Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's artistic individual all-around
Encyclopedia
These are the results of the women's individual all-around competition, one of six events for female competitors in the artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...

 discipline contested in the gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, three disciplines of gymnastics were contested: artistic gymnastics , rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline...

in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 15 and August 19 at the Olympic Indoor Hall
Olympic Indoor Hall
The O.A.C.A. Olympic Indoor Hall which is part of the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens "Spiros Louis" , was completed in 1995 and was the largest indoor venue in use for sporting events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. It is located in the suburb of Maroussi...

.

Qualification

Ninety-eight gymnasts qualified to compete in the individual all-around event in the artistic gymnastics qualification round on August 15, by performing on at least one apparatus.
The twenty-four highest scoring gymnasts advanced to the final on August 19.

Final

Rank Gymnast Vault Uneven
Bars
Balance
Beam
Floor
Exercise
Total
9.375 9.575 9.725 9.712 38.387
1 9.462 9.725 9.462 9.562 38.211
9.325 9.462 9.662 9.600 38.049
4 9.425 9.337 9.650 9.612 38.024
5 9.412 9.637 9.362 9.537 37.948
6 9.200 9.650 9.400 9.437 37.687
7 9.162 9.512 9.262 9.425 37.361
8 9.150 9.525 9.162 9.462 37.299
9 9.275 9.625 8.975 9.237 37.112
10 9.175 9.362 9.212 9.350 37.099
11 9.250 9.512 8.687 9.600 37.049
12 8.825 9.562 9.337 9.237 36.961
13 9.375 9.537 8.725 9.162 36.799
14 9.300 9.687 8.112 9.537 36.636
15 8.887 9.475 8.900 9.237 36.499
16 9.187 9.437 8.525 8.925 36.074
17 8.525 9.587 8.850 8.900 35.862
18 9.262 8.087 9.037 9.400 35.786
19 8.987 9.562 7.800 9.412 35.761
20 9.037 8.587 8.200 8.925 35.723
21 9.262 8.987 8.200 8.925 35.374
22 9.325 8.725 8.012 9.237 35.299
23 9.225 9.075 8.287 8.275 34.862
24 9.200 8.025 8.787 8.462 34.474


1 Svetlana Khorkina contested her second place score after she was wrongly deducted on her vaulting apparatus. After her performance, the judges discussed via telephone in secrecy for nearly two minutes until Khorkina's vault was given a score of 9.462. Commentator Elfi Schlegel is quoted as saying, "I'm a little surprised [with the score.]" However, immediately following any controversy regarding Khorkina's score on vault, Schlegel and fellow commentator Tim Daggett insisted that Khorkina's uneven bars score was artificially high.

After the incident, the Russian Olympic Committee sent several letters in hand with a petition asking the International Gymnastics Federation and the International Olympic Committee, guided under then-President Jacques Rogge, to consider serious revisions to the sport. Many complaints were heard specifically regarding the particular vault score that was said to ultimately cost Svetlana Khorkina a gold medal in the Women's All-Around (she was said to be underscored by 0.2 in a competition she lost by 0.176 of a point.)

As well, the Indianapolis Star declared Carly Patterson the clear winner but had this to say, "Was Khorkina cheated? Her vault score seemed low, and strangely, the judges seemed to take a long time figuring out the numbers on that one."

Svetlana Khorkina was quoted as saying, "I'm just furious [because] I knew well in advance, even before I stepped on the stage for my first event, that I was going to lose. Everything was decided in advance. I had no illusions about this when the judges gave me 9.462 for the vault after conferring with one another at length."

The most obvious testament to Khorkina's vault being wrongly underscored was her performing the same vault in qualifications with 0.1 in deductions for an off-balance step on her landing, receiving a score of 9.512. In finals, she performed the same vault with arguably no step on the landing yet received a score 0.05 lower for a technically better vault. It can be calculated using a simple ratio table that her vault should have properly been given a 9.612, adding 0.15 to her vaulting score. The result is that Svetlana Khorkina still would have lost the All-Around by a very close 0.026 of a point. Additionally, even if such adjustments were taken into account, gymnastics experts and commentators suggested that an artificially low vault score of Khorkina's was later negated by an artificially high score on the uneven bars. However others in the gymnastics community note that although Khorkina landed without taking a step, her posture was leaning forward, and hence the step she took to present to the judges was necessary to keep her from falling forward, in which case the vault would not be considered a "stick," because a stick requires a stable vertical body posture. This was probably the controversy the judges took so long to decide over the phone, whether or not to count the vault as a stick or as a step forward. Other vaults in the same competition featured similar leaning body postures and were not scored as stuck landings.

The video of her vault can be seen here. Khorkina's Vault

More videos of Khorkina's vault:
Khorkina's Vault NBC HD
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