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| Viktoria Komova accepts her silver medal all around at the Tokyo World Championships in 2011 |
The 2011 Worlds are well over now. The gold medals won in Tokyo and, the following year, in London, put America in prime position as we approach the Antwerp World Championships this autumn. They are reigning World and Olympic champions in both team and all around. Only the all around title will be contested in September, so America will inevitably remain team champions until 2014. Event finals are, relatively, small fry.
Let's not forget, however, that this seemingly dominant position stems from two highly controversial all around competitions. In both cases, Komova versus Wieber and Komova versus Douglas, the result could have gone either way; reverse the positions, and world rankings in WAG might look a little more balanced.
The judgements made are not black and white. They cannot be denied or affirmed by a simple one sentence assertion, and they bear continued discussion if we are not to lose sight of the fundamental questions about the codification and judging of gymnastics, how it can influence the gymnastics routines we see top gymnasts performing, and the quality of the gymnastics we see across the ranks. Remember, although the title of Olympic champion went to Douglas, the reference judges' scores made Komova the winner. The Code, and the judges, could not find a consensus of who was the best gymnast at this major competition.
Debating and elaborating opinion forces people to articulate what is difficult to express, and hence to try to find what has become lost in the current Code. Sometimes, however, reactions go beyond words. Now, this video captures the feelings of many observers regarding the outcome of the women's all around in Tokyo 2011. It's international, multilingual and universally comprehensible - a gasp of surprise, shock and dismay is the same in any language.
You can also read a reflection on this judgement, and a full transcript of the BBC commentary here.