No More Perfect 10s At The Beijing Olympics

In one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history, the American gymnast Mary Lou Retton received a perfect 10.0 on her vault at the 1984 Los Angeles Games to clinch the all-around title.

No gymnast will repeat that feat at the Beijing Games, guaranteed.

The gymnastics scoring system based on a top mark of 10.0 will not exist at these Olympics. The system, which had been in use for about 80 years, was replaced two years ago with one that has no ceiling.

Some gymnastics purists, including Retton and her former coach, Bela Karolyi, are still mourning.

At the United States women's Olympic team selection camp in July, Retton explained why she "hates" the new scoring. "It's hard to understand," she said. "I don't even understand it."

Nostalgic for the old system, she said: "It's simple. People get it, and you don't have to explain it. Everybody could relate to it. I miss it, and I think other people will, too."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Destin]

While I loved seeing Nadia nail the perfect 10, without home field advantage and while being pretty much unknown, I likely won't miss the old system at all.

I was one who saw it as very flawed. I had to sit, disgusted, watching some of the early round performers do fantastic performances, worthy of high scores, only to be given artificially low scores as a way to save alot of room for the so-called "better ones" who come at the end of the rotation. I'm shocked that system was allowed to stand for so long, when it was so rigged. Performers marketed and hyped to judges for 4 years, and then get high scores for no other reason than that they are expected to, even when they have errors or falls that would give an early rounder a 6 or 7.

I for one, would welcome a system in which all of them are judged the same way, fairly and that rewards them for that performance in time. Not because of some past performance, or expected performance, or name recognition.

[mathme]

I hope someone gets a million points... just because there's no limit anymore. It could be like pinball! 45,596,367,215

[JackND]

I'm boycotting these Olympics, so I'm not concerned how they score them.

[Triangle1]

I always loved Mary Lou Retton. America's sweetheart in the 80s. But she was one of those athletes with an asterisk by her name. The Russians were boycotting the Olympics that year so her real competition wasn't in attendance. Though she made a perfect 10 on her final vault. Then for good measure repeated it, landing another 10 again. (The first 10 would have won.) After becoming the first American woman to win the all-around gymnastic event, she went on to be the first woman on the cover of a box of Wheaties.

[GrouchoMarxist]

This is why judged sports bug me. Taking nothing away from the athletes, but, just suppose...

A touchdown will count exactly as many points as the judges decide it will. Same with a goal. Or a home run. The winner of a marathon can be docked points based on form as he/she crosses the finish line.

All refereeing/umpiring/judging/whatever has a certain amount of subjectivity to it, but some are worse than others.

[JeanPaulSatire]

"No More Perfect 10s At The Beijing Olympics"

HuffPo headline writers strike again!

Given that not a single '10' has been given out (the games haven't started), it's impossible for there to be MORE such scores.

However, since there is no ceiling in the scoring, it's entirely possible that there WILL be '10s' given out, even if they don't denote perfection.

[justadood]

no more '10'......*unless you're Chinese*...... I'm betting on it.....