Hyperlink to knowledge:
Vault
Uneven Bars
Stability Beam
Flooring Train

Over the previous few years I’ve seen gymnastics followers always reward the gymnasts who competed in Flooring Finals on the 2012 Olympics. The 2012 lineup for ground finals was legendary. It featured the Olympic Flooring Champions of 2004 (Catalina Ponor), 2008 (Sandra Izbasa) and 2012 (Aly Raisman). It had the World Champions on Flooring of 2010 (Lauren Mitchell) and 2011 (Ksenia Afanasyeva). If that wasn’t sufficient expertise, the 2012 Flooring Finals additionally featured two further gymnasts who would win Olympic medals on this occasion, Aliya Mustafina (2012) and Vanessa Ferrari (2021).

For years gymnastics followers have fawned over this lineup, going so far as to label it essentially the most proficient, star-studded and full subject of gymnasts to ever compete in an Equipment Finals on that individual occasion. My aim is to see how the 2012 Flooring Finals compares to different Equipment Finals within the historical past of girls’s creative gymnastics (WAG). Are there every other comparable Equipment Finals that had an equally proficient subject? Does the fame of 2012 Flooring Finals dwell as much as its standing as the best Equipment Finals ever when the information is totally analyzed?

This particular article is solely the introduction to the collection and a proof of the methodology I’ll use to reply this query. In contrast to different knowledge evaluation initiatives, this explicit query is very subjective and equally complicated to reply. So, I wished to create a “dwelling web page” for the collection the place I clarify the methodology. However first, let’s speak concerning the issues.

Downside #1: Outliers

The most important impediment to this query is the best way to get round outliers. One apparent outlier is Simone Biles who has six gold medals in six appearances on ground. An much more excessive instance is Svetlana Khorkina who has seven gold medals and 11 appearances on the uneven bars. However the largest and most excessive instance of an outlier, from a gymnast whose profession is such an anomaly that she has without end destroyed most vault data is Oksana Chusovitina.

At 17 appearances in Vault Finals and ten profession medals on this occasion, Chusovitina would singlehandedly skew all 17 of these lineups in the direction of the highest of the checklist.

With these outliers in thoughts, any “profession totals” are unusable. This contains whole appearances, whole medals, whole gold medals, and placement within the factors system are out of the query. That leaves just one choice, to take “greatest profession consequence” and use that as a benchmark as an alternative. For instance, a gymnast who gained two bronze medals and a silver medal shall be counted within the knowledge as a silver medalist.

Downside #2: Subjectivity

As beforehand talked about, it is a extremely subjective query. Gymnastics followers would possibly favor measuring success based mostly on which lineup had essentially the most gold medalists. However what about lineups that had essentially the most repeat medalists? Is a gymnast who gained a single gold medal and retired superior in rank to a gymnast who gained a silver medal at two completely different Olympics? Is a “top-heavy” 8-person lineup that had three gold medalist and no different medalists superior to a “depth” lineup that had seven silver medalists however just one gold medalist?

With a purpose to make issues fairer, I shall be calculating the numbers twice for every equipment. The primary calculation will use the normal factors system and is designed to reward lineups that had been high heavy. The second calculation will take the factors system and add a bonus to reward lineups that had extra depth.

Sadly, in the meanwhile I cannot be counting a number of medals per gymnast. Every gymnast will solely be counted based mostly on her single greatest consequence. As a consequence, this implies a gymnast similar to Dina Kochetkova who has two appearances in Flooring Finals, a gold medal and a fifth place end shall be equal in rank to Simone Biles, a 6x gold medalist on this exact same occasion. That’s the value of making an attempt to supply knowledge on a subject that’s rift with outliers and subjectivity.

Whereas the Kochetkova v. Biles instance could appear unfair, doing it this manner additionally protects the information from one other main outlier, uneven bars on the 2015 World Championships which infamously featured a 4-way tie for gold. Not solely did 4 gymnasts share a gold medal, however all 4 gymnasts gained a number of medals on the uneven bars. Two of them are repeat gold medalists (Viktoria Komova & Fan Yilin). One other is a gold and silver medalist (Madison Kocian). Whereas the final is a gold and bronze medalist (Daria Spiridonova).

One of many main advantages of limiting the information to 1 medal per gymnast is minimizing the influence of ties that may in any other case dominate the information.

Sooner or later I want to develop this collection in a approach that goes past one medal per gymnast, however as a result of that is such an bold challenge to undertake, the pure plan of action was to start out easy and slowly work my approach as much as a extra complicated approach of rating lineups at a later date.

Methodology #1 (Factors-Conventional)

The primary methodology which is to be labeled the “Factors-Conventional” rating and is meant to reward lineups which can be essentially the most “high heavy” will think about solely medals gained on the Olympics and World Championships.

Solely medals gained on the precise equipment in query will rely in the direction of the information, a gymnast profitable in vault finals won’t assist her rating if she additionally qualifies to uneven bar finals. From right here the usual 3-points for gold, 2-points for silver, and 1-point for bronze factors system shall be utilized. Within the occasion of a tie each gymnasts will obtain the complete level whole. As beforehand talked about, gymnasts are capped at one medal every and no factors are generated for gymnasts who end 4th or decrease within the standings. Qualifying or competing in an equipment finals doesn’t enhance a gymnast’s rating. She should at minimal win a medal.

Methodology #2 (Factors-Bonus)

The second methodology which is to be labeled the “Factors-Bonus” rating is meant to reward lineups that followers would think about to have “depth.” It’s equivalent to Methodology #1 with the next steps added.

All lineups shall be counted based mostly on the variety of gymnasts current who by no means gained a medal on this particular equipment on the World Championships or Olympics. Lineups with two or much less gymnasts will obtain a bonus level of +1 added to their whole from the earlier methodology. Lineups with one gymnast or much less will obtain +2 bonus factors. Lineups the place all gymnasts completed their careers with a medal will obtain +3 bonus factors.

There are a handful examples similar to beam finals on the 2021 World Championships the place lineups had greater than eight rivals. To stop these examples from being put at an unfair drawback within the Factors-Bonus mannequin, solely their eight strongest rivals from Methodology #1 shall be counted when figuring out if they’re eligible for bonus factors.

Be aware: In each rankings the bottom doable rating is six factors.

Lastly, I shall be releasing the information in REVERSE Olympic order (ground, beam, bars, and vault) as a result of it was 2012 ground that impressed this text and that knowledge ought to be introduced first.

Hyperlink to knowledge:
Vault
Uneven Bars
Stability Beam
Flooring Train