How One Judging Call May Have Put World Title Out Of Reach For Team USA

U.S. women’s gymnastics has reigned over the world championship team competition since 2011, and entered Rotterdam this week in search of the team’s historic eighth-straight title.

However, that streak came to an abrupt end on Oct. 21. An uber-talented Chinese squad narrowly defeated the U.S. team by 0.233 in the women’s team final, a small margin across the 12 routines competed per-team.

The gold medal was China’s first women’s title since 2006, and only the nation’s second in modern gymnastics history. For the U.S., it marked the squad’s 'lowest’ finish since 2010, when they also won silver in Rotterdam.

While a margin of two-tenths can be many things: form errors, a couple out-of-bounds deductions, or missed a connection, Team USA officials were far less concerned about the final margin than they were about a specific scoring abnormality.

Third Rotation Woes for Team USA

Entering the third rotation, Team USA held a sizable lead over the Chinese team — but that was about to change. After three monstrous beam sets from the Chinese squad — and a fall from American Dulcy Caylor — the Americans needed to minimize the damage.

Of the five Americans, 21-year-old veteran Skye Blakely befit the challenge.

Blakely is a two-time world beam finalist, and qualified sixth to the individual final this week in Rotterdam. She scored a big 14.166 in qualifying, a score the Americans could have sorely used to catch China.

Blakely mounted the beam confidently, nailing her standing back full with authority, drawing roars from the Rotterdam Ahoy crowd.

She launched into her major acrobatic series, landing with a minute wobble. Though her routine wasn’t perfect, she delivered an exercise of equal quality from the qualifying round — surely enough to keep the U.S. in contention with China.

After a substantial wait, her score posted: 13.266, nearly one full-point lower than what she received in qualifying. Shock. Confusion.

Blakely received the same execution score in both routines, a solid 7.966 (out of 10.0), but her difficulty score dropped sharply.

In qualifying, Blakely’s routine was valued at a difficulty score of 6.200. In the team final, she received only a 5.300. When combining the difficultly and execution scores to reach the final score, the difference is even more glaring.

The change meant Blakely received a score nearly one full point lower than her expected total, putting the Americans a staggering 2.200 points behind the Chinese team with just one apparatus to go.

Had Blakely received her qualifying score, that deficit would have been just 1.300, putting the U.S. in prime position to overtake China on floor exercise — the Chinese team’s weakest event. While USA Gymnastics inquired about Blakely’s difficulty score, it was rejected by the panel. What’s done was done.

But, what happened?

What Happened to Skye Blakely’s Beam Score

Chellsie Memmel, the U.S. high performance technical lead spoke with the media after Team USA’s silver-medal-winning performance, and one of the first questions addressed Blakely’s beam score.

In addition to her leadership role with USA Gymnastics, Memmel is a former Brevet-rated internatonal gymnastics judge, an Olympic silver medalist and multiple-time world champion.

After an explanation, it was revealed that one skill tanked Blakely’s score: a leap.

Blakely’s switch-half leap was deemed short of rotation by the judging panel. And although she landed the leap without wobbling, her D score took a massive hit.

By under-rotating the leap, Blakely lost the difficulty value of the element (a .400-point D score loss). Since the element was voided, it meant that she also no longer would receive credit for a dance series – a compositional requirement.

In missing that requirement, she lost another .500 from her difficulty score. One tiny error spawned a massive quantitative pitfall.

Moving Forward In the Individual Finals

As Memmel discussed the findings, she almost nodded in dismay. “It’s big,” she admitted. “It is what it is, it’s a learning experience."

While she insisted that the skill “hasn’t been an issue” in training, Memmel confirmed that Blakely will plan to dial in on the skill and train an alternate skill combination to meeting the compositional requirement.

And although her beam score came as a disappointment, Blakely and her teammates left team finals with medals in tow and an Olympic berth secured. Altogether, mission accomplished.

After a stellar showing in qualifications, Blakely’s world championships are far from over. The University of Florida junior is the only athlete to qualify to four individual finals, and will compete in Friday’s all-around final, followed by the apparatus finals for vault, uneven bars, and balance beam over the weekend.

Looking for a schedule? Follow Team USA’s medal push in Rotterdam here.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com