Q:Do you know why they break ties that way? It just seems like it's completely random and doesn't actually determine who the better gymnast was. If they can't just give two medals (those girls are teeny, both could fit on the podium no problem!), why not use something like adding in qualification scores?

halfwayx0xthere

Literally NO ONE knows why they break ties that way.

It used to just be execution score, then difficulty score. Then, they started dropping execution scores in some kind of bizarre way and averaging or something which was what they caught a lot of flak for in Beijing after the uneven bars final. So they cut out that last bit for individual events, so if it’s matched difficulty and execution they let the tie stand.

But inexplicably decided NOT to do that in the AA? And start dropping scores again??????

I agree that factoring in qualification scores would make a ton more sense. IN FACT, back in the old scoring system before what they call New Life, your qualifying scores, you scores in team finals, AND your scores on the night of the AA final all counted towards your final placement. Then they introduced New Life, so in each phase of competition scores are wiped clean.

The old way wouldn’t work with the current team format since there’s no guarantee that the AA qualifiers would do all events in team finals. For instance, only Gabby and Mustafina did of the top five finishers in the AA. But they need to do something less…. terrible and not at all reflective of actual performance.

Q:Could you share your thoughts on what happened with Aly? How does the tie-breaker work and why do they do it that way? I'm so sad at how NBC is just ignoring what happened, especially after the Jordyn fiasco. Thank you!!

halfwayx0xthere

The way the AA tiebreaker works is that they drop the lowest score of the four events, then add up the remaining execution scores.

For Aly and Aliya, this meant they both got to drop their crappy beam scores. And Aliya’s execution over the other three events was higher. So she got the bronze.

Personally, I THINK THEY JUST SHOULDN’T BREAK TIES FFS. But whatever.

Q:Did you see any deductions for McKayla's vault in team finals? I'm not an expert at all (and god knows, our lovely commentators aren't), but the only thing I saw was her legs came slightly apart just before she landed. Would that really be almost .3?

halfwayx0xthere

Landing with feet apart is .1 and she generally has a brief .1 leg separation during her block. Whatever asshole gave her a 9.7 (her three counting scores would have been 9.8, 9.8, and 9.7) probably took .1 for shoulder angle on the horse or somesuch.

Q:Your gymnastics posts are THE BEST, I've so enjoyed reading every single one of them. Gabby is completely my favorite, I couldn't pinpoint anything specific, but she just comes off as a better gymnast than Jordyn does and your posts on that have been awesomely insightful. I really hope you'll be live-blogging the Olympics because I might be almost as excited for that as I am for the actual games!

halfwayx0xthere

Thank you!

I MIGHT liveblog the Olympics. I feel amenable to it now BUT IT IS THREE WEEKS AWAY SO I MAKE NO PROMISES.

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