Aly Raisman shows not all ties are created equal

Aly Raisman shows not all ties are created equal

If solely gymnast Aly Raisman had been a diver. Then, she would have her bronze medal.

Instead, the yank teenager was dropped to fourth place within the women’s gymnastics individual all-around competition at the London Olympics — agonizingly out of the medals — on account of a quizzical and controversial tie-breaking rule that almost all fans failed to even understand existed.

"It’s a shame," her coach, Mihai Brestyan, said. "I don’t suppose it’s honest."

Even worse, it might never have happened in the other sport within the Olympics, where most sports either award duplicate medals to tied competitors, or conceive to break ties with another race or competition.

The whole situation is rare, to be sure.

By their terribly nature, several sports cannot finally end up tied within the initial place.

Team sports like volleyball, basketball, water polo and soccer all essentially turn out winners and losers, as do the combat sports like judo, fencing, wrestling and boxing.

Other sports are timed to the hundredth - generally, the thousandth - of a second, or judged to many decimal places, creating it nearly not possible for 2 athletes to complete dead even.

Still, "it will happen," said Enrico Carpani of the International Cycling Union.

And if it will, there are all types of the way to traumatize it.

In Raisman’s case in gymnastics, the foundations necessitate dropping the bottom equipment score of every tied all-around competitor, and re-tallying their remaining 3 scores.

But as a result of Raisman’s lowest score was above Russia’s Aliya Mustafina’s lowest, Mustafina wound up standing on the arena with a better remaining score, whereas Raisman stood out within the cold.

"I’m a lot of unhappy than angry," Raisman said.

Wait until she finds out that if she had been a diver who tied, she would are awarded a replica medal. 2 bronzes would are awarded, in different words, in step with international rules.

Same in swimming, where yank Nathan Adrian nearly resulted in a dead heat with Australia’s James Magnussen within the 100-meter freestyle, with Adrian winning by a mere zero.01 seconds. Had they been tied, they might have every received a gold medal, in step with a political candidate with FINA, the international swimming federation.

Some sports, like archery and equestrian, have additional rounds to interrupt ties; shoot-offs in archery, jump-offs in equestrian.