Many of you who have been watching gymnastics in the Beijing Olympics may have noticed a  change in the the scoring system. the new FIG ( International Gymnastics Federation) system has one panel that decides the starting difficulty value while a second panel reviews execution and makes deductions from an original 10 points. The old system was hastily overhauled after the scoring crisis of the 2004 Athens Games. The 10 point maximum system is now obsolete in almost all levels of competition. The new system opens the door for bias judges to make unnecessary deductions, gruelingly long scoring decisions, and  a massive advantage to any gymnasts who are good at high scoring events.

    The main problem with the previous system was human error and bias. The new system was suppose to lessen these problems, however it did the exact opposite. There are many examples to chose from but the balance beam event on August 14th for the Womans All-Around Gymnastics Final seems the most obvious to any observer. After fantastic American performances on the event by Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson;  fans, announcers, competitors, coaches, and the girls themselves were shocked by both of their scores, which seemed too low.  There were no grounds for some deductions  that the judges gave them .  Since the judges don't have to say what the deductions are for its very easy for a bias judge to come up with deductions with no real backing. To make matters worse Chinese gymnast Yang Yilin did her performance with several obvious falters that should have cost her in points. However it seemed some judge turned the other cheek. With no way to challenge the execution score the Americans had no choice but to fight  on and try to overcome the obstacle. (And that they did  the American girls placed 1 and 2 despite the judging mishaps!)

   With all the stress athletes have and for gymnasts the added stress  the bias judges you would think that  the new system would try to alleviate some of that stress by speding less time on judging, right? Well sadly thats not the case, the new system takes more time between performances adding to the already overloaded gymnast's stress levels. Since they have to wait for the scores longer they already stress themselves out by thinking of every little thing they did wrong and having to wait for other scores to come in so they can start their next performance very often they overthink the performance to come and make costly mistakes. Time delay can be expected from time to time but with nearly perfect scores and very little to dispute it seems ridiculous that it took judges longer than ever to make their decisions. And when those points rolled in who could even understand if its good or not with this new confusing system? With the difficulty starting points with no cap and with assigned points for harder skills and different combination of skills the system is nearly impossible to understand. Also gymnastic related injuries are expected to go through the roof. Trying to keep up with the much higher scoring system gymnasts attempt harder and more risky performances making the chance of getting hurt much higher.

   Gymnasts who are better at the higher scoring events are given an unfair advantage. For example a male gymnast great on rings and high bar will do much better overall than a male gymnast better at floor exercise and pommel horse. Systems should be working towards making all events scoring the same if done perfectly instead they  are running in the opposite direction.  This new system outrages me most however because if a gymnast without a high start value does a performance perfectly and another does a harder routine and has several execution problems it makes no sense why the better executed performance wouldn't score higher. The FIG basically encouraging gymnasts to do hard routines even if done poorly when they should make it better for gymnasts to do a performance artistically and well.

  The FIG is not attempting to modify the new system or return to the old. They are in fact pushing this new system. It is at all men's competition levels, and it is being pushed  for all womens' levels. It seems as if they want it to be the only gymnastic scoring in use. Their ignorance or arrogance (its hard to tell which) is threatening to ruin  gymnastics. They went from a bad system to a worse one. All we can do is watch in agony as the ridiculous scoring continue at the Olympics.  For the sake of gymnastics at local, county, state, country, and international levels I hope that after these Beijing games the scoring system will  be radically changed.