Gymnastics scoring on 10 point scale, changed in 2006
Nadia Comăneci poses beside the scoreboard that recorded her perfect 10 as 1.00 (with no Olympic precedent, the sign was incapable of displaying a 10.00).
The FIG changed its code of points in 2006. There are now different top scores, all greater than 10, for the various events, based upon difficulty and artistic merit; there is no consistent perfect score. Execution scores are still out of 10, so the theoretical possibility exists for a gymnast to get a partial "perfect 10" (for execution) in addition to whatever maximum number they get for difficulty, but no such score has been awarded in decades.
History
Men's artistic gymnastics had been an Olympic sport since the beginning of the modern games. Women's gymnastics were introduced as a single (team) event in the 1928 games, but were not expanded until the 1952 games, when there were seven events.[5]
The International Federation of Gymnastics first drew up a code of points—for men—in 1949.[6] Although the code was based on a maximum score of 10, until 1976 it was considered impossible to achieve a score of greater than 9.95, particularly at the Olympic Games.[7][8] At the World Championships or Olympics, from when increased standardization of competition format and scoring (which was capped at a 10, a trend which would not be changed until 2006) was introduced at the 1952 Olympics, the very highest scores tended to be in the 9.400 – 9.600 range, and over the next few World and Olympic cycles through the 1950, 1960s, and 1970s, the top scores gradually got higher through the 9.700 and 9.800 range.
During the post-1952 era, a couple of very early scores, essentially extreme outliers, that came very close to the 10 mark were Armenian-Soviet Hrant Shahinyan's 9.950 on optional rings at the 1952 Olympics and Armenian-Soviet Albert Azaryan's 9.950, also on the optional still rings exercise, at the 1954 World Championships. On the men's side, these scores might not have been surpassed, or even equaled, at a World Championships or Olympics until 1980, as even scores of 9.900 were extremely rare and, in some Worlds and Olympics throughout the 1950s−1970s, scores of 9.900 seem to have been non-existent for the men.
Prior to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Omega, the official timers, asked the International Olympic Committee how many digits it should allow on the electronic scoreboard, and were told that three digits would be sufficient, as a score of 10.00 would not be possible.[13] On 18 July 1976, however, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci scored a 10 on the uneven bars. Because the scoreboard was limited to three digits, it displayed her score as 1.00.[13] This led to confusion, with even Comăneci unsure of what it meant, until the announcer informed the elated crowd that she had scored a perfect 10.[14] An iconic press photograph (see above) shows a beaming Comăneci, arms upraised, beside the scoreboard.[15] Comăneci scored a total of seven 10s at the 1976 Olympics—four on the uneven bars and three on the balance beam.[13] Her main rival, the Soviet Union's Nelli Kim, scored two 10s in the same competition, in the vault and floor exercise.[16] Comăneci's coach, Béla Károlyi, having defected to the United States in 1981, subsequently coached American Mary Lou Retton to gold at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where she scored 10s in the vault and floor exercise.[17]
The first man to score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition was the Soviet Alexander Dityatin, in the vault, on the way to a record-breaking eight medals in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.[18] Among other men to achieve the score was Comăneci's future husband, Bart Conner, who achieved two 10s in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[19]
Change in scoring
The code of points came under review as a result of separate incidents during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, in which gymnasts were believed to have received excessively low scores.[20] A new scoring system was introduced in 2006. It consists of an "A" score, based on the difficulty of elements, and a "B" score, based on artistic impression. While the B score still has a maximum of 10, it is only a part of the overall score.[19]
The change had its share of critics. Béla Károlyi said of it: "It's crazy, terrible, the stupidest thing that ever happened to the sport of gymnastics.".[21] Mary Lou Retton remarked: "It's hard to understand. I don't even understand it."[21] 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."[19]
Nadia Comăneci – team compulsory uneven bars, team optional uneven bars, team optional balance beam, all around uneven bars, all around balance beam, uneven bars event final, balance beam event final
Nellie Kim – all around vault, floor exercise event final
Mary Lou Retton – team optional vault, all around vault, all around floor exercise
Julianne McNamara – team optional uneven bars, team optional floor exercise, all around uneven bars, uneven bars event final, floor exercise event final
Ma Yanhong – team optional uneven bars, all around uneven bars, uneven bars event final
Vladimir Artemov – team compulsory parallel bars, team optional high bar, all around parallel bars, all around high bar
Valeri Liukin – team optional pommel horse, team optional parallel bars, all around high bar
Dmitry Bilozerchev – team optional pommel horse, team optional rings, all around pommel horse, all around rings, all around vault, pommel horse event final
Yelena Shushunova – team compulsory vault, team optional vault, team optional uneven bars, team optional floor exercise, all around vault, all around floor exercise, uneven bars event final
Daniela Silivaș – team compulsory uneven bars, team compulsory floor exercise, team optionals uneven bars, team optionals balance beam, all around uneven bars, all around floor exercise, uneven bars event final
Dagmar Kersten – team compulsory uneven bars, uneven bars event final
Dmitry Bilozerchev – team optional pommel horse, team optional rings, team optional parallel bars, team optional high bar, all around pommel horse, all around vault, all around parallel bars, all around high bar, pommel horse event final, rings event final, high bar event final
Vladimir Artemov – team optional pommel horse, team optional rings, team optional vault, all around rings
Yuri Balbanov – team compulsory rings, team optional high bar, all around parallel bars
Olga Mostepanova – team compulsory vault, team compulsory uneven bars, team compulsory balance beam, team optional vault, team optional balance beam, team optional floor exercise, all around vault, all around uneven bars, all around balance beam, all around floor exercise, balance beam event final, floor exercise event final
Natalia Yurchenko – team compulsory uneven bars, team optional vault, all around vault, all around balance beam, uneven bars event final
Maxi Gnauck – team compulsory uneven bars, team optional vault, team optional uneven bars, all around floor exercise, uneven bars event final, floor exercise event final
Gabriele Fähnrich – team compulsory uneven bars, uneven bars event final
Hana Říčná – team optional balance beam, all around vault, all around uneven bars
Tong Fei – team compulsory parallel bars, floor exercise event final
Li Ning – team optional rings, pommel horse event final
Lou Yun – team optional parallel bars, parallel bars event final
Dmitry Bilozerchev – team compulsory pommel horse, team optional pommel horse, all around floor exercise, all around vault, all around high bar, pommel horse event final, rings event final, high bar event final
Vladimir Artemov – team optional parallel bars, parallel bars event final
Aurelia Dobre – team optional vault, team optional balance beam, team optional floor exercise, all around vault, balance beam event final
Daniela Silivaș – team compulsory balance beam, team compulsory floor exercise, team optional uneven bars, team optional floor exercise, floor exercise event final
Yelena Shushunova – team compulsory vault, team compulsory floor exercise, team optional floor exercise, all around floor exercise, floor exercise event final
Yelena Shushunova – all around uneven bars, all around balance beam, all around floor exercise
"Meta-Perfect" Scores of 20, 30, and 40
Although virtually hundreds of perfect scores of 10 were given at various levels of competition throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, "meta-perfect" scores of 20, 30, or 40 were much, much more rare. A "meta-perfect" score would be an instance where a gymnast received multiple perfect scores of 10 throughout a competition on an apparatus (culminating in an official "meta-perfect" score of 20 in the Event Finals, depending upon the era and competition), or on every apparatus in a segment of a competition (which would result in an official "meta-perfect" score of 60 for a male gymnast or 40 for female gymnast, depending upon the era and competition).
Three possible scenarios in which to create a "meta-perfect score", that have occurred, would then be: 1) to achieve perfect 10s on every apparatus throughout a segment of a competition (Team Compulsories, Team Optionals, or All-Around) which would post an official "meta-perfect" score of either 60 for the men or 40 for the women, depending upon the era and competition; 2) to achieve perfect 10s on all performances on an apparatus throughout every segment of a competition (Team Compulsories, Optionals, All-around, and Event Finals), which would officially post a "meta-perfect" score of 20 in Event Finals, depending upon the era and competition; and 3) to achieve perfect 10s on all optionals performances on an apparatus (team optionals, all-around (if competed in), event finals), which might or might not post an official "meta-perfect" score, depending upon the competition and era – but this is a possibly necessary scenario to articulate because perfect scores of 10 were given much less often to compulsory routines than to optional routines, for a number of reasons. Olga Mostepanova seems to have been the only gymnast to do #1 at a major international competition. Svetlana Boginskaya, Nadia Comăneci, Maxi Gnauck, Olga Mostepanova, and Daniela Silivaș are women who have done this more than once. Dmitry Bilozerchev has done this probably more (4) times than any other man.
No score of "30" (listed several times below) would ever have been an officially posted score to designate "meta-perfection" on an apparatus. This is merely a designation of either 1) "meta-perfection" on an apparatus in both phases of the team competition (compulsories and optionals) as well as event finals, but not in the all-around, and this is worth articulating relative to listed "meta-perfect" scores of 40 because the gymnast in question might not have qualified to the all-around, therefore no opportunity to achieve a theoretical "meta-perfect" score of 40/40; OR 2) "meta-perfection" on all optionals performance on an apparatus (see scenario #3, above).
Nadia Comăneci – 40/40 on Uneven Bars (every segment of the competition), 30/40 on Balance Beam (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Ma Yanhong – 30/40 on Uneven Bars (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Julianne McNamara – 30/40 on Uneven Bars (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Shinji Morisue – 30/30 on Horizontal Bar (Team Compulsories, Team Optionals, Event Finals; he did not compete in the all-around, so no opportunity to achieve 40/40, but he did get a 10 every time he competed on the apparatus)
Dmitry Bilozerchev – 30/40 on Pommel Horse (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals), 30/40 on Horizontal Bar (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Maxi Gnauck – 30/40 on Uneven Bars (in Team Compulsories, Team Optionals, and Event Finals; not a 10 in the All-Around, but a 10 in both segments of the team competition that carried over to Event Finals where Gnauck also got another 10 to create a "meta-perfect" score)
Olga Mostepanova – 40/40 in the All-Around (all 4 apparatuses), 40/40 on Balance Beam (in every segment of the competition), 30/40 on Floor Exercise (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Vladimir Artemov – 20/30 on Parallel Bars (both optional routines – Team Optionals, Event Finals – did not compete All-Around)
Dmitry Bilozerchev – 30/40 on Pommel Horse (not in the All-Around, but in both Team Compulsories and Team Optionals which carried over to Event Finals where he also got a 10, creating a "meta-perfect" score)
Maxi Gnauck – 30/40 on Uneven Bars (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Ekaterina Szabo – 30/40 on Floor Exercise (all optional routines – Team Optionals, All-Around, Event Finals)
Yelena Shushunova – 40/40 on Floor Exercise (in every segment of the competition)
Daniela Silivaș – 30/40 on Floor Exercise (not in the All-Around, but in both Team Compulsories and Team Optionals which carried over to Event Finals where she got also got a 10, creating a "meta-perfect" score)
^1966 Gymnastics World Championships, women's EF (Video). MizMamie. Event occurs at 16:00. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved January 15, 2021. There's the mark. 9.933. And that is the highest mark of any competitor, man or woman, at these World Championships.
^Tatlow, Peter (1979). Gymnastics: all the beauty and skills of this thrilling sport. Chartwell Books, Inc. p. 143. ISBN9780711100046.
