Bleacher Report - Articles by Daniel Chausse

China Favored Again in Confusing Gymnastics Scoring

Daniel Chausse — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:28:40 -0400

As your typical college-aged American, I'll be the first to tell you that I have very little knowledge pertaining to the sport of gymnastics. However, I do enjoy watching those men and women from around the world flip and stick every four years in the Olympics.

That being said, I, along with most of my fellow fair weather gymnastics fans, am very confused by the scoring in many of the events.

I understand the concept of the starting value and execution scores. I understand that deductions are what the judges are responsible for and that the highest mark someone could receive is their starting score plus a perfect execution score of 10.

What I do not understand is how so many deductions are missed for certain athletes, which is a confusion shared by gymnastics experts such as Bela Karolyi and Tim Daggett.

Many would say that the Chinese have assembled some of the best gymnastics teams on both the men's and women's sides for this Olympics, and I would agree. The high-flying stunts of the Chinese this year have had little competition from other competitors.

Yet, whenever someone seems to have beaten a Chinese gymnast, the scores rarely reflect the level of performance.

From Shawn Johnson's low score on the balance beam during the women's all-around final to Alicia Sacramone's loss to Cheng Fei despite a fall by the Chinese gymnast, things have not seemed fair coming from the judges' table.

The fact that two executed vaults do not receive a high enough score to beat one good vault and one tremendous flop is more than my fragile mind can handle.

Tonight was a different story, however, when it wasn't just the judges who were in on the controversy, but also the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

A rule passed by the IOC stated that there could not be a tie in scoring that would grant more than one person the same medal. This is understandable. However, the method in which tie-breaks are decided is not.

Statistics prove that averages are more accurate when they are taken from a larger pool of people. The IOC rules decided to go the other direction. The tie-break takes away the lowest scores until a winner emerges.

This travesty of a system destroys any point in having a panel of judges because the winner may ultimately be decided by a single judge's score. Something needs to be done about this mockery of a scoring system and it needs to be done before the next Olympics.

Michael Phelps vs. China: The Ultimate Showdown

Daniel Chausse — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:44:11 -0400

In light of recent controversy concerning the age of China’s gymnastics team in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the IOC has decided that there is only one way to determine whether or not the Chinese government has falsified the ages of their athletes—a Texas-style to-the-death cage match between the Chinese girls’ gymnastics team and Michael Phelps.

The IOC states that if China’s athletes are in fact at least 16 as their (government issued) passports say, then they should have no problem defeating the lanky swimming champion. If not, then Phelps should have the upper hand if he is not slowed down by the ridiculous number of gold medals around his neck.

One thing is to be sure, the tiny, flexible “women” of Chinese gymnastics will have their hands full in this death-match. Phelps will be going for possibly his greatest victory ever, because if he wins, he will be awarded all of the gold medals given to the gymnastics team, putting his medal count on more than one can count on his fingers and toes.

In other news, Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian apologized for his outrageous actions during the medal ceremony for the 83-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling competition.

He explained afterwards that he was really upset because the other athletes’ medals were shinier than his. He also stated that he wanted his bottle and that he may have had an accident during the competition. When the IOC heard this, they ordered that he immediately be changed and put into timeout.

Allegations about poor judging on the part of the judges were made by the sniffling Abrahamian. Initial reports indicate that Abrahamian was simply upset because another competitor made fun of his outfit being too tight.

Red Sox-Royals: John Lester Leaves His Mark on Baseball

Daniel Chausse — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:36:42 -0400

Many people would say that it is impossible to do something more amazing than overcoming cancer. Still more would agree that beating cancer and coming back to win the last game of the World Series is even more impressive.

When Jon Lester began his warm up tosses in the bullpen on Monday night, it is doubtful that he expected it would be a night for the record books. Most pitchers just go out and try to give their team the best chance to win on a given night.

But it seems that the 24-year-old Lester was deemed for greatness at least one more time. He hurled a whopping 130 pitches, racking up nine strikeouts and two walks, and holding the Royals to exactly zero hits.

Sure, many will say that the Royals have been swimming on the bottom of the American League Central for years, but this year’s team is a new and improved team. They came into Monday’s game as number five in the league in batting, led by AL batting average leader Mark Grudzielanek.

Yet after nine long innings in which the Royals could not even muster a hit, Grudzielanek fell from first to second to an opposing hitter in Monday’s game, Kevin Youkilis.

Despite Lester’s impressive performance, he was not alone on the field Monday night. The Red Sox showed their support for Lester by knocking in seven runs on five hits, including a two-run blast by Red Sox catcher, Jason Varitek.

Yet this was not the only way in which the Red Sox captain made himself known on Monday. Varitek became the first catcher in MLB history to catch four no hitters.

Defense also came into play early in the game, when center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury made an outstanding diving catch to end the fourth inning long before the possibility of a no-no had entered anyone’s mind.

From there on, Lester pitched with precision and control. It seemed as though nothing would stop the southpaw from becoming the first lefty AL pitcher to throw a no-hitter in over 50 years. Other than a walk in the ninth inning, Lester did not allow another runner to reach base, and he proceeded to strike out nine batters, three of which came after he had thrown 100 pitches.

By the time that final pitch darted past the bat of Alberto Callaspo, Lester had capped a historic comeback, which included a battle with cancer, a decisive World Series win, and now a no hitter. As to the fact that the miraculous event took place at historic Fenway Park, Lester said he could not have been happier.

Lester stated, “It’s something that I’ll remember forever…It was great. The fans were great; they’re on their feet yelling and screaming. It was probably one of the loudest times I’ve heard Fenway when I’ve been out there pitching.” As to what’s next on the lefty’s agenda and his place in MLB history, that remains to be seen.