When U.S. gymnast Aly Raisman completed her routine on the balance beam during the individual finals Tuesday, she hugged her coach and stared at the scoreboard, waiting to see whether she had done enough to medal.
When the score finally flashed, a nervous Raisman became disappointed.
"Oh, no!" her coach, Mihai Brestyan, proclaimed as he spotted the eerily familiar results.
She had landed in fourth place – again – and just shy of the medal stand for the second time in the Olympics.
What happened next would again thrust the judges, athletes and coaches into a heated debate over Olympic scoring.
As Raisman tried to hold back her disappointment, shouts came from the crowd. U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, her husband, Bela (who is no longer associated with Team USA but is a constant fixture), and vice president of USA women's gymnastics Kathy Kelly shouted and motioned for Brestyan to file a protest.
They believed that the judges hadn't accurately tabulated her difficulty score, specifically the connections between a few of her elements on the beam. Brestyan raced around the gym to get a form to fill out in the allotted time. Meanwhile, Raisman congratulated Catalina Ponor of Romania, who was in position for bronze.
Raisman and Team USA anxiously stared at the scoreboard as judges from the International Gymnastics Federation reviewed video of her routine.
"It might be a tie," Raisman said: a repeat of the all-around finals. Raisman had tied Russia's Aliya Mustafina, which in the all-around means the lowest score was dropped. Raisman, long seen as the rock of the team, had narrowly missed an individual medal because of the tiebreaker rule. She was worried it would happen again.
And Raisman was right, it was a tie. But her coach quickly reminded her she would end up on the podium because the execution scores alone, not the difficulty, were judged in the tiebreaker.
The scoreboard flashed the official result. The tiebreaker went in Raisman's favor this time, and she received a bronze medal.
It was perhaps one of the longest moments of Raisman's career. But it was not the first time this chaotic scene had played out in the Olympics - or questions about the accuracy of judging had come up.
For years, debate has stirred about how accurately sports can be judged, especially in the Olympics. Many have argued that everything is subjective. And in a sport that comes down to hundredths of a point, that can be everything. As Raisman knows, it can also be the difference between being an Olympic medalist and missing out entirely.
That is part of the reason the inquiry system Raisman's coach used was instituted.
"The inquiry was introduced along with FIG's new scoring system following the 2004 Olympics, where judging disasters marred the men's all-around and high bar finals. (The inquiry replaced an appeals process, which had a far lower rate of overturning scores at the 2004 Olympics, at least)," Nick Zaccardi wrote in a Sports Illustrated column explaining the system, using the acronym for the International Gymnastics Federation. "The FIG did away with the perfect 10 and redid its 'code of points' system with the more complicated two-pronged approach. The benefits of the change included eliminating potential bias in judging, the FIG said in 2005. Video review was also introduced."
Team USA's use of the inquiry in Raisman's case was the third in gymnastics during this Olympics alone.
Japan made a similar request over Kohei Uchimura's score on the pommel horse during the men's team finals.
Uchimura, one of the best men's gymnasts and a hero in his home country, was seen as a lock to propel Japan to a medal. But after his score was shown on the screen, it seemed Japan would be left off the podium. The scores placed China with the gold, Great Britain with the silver and Ukraine with the bronze. Japan, like Raisman, sat in fourth.
As commentators on NBC wondered whether "the greatest gymnast of our time dropped the ball," the camera quickly panned to the judges' table, where a Japanese coach was seen with money in his hand, filling out an inquiry form. FIG requires a payment of $300 to file an appeal. If the score is overturned, the money is returned.
Japan claimed that Uchimura had also been overlooked in the scoring: specifically, that he did connect a handstand before his dismount.
Japan challenged the score given to gymnast Kohei Uchimura on the pommel horse during the men's team final.
An announcement came in Japan's favor. It was one that greatly altered the standings. Ukraine was left without a medal, and the host nation was now taking home the bronze, something the home crowd was clearly displeased about.
During the men’s all-around competition, Germany's Fabian Hambuchen's pommel horse score was also protested, but the committee rejected the appeal.
The nature of scoring in gymnastics, similar to figure skating, has been debated as largely subjective despite attempts to correct concerns through recent FIG changes.
That's something Romania's Ponor, who lost out on a medal after Raisman's challenge, and her coach now know all too well. Ponor's face went from excitement to disappointment in the course of a few minutes. Coach Yuliy Kuksenkov who said after the ruling that "life is life," perhaps best capturing many people's thoughts regarding the routine disagreements about scoring.
"In athletics, 100 meters is just 100 meters," Sports Illustrated quoted him as saying. "Sometimes in gymnastics, it's 95 meters or 105 meters."
It's not all about gymnastics, though.
A scoring controversy in fencing last week left South Korea's Shin A-Lam in tears - and left her refusing to leave the piste. She appealed to judges over a delayed and stuck clock that had resulted in extra points being awarded to Britta Heidemann of Germany. Had she left the piste during the appeal, it would have signaled she agreed with the judges.
YouTube: A Lego re-enactment with the play-by-play, created by The Guardian
The South Korean was photographed sitting in the same spot for more than 70 minutes as she awaited the appeal and then refused to leave after it was handed down. She was finally escorted off the stage, sobbing.
South Korea's Shin A-Lam was finally escorted off in tears.
"I did everything I could," Shin told Reuters after the match. "They said 'your fencer has to continue the match,' so I had to accept the decision."
Accepting the decision may be part of it, but so is being prepared and willing to fight for the scores you believe are deserved.
U.S. gymnast Jordyn Wieber's coach told Sports Illustrated that he kept a filled-out inquiry form with him, just in case.
But as Raisman, Brestyan, Ponor, Uchimura, Shin and others know: It's an imperfect two-sided coin. You have to know when to make the call and be able to do it quickly in gymnastics, and sometimes you just fall on the wrong side of the ruling.
"I agree with the system," Brestyan said, according to Sports Illustrated. "The system sometimes helps. Sometimes not."
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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You would think that with all of our marvelous 21st Century technology, they could develop a visual-based computer imaging system that would continuously scan athletes actions and score their performances. That would make the process more objective and less subjective.
Good lord no! Computers need to stay out of sport as much as possible. That is just one of the great things about sport and the drama of it. Humans aren't perfect on both side of the tape. Some times athletes make it hard on themselves, sometimes the judges do. But to go to a computerized system would turn sport into mere entertainment.
Oh well, lots of dudes with no idea about fencing. The korean wasnt cheated. Its about fencing rules. You have 1 second left for an attack but if both opponents set a hit at the same time the clock get set back and so there is another second left and another as long as both fencer hit each other the same time and a second can be long..so all was fine and inside the rules..
If you don't know the rules, don't spread false information. My guess would be that you are German trying to defend your country but I won't accuse you of that. Anyhow, you're clearly lying as according to your information, the match could go ad nauseam which doesn't make any sense. Shin was clearly cheated as has been pointed out by countless EXPERTS, not to mention the viewers at home, not a lying and uninformed individual such as yourself.
The olympic officials don't seem to agree with you: they have admitted that a mistake was made and have offered an consolatory medal to Shin. She is now pondering whether to accept it or not.
No mention of the horrible refereeing in the US-Canada women's soccer match. No one, but two terrible and possibly biased calls saw the better team lose. Its a shame when athletes work so hard, only to be defeated by incompetent officials.
Derik, you are an idiom the better team did not lose. In fact, go back and watch the game again if you’re in doubt. Your team had 120 mins to put the ball in the goal and in overtime failed to score. That is your team’s fault and not the refs. I guess that’s the excuse you Canadians have when your team loses blame the refs. Yea It was their fault right? Get a life moron.
which are the 2 occasions?
So Max Riley: have you found your head yet? What? It's not there? There's no head at all, there? Who would have known. OMG
i think the new scoring system in gymnastics is fair but THEY SHOULD ALLOW TIES..it is hard enough to get the same score as another person when they brake it down to 1000 of a point, if two people do get the same they should just give them both a medal..yes, it's subjective but i think about the south african swimmer who one a gold medal and then there is an artical admitting he cheated (doing more dolphin kicks when turning a corner than allowed)...i mean, there is nothing anyone can do about it now, but the USA guy in the race got bronze and sans the cheater would have gotten a silver.there is always controversy, and there is always a subject piece to all sports.also take baseball/football and basketball..who hasn't wanted to kill a ref for a bad call? even in running there needs to be a subjective piece (false starts, people getting DQ'd for running into another racers lane or what not)..i don't think it's a problem with gymnastics, though it seems like not allowing ties makes it a bigger problem in gymnatics..they should allow ties
Just because they are called judges, doesn't mean they are no longer human being with full of errors. You can expect them hold high standards on their part, but deep down, they do have personal preferable, prejudice, hate, and so on, which impair their true value and qualification to be judges. Unless I could reach over to smack them across their heads, all I can do is to walk it off.
So you endorse bias judgment despite the fact that they have videos to verify? Hmmm.... you must be from Germany...
The Asian are a bunch of whiney, yellow, slant-eyed complainers. I say Hiroshima 20X's on all their major cities. Then the Olympics will be all USA USA USA!!!!
lol
And we wonder why the world hates Americans...
Pearl Harbor, The Bataan Death March, The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, The Ho Chi Minh Trail, The Killing Fields, Tibet, .... the greatest killers on earth! Killers, every last one of them slant eyed guuks!
mr. kkk loves licking his cousins
Are you mad because your mom wouldn't let you impregnate her for the fifth time?
The semi-final women's soccer match between the USA and Canada was an excellent game as both teams played really well. There was just one thing drastically wrong and that was the referee from Norway who made some terrible calls which were critical in that they were the cause of Canada losing the game. The matter was reported by all kinds of international media and it is still a front page topic in the Canadian newspapers. Funny that this CNN article did not even mention anything about how this Norwegian referee failed in a very important match.
See also Derek S's comments above.
You like Derik are both flaming idiots!!
Keep on dreams duffas! I can absolutely guarantee you that the US won that game fairly. And I will also guarantee you that they will have no trouble at all sleeping. 27 wins in a row. That in its self speaks volumes about how lops sided your team is when it comes to beating the US. Next time your loud mouth coach opens his mouth up and speaks, maybe he should think before he speaks.
Shin A-Lam's crying makes me happy
GO LOLO JONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Brian, it is so true. In fact, one of the US players admited that she egged the ref on to also make the call against Canada. So to all those who claim that the US had the superior team – well, we will never know as the US won for reasons other than their game. At this moment in time, I'd say Canada won the game for a much more superior game!
This article makes no mention of the awful officiating/judging in boxing. Azerbaijan was caught trying to bribe their way to gold medals BEFORE the olympics even began and are still managing to win screwy decisions. Funny how all of these ex-Soviet republics are able to win at the amateur level, but can't produce any quality pro fighters!
Olympic boxing is almost its own sport. It's known as a game of tag where power isn't necessarily rewarded. So you cannot necessarily use your reasoning as evidence of corruption. But the thing is, it is corrupt. It's a horse trading market where favors are exchanged and money flows almost without restraint.
This article clearly is as biased as the Norwegian 'referee'. Questionable calls led to a FIFA investigation of post game comments from the players rather than an investigation into the actual referee. Seems some stones are better left unturned, given FIFAs strong desire to get a foot into the US market.
What complete and utter nonsense.
Even if Canada had won against the USA, they still have not won the gold medal - the USA game was a SEMI-FINAL.
The ref made a correct, though uncommon, call on Canada's goalie. The handball call is a close judgment call that happens in most every soccer game. I'm guessing you don't watch many of them.
CNN "the most biased network..."??? No, but you are a clown.
I'm from Florida and am able to admit that the canadians women soccer team's chance at gold was stolen by an incompetent ref. Our team does not deserve to play for gold. Sorry Canada.
Which 'bad call' was responsible for Canada's loss? The delay of game call, where the rules state the goalie cant hold the ball for more than 6 seconds and Canada's goalie was clearly holding into the teens several times to 'delay the game'?. Or possibly when a handball was called because the ball actually hit the forearm of the player? Also illegal. Did the ref miss a few tackles? I would agree with this because Melissa Tancredi should have been red carded just from her 7 fouls, let alone when she purposly stepped on Carli Lloyd's head. (watch the replay)
I am from New Jersey and the USA Soccer team won the match based on a legitimate call of a violation of the rules. ie The goalie can hold the ball for a maximum of 6 seconds and she held it for 11 seconds. The Canadian coach was whining before the match was even played. He did his players a disservice with his comments after the match. They played a good game, but not good enough.
I'm from Texas and am big enough to admit that we should not have won the game! Not sure what game you were watching "asdf" x 8. Melissa T. played tough soccer; if anything, Abby W. should've been carded. Also, the ref should have warned their goalie a few times, then carded her, not called a foul. But TracyTobin, the worst call was the handball. The rules state that you have to show some intent. The Can. defender could NOT have gotten out of the way! Ergo no penalty! We got lucky as the #1 team in the world. Don't get me wrong, I'm still cheering for our ladies to win the gold now that we're there, but we got lucky. Well done Canada.