PRESS CONFERENCE

Is there a judges’ conspiracy against Russian gymnasts?

Valentina Rodionenko: I wouldn’t call this a conspiracy. In our sport, unfortunately, the judging is very subjective.  Every judge has his or her opinion, apart from the Code of Points.  But there’s a subjective opinion about the execution of an element.  This is why we say that there’s no objectivity in judging.  It’s difficult to say that it’s a conspiracy. 

Although what happened with Balandin’s rings score, when even Adrian Stoica, President of the men’s Technical Committee, said that the score should be different, which would have meant gold?   But the guy wasn’t even a medallist. And, you understand, when the American girl in vault falls on her bottom, doesn’t perform the vault, and she wins silver. This also was an outrageous instance. And those instances were not an exception, unfortunately. 

 But we are at the beginning of a new quad, there’s a project for new rules, with changes. We expect them to be more objective. Currently, the judges can manipulate the scores.

Alexander  Rodionenko: Often the journalists tend to think that the success of a gymnast depends on the judges’ score. It’s so in our sports. The same happens in rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, diving.

In gymnastics the judging system aims at matching the level of gymnastics at a specific moment. This is why the Code of Points is changed every four years. The CoP is the Bible for us. But the problem is, like for any other law, that as soon as the CoP appears, some people want to change or to improve the weaknesses. Literally six months later, a year later, we come back to the starting point of the previous quad.

Gymnastics first appeared at the Olympics in the 19th century.  First the rules were two pages, then three, and currently they are books, but nothing has changed, except the complexity of giving the final score. First there were three judges, then six, now twelve, but the principle remains the same. When someone is judging, he or she has an opinion about the gymnast being in the handstand position or not, or in the pike position. We can’t look for a panacea in the CoP, we have to do everything to prevent mistakes when applying those rules. Another problem is that there are contradictions between the rules. For instance, you can protest against the difficulty part, but you can’t for technical execution. You can’t protest for a gymnast who is not on your team but who has made a clear mistake. Only the country of this gymnast can protest.

Last: in all sports except gymnastics, when people reach the level of a final, the judges are the best qualified, the most responsible. Take the example of football, where the most objective and demanding referees are selected. In gymnastics it’s the opposite. At the finals the judges come from countries with no finalists and they are much weaker.  It doesn’t make sense. We have submitted a proposal a few times. Yet, it’s not convenient for the FIG, it’s not convenient for the countries that don’t win medals.

It’s not a conspiracy; it’s only about friendly relationships around a table. They spend a good time together, on the following day they are judges and they give Balandin the score they think necessary.  If one of our judges was there, they might be more lenient.  Concerning vault, it’s impossible to suppress those personal relationships. You can’t forbid them. We have to try to reduce the judges’ manipulation. Our proposal is that the finals should be judged only by judges from the countries of the gymnasts who made finals. We have tested it at the Russian Cup with great results. from the countries of the gymnasts who made finals. We have tested it at the Russian Cup with great results.

Russian WAG Team recieve Rewards

The Russian women's gymnastics team - Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and Anastasia Grishina - have been rewarded for their Olympic efforts in a reception including President Vladimir Putin (seen left with Olympic bars champion Aliya Mustafina).   Medallist Denis Ablyazin was also present.

Olympians who received medals have received a fairly substantial cash bonus, and an Audi car ...

I do hope that all the athletes drive carefully.

Maria Paseka Vault Bronze Medalist

In this event the Olympic champion was the Romanian Sandra Isbasa, who, after two vaults, got a score of 15,191. The silver medal went to Maroney  (15.083) and the bronze to Paseka (15.050).

"I expected to be one of the medallists because I tried very hard. At the beginning, independently of Maroney’s fall I thought I would win bronze. Later, when I watched the video, I thought I could have been second. But the judges decide everything. Nobody wins crashing his or her vault, and even less a medal", told Paseka in an interview organized in the framework of the BTV project at The Bosco Club.

Paseka won an individual bronze and the silver medal in the team final.

"I could have performed my vault better in the final. Nastia Grishina and Ksiusha Afanassieva made mistakes.  We didn’t perform very well on vault and floor. Without those mistakes, we could have won gold", said Paseka.

The gymnast added that, according to their calculations, with an ideal performance in the team final, they could have lost one point to the Americans. “It’s a pity that we didn’t win gold, but I think that silver at the Olympics tells something. Although we want gold, we always want to be first. It means that we have to work to be first because nothing is easy”.

Artistic Gymnastics is Alive, Well and Russian !

 Aleexander Raisman, How many errors can you see ?

Artistic gymnastics is all about amplitude, flight, grace and elegance, expression.  The way the gymnast leaps and somersaults and twists in the air, performing acts of incredible strength and skill but making them look like effortless works of art. The way the gymnast pauses mid-air and makes complex movements with, apparently, all the time in the world.  Let's call it virtuosity. 

In the North Greenwich arena, yesterday afternoon 28 July , spectators were treated to a brilliant exposition on the sport of gymnastics by a team of feisty young Russians who have come to London determined to make their mark in the history of the sport.  It is twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, whose gymnastics legacy they embrace. The sport has since moved on, and is now principally the domain of bouncy, synthetically smiling teenagers who bow down only to the sport's Code of Points and their coaches' instructions. For them, the sport might just as well be renamed 'sporting gymnastics' (ironically, a direct translation of the sport's name in the Russian language).  But for the Russians, the requirement is still 'artistic gymnastics'.  They just can't wash the need to be beautiful out of their perfectly tinted hair. 

Russia is a thorn in the sport's side in this respect, even if the international governing body, the FIG, recently declared 'We are missing out on the beauty of gymnastics'.  The team's tendency to take risks and stretch every move to the max - ('amplitude' - watch Viktoria Komova in particular) - runs directly against the current sporting maxim of reliability and consistency encouraged by a lifeless, one dimensional Code that provides little scope to reward artistry.   It also has a tendency to provoke the kind of errors that incur deductions large enough to deprive them of gold medals.  Compromise is not a word in the Russians' vocabulary.   1992 Olympic Beam Champion Tatiana Lyssenko recently explained the Soviet maxim that has become so much a part of Russia's gymnastics ethos:

'No matter how safe you play it, there’s never a guarantee that you will not make a mistake. And taking risks like that was part of our team philosophy: the idea that if you could do something, you should do it—you should show it to the world. It wasn’t about playing a game of points or determining how to use the Code to your advantage. It was about showing the best gymnastics that you could in a pure sense..'

So when they come to a competition like the Olympics, Russia's competitive status is frequently a bit questionable, The errors that are often induced by their take-it-to-the-max approach are penalised by the judges, but without a corresponding bonus being applied for the added artistry and risk they bring, that induces a higher likelihood of error.  Just because they are trying to do more, and represent the sport in all its dimensions. It's not fair.  It's almost as though the FIG would rather not enjoy the artistry of gymnastics any more, despite paying lip service to the opposite view. 

The reality of the situation can be seen a little more clearly by observing what is happening currently to the American team, where team stalwart Alexandra Raisman has controversially ousted 2011 World Champion Jordyn Wieber from the all around final.  Many are characterising this as a weakness in the sporting rules that limit participation in finals to two gymnasts per country.  This is certainly one way of looking at the problem.  Another way of thinking is that the FIG and what I call the American school of gymnastics has finally eaten itself and got the gymnastics it deserves.  Raisman has avoided penalty for her many gymnastic deficiencies for too long.  The Code ignores her complete dearth of artistry and amplitude; it is blind to the countless errors in form that characterise her work but which are presumably too countless to begin deducting for.  The fact that she has qualified for floor final in first place is a travesty; even from several rows back in the North Greenwich arena her pagoda legs in tumbles, lack of toe point, and mangled lines in flight throughout were glaringly obvious.  But Wieber, a much better gymnast, made errors such as stepping out of the area, ones that have a specific and clear deduction in the Code, that Raisman did not suffer.  It was easier just to stick to the Code, to avoid making a value judgement and giving Raisman the lower scores she deserved, and so America, the FIG, the world has ended up with monstrous gymnastics at the top of the sport. 

There is a ground swell of support for the concept of artistry, and against the FIG's Code of Points, amongst gym fans and commentators, although not many will say so publicly.  After all, the athletic Americans, the enthusiastic Brits, the energetic Canadians, all stand a better chance of winning if artistry is side lined.  Some of their gymnasts might make a nod in its direction, but their teams are generally more athlete than artist, and it's easier to coach if there are strict, quantifiable rules rather than the qualitative, subjective guidelines that are necessarily a part of an artistic sport.

Sadly, the Romanian team had a difficult qualifying round and finished fourth as a team, with many expected finals qualifications out of kilter, but I'm guessing that they will be much better tomorrow and might even compete for gold as a team if the top two teams have errors.  It was great to see the British team finish in 5th place, unprecedented for them, and home hero Beth Tweddle qualified for bars final in first place.

 Biassed?  Yes.  As biassed as much of the 'neutral' gymnastics press.  As biassed as the 'objective' code ... as biassed as some of the 'fair' judges.

KOMOVA SHOULD HAVE WON

It was a very tight battle in the North Greenwich arena today, with American Gabby Douglas beating out Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points (see results below) and the legendary Aliya Mustafina sealing her comeback from that career-threatening injury with a well deserved bronze medal. Yes, she suffered a fall from beam after her Arabian somersault but elsewhere she was at her best, a real endorsement of the work of the Russian coaches in nursing her back to almost-top form since that fateful day in 2011.

Komova had a faultless competition apart from a step on landing her Amanar vault. Frankly, she must feel utterly shattered after coming second once again by a very small margin to an American who was treated very generously by the judges. Komova soared and took every beam move to the max, rounding off with her rare double Arabian dismount in fine style; Douglas literally sidled along the beam, seeming frightened to take her feet off the apparatus for all but her somersaults. Komova was back to her junior form on floor, leaping, twisting and somersaulting with the most amazing power disguised as lightness, and dancing with all the confidence of a trained performer, while Douglas tiptoed and waved her arms in the air in what was a pale imitation of a floor routine.

Oh, and then there is bars; can anyone explain the .5 hike in Douglas's score compared to Tuesday's performance? Did she really improve her execution so much? Did she really manage to achieve better execution scores than both Mustafina and Komova?

Douglas was a worthy silver medallist, with significantly better line that we are used to from an American, but very poor choreography and not an all around champion by my measure, especially not against Komova at her best. Despite her step on vault Komova was the best today and should have won by rights. I don't like to listen to Russian coaches complaining about the marks, which I guess we are going to have to tolerate in coming days, but if the boot were on the other foot the gymternet would be alive with twitters, Facebook and blog posts by American coaches defending their gymnasts. The double standards are appalling. The FIG says it wants beautiful gymnastics and that the Amanar needs downgrading, then marks vault higher than ever before. Bars scores have favoured the American girls during both finals, being held down when they might help the Russian girls level during the team competition, and hiked during the all around when it favoured Douglas to do so.

Nevertheless, I will congratulate all the medallists for their fantastic performances today. It was by far the best all around competition I have seen in many years. And that bronze medal - well, it's worth more than its weight in gold. Kudos to Queen Mustafina, and commiserations to Tsarina Viktoria, who really should have been wearing the gold medal tonight

Will there ever be another Olga ?

Did you see Olga Korbut on TV earlier this week? There she sat, a big smile on her face, every bit the naughty little Munchkin we all knew back in 1972.  The gymnasts need to smile more, to be beautiful, and to entertain, she said.  I, and several others, wish alike.  It's 40 years since we have seen her like at the Olympics; yes, Nadia came four years later and entranced us with her steely perfection, but it was Olga who stole our hearts.

Where will the next Olga come from?  Will there ever be another?  Perhaps not ... time has passed, we are all more media-savvy and cynical, athletes more contrived and less spontaneous, the sport's Code of Points denuded of the semantic subtleties of the unique, expressive artistry that the world found so enchanting. 

But sitting there, amongst the judges, is a woman who was once as charming and delightful as Olga could ever be ... a former gymnast who thanks to the vagaries of world politics and the sheer depth on her national team, was never seen at an Olympics ... FIG judge Oksana Omelianchyk-Ziurkalova, 1985 World Overall Champion, 1985 World Floor Champion, Soviet reserve at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Soviet reserve at the 1984 Oloumoc Games, the Soviet 'alternative Olympics'.

  During the 2001 World Championships in Ghent.  Oksana and a judging colleague had taken up a couple of seats in the row in front, and were conscientiously recording the uneven bars routines, checking their marks against those of the official judging panel.  In person, Omelianchik is as charming as on the floor; people came to shake her hand, always greeted with the greatest of courtesy and a big smile.  As she rose to leave the arena, the first bars of a gymnast's music rang out ... coincidentally, the first bars of Oksana's 1985/1986 Floor Exercise.  People couldn't help but smile, and she quietly smiled too. Oksana will be an execution judge on vault - you can see the judges' assignments below.  Remember her floor routine as you watch today's final. Other former gymnasts judging at today's Games include 1972 Olympian Antonina Koshel (Floor), Romania's Anca Grigoras (floor), Czech Republic's Hana Liskarova (Ricna), Hungary's Szusanna Kalmar.  The superior jury includes President Nelli Kim (1976 and 1980 Olympian, 1979 World Champion) and uneven bars supervisor, 1972 Olympian Liubov Burda-Andrianova.