London Olympic

[AXOmom]

Originally Posted by TonyB06

Yeah, I never thought I'd see an American athlete crip-walking in London. LOL



Are you suggesting that gymnastics judging is more or less subjective
than other sports, particularly in light of the e.g. you used. I've officiated high school basketball for 11 years (7 years at the varsity level) and if I had $10 for every fan (99 percent of the time a parent/fan from the losing team) who claimed that refs determined a game's outcome due to subjectivity, I'd be rich.

We're required to be in sync in terms of floor mgt., have consistency of calls, high degree of rules proficiency/application, and rigorous performance/evaluation criteria that have to be adhered to or you don't advance. At the varsity level, virtually every game is recorded. If you're making b.s. calls, you don't stay long at that level.

If you weren't suggesting more subjectivity in other sports,necessarily than in gymnastics, my apologies. But when I hear someone talk about alleged subjectivity, or how officials control (determine) contests, particularly at higher levels of competition, I seldom stay silent.

No, I'm not at all suggesting that other sports are more subjective than gymnastics. I can see how it read that way, but no - I just meant that gymnastics is not as subjective as people might think and some sports aren't as objective as people might think.

I recognize that sports like gymanstics, ice-skating, and for that matter, boxing (unless there is a knock-out) are more subjective because they use judges than say, basketball, football, track or swimming, but the other sports (particularly basketball and football out of those four) aren't completely objective since no matter how well trained they are - refs are human and what they call or when they call it, or for that matter what they see and don't see or how they see it is going to vary to some degree (however slight) and there are times (rare times, but times) when that human element will affect outcomes.

Two things on the bolded

1) It's true of gymnastics judges as well - they train for years and have to pass extensive tests by level and yearly to advance.

2) I know what you've said about refs and their training is true and they have a tough and thankless job, so this is a minor digressing vent that I'm obligated to take as a Pac-12 fan because we've all taken a vow to gripe about it whenever the subject of refs comes up, but our refs must have missed the classes, training, something. Seriously, I have no idea how they rose to the position they're in. Apparently there are no qualified people on the West Coast. Our commissioner actually fired all but one of the football refs the year before last which we all hoped would help. Not so much. .....and don't even get us started on our basketball refs. We will whine, bitch and moan your ear right off. .