The U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s run to gold saw some crucial point changes and massive scores, but how does the scoring system work in Olympic gymnastics?
Between the different apparatus, competition formats and additional rules, there’s a lot to keep track of when it comes to gymnastics — and that’s before you even get to the turns, spins and twists the gymnasts themselves perform.
Here’s an explanation of how the rating system works:
How Judging and Scoring Works in Gymnastics
Nine judges are chosen to score each Olympic gymnastics event. These judges are divided into three groups: the D jury (difficulty score), the E jury (execution score) and the reference jury.
Difficulty score
Jury D is composed of two judges who determine the difficulty score.
The two judges rate their difficulty score, taking into account the eight most difficult exercises – including the dismount – for women and the ten most difficult exercises for men. The judges on Panel D compare the scores and determine the difficulty score of the routine.
The vault is the only apparatus that has a predetermined difficulty score, which is displayed to the judges before the gymnast begins his vault.
Execution score
The E-Jury consists of five judges who determine the execution score. The execution score starts at 10.0 and the E-Jury makes deductions for errors made during the routine. The value of the deductions ranges from 0.1 to 1.0.
The five judges each record their own execution score for the routine. The highest and lowest scores are discarded and the remaining three scores are averaged to determine a final execution score.
Neutral deductions
Certain errors such as time exceeding, going off the field, behavioral errors and falls are penalized by neutral deductions.
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A gymnast may make a verbal protest, called a complaint, to the judges after his or her routine. The verbal protest must be followed by a written protest and can only take place after the gymnast’s final score has been posted.
Scores may be increased, decreased, or remain the same depending on the survey.
Code of Points
The Code of Points defines the scoring system for each level of gymnastics competitions.
Different levels, disciplines and countries of gymnastics have their own codes. The International Gymnastics Federation establishes the Code of Points for the highest level of the discipline, including for the Paris Olympic Games.
Each athlete receives an execution and difficulty score following their routines.
What is a perfect score in gymnastics?
According to NBC Olympics, there is no longer a “perfect 10” in gymnastics, but gymnasts can still achieve a perfect score — there is just no longer a number associated with it.
“Now, a perfect score for a gymnast would be receiving no deductions from the judges, while performing her intended routine at full difficulty. Under the open scoring system, no gymnast received a perfect score,” NBC Olympics reported.
How many Olympic gymnastics events are there?
There are a total of 14 medal events in artistic gymnastics at the Paris Olympics.
Women compete on four apparatus, while men compete on six. Women and men each compete in one individual all-around event and one team event.
Here are the apparatus for women’s and men’s gymnastics:
Women’s
- Jump
- Uneven bars
- Balance beam
- Ground
Men’s
- Ground
- Pommel horse
- Rings
- Jump
- Parallel bars
- Horizontal bar
Olympic Gymnastics Competition Format
Artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Games is divided into four phases: qualifications, team finals, all-around finals and apparatus finals.
Qualification
Whether competing individually, as a team or both, all gymnasts participate in qualification.
This event serves as a qualifier for the apparatus finals, all-around final, and team final. Teams are comprised of four athletes, but only the top three scores count. Gymnasts wishing to reach the all-around final must perform all events (four for women and six for men) in order to earn an all-around score as a qualifier.
Gymnasts perform one routine per apparatus, with the exception of the vault. Gymnasts who wish to compete individually in the vault event must perform two vaults in qualification in order to qualify for a spot in the event final.
Scores obtained during qualifying are not carried over to the final.
How the team scoring system works
The top eight teams from the qualifiers advance to the team final. The rankings of the teams finishing ninth through twelfth will be determined.
All eight teams compete in a single session. Only three gymnasts from each team compete on a given apparatus and all three scores count toward the team final. Each gymnast is allowed only one attempt on each apparatus, including vault, and the team with the highest cumulative score on all apparatus wins gold.
In the women’s final, each team competes in Olympic order on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. The teams ranked first and second in qualifying begin the final on vault, third and fourth on uneven bars, fifth and sixth on balance beam and seventh and eighth on floor.
The men’s Olympic order is as follows: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar. The first and second-place teams in qualifying begin the final on floor, third and fourth begin on pommel horse, fifth and sixth begin on rings and seventh and eighth begin on vault.
How the overall rating works
Twenty-four gymnasts with the highest cumulative scores in qualification advance to the individual all-around final. A maximum of two gymnasts per country are allowed to compete in the individual all-around final, allowing some gymnasts who were not in the top 24 in qualification to reach the final and others who finished in the top 24 to remain there.
Each gymnast is allowed only one attempt per apparatus, including vault, and the gymnast with the highest cumulative score on all apparatus wins gold as the winner of the individual all-around competition.
For the individual finals of the women’s and men’s all-around competition, the 24 gymnasts are divided into four groups of six.
On the women’s side, gymnasts ranked first through sixth in qualifying begin the final on vault, No. 7 through 12 begin on uneven bars, No. 13 through 18 begin on beam and No. 19 through 24 begin on floor.
On the men’s side, gymnasts ranked first through sixth in qualifying begin the final on floor, numbers 7 through 12 begin on pommel horse, numbers 13 through 18 begin on rings and numbers 19 through 24 begin on vault.
How does the final scoring of gymnastics events work?
The top eight gymnasts on each apparatus from qualifications advance to the apparatus final. No results are carried over from qualifications and the starting order for an apparatus final is determined by a random draw.
Each gymnast is allowed one attempt on one apparatus in the apparatus final, with the exception of vault. Gymnasts competing in the women’s and men’s vault finals must perform two different vaults from two different vault groups. The average score of the two vaults is then calculated to give a final score for the apparatus.
Are there any gymnastics moves that are banned from the Olympics?
There are moves that are banned in both men’s and women’s gymnastics – and some moves in women’s gymnastics, including some of Biles’ classic moves, have “reduced value” due to safety concerns.
NBC Olympics reports that the following moves are prohibited:
- In men’s gymnastics, a somersault (a front somersault without touching the ground with the arms) is prohibited during the first flight phase, or if the athlete has his legs apart during the second flight phase.
- In women’s gymnastics, jumps with lateral take-offs or landings are prohibited, as are dismounts on uneven bars where the gymnast launches on two feet, dance elements with a cross-sit landing on the beam or, in floor exercises, acrobatic elements with lateral take-offs or a forward roll landing.
Additionally, the Biles, Biles II, and Yurchenko Double Pike all have lower values due to safety concerns.
What score did Team USA’s Simone Biles get in the women’s gymnastics team final?
The United States finished with a score of 171.296, well ahead of second-place Italy at 165.494.
Simone Biles The American team had the best results in almost every event. Here are the best results:
Jump:14.9 (Biles)
Uneven bars: 14,566 (Suni Lee), Italian Alice D’Amato (14,566)
Beam: Suni Lee (14.6)
Ground: 14,666 (Biles)
