Olympic Scoring

Each night, probably like everyone who is reading this, I have watched much of the Olympic coverage. In the past, I have usually just paid attention to the events that I am familiar with. Most of the time I have stuck to swimming, cycling, track, etc.

This year I have made an effort to watch everything from water polo, to synchronized diving, beach volleyball and gymnastics. In watching these events, I have listened to interviews, learned the rules and know how the scoring works.

Honestly, the way that some of these events are scored is rediculous. It makes sense to me that events/skills/sports in the Olympics should be scored objectively. Meaning, there are clear guidelines as to how you win. This also leave almost no room for subjectivity or the possibility of "tainted" results / cheating.

Here are some examples of objective scoring.

- Fastest time
- Highest jump
- Most goals/points
- IN or OUT of bounds

One event that is NOT scored 100% objectively IMO, is gymnastics. Yes, there is a start value for each routine, jump, etc....and there are clear necessary deductions if you step out of bounds or fall off a beam, but then there is something called "execution." Execution is subjective and is what makes up most of the competitors score. It is how the judges "thought" each performance was executed. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

If you are an athlete, you may train your whole young life to be in that one moment. You may "think" that you did your routine perfectly...but your score is mostly how someone else, who you don't even know, "thinks" you did.

Now let's say you did the above routine and for a reason, the judge has a bias toward you, your team or coach. OR, what if the judge missed seeing something? OR what if they thought they saw something? Whatever....resulting in a deduction that costs you the medal that who have worked your whole life for???

I am not claiming to be an expert in scoring and maybe my million hours of training in the last few weeks has made me crazy, but events that are scored this way should be, IMO, left out of the Olympic Games. Including them just invites scandle and controversy.

Comments

Unknown said…
that post was only an 8.279
some questionable grammar, a few spelling errors, but since I like you I added a few tenths for that!
Blake Becker said…
That is why I am a triathlete and not an English teacher. Though I could be an English teacher...isn't that a scary thought.

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