Dogfight On The Uneven Bars

As the second day of the individual gymnastic event finals opened on Monday, the crowd waited in anticipation for the duel that would take place on the uneven bars. 

All Around champion Nastia Liukin and many of her followers consider the uneven bars to be her specialty.  The only one standing in her way was China's He Kexin, who has arguably redefined excellence on the uneven bars.  He performed first and Liukin would follow directly behind.

Before she approached the lower bar, Nastia Liukin looked calm and focused; fully immersed in the "Liukin Zone."  Could the reigning queen of gymnastics notch another gold medal under her belt? 

No.  Liukin had to settle for her first individual silver of these games after posting a phenomenal 16.725; identical to that of He Kexin.  Both athletes came into the competition with the identical A scores of 7.7, a number only surpassed by Great Britain's Beth Tweddle.

Tweddle finished fourth after a disappointing routine full of mishaps and disruptions.  Her performance was somewhat sloppy and seemed hurried, as if she believed the top score was insurmountable.  In the end, Tweddle missed the podium by 0.25 behind Yang Yilin of China.

Liukin and Kexin both made the same errors in their pirouette skills; both failing to stay close to vertical as they spun around.  Liukin should be perfect in these skills and has no excuse for being anything less. 

The nature of He Kexin's routine can mask these small errors, whereas Nastia's brings even more attention to them.  We can only speculate that this is what the Australian judge thought. 

An irate Bela Karolyi chastised the FIG for their seemingly ridiculous tiebreak system and commented on the competency of the judges.  After all, four of the countries represented by the six judges had never even produced a gymnast capable of making the podium, ever.

"Look, it's tied," said Nastia as she turned toward her father in disbelief.  "Why am I second?"  Multiple gold medals cannot be awarded, as mandated by the International Olympic Committee.  Unfortunately, Nastia got the raw end of the deal.

Both, Kexin and Liukin received 9.3 as their highest B score.  As her three lowest scores, Liukin received an 8.8 and a pair of 9.0's.  He received a 9.0 and a pair of 8.9's.  Once again, the scores were identical.  If all six scored were counted, He Kexin would have been the clear cut winner.

But, this is not the case.  A simple tiebreak system that only counts the B score would result in another tie, so a more complex approach was employed. 

In a non-tiebreak situation, the highest and lowest scores are dropped and the remaining four are averaged.  In this situation, the second lowest score is also dropped; leaving the scores ranked two, three and four to decide the winner.  This revised tiebreak system gave Kexin the edge and the gold medal by a third of a point.  Had the second highest score been dropped, another tie would have resulted.

To add to the controversy, the men's vault experienced the same situation.  Leszek Blanik and of Poland and Thomas Bouhail of France both received the top score.  Because each competitor takes two vaults and is scored on the average, the tiebreak system is not nearly as complex.  The single vault with the highest score wind.

In her short competitive career, He Kexin remains undefeated in the uneven bars.  Only Tweddle's release combinations can rival Kexin and less than perfect execution can still earn high marks for both.  He Kexin deserved gold for her performance, but so did Liukin. 

The gold medal is an achievement to be admired, but for He Kexin it only brings more attention to the Chinese age controversy.

This controversial decision, as fair as it may be, brings us back to Athens and the days of the now defunct 10-point scoring system. 

The system was changed to prevent such events from ever occurring again, but more work needs to be done.  In my personal opinion, both Liukin and He should have done another routine on the bars. 

In such a case, the deciding factor should be the consistency of the athletes, not a mathematical formula.  It's like asking the referee to decide the outcome of a game, instead of going into overtime.  It simply tarnishes the spirit of competition.

Even with the heartbreaking finish, Liukin, along with fellow American Shawn Johnson, will take the Olympic Green for the third and final day of individual event finals.  Like on the floor exercise, the distinctive styles of these young ladies will be showcased on the balance beam. 

Johnson must improve her full-twisting flip and land with her chest at high as possible.  The dismount must also improve.  I don't think she can land her dismount without taking a step, but she must minimize its length.  Her full twist is the most difficult and best executed of any competitor.  She must continue to perform dynamically and work to minimize her balance checks.

Liukin needs to remain confident and stay in her zone if she wants more gold.  This is the event where elegance provides the greatest advantage.  She greatly improved her quarter twist flip in the all around competition, but she looked shaky on her signature maneuver.  (I think that they should start calling it the Nasti Flip).  She has proved she can stick the dismount and in this writer's humble opinion, the balance beam is Liukin's best event. 

If Nastia does everything right, no one else will even be able to smell gold, let alone wear it.