Nostalgic for the perfect 10, anyone?
The 2012 gymnastics season is only a few weeks old, but in the past two weeks perfect 10s have been tossed around almost as liberally as rice at a wedding.
There was Vanessa Zamarripa's perfect 10 on vault vs. Cal two weeks ago (perhaps the judges's way of saying, "Oh Zam, we're so glad you're back.") New senior elite Mackenzie Brannan was awarded a 10 during event finals on bars at the Alamo Classic in San Antonio this weekend, and now comes the news, via the Allentown Morning Call, that Elizabeth Price received a 10 for her DTY vault at the Parkette Invitational.
These numbers, given for routines that aren't quite perfect (though I have not seen Price's vault), make me wonder if judges might be sending a subtle message that they would like the perfect 10 playing a greater role in elite-level gymnastics. These scores were not given out at elite-level meets, but no doubt the suppression of the perfect 10 at the elite level has led gymnasts and coaches to pay less attention to artistry and things like sticking landings in favor of pumping routines full of difficulty to boost their difficulty -- and thereby their overall -- scores.
Since the code of points eliminated 10 as the ideal score in 2005, gymnastics has been different. Not worse (in my book, anyway) just different. But with the Olympics less than six months away, is it a surprise to see a 10 or two? Might people be a little fed up with great elite performances being rewarded with hard-to-decipher scores like 14.8?
Or could it be the fact that for all the beauty still left in elite gymnastics, nobody's come close to a 10 in E-score (the only part of the score that takes perfection into account) in about four years?
Your take: What do you think? Do you want to see the perfect 10 back in elite gymnastics?
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