A Subjective Mess

Why did I quit doing synchronized swimming? Because I couldn't stand the subjectivity of judged sports. And it's the same reason gymnastics drive me crazy. If you've been following the women's gymnastics you will know what I mean. During all-around competition the Chinese were very clearly being scored higher, even though they were making obvious mistakes. Last night in the vault finals the Chinese gymnast landed on her knees and got 3rd while one of the Americans who landed on her feet, as you are supposed to do got 4th. Tonight the Chinese and American gymnasts tied and somehow based on some weird computer rule the Chinese gymnast won.

The scoring process in itself is subjective enough, but when you add in the fact that the judging is only allowed to be done by countries that do not have finalists you get another layer of absurdity. What you are doing is in essence taking out the judges that actually know what they are doing because their countries produce gymnasts that can final in the Olympics. Let's take tonight's judges for example. 4 of the 6 judges are from countries that have never produced an Olympic medalist in gymnastics. Not this year, or in this event, never. Now, personally that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in their country's judging skills. As far as I see, since they already take out the highest and lowest score leave the judges from China and US and Russia and Romania, who actually know how to produce gymnasts that can win medals in the judging corner. From what we've seen so far this Olympics, the judging can't be any more messed up than it already is.