Both of these gymnasts never really lived up to their
potential at the Olympics. During the
floor finals, both Anna Pavlova and Cheng Fei.
This was extremely devastating for Cheng Fei because she was the top qualifier
and would have secured herself a gold medal if she had performed without the
fall. Once again the top qualifier, Cheng Fei, fell on her 2nd
vault, a Cheng, which is ironically her own original vault. Regardless,
she still managed to snag the bronze over USA’s Alicia Sacramone due to her
higher difficulty (I will do a blog post about this debate as as well). Again during vault finals, an even harsher tragedy struck Pavlova. Due to technical errors with the vault score table, the judges could not score her 2nd vault and she ended up getting a 0 on the vault. To say the least, Beam was both of the gymnast’s last chance
to get a gold individual medal.
Unfortunately, chances of that were slim with gymnasts like Shawn
Johnson, Nastia Liukin (World Champion on the beam), and China’s own Li
ShanShan who boasted the highest difficulty out of the 8 eight finalists.
Both Cheng Fei and Pavlova competed at the 2004 games in
Athens and in the 2008 games in Beijing.
Many people think that the judges over scored Cheng Fei, who had
multiple visible errors in her routine.
Both gymnasts actually had the same Difficulty (6.8) but Cheng Fei beat
Anna by only .050
Cheng Fei:
Judges score: 15.950
D score: 6.8
E score: 9.150
[.9 in deductions]
.1 heel dropped on full turn
.1 low landing on full twisting back tuck
.1 step on full twisting back tuck
.1 wobble on full twisting back tuck
.1 low landing on back pike
.1 wobble on back pike
.1 step on back pike
.1 bent legs on back handspring
.1 step on dismount
My score: 15.9
D score: 6.8
E score: 9.1
Anna Pavlova: Anna
had a higher potential start value than Cheng Fei. However, due to errors on her handstands, her
difficulty value was lowered and was the exact same as Cheng Fei’s. People seem oblivious to Pavlova’s errors in
her routine. She had a huge mistake on
one of her handstand elements. Not only
did she not achieve 1 perfect split in the handstand position but she did not
hold the handstand position for 2 seconds which is an additional deduction in
the CoP. Furthermore, she will have
received .1 less in Difficulty due to not holding the handstand position.
Judge’s score: 15.9
D score: 6.8
E score: 9.1
[1.0 in deductions]
.1 lack of split in handstand
.1 lack of precision on handstand (the gymnast failed to
show control throughout the element)
.1 slight piked position (hip angle) in layout
.1 heel dropped on full turn
.1 lack of split in handstand
.1 balance check on sheep jump
.1 crossed legs on triple twist
.3 step on dismount (triple twist)
My score: 15.8
D score: 6.8
E score: 9.0
Verdict: Looking at
both of their routines, it seemed like Cheng fei had more wobbles and balance
checks. Pavlova on the other hand had more subtle, yet equally as costly, problems
with her handstand elements which not only lowered her difficulty but hurt her
execution score. Furthermore, Anna had a
big step on her triple twist dismount.
Vault: This was the apparatus in which Shawn had a huge
advantage over Nastia. Shawn performs a
2.5 twist compared to Nastia’s 1.5 twist.
Shawn’s start value was a full point higher than Nastia. Therefore, unless Shawn fell on her butt she
was pretty much guaranteed a higher score than Nastia.
Nastia’s Vault: Hands down the best vault Nastia’s
ever done. She definitely made the most
out of her less difficult vault with a stuck landing and lovely form to boot. She really lacks a good block off the
vaulting table to perform a harder vault but performs her less difficult vault here with the utmost perfection.
Judge’s score: 15.025
D: 5.5
E: 9.525
My score: 15.1
D: 5.5
E: 9.6
[Deductions: 0.4]
0.1 lack of height
0.1 lack of distance
0.1 did not land in the middle of the mat
0.1 low landing (deviation from ideal position)
Shawn’s Vault: In warmups, Shawn performed possibly
one of the best Amanars I’ve ever seen her do, just like Tim Dagget said. She’s no Mckalya Maroney on vault but her
power, short stature, and good form make this a good scoring event for
her. In terms of deductions, she had a large step on the landing. Even
more importantly though, Shawn’s vault was quite under rotated. It was really more like a 2.25 twisting
yurchenko. Regardless of how under
rotated a salto is, the CoP states that the highest deduction for being under rotated
(without a fall) is 0.1.
Judge’s score: 15.875
D: 6.5
E: 9.375
My Score: 15.8
D: 6.5
E: 9.3
[Deductions: 0.7]
0.1 lack of height
0.1 lack of distance
0.1 under rotated
0.1 low landing (deviation from ideal position)
0.3 step on landing
0.1 did not land in middle of the matt
Uneven Bars: Just like Shawn had the advantage on Vault,
Nastia had the advantage on the Uneven Bars.
She shared the highest start value in the world at the time, a 7.7, with
2 Chinese gymnasts: He Kexin and Yang Yilin.
Her long lines, high release moves, and difficult pirouettes make this a
good scoring apparatus for her. On the other hand, Shawn is not as strong on the
bars so she needed to rely on getting a huge execution score to combine with
her lower difficulty score.
Nastia’s Bars:
A nice clean routine from Nastia sans the dismount. Most of her deductions came from her
handstands and the dismount.
Judge’s Score: 16.650
D: 7.7
E: 8.950
My Score: 16.5
D: 7.7
E: 8.8
[Deductions: 1.2]
0.5 Insufficient extension in kips or casts/lack of
handstand in kips and casts (x5)
0.1 late handstand on ono ½ pirouette
0.1 leg separation on pak salto
0.1 cowboyed double front
0.1 low landing
0.3 step on landing
Shawn’s Bars:This
is without a doubt Shawn’s weakest event but she’s definitely not a bad bars
worker. She’s ‘spectacular’ on beam and
floor but is just ‘good’ on bars. The important
thing here was to try to execute everything as perfectly as she could, which
she managed to do with her ‘G’ rated dismount.
Judge’s Score: 15.733
D: 6.6
E: 9.133
My Score: 15.8
D: 6.6
E: 9.2
[Deductions: 0.8]
0.4 Insufficient extension in kips or casts/lack of
handstand in kips and casts (x4)
0.1 bent arms when catching the bar on Ginger
0.3 late handstand on pirouette
Balance Beam: Nastia was the reigning world champion on
this event while Shawn got last place in the beam finals at the 2007
worlds. However, Shawn has a 0.3
advantage in terms of difficult over Nastia.
However, when you do the bigger and harder skills (such as the standing
full and the full in dismount that Shawn does) it leaves more room for the
judges to deduct on low landings and possible steps. While Nastia lacks the acrobatic prowess that
Shawn possesses, she still manages to bring accumulate a large D score with her
difficult leaps that require her to lose complete sight of the beam momentarily.
Nastia’s Beam: What frustrated me was that the judges
gave her connection bonus for her supposed Onodi + Wolf Jump 1/1 combination
when she clearly did not connect the skills.
I mean even Tim freakin Dagget, who is an idiot, was blabbing on about
how she didn’t deserve the connection.
Regardless, this was a clean set from the world champion and she
certainly deserved that high execution score.
Judge’s score: 16.125
D: 6.7
E: 9.425
My Score: 16.0
D: 6.6
E: 9.4
[Deductions: 0.6]
0.1 heel dropped prematurely on full turn
0.1 slight shuffle on side somersault
0.1 arm movements used for balance ‘Liukin’
0.1 head not held long enough on switch ring leap
0.1 slight balance check on switch ring leap
0.1 crossed legs on 2.5 twist
Shawn’s Beam: This routine had something I’ve never
seen Shawn do, a balance check. She also had quite a few low landings on some of her acrobatic elements because they are so difficult to perform.
Judge’s Score: 16.0
D: 7.0
E: 9.0
My score: 16.0
D: 7.0
E: 9.0
[Deductions: 1.0]
0.1 leg separation on layout
0.1 bent legs on piked front
0.1 low landing on piked front
0.3 low landing on standing tucked full (chest touching
knees)
0.1 balance check on standing full
0.1 lack flexibility on switch split leap
0.1 legs not parallel to beam on Johnson
0.1 low landing on full in (chest at hip level)
0.1 step on full in
Floor Exercise: Shawn was the reigning world champion on
floor and technically had a more difficult routine than Nastia. Just like on balance beam, even though Nastia’s
routine doesn’t seem as hard as Shawn’s, Nastia was only 0.2 lower than Shawn’s
potential D score. Nevertheless, the
judges didn’t always credit her switch ring leap and her straddle jump 1.5 so
she didn’t get her difficulty advantage over Nastia.
Nastia’s Floor: She’s had to rework her entire
routine so that she’s pretty much only doing front tumbling due to an ankle injury,
which prevents her from doing back handsprings.
Nastia also has some form issues (crossed legs on her twists and an
EXTREMELY cowboyed double front) however the code only allows 0.1 deduction no
matter how cowboyed a salto is or how badly a gymnast crosses his or her legs
during twists. Despite her form issues, Nastia
does not suffer from low landing deductions like most gymnasts because it is
easier to land upright when doing a front tumble (even though it has a blind
landing)
Judge’s Score: 15.525
D: 6.2
E: 9.325
My Score: 15.3
D: 6.2
E: 9.1
[Deductions: 0.9]
0.1 crossed legs on double twist
0.1 cowboyed legs on double front
0.1 hop on split leap 1/1
0.1 crossed legs on 1.5
0.1 crossed legs on 1.5 punch front
0.1 hop on 1.5 punch front
0.1 leg not held at horizontal on turn
0.1 hop on switch leap ½
0.1 crossed legs on 2.5
Shawn’s Floor: At this point, Nastia was leading
Shawn by an enormous 0.6. In gymnastics
terms, where the line between gold and silver can be differentiated by a thousandth
of a point, Nastia was light years away from Shawn. She needed a number in the 16’s to catch up
to Nastia, something that just wasn’t possible on floor exercise. Shawn knew that but still gave a huge and
powerful floor routine that was certainly worthy of a medal. Shawn performed one of the best double
doubles I’ve ever seen her do and finally competed her front 1/1 + front rudi
combination. However, she had the usual
big uncontrolled step on her whip to triple twist combination and the lack of
rotation in her straddle jump 1.5.
It wasn’t so much that Shawn was under scored but that
Nastia was over scored. Personally, I have a feeling
the judge’s preferred Nastia’s graceful and elegant style over Shawn’s powerful
gymnastics. The fact that Nastia won by
over 0.6 is absolutely ridiculous and totally sounds fishy to me. Granted, people complain about Nastia's form issues like her crossed legs during twists and cowboyed saltos but each one of those is only a 0.1 deduction. No matter how bad form errors may look they're only just 0.1 in deductions.
Regardless of who won it was already too late. Shawn was already considered America’s sweetheart
with her perky attitude and pixie like stature.
She was reminiscent of America’s first sweetheart, Mary Lou
Rhetton. Even though Shawn didn’t have
the gold medal on her neck, from the endorsements and media attention she was
getting, it seemd like she had actually won.
(Infact, I didn’t watch the 2008 Olympics but I remember hearing about
and seeing Shawn Johnson everywhere. It
wasn’t until I actually started watching gymnastics that I knew who Nastia was
and that she actually had actually won the all around and not Shawn. So in a way, I do think Shawn did win...
