Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site crystal.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!uwvax!crystal!pal From: pal@crystal.ARPA Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re:Re: Wexelblat's reply to my reply to Atkins Message-ID: <355@crystal.ARPA> Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 14:59:59 EDT Article-I.D.: crystal.355 Posted: Thu Aug 9 14:59:59 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Aug-84 00:19:51 EDT Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept Lines: 46 Some clarifications on my previous article, prompted by David Wexelblat's followup (excerpted below). > [ME] Or will you accept that the upset of Ecaterina Szabo in the Women's > gymnastics was purely due to the presence of a US judge ? > > [Wexelblat] One small problem with the question of Szabo's defeat. > [...explanation of scoring elided...] > The reason Szabo lost was > that she got a 9.3 on the uneven bars in the team competition. She screwed > up her landing. She deserved that score. Retton didn't screw up any > events, therefore deserved to win. Sorry if I didn't make this clear: I am *NOT* saying that Szabo deserved to win. In fact, my point was just the opposite -- Upsets are not due solely to biased judging, the athlete's performances occasionally (:-)) have something to do with the outcome. When that outcome is the victory of a "Commie" over a US athlete, however, there seem to be too many people (for my taste, at least) who cannot accept that it may have been a fair outcome. I do not regard such an attitude as exemplary sportspersonship. Since, as Mr. Wexelblat points out, the outcome referred to above COULD NOT have been due to biased judging by a single judge, it is perhaps a poor example. However, the scoring method described only makes my point stronger: How then can the ABC commentators allege that bias (of a single judge) affected scores? > > > [ME] "ABC people" wouldn't happen to include Kathy Rigby McCoy, would it? > She was the one I found most offensive, making accusations about the > judges with very little substance that I could see. She also couldn't > understand why the US women got low scores in the team competition > parallel bars routine. Perhaps she didn't notice that most of them > nearly fell off the bar (at least one actually did) > > Wrong again! The event you are thinking of is the balance beam. Mea Culpa! I *WAS* referring to the balance beam. Sorry for the mistake. > > David Wexelblat > (...decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!dwex) > Anil Pal crystal!pal Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison P.S. Although this may not have been apparent from my article, I DO know the names of the gymnastic events for man and women, and the scoring system.