Post Nationals Thoughts about Overscoring and Underscoring

So I have been moving for the last few days with no time to blog, but on my LONG drive I was really thinking about the score inflating at Nationals, and after reading a wonderful article that I am sure everyone has read on International Gymnast (click here for it) I have a few concerns for the US Team…

First off, I am concerned because of the obvious; what if the gymnasts are receiving false hopes about their routines? For instance, in 2006 Alicia Sacramone went to Worlds with a floor routine that was docked for missing one of her Element Groups Requirements which kept her out of Event Finals. This sucked for her! And it was unfair. Now I can’t say this happened due to score inflation at Nationals because really I don’t know. The code was SO new at that point. There were a couple of scores at 2006 Nationals that were questionable, but again I feel that maybe the problem was the newness of the code. But the point is that we don’t want this to happen to any of our favorite gymnasts! Here is a look at what I have been thinking about individually:

1. Nastia Liukin

Overscoring at Nationals: She performs bars Night One and receives a 17.050. Okay. But Night Two she perfroms a routine with a dismount ending with a near hands down and gets a 17.100. Futhermore, Night Two on Floor was a inflated as well. Nastia is not going to get a 15.850 on floor in Beijing unless she brings a beefed up A-score of like, 6.5. I don’t think anyone under that score will receive a total of 15.850. I think Nastia’s score will max out in the 15.200ish range.

In a way, I am least concerned about Nastia. I think she is one of the best prepared gymnasts ever, and YOU KNOW she is doing everything she can to prepare for Beijing! She always states how there is always something to improve on, she strives for perfection, and I don’t think too big of a score will stop her from clean up her dismount on bars, or perfecting floor.

Why inflated? I can understand wanting to keep her up with the Chinese on bars, we needed the world to know she can score a 17. But why floor? So that the Nationals AA competition can be closer? To boost Nastia’s confidence on the event? I have know idea but I think it is wrong though to give a gymnast false hopes.

2. Shawn Johnson

Overscoring at Nationals: Well, vault was one thing. A couple of tenths there. But what was up with floor? She performs Night One and gets an inflated score, then Night Two, again like Nastia, gets a HIGHER score for a worse performance. WTF? I think it is really, really, unlikely that we will see a 16 on floor in Beijing. Maybe, but I really think you have to have a 6.6 or greater. And I think Cheng Fei is the only one that will be able to do that. (We will see though, depends what she and Sandra Izbasa bring to the table in difficulty, and how Shawn hits her routine.) But what I am concerned about is why they are telling Shawn she is going to get a 6.6 with incomplete passes. That whip-triple IS NOT completed. Surely her and her coach must be aware that the pass is incomplete.

Why Inflated? With vault, I can sort of understand. Maybe they just want to encourage her on a skill she has nerves with. But I don’t feel the same with floor. That was brutally overscored, but maybe they did that to encourage the high amount of difficulty. Whatever the case is, I think it again is giving a gymnast false hopes if she performs her routine that way.

3. Alicia Sacramone

Overscoring at Nationals: Beam on day two was overscored by only a couple of tenths. I felt a little that way over floor as well. She stepped out of bounds, but I have seen that not get docked before. (Hollie Vise 2003 Nationals.)

Why Inflated? No idea.

4. Bridget Sloan

Overscoring at Nationals: I can’t actually say if there was any! I haven’t seen her Day Two performance on bars, so I don’t know. But my only concern would be IF she was overscored. We need the best possible bars team, and right now I REALLY think that Bridget and Shayla Worley are fighting over that last spot on the Olympic Team. And let’s hypothetically say that come Trials Bridget is overscored and Shalya is not, and Bridget gets a place on the team. Then say the international judges score her much harsher come Beijing, and the US Team is out of a few very valuable tenths that they can’t afford to lose.

Why Inflated? I have no idea again.

Underscoring:

Jana Bieger was hammered by the judges. I had heard rumors prior to Nationals that this was going to happen to her, and obviously it did. I realize Jana has some form issues, but I think it is so awful what they did to her and Natasha Kelley last year. If you don’t want people on the team, DON’T SELECT THEM. Don’t bash their scores. Same thing with Ivana Hong. (Who I think has the most beautiful double front on floor that I have ever seen.) I feel like it sends the wrong message to gymnasts, and furthermore makes an even worse mockery of the new code. The new code is supposed to eliminate favortism and subjective scoring, and harshly underscoring tells me that nothing is changed. So if you are in the “IN” Club, (Nastia and Shawn) we will give you phenomenal execution scores whether or not you deserved them. But if you are in the “OUT” Club, we tell you that you did poorly. It’s just not right.

Nationals: Day One Analysis AFTER Watching Videos

So now that I have watched many videos of Night One, here is my updated opinion. By the way, check out NBC Olympics for the best videos of everything. Youtubers, I love you for getting em out though.

• Chellsie Memmel is STILL the winner in my book. She made me cry when I saw her routines. Not only did I love the bars, but the form seemed better than I remember! Sweet. Floor was pretty good, couple of funky places, but that Dos Santos was freaking awesome. Even beam was great, I loved it all, Chellsie you are soooo on that team.
• Shawn Johnson got overscored. Yup I said it. There are some scoring issues going on, more on that below. I thought the Amanar was a few tenths over, as was the floor, the whip-triple was a bit short in my opinion. I’m surprised about the whip-triple because the double-double seemed to be performed with an ease I haven’t ever seen with her. But I love the new floor. LOVE. It made me cry. Shawn’s love of gymnastics eeks out everywhere, I love it. One thing, please wear a better leotard Day 2.
• Bridget Sloan looks to be on that team. I seriously think she may bump off Shayla Worley.
• No video of Samantha Peszek‘s floor yet. That is important to her cause, I am very curious to see it.
• Nastia Liukin looked great minus floor. I wish she had her old music, I liked it better.
• It has been confirmed that Alicia Sacramone is training the Amanar, which is awesome. I am disappointed not to see upgrades on floor though. Maybe she is still saving it??? Beam was pretty decent, but I actually liked Chellsie’s better! Wow.

Ok now about scoring. I don’t get the scoring of Nationals. We have the American Cup, where the Americans’ scores are so inflated it is gross. But then we have Nationals, where some people are intensely overscored while others are very underscored.

Past examples:

Terin Humphrey‘s bars and floor I always thought were underscored at Nationals. Whereas Carly Patterson was overscored on beam a couple of times.

But we don’t know WHAT the Olympics will bring with scoring. For instance, Terin scored higher on bars at the Olympics than like at ANY US competition.

That’s all for now.

Nationals: Day One is Astounding

I don’t even know where to start. I enjoyed Day One on a chat room of WWGYM’s while constantly updating the Live Scores from USAG. WOW. I was blown away on so many levels, and damn I wish I would of been watching them live. It’s been a long few days of work, work, work on my house (I’m about to move out of my beloved Gainesville) and I had a couple of cocktails so I am just buzzing with what tonights scores have told me:

BTW full scores here

• Chellsie Memmel won the evening to me. She right now sits in 3rd place. Her 6.8 bar set rocked a 16.000, beam of a 6.9 got a 16.150, and floor of 6.1 got a 15.100. She started with vault and at first I was scared as she ended up doing only a Yurchenko full. But wow. Chellsie did more than just perform to the best of the ‘bars club’ tonight; she beat out both Shawn Johnson and Alicia Sacramone‘s beam scores!!! Chellsie keeps doing this, there’s no way they can’t put her on the team. There’s just no way. Wow am I excited for her.
• Mattie Larson was also one of the biggest surprises of the night. She beat Samantha Peszek‘s vault + floor total with a 14.900 and a 15.450 on floor, the 3rd highest FX score of the night! She has so far proved that she could be the dark horse. Don;t count her out yet! I haven’t really paid much attention to her, but I am amazed!
• Shawn Johnson leads the show. Biggest surprise came from her 16.050 on floor! WHHHHHHAT??? With a 6.6 A-score, that is right now I think the highest in the world. I have heard rumors of those who have a planned 6.6, but I have not seen one in compeition. Wow Shawn. She seemed to have a hit meet. I am so excited to see her floor on Saturday, the new music is stellar sounding.
• Nastia Liukin is 1.15 behind Shawn and broke 17 on the uneven bars! She performed from what I understand an awesome 1.5 Yurchenko and had trouble on floor, going 2 feet OOB and ending up with a 14.200.
• Bridget Sloan was actually one of the other biggest surprises. With a 6.7 she got a 15.750 on bars for the 3rd highest score of the night. She did well on beam. She is at least looking at the alternate spot for Beijing, bare minimum.
• On that note Ivana Hong had her usual lower scores. It does not look good for her.
• Alicia Sacraome did well. No upgrades on floor nor beam, but still got some great numbers.
• Shayla Worley is petitioning into Trials
• Ashley Priess has dropped out of the race completely.

The way I see it now, I feel that Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone, AND MEMMEL are going. I still feel like Peszek is going, and that I believe would just leave a bars spot open. It is so between Sloan and Worley. If both of those gymnasts are healthy and performing strong come Trials, I feel like Worley would be chosen over Sloan because of her experience. What does everyone else think? Obviously after Saturday the results can produce different scenarios, but we will have to see!

Cheers to Chellsie.