Monday, February 3, 2014

Comparing 2008 and 2012

Ever since the Fierce Five won Gold in London, people have been disputing which team was better, the 2008 Silver-Winning Beijing Team or the Gold Medal Winning 2012 Team.  As code changes makes it hard to compare between codes, I've coded the routines competed in Beijing and those performed in London to see who had the higher difficulty.

Vault
Bridget Sloan
5.8
Jordyn Wieber
6.3
Shawn Johnson
6.3
Gabby Douglas
6.3
Alicia Sacramone
6.3
McKayla Maroney
6.3
Total
18.3
Total
18.9

Bars
Shawn Johnson
5.8
Jordyn Wieber
6.3
Chellsie Memmel
6.2
Kyla Ross
6.1
Nastia Liukin
6.3
Gabby Douglas
6.4
 Total
18.3
Total 
18.8

Beam 
Alicia Sacramone
5.7
Kyla Ross
6.2
Nastia Liukin
6.0
Gabby Douglas
6.4
Shawn Johnson
6.4
Aly Raisman
6.4
 Total
18.2
Total
19.0


Floor
Alicia Sacramone
5.8
Gabby Douglas
6.1
Nastia Liukin
5.7
Jordyn Wieber
6.1
Shawn Johnson
6.2
Aly Raisman
6.4
Total
17.7
Total
18.6

*Thank you to  SportEverywhere and The GymnastFan Hub for their videos on the correct coding of these routines, which allowed me to check if I was correct or not. *

Keep in mind that these routines were not designed for this code of point, many skills were downgraded/ upgraded so these difficulty charts are not 100% representative of the difficulty capabilities of these athletes.  

Just for kicks, I know a people argue, "Difficulty is not the only important factor of Gymnastics!", so I included the execution score given to these routines and the Olympics.  

Vault
Bridget Sloan
9.4
Jordyn Wieber
9.433
Shawn Johnson
9.5
Gabby Douglas
9.466
Alicia Sacramone
9.375
McKayla Maroney
9.733

Bars
Shawn Johnson
9.05
Jordyn Wieber
8.266
Chellsie Memmel
8.725
Kyla Ross
8.533
Nastia Liukin
9.2
Gabby Douglas
8.6

Beam  

Alicia Sacramone
8.6
Kyla Ross
9.033
Nastia Liukin
9.375
Gabby Douglas
8.833
Shawn Johnson
9.275
Aly Raisman
8.433

Floor
Alicia Sacramone
7.925
Gabby Douglas
8.966
Nastia Liukin
9.0
Jordyn Wieber
8.9
Shawn Johnson
8.5
Aly Raisman
8.8

Looking at these execution scores, the 2012 Team has higher vault and floor execution, while 2008 wins on bars and beam.  It is important to note, however, these routines were judged under different Code of Points and different deductions, so the routines were not judged the same.  So, lets call execution between 2008 and 2012 a tie, as both teams had higher execution scores on two event.  The 2012 team had higher difficulty scores on each event compared to the 2008 team.

Lastly, I made charts showing the complete scores by adding the execution given at the Olympics and the difficulties I found under the 2013-2016 Code of Points.

Vault
Bridget Sloan
15.2
Jordyn Wieber
15.733
Shawn Johnson
15.8
Gabby Douglas
15.766
Alicia Sacramone
15.575
McKayla Maroney
16.033
Total
46.575
Total
47.532

Bars
Shawn Johnson
14.85
Jordyn Wieber
14.566
Chellsie Memmel
14.925
Kyla Ross
14.633
Nastia Liukin
15.5
Gabby Douglas
15.0
Total
45.275
Total
44.199

Beam
Alicia Sacramone
14.3
Kyla Ross
15.233
Nastia Liukin
15.375
Gabby Douglas
15.233
Shawn Johnson
15.675
Aly Raisman
14.833
Total
45.725
Total
45.299

Floor
Alicia Sacramone
13.725
Gabby Douglas
15.066
Nastia Liukin
14.7
Jordyn Wieber
15.0
Shawn Johnson
14.7
Aly Raisman
15.2
Total
43.125
Total
45.266

2008 Team Total                                                            2012 Team Total
180.7                                                                               182.296
In conclusion, 2012 was a better group of gymnasts overall, "beating" the 2008 Team under this code of difficulty by 1.596.