Beijing Olympics 2008 – Nastia Liukin versus China in tie

I would have never called myself an avid fan of the Olympics.  Yet, time after time, whether Summer or Winter I find myself watching.  As Jim McKay used to say, “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat”.  Watching Michael Phelps and his quest for 8 gold medals was amazing.  Watching marathon runners and track runners and synchronized divers, again incredible.  Then we move to the gymnastics or maybe we should call them the “chinese connection”.  Nevertheless, the tragedy of the scoring of the uneven bars between Nastia Liukin and He Kexin was beyond words.  The Olympic Committee should spend a little more time with the computer programmers and statisticians before they decide how the programs that calculate scoring should be written.  When you have a tie and you begin removing scores, why would you remove the lowest scores on the 2nd round.  By removing China’s He Kexin’s lowest score, it also removed a low score that was lower that U.S.’s Nastia Liukin’s lowest score and the tie went to China.  Maybe some human scoring should have intervened after the first round of calculations.  Or better yet, if a tie after the first round of calculations, award the gold medal to both athletes.  Come on Olympic Committee, get your act together!  As for China’s He Kexin, not bad for a 14 year old!