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Same score, but different medals

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CP | 3:56 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008
I'm sorry but I don't agree with the system of judging or scoring. If they got the same score, there should be 2 gold medals! Nastia was robbed!! I watched her routine and she had less mistakes then the little Chinese girl.
GAS | 7:59 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008
I have watched much of the coverage of the Olympic gymnastics. I have found that the scoring has been inconsistent. The commentators have tried to explain why and how, but still seem lost for an explanation. This applies not only to US competitors, but for other nations. In my opinion the president of the technical committee should not be overruling the judges. This puts doubts in the judge�s minds. The best judges should be used, not those who�s country does not have a competitor. According to the article, the high and the low score are thrown out. This would negate any bias by a judge from a competitor home country. Judges should also not be influenced by the crowd. With all of the revelations of how the Chinese have handled this Olympics, I am wondering about the possibility of some of these judges being bribed or blackmailed. I am not an expert on gymnastics and I realize that the NBC commentators are paid to keep people watching, but I believe some of the Chinese gymnast�s routines were given a score better than was earned. I am less inclined to watch the rest of the gymnastics coverage because of all this.
Robbed | 10:05 a.m. Aug. 19, 2008
I've got two words to describe gymnastics at this Olympics: Home cooking.

China is consistently being overscored during these Olympics. I have no problem with the tiebreaker system they have in place - I have a problem with the notion that Liukin and He were tied to begin with. Liukin was clearly better. Just like how Sacramone lost the vault bronze to a Chinese gynmast who LANDED ON HER KNEES.

It's a shame because now it's hard to take any medal the Chinese win in any judged sport seriously (I'm looking at gymnastics, diving, trampoline, etc.).
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re GAS | 2:56 p.m. Aug. 19, 2008
actually, throwing out the low and high score wouldnt eliminate bias. LEts say there are judges, one from the US, Japan, China, Romania, and Germany. If there is an athlete from each country, that particular judge would be tempted to give a lower score to, lets say the American performer. Catch my drift? Bias doesn't only mean you'd inflate your country's score. You could have a pretty good routine have its only good score thrown out(the one from the judge of same country) and then have all the other countries purposefully underscore the routine. The only real way to eliminate bias is to have judges from non-competing countries, but they are less experienced. Lesser of two evils maybe?

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