On the 2022 World Championships all 5 gold medals within the particular person occasions not solely went to a special gymnast, however 5 gymnasts representing 5 totally 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 cut 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 developed 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 essentially the most urgent problem was take care of ties.
On the 1984 Olympics Simona Pauca of Romania and Ecaterina Szabo who was additionally from Romania shared the gold medal on stability beam. Does Romania get credit score for one gold medal or two gold medals on this state of affairs? 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 state of affairs 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 totally different nations might win a gold medal in a single competitors if such a state of affairs have been to happen once more with extra various 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, “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 at the very least one gold medal that was received in “outright style.” Which means the gymnast in query received her medal with out anybody tying her.
For the “outright” information 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 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 truly 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 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 preserve 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 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 style. And even when Milosovici by no means received on flooring, as a result of each Tatiana Lysenko and Tatiana Gutsu of the ex-Soviet staff 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 state of affairs occurred when including up cases the place a rustic tied on a number of events in a single competitors. Any nation that was robust sufficient to tie twice for gold in two totally different occasions was robust sufficient to win elsewhere as properly. Within the beforehand talked about instance involving Daniela Silivas and the 1989 World Championships, as a result of she received beam in outright style, 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 flooring to be credited with profitable 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. Nevertheless, highlighting their existence is vital to explaining the distinction between the full variety of nations who received a medal and nations who received a medal in outright style. Ties didn’t change the end result of the info, however they did affect how the info was organized within the hyperlink beneath.
The hyperlink to the info may be discovered right here.
Above is a bar graph for the info’s “whole” figures.
I made a separate bar graph for the info 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 exhibiting the “whole” figures.
The following (and last) chart reveals the “outright” figures.
Maybe essentially the most fascinating facet to the info may be discovered within the late Nineteen Seventies the place the rise of China and the USA 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 traits of the game?
