Nadia Comaneci has criticised the ruling body of gymnastics (FIG) for dumping the perfect 10.00 scoring system. Her becoming the first gymnast to score a 10.00.
The former Romanian gymnast has criticised the world gymnastics body for dumping the scoring system
BEIJING: Nadia Comaneci has criticised the ruling body of gymnastics (FIG) for dumping the perfect 10.00 scoring system. Her becoming the first gymnast to score a 10.00 during the women’s team competition at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, aged just 14, is one of the abiding images of the sport. But when the gymnastics competition begins at the Beijing Games, attaining perfection will no longer be possible as the FIG has radically revamped the scoring format.
“I kind of created the 10 and I feel bad it went away. I’m not happy about it,” the Romanian five-times Olympics gold medallist said. “It belongs to gymnastics. I feel after so many years, everyone identifies the 10 with the sport of gymnastics. We’ve given the branding away.”
The system had to be changed because of a controversy at the 2004 Athens Games. A spate of disputed medals convinced officials that the scoring format had to be revamped. The old method was abandoned following the 2005 world championships and a new points scoring system — awarded for difficulty of content and execution — will make its Olympic debut in Beijing. Although athletes have had two years to get used to the format, others are still struggling to decipher it.
“The fans are confused because an open score doesn’t mean too much. What does a 16 mean? Is it out of 100 or 50 or what is the highest score?” asked Comaneci.
“It used to be easier to understand when you had the 10. Now the fans will see a number and they don’t know what it means.”
The decision to dump the 10.00 format, which had been in place since the 1920 Antwerp Games, was sparked by two major controversies in Athens. The FIG admitted American Paul Hamm had been awarded the men’s all-round crown in error after South Korea’s Yang Tae-young had been incorrectly docked a 10th of a point from his parallel bars routine. Despite acknowledging the mistake, the federation refused to redistribute the medals and it came under further attack when chaos erupted during the men’s horizontal bar final.
With the open-ended scoring system, FIG said the tools are now in place to reward those performing more daring routines. But Comaneci feels officials could have achieved the same thing by simply tweaking the format.
“The FIG should have kept the 10 somehow. The 10 was giving us the perfection and when somebody got the 9.75, you knew exactly what that means when we had the 10,” said the 46-year-old, who has signed a paper with other athletes to protest.
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