Now that the qualifications at the 2017 Montreal World Championships are finished, let’s crunch a few numbers.
Source: International Gymnast Magazine Online – Crunching the Numbers in Montreal
Now that the qualifications at the 2017 Montreal World Championships are finished, let’s crunch a few numbers.
Before we do, let’s note that at the individual worlds in 2013, there were 80 women who tried to qualify to the all-around, and 81 men. In 2009 there were 83 women and 74 men.
Women’s competition: Among the 75 women attempting to qualify to the all-around final, there were 16 execution scores of 9.0 or higher, and all were on vault. The E-scores of those all-arounders across all four events ranged from 1.466 to 9.300. On balance beam, there was only one E-score score of 8.0 or above (8.133). Among the specialists, there was one 9+ E-score on uneven bars, a 9.033, and a few more on vault.
The difference in total score from the leader, Mai Murakami (55.933) and last place, Milca Leon(33.431), was 22.502.
Men’s competition: Among the 59 men attempting to qualify to the all-around final, there were 24 execution scores of 9.0 or higher, and all but one was on vault. A 9.233 was awarded on parallel bars. The E-scores on all six events ranged from 3.766 to 9.633. Among the specialists, there were two 9+ scores on rings, a 9.10 and 9.033, a 9.033 on p-bars and several more on vault.
The difference in total score from the leader, Manrique Larduet (86.699), and last place, Ahmed Mosa(61.398), was 25.301.
Suffice to say, gymnastics is really hard under the open-ended Code of Points, which, by its design, entices gymnasts to attempt their hardest skills. If you can’t score a 9.0 on any apparatus but vault, you might as well throw your most difficult tricks since the D-score is immune to deduction. The natural evolution of the sport was suddenly put into overdrive because of the open-ended Code.
The result of that trend was on full display during the qualifications in Montreal, where there were more falls than Niagara and a multitude of injuries. This Code has simply made the sport too difficult for the majority of countries.
We can only hope that the FIG takes notice, and also takes the necessary steps to make gymnastics more beautiful than it is right now.
Numbers don’t lie.
