Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around

Women's artistic individual all-around at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Medalists
Carly Patterson   United States   Svetlana Khorkina   Russia   Zhang Nan   China

Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Artistic
Qualification		men		women
Team all-around		men		women
Individual all-around		men		women
Vault		men		women
Floor		men		women
Pommel horse		men
Rings		men
Parallel bars		men
Horizontal bar		men
Uneven bars				women
Balance beam				women
Rhythmic
Group all-around				women
Individual all-around				women
Trampoline
Individual		men		women

These are the results of the women's individual all-around competition, one of six events for female competitors in the artistic gymnastics discipline contested in the gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The qualification and final rounds took place on August 15 and August 19 at the Olympic Indoor Hall.

Results

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
	Carly Patterson (USA)	9.375	9.575	9.725	9.712	38.387
	Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)^1	9.462	9.725	9.462	9.562	38.211
	Zhang Nan (CHN)	9.325	9.462	9.662	9.600	38.049
4	Anna Pavlova (RUS)	9.425	9.337	9.650	9.612	38.024
5	Nicoleta Daniela Șofronie (ROU)	9.412	9.637	9.362	9.537	37.948
6	Irina Yarotska (UKR)	9.200	9.650	9.400	9.437	37.687
7	Marine Debauve (FRA)	9.162	9.512	9.262	9.425	37.361
8	Elena Gómez (ESP)	9.150	9.525	9.162	9.462	37.299
9	Courtney Kupets (USA)	9.275	9.625	8.975	9.237	37.112
10	Allana Slater (AUS)	9.175	9.362	9.212	9.350	37.099
11	Alina Kozich (UKR)	9.250	9.512	8.687	9.600	37.049
12	Daniele Hypólito (BRA)	8.825	9.562	9.337	9.237	36.961
13	Wang Tiantian (CHN)	9.375	9.537	8.725	9.162	36.799
14	Émilie Lepennec (FRA)	9.300	9.687	8.112	9.537	36.636
15	Stefani Bismpikou (GRE)	8.887	9.475	8.900	9.237	36.499
16	Camila Comin (BRA)	9.187	9.437	8.525	8.925	36.074
17	Kwang Sun Pyon (PRK)	8.525	9.587	8.850	8.900	35.862
18	Kate Richardson (CAN)	9.262	8.087	9.037	9.400	35.786
19	Beth Tweddle (GBR)	8.987	9.562	7.800	9.412	35.761
20	Stephanie Moorhouse (AUS)	9.037	8.587	8.200	8.925	35.723
21	Katy Lennon (GBR)	9.262	8.987	8.200	8.925	35.374
22	Leyanet Gonzalez Calero (CUB)	9.325	8.725	8.012	9.237	35.299
23	Aagje Vanwalleghem (BEL)	9.225	9.075	8.287	8.275	34.862
24	Melanie Banville (CAN)	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.) ^[1]

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." ^[2]

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." ^[3]

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

Notes

1. Upset Russians Ask IOC to Take Long Look at Gymnastics
2. Little Gymnast Gives Big Dose of Star Power
3. Khorkina Cries Foul

References

• Gymnastics Results.com