New International Scoring System for Gymnastics, part 2 (broad overview)

So you know the perfect 10.0? Gone. No longer exists. In fact, if a gymnast scores a 10 in a major international meet nowadays, he or she did very poorly. In fact, there is no "perfect" score any longer. A very good score, one that could earn a medal, is in the high 15 or low 16 range (depending on the apparatus). For now anyway.

There are now 2 judging panels for each event.

Panel A will give a score that reflects the difficulty of the routine. On bars, beam and floor, that means that they will add the difficulty ratings of 10 elements in the routine. Each move is assigned a difficulty rating of A, B, C, D, E, F or G. An A element is worth 0.1, B is worth 0.2, etc. up to a G element which is worth 0.7. There are also 5 element group requirements worth 0.5 each. Skills count towards both the element group requirement and the difficulty value - it doesn't have to be just one or the other. There is also a connection value that is added into the A panel score. If this is confusing so far, don't worry. I'll explain these things more in depth in the coming days.

Panel B judges start each gymnast with a 10.0 but then subtract for errors in execution and artistry. These judges are very picky. Judges in general have always been picky, but this system is even more so. Falls are now a 0.8 deduction (instead of the familiar .5). Many moves on bars must be completed in a handstand otherwise there are deductions based on how far away from vertical the gymnast is.

Both panels scores are added up to get the gymnasts' event scores.

(I totally wrote this on Tuesday and just saved instead of posted. Ooops.)