On the 2022 World Championships all 5 gold medals within the particular person occasions not solely went to a distinct gymnast, however 5 gymnasts representing 5 totally different nations. This was solely the third time such an prevalence 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 totally 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 difficulty 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 technique the place a single nation might be credited within the knowledge with six gold medals throughout 5 occasions in a situation the place they win gold on each occasion, and a kind 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 totally different nations might win a gold medal in a single competitors if such a situation have been to happen once more with extra numerous outcomes. Do you actually desire a methodology the place ties could skew the info like this?
To account for this, I divided the info into two classes, “complete” and “outright.” Within the knowledge representing complete 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 knowledge representing medals that have been received outright, it solely represents the variety of nations who’ve not less than one gold medal that was received in “outright trend.” That means the gymnast in query received her medal with out anybody tying her.
For the “outright” knowledge I did enable 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’d 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’d 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 ground. Thus permitting Romania to be credited with an additional gold medal.
Nonetheless, these points had nearly no affect on the info. No nation has ever gone 5-for-5 in gold medals. So, within the occasion the place two totally 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 hold the info 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 ground, Onodi successful a gold medal in a tie had the very same statistical final result had she received the 1992 Olympic Vault Finals in outright trend. And even when Milosovici by no means received on ground, 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 totally 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 trend, this already credited Romania as a rustic that had received gold. Thus Romania didn’t even have to depend her a number of ties on bars and ground to be credited with successful an uncontested medal.
Ultimately there was little have to consider ties, and all my methodology did was account for what was technically doable, however not virtually doable. Nonetheless, highlighting their existence is necessary to explaining the distinction between the entire variety of nations who received a medal and nations who received a medal in outright trend. Ties didn’t change the result of the info, however they did affect how the info was organized within the hyperlink under.
The hyperlink to the info might be discovered right here.
Above is a bar graph for the info’s “complete” figures.
I made a separate bar graph for the info measuring “outright” ties.
I additionally made a line graph the place you possibly can view each the “outright” and “complete” figures on the identical time.
And the charts are separated. The primary displaying the “complete” figures.
The following (and last) chart reveals the “outright” figures.
Maybe probably the most attention-grabbing side to the info might be discovered within the late Nineteen 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 turning into extra equal, or is that this one more instance of how Simone Biles’ departure is altering the statistical developments of the game?
