McKayla Maroney » Maroney In Pursuit of Perfect Score

Lol, either the gymnastike people don't know what their talking about and actually think she could get a 10.0 E score for her best vault, or it's just an attention-getter for the home page. No, unfortunately she will not get a 16.5 in the vault final. No, the judges would not have given her a 10.0 for a real stuck landing. It would have been a 16.333 instead of a 16.233. The deductions the judges may take are only .1, .3, and .5 for form. They all must have taken .1 for the landing. 2/3 of the judges took .3 tenths total, and 1/3 took .2 and thus they ended up at a 16.233. Judging just by sight, yes her vault is .5-.6 tenths better than Gabby's or Wieber's and that would give her a 16.5, but going purely by the code which is what the judges are supposed to be doing, it was correct to take between .2 and .3 tenths off. McKayla's score was correct (she deserved a 16.3 at the highest), but Gabby's and Wieber's were too high. Don't get all uptight. If they judged everyone the same it WOULD be fair.

Back in 1992 it was common and acceptable for judges to judge an athlete less harshly based on overall impression because they were better relative to the other athletes, but in this code a judge can be banned for doing so. The code has been made so stringent that judges are actually better able to deduct based only on the code and not for biased opinions. Because the judges are human, scoring has never been completely fair and it never will be. Judges judge harder skills easier, but that's not what the code says to do. Somebody who does a beautiful yurchenko 1.5 will not get as high of an execution score as somebody who does a beautiful yurchenko double because the judges feel that it should be much higher. Well if the athlete could go as higher as the judges feel he should, he or she would be doing a more difficult vault anyway. Komova's legs are so tiny that she looks tight in her twist even though they are crossed and she gets better execution scores because of it. Somebody like Steingruber doesn't seem so fortunate as her leg crossing is very noticeable. She's small compared to the average person, but standing next to Komova? lol It makes her look huge on TV. Gabby has good genetics and of course she is dedicated to her training, but gymnastics comes way easier to her than most. Aly Raisman doesn't look great in her leaps but she actually does hit 180. If a male gymnast is taller than 5'11'' it is impossible for him to do giant elements on p-bars because his knees hit the ground which means he might have to count a low-value long-hang element like an A kip. Kennedy Baker may not have scored very well in London because judges prefer the "international look" which just means you're short and skinny, under 90 pounds and in serious need of a cheesburger. Despite what the commercials say, not everybody is born with the same opportunity. You can buy it to a degree. No matter how hard certain people work, they will not be able to go to the olympics. Is that fair? Clearly doing "anything you set your mind too as long as you're willing to do whatever it takes" doesn't really hold up does it? Most kids just don't live in an area with a gymnastics program with proper coaching. 99% of coaches teach kids terrible technique that will prevent them from EVER scoring well on an elite level, and when the athletes are young, they just assume their coach knows what he's doing. Sure they may be able to fix their habits but it will take years as they would have to relearn every skill starting with a forward roll with (gasp!) good form so that it transfers into their tumbling. Gymnastics simply is not fair, but it's still a blast.
Let me reiterate that. I LOVE gymnastics but it is what it is. When you can go into gymnastics loving it but have an understanding that it's not fair and never will be, you can move past that and not base your self worth on it (why people would want to subject themselves to basing their self worth on what judges think of them I'll never know) and have a very rewarding experience trying to see how far you can get. If you're Gabby Douglas and win the olympics, great for you! I'm happy for her. If you are only able to progress through back handsprings on beam and mustering through giants on bars, or even if you don't get much farther than cartwheels then the same...good for you!
Whew! Anyway, on McKayla's vault...
I would have taken .1 for her legs apart during pre-flight (believe it or not a few athletes have kept their legs together on a yurchenko pre-flight so it is possible)
I would have taken .1 for her slightly bent knees and feet very slightly crossed in the air. Did I say her form isn't great relative to other gymnasts? No, but her legs aren't actually completely straight.
I would have taken .1 for her landing which was amazing but actually wasn't a stick. (it's cases like these that judges should be allowed to take a .05 landing deduction, but judges get around this. If a judge wanted to take .05 for feet crossed and .05 for slightly bent knees for example (which is my personal opinion), she is actually not allowed to do that according to the rules, but she is allowed to simply take .1 and say it was for the knee bend (even though it was .05 for both) and she ends up getting her way.)
If Maroney got a 16.5 on that vault in team finals, the judges wouldn't have been doing their job. (don't get all uptight, I'm not bashing Gabby) Gabby's was very nice but is wasn't within 3 tenths of McKayla's. That's where the unfairness comes in, that the judges said other athletes were within .3 of McKayla's vault, not that Maroney didn't get a 16.5.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to watching vault finals. If McKayla sticks the Amanar cold she could get a 16.3-16.4 which would be so cool!

@M&M, LOL. Maybe they deducted for the sloppy bun. I would have actually ADDED points for the sloppy bun though.

her feet slightly separated for like a millesecond before landing.. i could only in see in slow motion though, the judges must have insane eyesight if they saw it in real time rather than re-watching it. i dont understand why they didn't give her a 9.9 execution score though, her vault was of a whole different calibre above everyone else and her score didn't reflect that. hopefully she gets it in event finals.

there was a bit of leg separation pre-flight

her feet slightly

Danny what do you think of NBC's coverage so far, especially the men?