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| Viktoria Komova accepts her silver medal all around at the Tokyo World Championships in 2011 |
The 2011 Worlds are well over now. The gold medals won in Tokyo and, the following year, in London, put America in prime position as we approach the Antwerp World Championships this autumn. They are reigning World and Olympic champions in both team and all around. Only the all around title will be contested in September, so America will inevitably remain team champions until 2014. Event finals are, relatively, small fry.
Let's not forget, however, that this seemingly dominant position stems from two highly controversial all around competitions. In both cases, Komova versus Wieber and Komova versus Douglas, the result could have gone either way; reverse the positions, and world rankings in WAG might look a little more balanced.
The judgements made are not black and white. They cannot be denied or affirmed by a simple one sentence assertion, and they bear continued discussion if we are not to lose sight of the fundamental questions about the codification and judging of gymnastics, how it can influence the gymnastics routines we see top gymnasts performing, and the quality of the gymnastics we see across the ranks. Remember, although the title of Olympic champion went to Douglas, the reference judges' scores made Komova the winner. The Code, and the judges, could not find a consensus of who was the best gymnast at this major competition.
Debating and elaborating opinion forces people to articulate what is difficult to express, and hence to try to find what has become lost in the current Code. Sometimes, however, reactions go beyond words. Now, this video captures the feelings of many observers regarding the outcome of the women's all around in Tokyo 2011. It's international, multilingual and universally comprehensible - a gasp of surprise, shock and dismay is the same in any language.
You can also read a reflection on this judgement, and a full transcript of the BBC commentary here.
I would have preferred, if Vika would have won. However, I am over it because both competitions were close and could have gone either way. That does leave room to debate who should have won, but it makes the winner worthy enough. Honestly, I wasn't impressed by either Vika or Jordyn's AA performance. They both performed much better in qualifications and in Wieber's case team finals as well. Wieber had the form break on bars and stepped out of bounds on floor. Komova scraped the bar when coming down from her layout jaeger, was shaky on beam, dropped out of spins on floor, and had some low landings. I would say that Wieber's floor score was a little high though. When I first watched this competition, I was shocked that Komova lost as well, but I didn't know much about gymnastics then and why Komova was deducted.
ReplyDeleteAt the Olympics, Douglas had a more consistent performance, but you could argue with the scoring. Vika stepped off the mat on her amanar, which ultimately was the deciding factor. IMO all of the top 4 were over scored at some point in the AA competition. Douglas was over scored by about 2 tenths each on bars, beam, and vault. Vika was over scored on vault and beam by 1-2 tenths, but underscored on floor by 2-3 tenths. Aliya was a little over scored on beam IMO. Raisman was over marked the most by the judges IMO. There is no way her amanar deserved a 15.9. She had tucked knees, separated legs, and a big step on the landing. Aly was also a little over marked on bars as well. Still, it could have gone to either Vika or Gabby. The reference judges thought Vika and the actual judges thought Gabby. There is nothing you can do about it.
I wouldn't make the reference judges the most reliable. They seemed to have favorites of their own. I believe they enjoyed the more lean, graceful body type. They really favored the Russians, Kyla Ross, and McKayla Maroney, over most of the others. For example, they thought McKayla should have won vault finals even with the fall. They also thought that Ross should have made beam finals over Raisman (I agree though). Ranking Komova over Douglas and Mustafina over Raisman isn't much evidence of having favorites because many thought these should be the final results. But, making Maroney the winner with a fall is evidence IMO.
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ReplyDeleteWhether Viktoria should have won Worlds or not I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume that all of these gymnastic commentators agreed that Vika should have won. They seem more surprised at Vika's score and the 0.033 difference between Wieber and Komova.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you say that Andy? There is a transcript of the English language commentary that specifically references surprise at the outcome of the competition - are you able to translate the other comments or to say why you think this?
DeleteNot that TV commentators are the be all and end all - I just think they gave interesting gut reactions to what was the deciding mark.