And The Results Hang in The Balance: Gymnastics For The Casual Viewing Fan

Disbelief has been one of the key themes of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing.  Disbelief of the dominance of Michael Phelps; disbelief of the clutch performances; disbelief of the Russian invasion of Georgia; disbelief of the opening ceremonies; disbelief of the beauty and skill of the Chinese people.

Michael Phelps not withstanding, there are two summer olympic events that captivate copious amounts of people:  the 100 meter dash and the gymnastics competitions.  As you can probably guess from the picture, this is about the latter.

As I am sure happened all across the viewing world over the last few tantalizing olympic nights from the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, many people were scratching their heads in disbelief:  disbelief of the sheer skill, beauty, and grace of the athletes; disbelief of the simplest skills gone wrong; but more importantly, disbelief of the scores.

Scoring has long been a problem in the Olympics.  Remember a few short years ago when a French judge stole a gold medal from the Canadians in figure skating at the winter olympics?  I am of Canadian descent, so I sure do.  Athens was plagued with scoring problems in gymnastics, creating the formation of a new scoring system.

As Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, and Sasha Artemev captivated an international audience with their amazing skills, judges seemed to be not so impressed.  Seemingly flawless routines by many of the gymnasts were ripped apart, prompting comments from broadcasters of "Show me the deductions...I can't see them..."  Meanwhile, certain performers struggled mightily and got respectable scores out of it, with difficulty scores not nearly as impressive as those who got ravaged.

As I sat watching the gymnastics competitions with my brothers, we were trying to peg the scores for the athletes.  Our jaws would drop on most occasions.  On a select few we were right on.

That got me to thinking of a major change that should be made for the next olympics in the subjective scoring sports like diving, gymnastics, figure skating, etc.  NBC should post a list of things that receive deductions or a list of things that give bonuses, whatever the case may be.

Think of the changes that the casual fan could have in their viewing experience.  They could start to piece together what they thought were relevant scores for the performances they were watching.  Were the judges wrong?  Right now we may think so, but we don't really know.  Giving a little more information never hurt anything.  Providing the opportunity to score the subjective sports on our own can make the viewing experience that much better and give us a much better understanding of sports we quite literally have no clue about.  The key to getting better judging is to give more people the skills to do it so we can get the best people on the job.  Maybe someone could find a life's calling through something so simple?...

NBC, give us a chance to embark on our own scoring ventures next time...it'll be fun...I promise!