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In gymnastics, the maximum possible score was a perfect 10 until the rules were changed in 2006 by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).

Impetus for change

The scoring system came under review as a result of two incidents during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In the men's individual all-around competition, South Korean Yang Tae-Young was awarded the bronze medal, rather than the gold, because of a scoring error, which the FIG decided to let stand. The second controversy centered on Russian Alexei Nemov in the men's horizontal bar final. The crowd so raucously voiced its displeasure with Nemov's score (perceived as too low) that the final was stopped for 10-15 minutes. Finally, the judges raised his score (though not enough for a medal). When this did not satisfy the spectators, Nemov himself had to plead with the crowd to allow the competition to continue.

The new scoring system is open-ended, rewarding competitors for incorporating more difficult elements.

Criticism of the new system

The change has its share of critics. "It's crazy, terrible, the stupidest thing that ever happened to the sport of gymnastics," complained noted coach Béla Károlyi. "It's hard to understand. I don't even understand it," remarked gymnast Mary Lou Retton. Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci commented, "It's so hard to define sports like ours and we had something unique. The 10, it was ours first and now you give it away."

Perfect 10s

This list may be incomplete.

Olympics

Paris, 1924

• 22 men in rope-climbing, with one Albert Séguin getting a second 10 in the sidehorse vault

Montreal, 1976

• Nadia Comăneci (8) - individual uneven bars (both rounds) and balance beam; all-around uneven bars and balance beam; team uneven bars (both rounds) and balance beam
• Nellie Kim - all-around vault

(Women's individual results; women's all-around results; women's team results)

Moscow, 1980

• Zoltán Magyar (2) - individual and all-around pommel horse
• Stoyan Deltchev - all-around rings
• Alexander Dityatin - all-around vault
• Michael Nikolay - all-around pommel horse
• Alexander Tkachev - all-around high bar

(Men's all-around results; men's individual event results)

Los Angeles, 1984

Men

• Li Ning (5) - individual floor exercise and pommel horse; pommel horse, rings, and vault in the team final
• Tong Fei (4) - high bar in the individual, all-around, and team events; team rings
• Koji Gushiken (3) - individual and team high bar; all-around vault
• Lou Yun (3) - individual vault; vault in both rounds of the team final
• Shinji Morisue (3) - high bar in the individual and both rounds of the team final
• Peter Vidmar (3) - all-around high bar; pommel horse in the individual and team finals
• Bart Conner (2) - parallel bars in both the team and individual events
• Mitch Gaylord (2) - team parallel bars and rings
• Tim Daggett - team high bar
• Li Xiaoping - team pommel horse
• Xu Zhiqiang - team high bar

Women

• Julianne McNamara (5) - individual uneven bars and floor exercise; all-around uneven bars; team uneven bars and floor exercise
• Ecaterina Szabo (4) - floor exercise; all-around balance beam; team vault and floor exercise
• Ma Yanhong (3) - individual, all-around, and team uneven bars
• Mary Lou Retton (3) - floor exercise and vault in the all-around; vault in the team event
• Simona Păucă - team balance beam

(Men's results; women's results)

Seoul, 1988

Men

• Dmitri Bilozerchev (4) - pommel horse; all-around pommel horse, rings, and vault
• Vladimir Artemov (2) - all-around parallel bars and high bar
• Zsolt Borkai - pommel horse
• Csaba Fajkusz - all-around high bar
• Gyorgy Guczoghy - all-around pommel horse
• Lyubomir Gueraskov - pommel horse
• Sylvio Kroll - all-around pommel horse
• Valery Lyukin - all-around high bar

Women

• Yelena Shushunova (4) - uneven bars and vault; all-around floor exercise and vault
• Daniela Silivaş (4) - both rounds of the individual uneven bars; all-around uneven bars and floor exercise
• Dagmar Kersten - uneven bars

(Men's results; women's results)

Barcelona, 1992

• Lu Li - uneven bars
• Lavinia Miloşovici - floor exercise

(Women's results)

World Championships

• Daniela Silivaş, 1985 World Gymnastics Championship
• Aurelia Dobre, 1987 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship (five times)

References

1. ^ Diane Pucin (August 6, 2008). "A 10-shun Deficit". Los Angeles Times.
2. Dan Baynes (August 6, 2008). "Olympic Gymnasts Won't Chase Perfect 10 as New Scoring Debuts". bloomberg.com. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
3. ^ Jordan Ellenberg (August 12, 2008). "Down With the Perfect 10!". Slate. Retrieved February 14, 2010. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
4. "Games of the 21st Olympiad 1976 Artistic Gymnastics / All-Around Final Women". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
5. "Games of the 21st Olympiad 1976 Artistic Gymnastics / All-Around Final Women". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
6. "Games of the 21st Olympiad 1976 Artistic Gymnastics / Teams Women". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
7. "All-Around Final Men - Games of the 22nd Olympiad Moscow 1980". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
8. "Games of the 22nd Olympiad 1980 Artistic Gymnastics / Events Finals Men". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
9. "The Games of 23rd Olympiad / Men's Artistic Gymnastics". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
10. "The Games of 23rd Olympiad / Women's Artistic Gymnastics". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
11. "The Games of 24th Olympiad / Men". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
12. "The Games of 24th Olympiad / Women". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
13. "The Games of 25th Olympiad / Women". gymnasticsresults.com. Retrieved February 16, 2010.

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