Livvy Dunne from Louisiana State University Gymnastics recently shared a lengthy post on X addressing what she feels is a disconnect between collegiate scoring and the crowd’s expectations. “Too many deductions taken at a judge’s discretion feels the same as watching a basketball game that’s constantly interrupted with penalties,” she wrote in her statement. She argues that when the crowd can’t follow the scoring, it reduces the overall enjoyment and excitement of the sport.
On Sunday night as my friends and I endured the Buffalo Bills’ heartbreaking defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, we spent three hours explaining the rules of football and what was happening on the field to a friend who didn’t follow the sport. This is when the obvious occurred to me: People only like to watch sports they understand.
Dunne’s answer to simplify the scoring system may seem like a fix, but it misses the point (and college gymnastics scoring is a can of worms I’ll avoid for now). But she’s absolutely right about the main problem: When the factors that influence gymnastics scoring aren’t clear to people, they think it’s more subjective than it actually is. This undermines the sport’s status as a serious competition. Viewers also lose interest because they feel disconnected from the outcome since they are unable to predict scores without the judges’ input. In fairness, how can viewers be expected to understand the scoring factors when they’re rarely addressed directly in commentary or on-screen visuals?
A TikTok video by Ian Gunther, an American gymnast and social media content creator, explains that to the average person, it is impossible to see a gymnastics move and grasp the difficulty of the skill. In the video, Gunther shows a gymnast doing a giant on the high bar, followed by a double full-twisting Kovacs, a release move where the gymnast lets go of the bar, flips with two full twists and catches it again. He poses the question that, while clearly the latter skill is harder, how much harder is it? He ends by explaining that it’s like learning to crawl versus running a marathon — there’s simply no comparison. Watching gymnastics is not like watching soccer or basketball or even football, where the professionals are significantly better but one could still theoretically imagine themselves playing in the professional’s shoes. The skills that the gymnasts are doing are too out of the realm of possibility for the average person. Viewers need context for difficulty, and if gymnastics is to grow as a sport, broadcasters have a responsibility to provide the viewers with that context.
If you’re just getting into gymnastics, Emily Chan’s FlipFlyTumble channel on YouTube and Instagram is a great resource to learn about scoring. As a Federation of International Gymnastics Brevet 3 Judge, she offers expert insights. Her videos fall into three categories: execution, where she goes through routines and identifies each deduction; difficulty, where she explains how skill ratings and connection values are determined; and the technical requirements for specific skill categories, where she explains both correct and incorrect examples of body positioning and other criteria.
I believe gymnastics would benefit from incorporating some form of scoring graphics into the competition broadcast, especially a difficulty calculator. It doesn't need to be as detailed as Chan’s, but even something basic — like a list of the top eight skills and a tally of connection value — would make a difference for the audience. Figure skating already does this, and it makes it much easier to see what sets the top performers apart from the rest.
It’s crucial for gymnastics to include enough technical information in the broadcast so that viewers can truly understand what’s going on. I could easily write an entire column (or a few) on commentary, but there’s this common notion that new fans don’t care about the details and that commentary should focus on the storylines. However, it’s the details that help create new fans: You can’t follow a sport you don’t understand.
