After the myriad of scoring issues at the 2004 Olympics in Athens (interestingly all involving MAG), the entire system was overhauled for both disciplines starting in 2006. Gone was the Perfect 10 that we all knew and love-loathed. Now there would be two scores, one for difficulty and one for execution. The Difficulty Score (or D score as it's now known) is open-ended. The Execution Score (or E score) starts from 10 and deductions are assessed from there.
At the time, I was so upset was I with the changes that I kind of boycotted the sport for awhile. (This 2006 Code is also pretty wretched, as I've discussed in prior videos in this Series.) I only know the Cliffs Notes versions of a few meets during this time period, 2006 Worlds included. In fact, this was my first time seeing the full routines of all-around champion Vanessa Ferrari 🇮🇹.
Vanessa made a few historic firsts on this day. She was the first Italian woman to win a World Title. She was the first gymnast to win with a sleeveless leotard. And... she was the first gymnast to win with a fall in the Final 💀.
Under the new system, falls were a 0.8 deduction, and it was fairly easy to take the hit and still come out victorious. (Simone Biles would later give us the masterclass on this artform.)
At 15, Ferrari was the youngest World AA Champion since Aurelia Dobre in 1987. Having always known her primarily as a floor specialist, I was low-key shocked at how good she was on bars. She had the highest UB score in the meet, and it really helped propel her ahead of silver medalist Jana Bieger 🇺🇸. (Jana's teammates Chellsie Memmel and Nastia Liukin were both injured and unable to compete in the AA Final.)
26 авг 2024
