It is time for the FIG’s post-Olympic technical report!So here, as per usual goes, some fun facts from FIG.  Here is some news on the scoring, demographics, issues and apparatus outcomes from the London Games.

Ages of gymnasts

The youngest team was the US team.
The oldest team was still Brazil, who were the eldest in Tokyo too.
The average age of the gymnasts competing was 19.583. This is older than the average Beijing gymnasts, who was 18.65yrs.

Participation

There were 47 countries with 97 gymnasts.
Of the nations that brought teams, 30 gymnasts competed in the all around.

Six countries had two all around gymnasts. These were;
Australia
Canada
Romania
France
Japan
Germany

Six countries competed with three all around gymnasts. These were;
Brazil
China
Great Britain
Italy
Russia
USA

Of all the gymnasts, 60 competed all around, while 37 competed in less than four. These were distributed as such;

Three events: 15 gymnasts
Two events: 17 gymnasts
One event: 5 gymnasts

Judging and E and D Scores

- For qualifications, the average values of all D scores were higher than the average D scores per apparatus from 2011 Worlds. The highest increase was on bars, which went up 0.6; while building on the floor D score seems to have been the toughest, with the average of D score only 0.3 higher compared to 2011 Worlds.

- the average of all E scores from the qualifying round at the Olympics was also higher compared to the average of all E scores at Worlds, especially on bars, where the average, which was 6.897 in 2011, jumped to 7.808 at the Olympics (almost a point higher!).

- the E score on VT is another interesting table: 52 gymnasts scored between 8.5 and 9 in qualifications (more than half!).

-The average Final score (4 events) of the 24 gymnasts was 56.461, compared to 55.840 P. at the
WC‘11

Notes, New skills and D and E scores by event

Vault;

Eighteen gymnasts performed two vaults
Seven vaults were recognised as being different from what was announced.

Highest Final Score (1 VT): 15.900 Maroney Mc Kayla (USA); Gabrielle Douglas (USA)
Highest D-Score (1 VT): 7.10 Pena Abreu Yamilet (DOM)
Highest E-Score (1 VT): 9.433 Wieber Jordyn (USA); 9.600 Maroney Mc Kayla (USA) 2ndVT

Uneven bars;

78 gymnasts competed on uneven bars.There were twelve gymnasts with falls and only one gymnast to fall more than once. No one requested to raise the bars.
D panel noted that there were too many long exercises and that made for many mistakes.

Highest Final Score: 16.133 Tweddle Elizabeth (GBR)
Highest D-Score: 7.10 He Kexin (CHN)
Highest E-Score 9.133 Tweddle Elizabeth (GBR)

There was one new element. New elements performed: 1
Dismount: Underswing with feet on bar – salto fwd stretched with ½ turn (180°)

Use of connection values;

0.10 108 times D+D – 67 times, D+C – 41 times
0.20 55 times D+C or more – 8 times, E+D – 39 times, E+E – 8 times

Balance beam;

83 gymnasts competed on beam. There were two inquiries; one accepted, one rejected. There were four over-time penalties, 29 falls and five gymnasts with more than one fall.

One new element: Mount: salto forward with half turn (Wong Hiu Ying Angel– HKG).
The panel noted that seating position affected scores, saying “The sitting position of the D-judges is completely different from the Supervisor’s position; for this reason there are sometimes discrepancies between them in the D-scores awarded. To avoid this, the Supervisor should sit on the same line as the D-Panel, so as to have the same view.”

Highest Final Score: 15.40 Sui Lu (CHN)
Highest D-Score: 6.50 Douglas Gabrielle (USA), Deng (CHN), Mitchell Lauren (AUS)
Highest E-Score: 9.166 Afanaseva Ksenia (RUS)

Connection values

0.10 78 times; B+B+D – 2 times, C/D+D, B+E, C + acro -23 times
Mixed C+C – 48 times, A+C turns – 6 times

0.20 40 times; B+F – 3 times
Connection of 3 elements (no DMT) – 29 times
Connection of 3 elements with DMT – 8 times

Floor exercise

82 gymnasts competed on floor. There were ten falls and 44 line deductions. Five scores were raised across the meet and two lowered. There was one inquiry. It was rejected.

One new element: Split leap with 1/1 360° turn to ring (Ferrari, Vanessa – ITA)

Highest Final Score: 15.325 Raisman Alexandra (USA)
Highest D-Score: 6.50 Raisman Alexandra (USA)
Highest E-Score: 8.825 Raisman Alexandra (USA)

Connection values

0.10 – 66 times
Indirect C+D-12 times
Indirect or Direct A+A+D – 3 times
Direct B+D – 11 times
C+C – 13 times (all these connections were salto bwd stretched with 1 1/2 twist – salto fwd stretched
with 1 twist)
Salto + jump:
D+A – 17 times
E+A – 9 times
F+A -1 time

0.20 – 25 times:
Indirect C+E – 9 times
Indirect or Direct A+A+E – 4 times
D+E – 1 time
A+E – 7 times,
B+E – 1 time, C+D – 3 times

Use of the Ircos video system.

The report stated “Following the decision of the FIG EC, the ASs and D-Panels did not have any phone connections and were not allowed to use IRCOS in case of doubts or disagreement. This can greatly affect the outcome of the competition and perhaps needs to be reconsidered in order to provide the most knowledgeable judges with the most up to date evaluation methods (IRCOS).”

This made trouble for the ’0′ vaults, apparently, with the panel saying that if there is no Ircos, they need to work out measures to check and define “0” vaults , failure to land with feet first from elements including VT and line Deductions etc.

The Tie Break System

The report said; “The WTC would like the Tie Breaking Rules to be reviewed and all ties recognized and medals
awarded.”

On leotards

It is hard to pick nations, apparently, because of all the bedazzling going on! The report said; “”According to the current FIG Advertising rules, the presence of the “country” colors in the leotard is enough. This is very confusing to identify the country’s flag (banner) in the design of the leotards and this could potentially lead to a deduction for missing national emblem. Sometimes the gymnast have their national emblem displayed with Swarovski crystals, which look very nice, but are difficult if not or impossible to see from a distance.
WTC proposal: That the national emblem to be clearly and easily displayed.”

Article: Brigid McCarthy and Bea Gheorghisor

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