Difficulty or execution?

Since 2006 the Code of Points in Artistic Gymnastics abolished the perfect 10 score in favor of a more open-ended evaluation system. This change is highly debatable; many people dislike the current scoring system and claim desperately for the return of the perfect 10. I, for one, like the new scoring system better. It is just fair in my book to think that a more difficult routine should, in theory, be rewarded with a significantly higher score. But, of course, difficulty is not everything. If the execution is not good enough, a difficult routine is more likely to go to waste.

Or is it?

During the last quad, a lot of difficult-yet-not-so-well-executed routines found their way to the finals, while clean-yet-not-so-difficult routines were left out. And even if a superbly clean gymnast made it to the finals without an uber-difficult routine, his/her efforts were usually not well-rewarded.

My point is that, although it is a good decision to separate difficulty from execution, there is still not a solid balance between these aspects. It was a pain for me to see clean, artistic gymnasts with difficult routines like Anastasia Koval and Ksenia Semenova being left out of the podium at the Olympic Games last year.

So, while I can see the benefits of the current Code of Points, I admit it is not perfect. While I believe gymnastics is all about challenging one's limits, there should be a limit for one's limit. Every time I watch He Kexin's new Uneven Bars routine I am truly amazed at how perfect she is, but I am also scared to death that she might just slip and fall and God knows what could happen then.

Defying one's limits is not to be taken as defying death. What scares me is that gymnastics is not about execution anymore; it is all about difficulty. I believe, for the safety of the gymnasts, that there should be a cap. FIG should not allow routines over, say, 6.0 or 6.5 in difficulty. Those are still very high difficulty scores under the current Code of Points.

Why am I ranting about all this? Because Brazilian gymnasts seem to be taking the "clean-yet-not-so-difficult" route this quad. I believe this is the safest way to go, but, more likely than not, they are bound not to be rewarded by the current Code of Points for a clean routine. When we think "let the best gymnast win", what do we understand as best? Is the best routine always the most difficult one? I beg to differ. Let the cleanest-yet-still-difficult-but-not-life-threatening routine win. That is much, much better.