The Weekly All-Around

Week 11, 2025

History-Making Controversy

While there wasn’t non-stop action with many meets happening at once, Week 11 still gave us plenty of news to talk about, for good and bad reasons. The lone NCAA meet of the weekend was #5 Michigan traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska to battle the #3 Cornhuskers. One of the pre-season favorites for the national title, Michigan, has had a bit of an underwhelming season, rankings-wise at least. Regardless of lineup choices, the Wolverines aren’t happy with being ranked #7 three separate weeks this season. However, many fans speculated Michigan would have a full lineup with immense difficulty for this competition, with the B1G Regular Season Title opportunity. The stage was set: The underdog Michigan would earn a Conference Title share if they defeated the third-ranked team in the Nation.

Mission accomplished, we think? 

In a supremely competitive battle with truly great gymnastics all-around, Michigan did defeat Nebraska, with whopping Nation-High scores from both teams, 335.950-335.200. Less than eight tenths of a point separated the teams, and both final scores were more than five points higher than the previous best in the entire NCAA! Wow, what a competition!

However, serious criticism has been placed upon the judges at this competition, after a few trends and one colossal, result-changing mistake has surfaced the public. Firstly, it must be mentioned how execution scores were simply too high for a competitive NCAA gymnastics meet, especially one that determined a conference championship result. Michigan’s 335.950 is just 0.05 away from holding a 14.000 average across all 24 routines, this is simply inaccurate - even on a modified FIG CoP scoring system. A score in the 14s is truly a remarkable routine, and should not be viewed as an ‘average.’ Although, at its core, gymnastics execution is subjective and it is up to the judges in that moment alone to produce execution scores. We can critique them for being too lenient on deductions, but many execution errors are subjective. Plus, if it was consistently-judged between both teams with no bias shown, what’s the real problem? 

While execution is subjective, the difficulty aspect of the gymnast’s final score is certainly not subjective or up to judges’ discretion. There are clearly-defined rules that determine skill values, element group values, dismount values, and restrictions such as matting or time limits. These are purely objective - What elements you perform exactly determines your difficulty score. 

With such impressive scores and impactful results from this competition, many gymnastics fans have done research and analysis since its conclusion. Michigan freshman Solen Chiodi is a regular in their floor lineup, appearing in multiple competitions this season with a routine of a 5.0-5.1 difficulty score. Last Friday, he performed two E elements, two D’s, three C’s, and one-counting B. He didn’t stick his dismount, though he fulfilled all of his element groups, remained in bounds and didn’t face any time penalties. This, when judged accurately, should be awarded yet again a 5.0 difficulty score. It’s as clear cut as a field goal being worth three points in the NFL or a free throw awarding one point in the NBA. 

Chiodi was given a 5.9 difficulty score - a nine tenth error that, if corrected, would make Nebraska the winner of the competition, and leave Penn State as the lone Big Ten 2025 Regular Season Conference Champions. As a reminder, this is no error by Chiodi, he did his routine and received his score. The judges are solely liable for this error.

Mistakes are inevitable and to this point, they are rare enough to keep the integrity of our sport. Just as every execution deduction is subjective, every judge is human. There are numerous judging controversies over the years, it’s bound to happen in a sport where humans determine the outcomes (looking at you, 2004 Olympic AA Final). All that’s to say - Judges are a foundational part of this sport and should be prepared, educated, managed and treated as such. 

...

Written by Aiden Whitehead

Principal Staff Writer for TURN

About Aiden

Hello gymnastics fans! I’m Aiden and I’m super excited to join the team at TURN as the 'Principal Staff Writer'. I began competing gymnastics at the age of six and immediately fell in love with the sport. I am currently in the midst of my senior season as a competitor, serving my third year as a team captain for the Georgia United GymACT team. Last December, I graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Management, with Sports Media Certification as well. I've already acquired a few years of media experience, working a variety of roles with GymACT, Virtius, and Neutral Deductions. In addition to competing, I am an active women’s team coach at Oconee Gymnastics Center, as well as the Technical Director of the Georgia Men’s Gymnastics Judging Association. Evidently — even though I am competing, coaching, and judging — I can never get enough of this sport, so I’m excited to take this new role as well!