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Nastia Liukin Cheated Out of Olympic Gold in Gymnastics at Uneven Bars When She Was Perfectly Tied at Score With Chinese Competitor

Yesterday we watched as Sacramone of USA women's OLYMPICS gymnastics team was cheated out of bronze on the VAULT, when the third place finisher from China fell and was awarded the medal anyway. Sacramone was awarded fourth place.

Today at Beijing it's happened again. He Kexin of China tied at score on uneven bars with Nastia Liukin of the United States. Both scored 16.725, with even the Score A (measure of difficulty) of both gymnasts being an identical 7.7.

However, according to the complicated rules of Artistic Gymnastics, the high and low scores for each were discarded, and the gold medal went to He Kexin of China.

WOW! Another judging mistake .. or that of the rules system.

LIUKIN and the Chinese girl were tied at score and should have both been awarded the GOLD.

Liukin is our hero of the day ... has now won four medals at Beijing 2008. Her other three medals being gold in the All-Around gymnastics, the silver in the Team final and bronze in the Floor Exercise event.

Congratulations to this great athlete.

Posted by Harrison K. Long, Explore Properties Group, Irvine, CA

Posted by Harrison K. Long, REALTOR, Broker, expert negotiator on 08/19/2008 02:01 AM

Comments (12)

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12 Comments on Nastia Liukin Cheated Out of Olympic Gold in Gymnastics at Uneven Bars When She Was Perfectly Tied at Score With Chinese Competitor

AUG

2008

Liukin was not cheated out of Olympic Gold. They were not pefectly tied, as the tie-breaking rules showed us if you watched the rest of the broadcast. The tie-breaking rules are not complicated at all, and they were known well before the start of the Olympics. As the U.S. noted when asked why they didn't protest, "the rules were applied perfectly so there's no need to protest." I love winning Americans, but I also love gracious Americans.

So you're saying the underage thing is fair?

Nastia Liukin should have won the Gold. Her routine did look better. In my opinion, the fault was in the judging and not in the tie-breaking rules.

Again another instance of questioned fairness by the judges against the American female gymnasts. Are they just easy targets? Dont they know how to protest? I remember seeing the female coach questioning the scoring of Sacramone's scores right up to the medal presentation. I remember Michael Phelps official written protest done by the other swimmer. Thats how it should be done! Instances like this just make the Olympics look amateur and biased to most people.

Yes, she was cheated out of the gold medal, but not because of the tie-breaking rules. That was set in advance and there wasn't any toying around with it. I agree with Bela that they suck and need to be modified, but that was a preset situation that did not change. The issue I have is with the judging....we all seem to agree that they were the best 2 at that event. Identical level of difficulty and both performed very well. The issue is with the number of deductions (or lack thereof) for He. According to Tim (and he sees the things many of us lay watchers don't), there should have been more. At least this was a very close contest and the difference between the two was minute. Unlike the vault.

On a non-judging point, there's no way in hell that He is 16. That's a different issue than the uneven bars judging, but I'm thowing it out there.

AUG

2008

Tchaka:

Thanks again for your thoughtful note at our blog about Beijing Olympics 2008 and women's gymnastics.

Harrison K. Long, Explore Properties group, Irvine, CA

Stephen:

Thanks again for your thoughtful note at our blog about Beijing Olympics 2008 and women's gymnastics. You seem to be quite aware of the rules about gymnastics and judging. Thanks for that.

Harrison K. Long, Explore Properties group, Irvine, CA

The whole thing is a joke. throughout every competition the chinese seemed to be given higher scores than they deserved. im not being biased just because the Americans didnt win either, the anouncers in almost every event couldnt understand how they were scoring so how when they werent doing that great! the panel of judges were from a bunch of inexperienced countires in gymnastics like new zealand , south africa, bolgaria etc.

i was pissed about the scoring but the uneven bars event was bullshit! after everyone thought that nastia liukin had a better routine they only give her a tie and then take it away by some joke of a ruling system! you could tell nastia and her father were furious and outraged. her father himself had tied for gold in his own Olympics and they were both given golds so he couldnt understand why the hell his daughter was being kicked down a step on the podium.

And what about these little chinese girls! no way in hell are u telling me some of them are 15 and 16! it is a lie and everyone knows it. the chinese have no problem faking papers for the underage girls. just like they used a fake 12 year old singer mouthing the words to a recording of the real little girl. why did they do this you ask? it was becuase they didnt think the real singer was pretty enough! so they got a prettier one to sing at the Olympics. this is the chinese mind set. lying and cheating doing what is necessary to win. thats why it would be easy for them to cheat to get their coutrymen more medals like theyve tried in gymastics.

Dont worry all us Americans out there because Nastia Liukin is the greatest women's gymnast in the world finishg with 1 bronze, 3 silver, and a GOLD. and her teammate Shawn Johnson getting 3 silvers and a GOLD. the American women came away from gymnastics winning 9 medals to china's i think 6 or something.

It doesnt matter because the world of gymnastics knows that the Americans dominate in womens gymnastics. Just like the American men and women do in both divisioins in track and field, beach volleyball, swimming and basketball. America is coming away with more medals than any other nation once again. The USA dominates the Olympics and will continue to dominate in years to come.

TEAM USA!!!!!!

For those who didn't see the chinese woman in question competing, it should be reminded that she did not stick the landing (crossover) whereas Nastia landed straight on her feet. Interpret that any way you want, but i do believe that constitutes that there should never have been a tie to begin with.

Justin - I too agree that the US has the best female gymnasts, but to reduce this to US vs China is not seeing the whole picture. We're not the only ones who got cheated. Everyone did. It wouldn't make a difference if the ones most directly affected were from Ukraine or Brasil.....the system failed.

AUG

2008

Earlier I wrote: "there's no way in hell that He is 16"

Oh oh, it looks like the IOC reads or blog......they're investigating her age based on new information that has surfaced (or old info they're finally accepting).

Tchaka:

Perhaps you were correct all along about a hunch on age of this Chinese gymnast. Some others have agreed with you.

Harrison

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