Why did many female gymnasts perform wonderfully in Olympic team final, but fell in event final? (Li ShanShan, Cheng Fei, McKayla, Viktoria)

[phoenix7]

Gutsu did pretty well in the EFs in 92, in terms of hitting it out of the park. That was her best bars routine of the Games, it just happened that Li Lu delivered one of those once in a lifetime unbeatable performances. And her floor was the same as the others she'd done in Barcelona too. It's interesting that all three of the AA medallists in 92 had such strong EF showings as well.

Fair point

 

[Doug1233]

Do you know the deduction for falling from beam in Beijing 2008? Roughly 0.8 point?

It’s not 1 point. Russian Anna Pavlova fell from balance beam in team final and she scored 15.1; in bb final she done very well and scored 15.9.

If Li ShanShan didn’t fall, look like she just can earn silver with score of roughly 16.1?? (Shawn Johnson was a beast that year). In balance beam qualification Li ShanShan performed very well and scored 16.125, placed first in final.

She also lost 0.2 CV for the connection.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Gutsu did pretty well in the EFs in 92, in terms of hitting it out of the park. That was her best bars routine of the Games, it just happened that Li Lu delivered one of those once in a lifetime unbeatable performances. And her floor was the same as the others she'd done in Barcelona too. It's interesting that all three of the AA medallists in 92 had such strong EF showings as well.

I really think they should have been throwing 10s for Gutsu's Barcelona bars routine. They instead decided to be insanely generous for that awful first pass. Judging was really incomprehensible at times at that olympics.

 

[tempest]

It was so weird that all the 03 AA medalists in WAG made zero event finals

 

[Matilda23]

I really think they should have been throwing 10s for Gutsu's Barcelona bars routine. They instead decided to be insanely generous for that awful first pass. Judging was really incomprehensible at times at that olympics.

wasn’t the floor hard in Barcelona 92 so maybe the judges give Tatiana Gustu some leeway, and it was an original/unique move. She did the split leg double layout very well at Europeans that year

 

[irichluck21]

It was so weird that all the 03 AA medalists in WAG made zero event finals

2003 was such a weird championships in general.

Qualifications was such a mess and then we had the splat fest in team finals and other weird things such as the ND for China warming up on podium and Vise losing her number and then being allowed to start even though the green light had been on for more than 30 seconds. Also Russia brought gymnasts with so little talent. USA WAG getting gold with so many injured or sick athletes. USA MAG choking and falling to silver. The list goes on and on.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I really think they should have been throwing 10s for Gutsu's Barcelona bars routine. They instead decided to be insanely generous for that awful first pass. Judging was really incomprehensible at times at that olympics.

I've always had a degree sympathy for the judges in Barcelona. They had to operate in a context where the code had long become outdated, half a tenth was a lot and where they only really had two tenths max available to distinguish the routines of the best gymnasts form each other. It's not like you could even go just on vibes, because you'd also have to work out what the other judges were doing too. So 50% of the judges in the final gave Gutsu 10, and that's justifiable both as her best routine of the Games and in relation to some of the competition. But then what do you do with Li Lu, that level of extra content? If you think a routine is halfway between 9.95 and 9.9, you just have to take a punt and hope the other judges fall in. The difference between 9.912 and 9.937 was fairly significant then.

It's frankly miraculous that so many of the results were broadly fine. Even Gutsu's 9.925 on floor is understandable in a context where some routines were unofficially starting from above 10, had to really, due to difficulty. Her floor and beam, Miller's beam, Lysenko's DTY etc.

 

[Hatsumomo]

2003 was such a weird championships in general.

Qualifications was such a mess and then we had the splat fest in team finals and other weird things such as the ND for China warming up on podium and Vise losing her number and then being allowed to start even though the green light had been on for more than 30 seconds. Also Russia brought gymnasts with so little talent. USA WAG getting gold with so many injured or sick athletes. USA MAG choking and falling to silver. The list goes on and on.

 

[rlayt]

I was trying to remember how many achilles were injured at that competition.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Kupets ruptured her Achilles and Annia Hatch tore her ACL. Another gymnast had the flu (Postell?).

 

[Passion]

Kupets had the stomach virus first, then Postell caught it. Kupets recovered in time to compete but Postell was still sick and had to be replaced.

I specifically remember Kathy Kelly saying "it was coming out both ends." Which was a bit of an overshare on her part.

IIRC there was an Achilles tear on the MAG side too but I don't remember who.

ETA: Here we go, found this:

When three gymnasts from three different countries suffered torn Achilles tendons while practicing or competing in floor exercise at the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim, CA, gymnastics experts had to wonder whether the floor itself had contributed to the injuries.

As the International Gymnastics Federation’s scoring code has evolved to reward gymnasts for difficult aerial maneuvers, so has the surface on which floor exercises are performed become less stiff, incorporating spring coils to afford gymnasts more air time in which to twist and turn. But the injuries to American Courtney Kupets, Belarusian Dmitri Kasparovich, and Russian Evgeni Krylov on the world stage in 2003, followed by another Achilles tear suffered by Tabitha Yim at the U.S. Olympic team selection camp the following year, suggest that there is a biomechanical price to be paid for that competitive advantage.

Gymnastics causes Achilles injury?

Achilles tendon ruptures are shockingly common in high level gymnastics. Scott from King Bars Sports, LLC, the firm that sells the new Weller Spring for Floor, points us to an important article. Th…

gymnasticscoaching.com

 

[rlayt]

It was explained to me that the floor was super hard. I believe the male gymnast was Russian. Was it Krylov?