panels, A and B). Nastia and He both got the same B score, 9.025. The next tiebreaker, the judges drop the next highest deduction.That leaves three judges' scores instead of four, or to be precise, the marks those three judges gave for deductions. He deduction's were .933 and Nastia's were .966, Nastia had the higher deductions of the two so she was awarded silver.

Another way of doing is to take the B scores of the three judges from that second tie-break, add them together and divide by three.

The math for He: 9.1, 9.1, 9.0. That equals 27.2. Divide that by three, and that equals 9.066, the sixes stretching out to infinity.

For Liukin: 9.1, 9.0, 9.0. That equals 27.1. Divide that by three and it's 9.0333, the threes going out forever.

That's why Nastia was silver.

.

Answer 3

b/c the judges were paid off

Answer 4

It's just like how Micheal Phelps won the last gold at a astonishing 1/100ths of a second.

Lets face it. Based on the rules Nastia Liukin lost by 1/10th of a point in overall. They were not equal overall. Thats life, Just like how .9999999999999999999999999 is still less than 1.

If it was the opposite, the country China would be outraged just as much as the U.S are outraged.

Chinese look younger than they appear. Heck, Some people Estimates their age oh how they look. A 50 year old women looks 35. But her birth certificate and her passport backs her up as age 50.

I was rooting for U.S. The judges judged horribly. Thats how it is, judges will be judges. Umpires will be umpires. Referees will be referees. They aren't perfect, they do the best they can at thier job.

Answer 5

Honestly when both player get the same marks, then it will count on the B's mark (i.e. performance mark). B's mark divided into tons of category. Under this situation, who get less deduction on category, who get gold medal. It isn't unfair, it's system.

Besides, I am quite surprise that Nastia's A's mark is 7.7. Compare with China's player, her performance are lacking of flying movement.

Answer 6

a stupid tie breaker rule.....if thats the case.....why dont they just use every score from all the judges? personally, i think liukin executed a better routine with lesser mistakes.  What i cant believe is that the chinese coach said liukin had many flaws.  come on!!! what a blinded loser!!!  the juduges definetly gave He Kexin lesser deduction because of their homecourt.......

and assuming the age of He Kexin is 16??.......i laughed my *** off.....she is definetly not 16.  myself a chinese, i can tell exactly how old she looks.  she is 14 max......and many chinese newspaper had archives in 2007 stated that she was 13.   simple math......13 in 2007...x in 2008?? X=14.....where the h**l is the 16 come from?  another ridiculous lie made by chinese government

Answer 7

Because they are afraid the Chinese government will kill them

Answer 8

Because these gymnastics are rigged and/or flawed from top to bottom, so of course the final is messed up as well.

Answer 9

it was said because He Kexin's lowest score was higher than Nastia's. That is why Nastia ranked #2 right after her performance. Seriously, I agree with Bella... give them both gold. They both deserved it. They were both amazing and they shouldn't rip one person off because of it. Its stupid that that is what they do. Scoring #1 and then losing it when you're tied... its wrong.

Answer 10

Here's how it works. There are six judges that judge each attempt. The highest and lowest scores are tossed and the remaining 4 scores are averaged together to produce the final score that you see. (btw, judges from the competitor's native country are not allowed to judge. i.e. no American judged Nastia and no Chinese judge judged the Chinese girl). In this case the average was tied. The automatic tiebreaker works this way: of the remaining four scores, the lowest is dropped and the highest remaining 3 are averaged. The He Kexin had a higher average. Thus she got gold and Nastia got silver.

It's pretty much a luck of the draw. It could easily have gone the other way.

Answer 11

usually i disagree when people blame china for cheating. but i feel that they both should have gotten the gold. this is the only time i have been disappointed with this olympic. the one guy is right, asians do look younger than they are.

Answer 12

Ill explain the tie breaking procedure. First you take away the top and lowest scores, then you compare, it was still a tie, so then they take away the next lowest score, that made he kexin the winner. Now heres where I'll explain why they wouldn't have had a tie if the australian judge rate nastia correctly. The australian judge gave nastia a 9.0, her lowest score, while giving He Kexin a 9.3, her highest score. Nastias routine had mistakes, but they were less than He Kexins and more concealed, so I still have no idea why the australian judge gave Nastia such a low number, opposed to Kexin. I read one person saying maybe he wasn't watching the routing, possibly another one.

Answer 13

Anyone feel funny why some people keep saying we should stick to the rule when talking about the age issue and then the same group of people say the rule is wrong when talking about tie breaking???

Double standard?

Answer 14

Because the new scoring system is unfair and takes out the lowest scores of each gymnastic to narrow it down to the best scores. I thought both of them should have gotten the gold metal because they were equal overall.  

Answer 15

are the allegations about her being underage based on documented proof, or a witness?

Or just going by looks?

Answer 16

They took each judges scores and knocked out their highest two scores, then took their next highest scores and compared them - He's was higher.  I don't think that is fair considering the fact that that says one judges score means more than the others, otherwise there'd only be one judge to begin with.  

Both should have gotten Gold, d**n the rule that robbed Nastia of her Gold.

Answer 17

cus of the tiebreaking system . i thought nastia was better , though .

Answer 18

Because China is the host country, and He Kexin is Chinese.  We have a situation in the olympics, that a He is a she.  woah!!  Isn't that against the olympic s*x test?  LOL

Answer 19

I think this question bypasses the obvious fact. Nastia's score should have been higher. As you said, exact same in difficulty, exact same in execution EXCEPT dismount. Nastia's was perfect, He's was not. The "tie" was an excuse. They could then play with the new "tie" rules. By the way, the tie rules were thought up by monkeys. As Bela stated, the process eliminates the very same checks and balances that are in place to avoid the final decision to be based on a potentially biased or incompetent judge. It narrowed it down to 3 votes. Ridiculous.

And yes, I assumed Kexin was 16, and not 12 or 13, which is what she probably is.....if that.

Answer 20

It's the system of determining next set of scores by taking off the highest scores of both, and the system is an internationally agreed system.  So, there is no question of fairness or unfairness based on the system.

When it comes to the point of such determination, then the winner or loser has to accept the OUTCOME of the system of tracing back the scores.