I’m not sure which of the elements are required, but each apparatus has 5 required elements while other elements are optional.
The judging works this way:
There are two different scores - the A-score (or difficulty level score, which starts at 0) and the B-score (or execution score, which starts at 10).
The A-score is judged by a panel of 2 judges. The B-score is judged by a panel of 6 judges.
The A-panel judges will add points (starting at 0) for every element in the routine, then use the 9 highest scoring elements in the routine and the dismount to determine the final value. Of these elements, 5 will be required elements (with a value of 0.5 each) for a total of 2.5 points. Additional points are given for connections of two or more elements. For a good routine the A-score is between 6 and 7. Nastia Liukin has the highest A-score for any routine at 7.7 for the uneven bars. Even if the initial start value is, say, 7.7, the A-panel judges will deduct previously allocated points for any element included in the original start score that was not successfully completed. So the actual A-score may be different from the original A-score you see at the start of a gymnast’s routine.
The B-panel judges score routines based on execution, artistry, composition and technique. They deduct points for every error, e.g. a fall is a 0.8 deduction. The highest and lowest scores from the 6 judge panel are discarded and the remaining 4 scores are averaged. If one of those 4 judges’ scores deviates from the other 3 scores by a certain value, the judge may be instructed to adjust their score.
The A and B scores are added to reach the final score.
And if you’re wondering why they can’t just keep adding stuff to their routine, they have a 90 second limit. A buzzer goes off when they have 10 seconds remaining and they must dismount within those 10 seconds. The problem is that while the more difficult routines have a higher start score they also have a higher probability of error and injury.
It seems that 99.99% of the people insist that the red card was justified, so I’m certainly I’m among the minority. I only saw the replay once but saw, as is usual in soccer, one player throw a weak elbow causing the opposing player to crumple as though every bone in his body shattered simultaneously. Yes, I’m biased but I don’t think I’d have a different opinion if it was the Nigerian who got red carded for doing the same to an American. Problem is, American soccer players haven’t learned to be dishonest when it comes to playing the game and trying to convince the idiot refs to give out red cards. Diving just isn’t our thing, sadly.
Last World Cup, one of the American women got a red card for having the audacity to trip in a game against the Brazilian team. The Brazilian player, Cristiane I think is her name, happily pumped her fist in her joy at seeing her opponent get kicked out of the game. Real classy gesture. At least the commentators mentioned it and chastised her for it. Oh wait, they never brought it up once.
The kid, Orozco, shouldn’t have done what he did, especially since it’s such a punishable crime in this sport. Hopefully he’ll mature over the years and I’m sure he will and won’t hurt his team as he did. But the ref still should have some kind of sense of where the hell he is and the importance of the game. It was four freaking minutes into the game for something that could have been interpreted ten different ways by ten different refs. If he broke the Nigerian’s face (a la Danielle De Rossi did to Kevin McBride – who interestingly didn’t fall to the ground and whine like a baby but instead just looked to get the blood wiped off so he could continue playing) I wouldn’t care if it was in the first seconds. It would be a deserved expulsion. But to change the game for something that should have earned no more than a yellow card, please!
Plus, it’s obvious how this works. The clowns at FIFA say elbows will earn a red card, so the players go out and instigate their opponents. The Nigerian may have been fondling Orozco, hoping for a reaction. When that reaction came, he fell to the floor like a wuss and the dumb referee gave him the card. Nice Olympic spirit there for you.
Uhm, I’m watching the China vs. Chinese Taipei (LOL) baseball match right now.
It’s quite surreal, since I associate baseball so strongly with America. The Chinese announcers keep saying really obvious stuff like “the pitcher should try to curve the ball, to make the batter uncomfortable.” I guess most of the viewers aren’t familiar with the game, so it makes sense, but it’s still pretty hilarious. It’s also quite cool to see the right, left, and center field walls marked with feet as well as meters. And they just sung Take Me Out To The Ballgame! Hehe.
Also, the Chinese word for strike is “haoqiu” which literally means Good Ball. And ball is, as you may expect, “huaiqiu”, which means Bad Ball. Oh the Olympics is teaching me so much!
Well done them, I guess. The womans gymnastics aren’t my favorite event, but that’s neither here nor there.
I have to admit, I’m a bit annoyed that after they received their medals and went on their little tour, the NBC cameraman (or at least the NBC feed) tried to cut the Chinese gymnast out of the picture. Jeez. I knew there was a reason I rarely watch NBC.
Heh, China vs. Chinese Taipei has gone into extra innings. Apparently the rule for extra innings in the Olympics is that runners start at 1st and 2nd base to speed up the game! And somehow, this game has made it into the 12th inning, although Taiwan scored 4 in the top of the 12th, so it looks like it’s over…
I’m really surprised that China’s team has looked as decent as it has. Sure they’ve made a couple errors, but they look like a real ball club, which is neat, considering that the game is virtually unplayed on the mainland (aside from Beijing, Shanghai and a couple of other northern cities). Taiwan has the advantage of having a fairly competitive pro baseball league, and they must be somewhat shocked that this game has been as close as it has.
Apparently I spoke too soon. China’s just scored two in the bottom of the 12th, bases are loaded, and Taiwan just walked in a run. Two outs. This is a pretty epic drama, especially considering it’s many Chinese people’s first exposure to baseball. Already a 4 and a half hour affair…
EDIT: China just got a game-winning single to win 8-7!!! Holy smoke! What a game! And so few people are watching…
Is there any way to watch the non-live videos on the nbcolympics.com website without having the results spoiled? What is wrong with the people at NBC? I have to take off my glasses and use my myopia as an advantage at not seeing the results but that ploy doesn’t work. After all, what good is going through all these manueuvers to avoid getting the result when *there’s a banner running along the top of the video window that constantly repeats * “THE USA BASKETBALL TEAM AVENGES THEIR LOSS AGAINST GREECE, 94-69.”
[QUOTE=Tony]
It seems that 99.99% of the people insist that the red card was justified, so I’m certainly I’m among the minority. I only saw the replay once but saw, as is usual in soccer, one player throw a weak elbow causing the opposing player to crumple as though every bone in his body shattered simultaneously. Yes, I’m biased but I don’t think I’d have a different opinion if it was the Nigerian who got red carded for doing the same to an American. Problem is, American soccer players haven’t learned to be dishonest when it comes to playing the game and trying to convince the idiot refs to give out red cards. Diving just isn’t our thing, sadly./QUOTE]
I went back and watched it again. My initial reaction was, “Am I watching soccer or synchronized diving?” Yeah, it was a dumb thing to do. But, the ref should have yellow carded rather than red. That red card cost the US the match as well as the chance to move on.
Did the American player throw an elbow at his opponent?
If he did, he committed “violent conduct.” Law XII mandates the sending off of such a player, regardless of whether it occurs in minute 4 or minute 40.
On July 4, 1994, we saw the classic reason that such actions are sending off offenses. It didn’t help Tab Ramos any that Leonardo was sent off for doing it. If players understand ahead of time that throwing elbows at opponents will not be tolerated regardless of the reason, or the result, they might stop throwing elbows.
The sad part is not that the elbow thrown resulted in a red card here, but that similar acts are still allowed to occur with only yellow card results in some cases, though I think that is less and less true as time goes by.
But PLEASE note that Law XII does not mandate that an actual injury of any significant note occur for a sending off to be mandated. It’s the action taken, not the result, that warrants the discipline.
Swimming gets 34 medals, far more than any other sport except athletics. And I’m not counting the other aquatic sports of diving, synchronised swimming or water polo. Those 34 medals are just for swim racing, so perhaps we should only compare them to track running, which would mean that swimming earns more medals than any other sport.
Now, I suppose it might be a little crass to compare sports in terms of raw numbers of medals. Nevertheless, it seems odd that swimming gets the most medals, 17 times as many as other popular sports such as hockey. If swimming is so big, where are all the SDMB threads about previous world swimming championships? I searched on “swimming” and “championships”, and most of the small number of hits related to the Olympics. How many famous swimmers could the average person name, vs., say, famous track athletes?
First of all, your numbers don’t address the exact sport I used as a counter-example. Track and field offers 47 gold medals, which is far more than offered to swimming. So a very good track and field all around person could easily do what Mr. Phelps is accomplishing.
Second, other than when the Olympics is held, who pays any attention to track and field, hmmm? Or gymnastics? Or any of the other main events at the summer games?
Face it, the whole summer olympics is about glorifying sports that get no glory any other way. These sports get a lot of attention because we’ve been sold on the idea every four years that it’s fun to root for the people from our country who are good in them. If you don’t like that fact, tough shit. :dubious:
I don’t think I ever said anything against Michael Phelps, sorry if I gave that impression. I would agree that he is an outstanding swimmer, athlete etc.
I did directly address track & field. As I said, the 34 medals available to swim racers might be compared to the medals available to track runners, which is 29 by my count. Swim racing is the biggest sport in the Olympics, in terms of medals. If you want to widen it to aquatic sports vs. track & field, then by my count it is 46 vs. 47 medals. So if you argue that track & field is over-rewarded, then surely swimming is too, because athletics is at least as big a sport as swimming. Because, as I said, there are more famous runners than there are swimmers.
But anyway, I like that less popular sports get some time in the spotlight, during the Olympics. But some sports, particularly swimming and to a lesser extent gymnastics, are over-represented.
Good Og, this again? Just because you know more runners than swimmers does not say anything about the relative popularity of either sport.
There are a lot of swimming events because each event is a different skill set. There are a lot of track & field events because each of those is a different skill set. There is certainly an argument to be made that the Olympics could include more, underrepresented sports, but it is absurd to think that established sports should change just because random people think they get an unfair number of medals awarded.
Usram, just because you can’t swim doesn’t mean the sport is over-represented.
If anything, Track and Field is way too cluttered. A race is a race. There is no need for all those different distances. And hurdles are just a way of padding the medal count in favor of runners. And as far as who is more famous…what Lightray said. I don’t know any Olympic runners. I know several Olympic swimmers, including the 1972 Bronze in the 100 meter butterfly, who I went to school with for a decade.
So consolidate the plethora of swimming medals into fewer medals. Have a 50m race, a 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and one or two relays. That’s 14 or so medals in total for swim racing, still well above average. Or if you insist on awarding medals for swimming in different styles, then have medals for sprinters, middle distance and long distance. Or whatever. Just don’t spin it out to an absurd, Games-dominating 34 medals.
Re relative popularity of swimming vs. other sports, I would bet hard cash that if I went out into the streets two years from now and asked people to list all the Olympic track athletes they can think of vs. all the Olympic swimmers , the first list would be a lot longer than the second.
I don’t mean to slam swimming, nothing against it except how it suddenly becomes a major sport when the Olympics come round, because of the excessive number of medals on offer.
