Liukin gets silver, despite winning score

Chang W. Lee, Associated Press

Gold medalist He Kexin of China, right, and silver medalist Nastia Liukin of the United States both posted scores of 16.725.

The Texas gymnast lost the uneven bars gold to China's He Kexin by way of a complex tiebreaker.

By BRIAN GOMEZ, The Gazette, Colorado Springs

Last update: August 18, 2008 - 11:47 PM

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BEIJING - Olympic gymnastics has no ties.

Nastia Liukin learned the hard way Monday in the uneven bars, losing a gold-medal tiebreaker to China's He Kexin before admissions of confusion over rules and allegations of unfair judging.

Neither Liukin, 18, of Parker, Texas, nor He, 16, knew who won the gold when they posted 16.725 scores with high-flying routines. Ditto for Liukin's father and coach, Valeri, and 18,000 fans, most waving Chinese flags and screaming.

Only after the last gymnast in the eight-person final performed did the public-address announcer declare He the winner of the complicated tiebreaker, determined by a computation of the averages of six judges' scores.

"It wasn't that I got second by three- or five-tenths," Liukin said. "I had the same exact score, and that's what makes it a little bit harder to take. Unfortunately, you can't control the judges. After you land the dismount, it's all up to them."

The tiebreaker went to He by 0.33 of a point because she had a lower average of form deductions on her routine. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) took the average of the three lowest deductions of the four possible.

FIG didn't factor start values -- the degree of difficulty for a gymnast's routine -- into the tiebreaker. Liukin and He both had 7.7 start values.

"I hope they know what they're doing," said Valeri Liukin, who shared a horizontal bar gold with a Russian teammate at the 1988 Games. Ties were allowed in Olympic gymnastics until 2000.

FIG president Bruno Grandi claimed Liukin deserves gold on bars. "It's not correct," he said. "But these competitions don't belong to the FIG. They belong to the IOC."