When Olympic athletes succeed but judges fail
Aly Raisman celebrates with her coach after an appeal of her balance beam score earned her a bronze medal.
August 8th, 2012
01:05 PM ET

When Olympic athletes succeed but judges fail

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.

NBC: Watch the video

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."

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Filed under: Olympics
soundoff (575 Responses)
  1. Crybcitsanolympic

    No crying at the Olympics? These athletes prepared and trained their whole life for this one moment. To those who only see emotional breakdowns and public embarrassments, shame on you.

    August 12, 2012 at 11:41 pm | Report abuse |
  2. SR

    I know some of these comments from Canadians shouldn't make me lose respect for such a great country but it's really getting difficult. It was a hard fought game, the Canadian team represented very well and that game could have gone either way. The American girl got stomped on the head and there wasn't a call, who's to say that the game woulda have gone either way if the call was made correctly in both instances. If you're an athlete, you can understand that bad calls are made, you rise to surpass the obstacles regardless if things aren't going your way; it seperates the good from the great. Before an international stage, let the world adore and admire you for how to choose to react to a situation; whining and accusing is not how you want to approach this...

    August 13, 2012 at 11:42 am | Report abuse |
    • Peter

      Not known as a whining country the problem with the soccer match is the consistency of the rules. Up above someone said for us to know the rules. Well obviously we do know the rules we played very well however the Ref did not warn the goalie the linesman did. We also here that in all other cases there is a yellow card given to the player not a penalty. I read that the last time this was called in any game was 2000. This does not sound consistent to me. Now tell me how this is any different from the gymnast where the was an appeal? Based on your comments they should have sucked it up and carried on. There are challenges in that sport for a reason it would seem. What do you think people around the world think of the US and how you have to win all the time? How is that different from our view on the call by the ref?

      August 13, 2012 at 2:01 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Frank

    What I don't understand is why when it comes down to thousands of a point can't they award both a medal? Somebody above my pay grade needs to step up and fight this issue. In Raisman's case both were deserving of the medal. They do this in other sports. I may be able to see a tie (not really but) when you hit withing a tenth, hundredth now a thousandth common sense have to kick in...how much closer can you get. In Olympics it only goes that far...please send this issue to the Olympic Committee. None of the other sports in Olympics do this. In several cases two people have been awarded the same medal!

    August 13, 2012 at 2:51 pm | Report abuse |
    • Nice

      applesauce dinner frackpiles! this is SO important!! worthless parade of human filth!

      August 15, 2012 at 8:33 am | Report abuse |
    • Ted Smith III

      In swimming the difference between a podium place and non-medal finish can be as small as 1/100th of a second. The same in some track events too. So are you saying if the time difference is that small, they all deserve medals? No ways. Your point doesn't make much sense, with all due respect of course.

      August 15, 2012 at 4:38 pm | Report abuse |
  4. BDH

    Really you all for the most part are bloody idiots. Everyone gets a medal (Is this some primary school event) No nations just individuals (how to fund them and get them to the games). Life is a challenge there are winners and losers, and ones nation and peoples should be a source of pride and hope. I am proud of my home time (Team GB) but just as proud for Mexico men football, and USA women football. I do not think the USA has to win everything but has a healthy self worth and drive to try and be the best and greatest at everything they try. By the way so does Wiggins, Cavendish, Bolt, and on and on and on. Canada lost by trying to game the system sorry play by the rules or die by them. Just because a call has not been made for 12 years (goalie holding a ball) does not mean it is not a rule and can not be called. You lost learn form it get better because of it and go be a winner next time. Or if you want a joint gold metal for just showing up and playing go back to the junior leagues. For Christ sakes even the Para Olympics have metals for those who compete and they mean more than anything to those people that anything you can give Bolt, Phelps, or any other athlete.

    August 13, 2012 at 6:12 pm | Report abuse |
  5. maluli

    I protest THAI BOXING FINAL between THAI and CHINA in the final...there a coruption among the judges..the audiences think ....MONEY HAD BEEN PAID TO SOME BOXING COMMMITTEE,.CHINA WILL DO ANYTHING EVEN TO KILL THEIR RIVALS.

    August 13, 2012 at 6:44 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Sam

    The issue with the Shin epee bout wasn't that the stuck clock awarded her opponent an extra point...it was that there was only 1 second of time left and if it expired with no touch, Shin would be the winner (since she had been awarded priority after regulation time had run out). The scoring systems will lock out any scoring signal once the timer reaches 0...the failure of the clock to run at a CRITICAL time probably cost 1/3 to 1/2 of a second.....an eternity in epee.

    Further, the referee did not enforce proper distance between the fencers during that 1 second (which was repeated 4 times!)....they were WAY too close, but the ref let it slide...and distance is also a factor in epee timing.

    August 14, 2012 at 12:05 am | Report abuse |
  7. Champ

    Events like these that have faulty and easy to bias scoring systems should be removed altogether. Gymnastics? That's an exercise, not a sport. Figure skating? That's a hobby, not a sport. Take your biased judges and get the heck out!

    August 14, 2012 at 1:24 pm | Report abuse |
  8. shot

    Why don't we watch the judged events in real time, then JUDGE them in slow motion?

    August 14, 2012 at 6:03 pm | Report abuse |
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    August 18, 2012 at 4:03 pm | Report abuse |
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