Вот статья на английском: https://www.facebook.com/notes....0776721

When the knot gets tied…

ЛИДИЯ ВИНОГРАДНАЯ·ПОНЕДЕЛЬНИК, 8 АПРЕЛЯ 2019 Г.

I could not resist the most popular topic these days regarding “knots and the ways to untie them” at the World Cup in Pesaro. Those who know what I am talking about – please take your time to read my opinion. Those who do not – just read it anyway J

The first World Cup competition of the season was taking place in Pesaro this weekend. What is important to note for our team – we had 2 debutants in individual programme – Viktoria Onoprienko and Krystyna Pohranychna. This is their first year in senior category, the first ever World Cup and they managed to enter all the finals! Krystyna has received her first score over 21 points – in hoop final, while Vika – over 20 points in clubs final. Our girls were just a step below the podium, but I am sure that their main medals are ahead. These competitions are all very important as the World Championships is just some months away and that would be the place to earn 2 tickets to Tokyo 2020 Olympics (gymnasts would be obliged to get into top 15 to earn 2 country spots). In 2016 in Rio only Anna Rizatdinova was representing Ukraine in individual programme.

Our group team was always as confident as ever – they did not miss a single competition without a medal yet, and this one was not an exception – silver in the final with hoops and clubs.

However, the most majorly discussed was the ribbon final which was won by Dina Averina from Russia who was competing with a very visible knot.

Video of the routine

I have to say that some years ago nobody knew how to act correctly when a gymnast had a knot. Some judges were deducting 0.10 for each pattern with a knot, somebody was counting the elements and somebody was not. It was not clearly mentioned in the Code of points and to get a clear answer from the FIG Technical Committee was not so easy. Gymnasts were getting lost of the carpet – some were untying the knots, the others were not. And so the judges were lost too!

If you think that now there is a clear information on knots now in the Code of points – you are wrong. However, FIG Technical committee now has a very good habit of answering questions from the judges all around the world. And that’s great. So in one of these answers they mentioned that if a gymnast continues performing with a knot – then nothing gets credited in Difficulty (body difficulties, apparatus difficulties, dance step combinations). Only the risk elements are counted (throw and rotations under the flight of apparatus). That’s it.




Actually the majority of the judges are against this “newness”. The problem is that the judges often just don’t see the knot. For example, we had such an occasion at Deriugina Cup in junior group finals with 5 ribbons when during the routine one of Team Belarus group members unexpectedly stood still in the center of the carpet and started to untie the knot. Why unexpectedly? Because till that moment none of the judges did actually notice that knot. However, the gymnast was well informed that the team may get nothing credited and as a good soldier she started to remove the knot.

I am waiting for the video of this routine, will post it once received.
In reality during group or individual performances, the judge needs to see too much – and that’s why there is no time to check the end of the ribbon. Of course, you may get suspicious if you see that the end of the ribbon is a bit going out of the pattern during spirals or snakes, however, to see the knot clearly it should be flying in the air. And that’s the time the judge should calculate the amount of rotations and criterias for the risk, there is no time to sit and just watch the flying ribbon as it is in the TV slow motion. Not all the judges are like Ceasar to make several things at once. And even not the most qualified ones like those in Pesaro.

So what are the scenario?
Difficulty judges are evaluating the routine in “pairs”. And if both did not notice the knot – they will credit all the difficulties they have seen. If one noticed the knot while the other one did not – here is where the “game of thrones” start. Quite often they just ask their neighbours : “Have you seen the knot?”. Or they may consult superior jury. If the answer is negative – again everything is credited. So even if 1 judge out of 10 has a very good eye, it does not mean that the routine would be evaluated “correctly” . Just because the others would kill this option either by “majority of votes” or by authority.

It’s interesting that there were 2 FIG technical committee members present in Pesaro. It’s not the first time the knot was not seen. However, it should be one of the tricky ones as the gymnast performed the majority of the exercise with a knot and won the final (which according to the Code of Points could not have happened).

I think now International federation would have to choose what to do :
- Cancel this rule as such that cannot be followed;
- Insist and then the judges who were evaluating this routine should be punished.

Actually I am more after the first way of handling this. The only thing is that we should not allow the situations of gymnast making macrames out of ribbon knots and not getting punished for it. I think we should penalize the gymnast only for visible knots that are disturbing the pattern of the ribbon and not the one that still allowed Averina to perform a clean routine.
Some examples of “visible” knots.

Of course I also wish there was a bit of fair play in gymnastics and that our athletes had always the courage to admit that, well, I did my whole routine with the knot – I wanted to return my medal and prize money. Like Johannes Boe did in biathlon.

Let’s watch the reaction of FIG. When Bruno Grandi was FIG President, I guess he would already be starting preparing the gallows.