On the 2022 World Championships all 5 gold medals within the particular person occasions not solely went to a unique gymnast, however 5 gymnasts representing 5 completely different nations. This was solely the third time such an incidence has occurred on the World Championships and Olympics. This additionally got here within the aftermath of the 2021 Olympics and 2022 World Championships the place the 5 gold medals have been break up between 4 completely different nations. Naturally this made me curious and I made a decision to graph out each competitors in girls’s gymnastics to see how parity has advanced all through the years.
Methodology
I made a decision to solely measure gold medals received within the non-team occasions. I additionally counted solely the World Championships and Olympics the place all 5 particular person occasions have been being contested. This disqualified the 1992, 1996, and 2002 World Championships, together with all gymnastics occasions held previous to 1950. My assumption was that probably the most urgent problem was how you can cope with ties.
On the 1984 Olympics Simona Pauca of Romania and Ecaterina Szabo who was additionally from Romania shared the gold medal on steadiness beam. Does Romania get credit score for one gold medal or two gold medals on this situation? Wouldn’t it be truthful to permit a strategy the place a single nation could possibly be credited within the information with six gold medals throughout 5 occasions in a situation the place they win gold on each occasion, and a type of podiums featured two gymnasts from the identical nation sharing first place?
There was additionally the notorious 2015 uneven bars finals which resulted in a 4-way tie for first place. In principle, this might imply as many as seven and even eight completely different nations might win a gold medal in a single competitors if such a situation have been to happen once more with extra various outcomes. Do you actually desire a methodology the place ties might skew the information like this?
To account for this, I divided the information into two classes, “whole” and “outright.” Within the information representing whole gold medals, the determine represents the precise variety of nations that received a gold medal, no matter whether or not that gold medal resulted in a tie. Within the information representing medals that have been received outright, it solely represents the variety of nations who’ve no less than one gold medal that was received in “outright vogue.” Which means the gymnast in query received her medal with out anybody tying her.
For the “outright” information I did permit nations to mix their a number of ties right into a single legitimate medal. I handled a single gold medal as 12-points. If two gymnasts tied for first place, they might get 6-points every. If there was a 3-way tie, every gymnast would get 4-points every. If there was a 4-way tie, every gymnast would get 3-points. If a rustic had sufficient factors from ties to get again to 12 factors, they might be credited with one other gold medal.
This really occurred on the 1989 World Championships the place Daniela Silivas received a gold medal in a tie towards Fan Di of China on bars. She then tied with Svetlana Boginskaya of the Soviet Union for the gold medal on flooring. Thus permitting Romania to be credited with an additional gold medal.
Nevertheless, these points had just about no affect on the information. No nation has ever gone 5-for-5 in gold medals. So, within the occasion the place two completely different nations tied for first place, the percentages are excessive that one of many nations concerned within the tie had already received a medal elsewhere. Or that elsewhere a rustic would win twice and maintain the information at 5 nations or much less.
For instance, Henrietta Onodi of Hungary and Lavinia Milosovici of Romania tied for first place on vault on the 1992 Olympics. However as a result of Milosovici would win once more on flooring, Onodi profitable a gold medal in a tie had the very same statistical final result had she received the 1992 Olympic Vault Finals in outright vogue. And even when Milosovici by no means received on flooring, as a result of each Tatiana Lysenko and Tatiana Gutsu of the ex-Soviet group received gold in particular person occasions, there was by no means an opportunity of this particular tie permitting for greater than 5 nations to win a gold medal in a single competitors.
The identical situation occurred when including up cases the place a rustic tied on a number of events in a single competitors. Any nation that was sturdy sufficient to tie twice for gold in two completely different occasions was sturdy sufficient to win elsewhere as nicely. Within the beforehand talked about instance involving Daniela Silivas and the 1989 World Championships, as a result of she received beam in outright vogue, this already credited Romania as a rustic that had received gold. Thus Romania didn’t even must rely her a number of ties on bars and flooring to be credited with profitable an uncontested medal.
Ultimately there was little must think about ties, and all my methodology did was account for what was technically doable, however not virtually doable. Nevertheless, highlighting their existence is essential to explaining the distinction between the whole variety of nations who received a medal and nations who received a medal in outright vogue. Ties didn’t change the result of the information, however they did affect how the information was organized within the hyperlink beneath.
The hyperlink to the information could be discovered right here.
Above is a bar graph for the information’s “whole” figures.
I made a separate bar graph for the information measuring “outright” ties.
I additionally made a line graph the place you may view each the “outright” and “whole” figures on the identical time.
And the charts are separated. The primary displaying the “whole” figures.
The following (and closing) chart exhibits the “outright” figures.
Maybe probably the most attention-grabbing facet to the information could be discovered within the late Seventies the place the rise of China and the US unquestionably altered the gymnastics energy construction.
There may be clearly an uptick in parity in 2021 and 2022 relative to the 2013 to 2019 period. Is the game changing into extra equal, or is that this yet one more instance of how Simone Biles’ departure is altering the statistical tendencies of the game?
