The Olympics
I'm new to this whole blogging thing and this is my first post so stay with me. Does this even belong here?
Well, I guess I'll start with something that bugged me this summer. During the individual portion of the gymnastics competition in a preliminary round, there was a controversy. In the simplest way of describing it, the new rule change caused a female gymnast to be eliminated from the competition and therefore, the final round. The rule basically stated that the best TWO gymnasts from each country will move onto the final round. This is what confused me. The Olympics occurs in order to bring the best athletes from around the world together to one competition. Basically, to see who is the best athlete in the world. How can somebody tell one of the best athletes in the world that she can't advance to the finals because she was third in her country (Meanwhile, athletes with lower scores from other countries advance to the finals for a shot at gold).
This athlete (Jordyn Wieber) drew the short stick. Of course, athletes who did advance (with worse scores) benefited from the rule while she was harmed by it. Is this fair? The goal of the Olympics is to see who the best athlete in each sport is. One mistake in a preliminary round killed this gymnasts shot at gold (In a competition where the scores didn't even transfer to the finals).
Hopefully I did a decent job of explaining the situation.
So here's my question-
Why make a rule that causes these situations?
I know that the International Olympic Committee cannot anticipate every situation but this seems like a very easy situation to foresee. I hope that the IOC will review its' rules and make changes where necessary (and preferably to this rule).
I guess I have run out of ideas and thoughts.
If you have any insight on this, go ahead.
I didn't watch the Olympics but I remember hearing about this: sensibly, the rules would dictate the best **athletes** in the world facing each other in the finals, without any restrictions of nationality. However, I do understand the IOC's reasoning: as a global event, they dictate that all the best **countries** face each other. Otherwise, there could possibly be 10 Americans or Canadians or British or Russians or Chinese facing each other in the final round. Do you see what I mean? Although it was unfair that Ms. Wieber was denied a shot at a medal, it was probably preferable on an international scale.
ReplyDeleteI suppose your reasoning makes sense. It was inconvenient for Ms. Wieber. Might I mention that there are already rules that prevent this from happening and I believe one country could only get a maximum of four participants into the final round. (I think this rule was added because China was a powerhouse in the last Olympics and they felt the need to fix this.)
ReplyDeleteUltimately, this was an individual competition and I believe that nationality should not matter.
P.S. I was thinking about this and realized that China probably had an athlete who suffered the consequences of this rule too. We only saw Wieber because she's American but what about other countries?