For in the Same Way You Judge Others, You Will Be Judged

I'll be making some Worlds wrap-up posts later, but first I need to address a very big problem from this Worlds.

The judging.

There were close races- the vault gold, the bars bronze, the beam gold- these were medals that could have justifiably gone to more than one person. Simone and Hong both were stellar on vault, and Simone and Bai were insanely close on beam, though they had very different approaches. Any of the gymnasts ranked third through sixth in the bars finals could have legitimately received the bronze. Close races like this are simply an aspect of gymnastics. Even though it can be disappointing to lose the coin toss, they are a fair and even healthy part of gymnastics.

And then there were agendas. The judges this year very clearly did not leave their biases at the door this year. Half of the finals were very clearly marred by the judges' determination that certain gymnasts be rewarded.

Yao Jinnan was pushed by the judges in the uneven bars final. While it is true that, as I said in my earlier post, it is lovely to see her finally win through after what a rough career she's had, she was handed an undeserving win. Huang Huidan's routine was only one tenth less difficult. Her execution should have more than made up for it, and that her E score was only .033 higher than Yao's is laughable. It was absolutely more polished than Yao's. Yao missed two handstands by a fair margin, had to shuffle to get in place before her pirouettes, and lacked flight on her Tkatchev. Not only did home bias come into play- which affects all sports, not just those that are judged- but the judges actively favored Yao to beat Huang. They were eager to give her the gold as long as she did nothing major wrong, and they rewarded her over the better gymnast in the final.

Yao Jinnan, however, was far from the gymnast most favored by the judges. One gymnast was pushed blatantly almost everywhere she competed. And she was Aliya Mustafina.

This is not meant to be an attack on Aliya. She is a legendary gymnast and a lovely person. But she was given favor by the judges in many situations that were questionable to say the least.

Even in the all around final, Aliya's scores were given a bit of a bump. Her vault should in no way have scored higher than Larisa's, which was much cleaner. Her beam also scored higher than her beam from qualification despite her low standing Arabian and how much she had to bend to save her Onodi, while her qualification routine was much steadier. Though her scores wouldn't have affected the standings any, the judges did show their penchant for giving Aliya just that little nudge.

In both finals where she medalled, Aliya was clearly given a push to land on the podium. In the beam final, Asuka Teramoto was simply robbed. She was one of the three gymnasts in that final to hit her routine, yet she was not rewarded with one of the three medals. Asuka had a very clean routine (with an acro series) and yet somehow placed below Aliya's, which after the Arabian was very hesitant throughout and riddled with small checks after every skill that was supposed to be connected. And she DIDN'T HIT ONE OF THE REQUIREMENTS. No way should Aliya have landed on the beam podium.

While the floor final was less blatant, she still was clearly given a bit of the benefit of the doubt. Aliya certainly could have been justifiable medalist, but the super-close victory by the exact margin needed immediately after being handed the beam bronze made it eye-roll worthy. The judges were inconsistent in their level of harshness and how they chose to deduct in comparison to the former rounds of competition. Mykayla had her best floor routine certainly of the season, and arguably her entire career. Her landings were the best they have been Nanning and her leaps were about as good as she's done them this year. However, the judges gave her a lower execution score in the event final than in qualifications. Aliya, on the other hand, had a better executed performance in qualifications. She fell out of all her turns in the final and had a worse landing on her middle tumbling pass. Aliya, however, received a higher execution score in the floor final. In fact, had Aliya added the stag jump to her routine, she would have beaten Larisa Iordache for silver, which is simply preposterous. Again, it is not necessarily her placement that is suspicious, it is the inconsistency and the methods of the judges. That she got the exact margin she needed to beat Skinner just makes an even stronger case for dishonest judging.

This was (apart from the beam final- that needs to be erased from memory) an outstanding World Championships. The quality of competition and the parity of the competitors was more in the way of an Olympics. However, the judging will stand as a dark blot that will taint this competition. I hope there are disciplinary hearings and consequences for the dirty judging we saw in Nanning.