Nastia Was Robbed

[Jon]

I'm always skeptical with Olympic announcers.  First of all, all of the announcers on NBC are Americans or affiliated with America (like the incomparable Bella Karoli), so they're about as unbiased as Tommy Heinsohn is about the Celtics in a broadcast.  Furthermore, while some of these announcers were affiliated with gymnastics, I wonder how much many of these so-called experts really know if they're really only significantly covering the sport every 4 years. 

Now, I agree with many of you that it appears that Nastia had the better routine and that the Americans were robbed, but I certainly don't consider myself an expert enough to know, and I don't entirely trust the clowns that NBC is trotting out there.

On a separate note, I love Bella Karoli and Bob Costas together.  Bella's completely out of control and Bob has no idea what do with him.    Gotta love it.

[Celtic]

Lets face it all of the Judging at the Olympics gymnastics has been completely biased for China, who is already cheating to begin with. It is really frustrating that these girls work and practice their whole life, building up to one event, the Olympics, and all it takes is a group of misinformed or well paid judges to screw them out of what they rightfully deserve. I can't wait for the day when it is finally revealed that the judges were paid off, and the Chinese government has to go a Hannah Montana concert to tell the 12 year old gymnasts that they have been stripped of their medals.

[crownsy]

Lets face it all of the Judging at the Olympics gymnastics has been completely biased for China, who is already cheating to begin with. It is really frustrating that these girls work and practice their whole life, building up to one event, the Olympics, and all it takes is a group of misinformed or well paid judges to screw them out of what they rightfully deserve. I can't wait for the day when it is finally revealed that the judges were paid off, and the Chinese government has to go a Hannah Montana concert to tell the 12 year old gymnasts that they have been stripped of their medals.

while i agree about the ages, which is a seprate issue (why the outrage now when the most remebered gymnist of all time was 13 at the time of her medal? which was legal under the rules then), lets not go overboard on the bashing china tirade for this.

This has been par for the course for the host country in every applicable oylimpic games by the IOC judges. obviously they can't pull it for greece, but we were tarnished a bit the same way in atlanta, when several US gymnists came under fire for getting "soft" scored on execution on thier way to golds.

It's just one of those stupid things that happens with gymnastics.

[Jon]

And to go back to my previous post, how many of us would really know/think that Nastia was getting robbed of a medal if the announcers on NBC didn't keep saying it over and over again?  And how well do they really know the rules compared to the Olympic judges? 

I tend to agree with the masses that the U.S. may have been slighted a bit.  However, given how little most people know about gymnastics, I'm not sure this is the open and close case some people think it is. 

[Bankshot]

And to go back to my previous post, how many of us would really know/think that Nastia was getting robbed of a medal if the announcers on NBC didn't keep saying it over and over again?  And how well do they really know the rules compared to the Olympic judges? 

I tend to agree with the masses that the U.S. may have been slighted a bit.  However, given how little most people know about gymnastics, I'm not sure this is the open and close case some people think it is. 

I don't know if you saw the competition, but if you saw it you would know.  Both appeared somewhat flawless until the end when one stuck her landing and the other didn't.  That was pretty noticeable no matter how little you watch gymnastics.  I knew right away who performed better so my opinion had nothing to do with what the announcers said, as my opinion was formed before the announcers said anything and even before the score came out.. my opinion that Nastia performed better, that is.

[crownsy]

And to go back to my previous post, how many of us would really know/think that Nastia was getting robbed of a medal if the announcers on NBC didn't keep saying it over and over again?  And how well do they really know the rules compared to the Olympic judges? 

I tend to agree with the masses that the U.S. may have been slighted a bit.  However, given how little most people know about gymnastics, I'm not sure this is the open and close case some people think it is. 

uh, considering one girl had one marginal mistake and the other girl had one even my eye, which watches gymnastics exactly 3 hours every 4 years picked up, combined with not sticking the landing?

I would have noticed either way yea.

[Celtic]

Lets face it all of the Judging at the Olympics gymnastics has been completely biased for China, who is already cheating to begin with. It is really frustrating that these girls work and practice their whole life, building up to one event, the Olympics, and all it takes is a group of misinformed or well paid judges to screw them out of what they rightfully deserve. I can't wait for the day when it is finally revealed that the judges were paid off, and the Chinese government has to go a Hannah Montana concert to tell the 12 year old gymnasts that they have been stripped of their medals.

while i agree about the ages, which is a seprate issue (why the outrage now when the most remebered gymnist of all time was 13 at the time of her medal? which was legal under the rules then), lets not go overboard on the bashing china tirade for this.

This has been par for the course for the host country in every applicable oylimpic games by the IOC judges. obviously they can't pull it for greece, but we were tarnished a bit the same way in atlanta, when several US gymnists came under fire for getting "soft" scored on execution on thier way to golds.

It's just one of those stupid things that happens with gymnastics.

Cheating is cheating. They know the rules, they know they are breaking them.

I watch gymnastics quite a lot and have always enjoyed it, and my girlfriend is a former gymnast who feels the same way that I do about the scoring. The Chinese team has been handed medals, they are very good but they have not been the best. You can say other years scores have been soft for host countries, that's fine, but these scores don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny. The scores the Chinese team is being given do not make sense.

[yall hate]

She probably should have won the medal, but the thing with gymnastics is they give credit to people who try more difficult routines.  He had a higher starting score just by the fact that she was trying a more difficult routine.  Nastia 'played it safe' and went with an easier routine and as a result she started with a lower score.  It seems like a really stupid scoring system, but it wasnt like there was bias from the judges...

That's inaccurate.  They both had a starting value of 7.7.  Here's what happened:

Here's what happened: China's diminutive He Kexin started the bars competition with a risk-filled, six-release routine that was scored 16.725. She had a small step upon landing, and the difficulty of her routine was judged to be 7.7. Her execution score was 9.025.

Next up was Liukin. Fresh off her all-around gold medal and her floor exercise bronze, she was brimming with confidence as she approached her favorite event. (The 16.90 she scored in bars in the women's team finals was the highest score awarded in these Games.) She, too, had a 7.7 start value, and executed five release moves, having a little trouble in one, her pac salto, in which she goes from the high to the low bar executing a flip. Her landing, though, was perfect -- the first time this entire season she's stuck it. Her score: 16.725. Her execution score: 9.025. Same as He's numbers.

Yet, when the tally was flashed on the scoreboard, He was placed first, Liukin second. That's all Liukin noticed initially. Two more gymnasts had finished their routines before Nastia began to study the numbers. She studied them some more. She'd only had five hours sleep the night before -- she's too excited about the prospect of going home as the Olympic all-around champion to sleep -- so she was mentally fried. But pretty soon she nudged her father and coach, Valeri, and pointed out what most of those in the arena already knew: she had the same exact score as He, so why was He listed first?

Valeri didn't know. Very few people in the gymnastics community knew, including ex-Olympians providing expert commentary to listeners and viewers around the world. But as it turned out, the computers had to go to a third tiebreak before determining the winner.

First tiebreak is the start value. Identical.

Second tiebreak is the deductions taken by the middle four judges. That was also the same.

The third tiebreak -- hang onto your hats, for your brains are about to explode --was the average of the three lowest of the four counting judges' deductions. This is where Liukin lost.

Trust me on this: It's a goofy solution. The final tally was arrived at by using the Polish, New Zealand and Brazilian judges' deductions for He, and the Australian, New Zealand and Bulgarian's deductions for Liukin. The Australian judge, Helen Colagiuri, must have been watching another competition. She scored He's execution three-tenths of a point higher than Liukin's, despite the step He took on her dismount. None of the other five judges scored He's execution higher than a tenth above Liukin, and two of the judges -- from Poland and Bulgaria -- had Liukin's execution score two-tenths higher than He's.

In other words, it's all in the eye of the beholder. Either that, or there's some big time politics involved. Either way, the judging in gymnastics at these Olympics has been wildly erratic at best.

Link.

So...  it's a ridiculous scoring system, and it seems like Nastia got screwed by one judge (Australia) who didn't know what she was doing.

I thought for a minute I was crazy, then realized that while I was wrong, it was only because I was confused as to which gymnast I was talking about.  I was talking about Massachusetts own, Alicia Sacramone who WAS ROBBED.   http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/olympics/view.bg?articleid=1113540&srvc=next_article

my fault.

[Bankshot]

^I'm just hearing about that one.  I wonder how many more robberies will occur before this is all over.

[Andy Jick]

the judges are actually nba refs in disguise...

[iowa plowboy]

i just don't understand why they can't have 2 athletes win. its like the other day when 2 women? or maybe 2 men tied for the silver in a sprinting event. therefore they award no bronze for the event. whatt? i find that just plain stupid.

Why would they award a bronze there?  Only the top 3 get medals, and no matter how you look at it that last runner was still 4th.

Sounds a lot like the politically correct public schools where they have 10 validictorians to not hurt anybody's feelings.     I think everybody who participates should be given a little star and a ribbon.

I'll admit that I was pumped for our gymnast when he nailed that ridiculous routine to get the silver medal.

[Andy Jick]

i just don't understand why they can't have 2 athletes win. its like the other day when 2 women? or maybe 2 men tied for the silver in a sprinting event. therefore they award no bronze for the event. whatt? i find that just plain stupid.

Why would they award a bronze there?  Only the top 3 get medals, and no matter how you look at it that last runner was still 4th.

Sounds a lot like the politically correct public schools where they have 10 validictorians to not hurt anybody's feelings.     I think everybody who participates should be given a little star and a ribbon.

...even Gaylord Focker got a 9th place ribbon.

[BigThreePeat]

speaking of Olympic athletes getting robbed...  sounds like a few people are still skeptical about Michael Phelps winning his 7th gold:  http://www.100thofasecond.com/

I dunno... I saw that thing live and my first thought was, "Is David Stern in the house?"

[crownsy]

speaking of Olympic athletes getting robbed...  sounds like a few people are still skeptical about Michael Phelps winning his 7th gold:  http://www.100thofasecond.com/

I dunno... I saw that thing live and my first thought was, "Is David Stern in the house?"

neat how they didn't link to the espn frame by fream photo's that clearly show him touching first, of course, that wouldn't really work out for them  .

like all conspiricy sites, they gloss over actual facts. There were picture perfect photo's of the last 10 hundreths of a second from the underwater camera that espn has been running all week, yet somehow they only came up with 2 delibratly out of focus images, one of which (the overhead) that they say clearly shwos phelps was no where near the wall, you can actually see the shadow of his hands underneath the water.

do they not have access to google?

this is like spare change, only without the crazy. least it won't take a walkthrough by a actual expert to disprove there "theory"

[BigThreePeat]

speaking of Olympic athletes getting robbed...  sounds like a few people are still skeptical about Michael Phelps winning his 7th gold:  http://www.100thofasecond.com/

I dunno... I saw that thing live and my first thought was, "Is David Stern in the house?"

neat how they didn't link to the espn frame by fream photo's that clearly show him touching first, of course, that wouldn't really work out for them  .

like all conspiricy sites, they gloss over actual facts. There were picture perfect photo's of the last 10 hundreths of a second from the underwater camera that espn has been running all week, yet somehow they only came up with 2 delibratly out of focus images, one of which (the overhead) that they say clearly shwos phelps was no where near the wall, you can actually see the shadow of his hands underneath the water.

do they not have access to google?

this is like spare change, only without the crazy. least it won't take a walkthrough by a actual expert to disprove there "theory"

They have em there.  Just as links: