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.