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I preface this with an acknowledgement that I rarely watch gymnastics, even during Olympic years. So I certainly don't know much about how scores are determined though I think difficulty factors into it. My question is, can you really tell which teams were better when the difference between one and four is less than two-tenths of a point out of one hundred ninety-seven? Since you pay closer attention than I do I would be interested in your feedback. Thanks.

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So the women are still using the traditional 10 point system while the men have switched to the FIG Code of Points that's used for both men and women in Olympics level competition. The latter system is certainly better if you want to distinguish routines of varying difficulties.

The old system that's used in collegiate women's gymnastics is harder to judge because so many gymnasts can do the required moves (no bonus points for an extra turn, for example) that will lead to a full 10 and all the judges do is to deduct points for minor things. With that said, I think the difference between a 9.8 and 9.9 is relatively easy to spot (most on the landing but also stuff like legs together or hold a pose on the top of the bars), but randomness on the order of 0.025 per routine even from the professional judges does add up.

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For some reason, Substack is preventing me from updating this post. I think I also lost some of the stuff that I had written.

That was a tremendous effort by the Bears under the circumstance. They definitely had a chance to advance if you had told me that they just needed to beat Florida's 197.4375. But the judging was tough at this meet and the Bears went through an emotional whirlwind.

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