Skip to main content

Can judging ever be objective? Part 1

In my usual butterfly manner I am dipping in and out of matters somewhat haphazardly, without looking at individual areas in too much depth. This is partly because I lack concentration at the times I come to write this blog, but also because I tend to like to see a whole picture, even if slightly out of focus, rather than part of a picture in intense focus. Inter-relationships between different phenomena interest me more than single ideas. Also, my passion is for gymnastics and what lies behind its creative and expressive development, rather than a particular set of theories.

Gymnastics is not something I observe coldly from the outside; I live each new and old routine, and my judgement of them comes from within me, and is preceded and shaded by many previous experiences. I am an armchair admirer of the sport; my main gymnastic achievement ever was to execute a forward roll without breaking my neck, and yet my recollection of my ‘favourite’ routines is always tinged with emotion and memories that go beyond mere intellectual recollection. This can work in reverse, accidentally and suddenly, as well as when deliberately recalling the detail of a competition. So when I hear a particular piece of music, it can remind me of a floor exercise. Natalia Ilienko’s 1981 floor exercise regularly pops up when I am listening to Classic FM. Swallows diving over a swimming pool in Crete reminded me of Comaneci’s graceful Hecht dismount off bars at the Montreal Olympics. Gymnastics trips me up from time to time in my everyday life and appears in places it never should, but it is always a welcome visitor.

So my view of gymnastics is completely subjective and personal. When I see a routine I feel for the grace rather than recognise and evaluate it as something that has particular characteristics. I respond to the large and spectacular and invest performances with emotion. These feelings most probably do not match the way others perceive the routine, and many of the features of the performance that I will enjoy will be intangible. It is the involuntary, unplanned beauty of gymnastics as opposed to the deliberate artistry. The Code of Points tries to quantify both, but fails.

If my perceptions are wholly personal, influenced by a host of personal experiences unique to me, and something that comes from within myself, there must be significant problems involved in using my sensory evidence to assign creative value to work. Yet who is to say that my personal assessment is of more or less value than another’s? In acknowledging sport as art and accepting gymnastics as a sport within which both the artistic and aesthetic are important, do we not need to acknowledge the critical role of subjective judgement? Can judging ever be objective?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

I am looking forward with inspiration - Melnikova returns to international competition

Angelina Melnikova will be the first Russian WAG to compete internationally since the IOC ban in 2022 when she appears at the World Challenge Cup in Paris on September 13 and 14 this year. Travelling with her will be coach Konstantin Pluzhnikov and judge Elena Redyanova.   Angelina says she will compete AA with a relatively simple programme. I’m glad Angelina is making this start for Russia.  It’s a real tribute to this young woman that she is trusted with the first effort at coming back after such a long time, and I hope people welcome her back warmly.  Angelina will be competing as a neutral athlete, of course.  She was awarded this status after a fair and rigorous process of evaluation by the FIG.   Here is what Angelina said today to Match TV: Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Angelina Melnikova told Match TV how she reacted to being admitted to the FIG World Challenge Cup tournament in France. ❓What emotions did you experience from the fact that you w...

Russia and Ukraine at war - friends, brothers, mothers bereft

They are literally bereft - torn apart and desperately sad.  Russia and Ukraine, in gymnastics at least, were always the best of friends.  Despite the horrors of the Holodomor, the famine forced on Ukraine by the USSR which claimed the lives of an estimated 3.9 million people, relations between our gymnasts were always observably warm.  If you ever saw a victory podium shared by the two, you would know this to be the truth.  Fierce competition, respect and friendship.  Everything was as it should be. Russia and Ukraine shared their gymnastics bounty.  Nikolai (Mykola)  Kuksenkov, Ukraine-born but with Russian family roots, competed for both countries and now coaches the Russian women.  His father, Yuliy, coaches the men.  Doubtless there are many gymnasts and coaches whose family lines cross the borders of Russia and Ukraine.  So much of Russia is this way.  Perhaps it is what gives Ukraine so much of its ferocity in defend...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more