Should Olga Korbut have got more than 9.8 for her famous bars routine?

That's a really good question. And by 'really good' I mean 'very hard to answer.'

Every time I see Korbut's uneven bars routine, it blows my mind that she flew backwards and caught the high bar. That routine forever changed women's gymnastics.

From what I've heard, it seems like her score was fair under the scoring system at the time. The judges looked for a few elements in each routine, closely scrutinizing them for tiny errors. The prototypical gymnast of the 1960s was Czechoslovakia's Vera Caslavska. Her routines were technically easy: todays's elementary school-age gymnasts probably do harder routines. Caslavska's height, long lines, tradtional moves, and elegant grace won her Olympic gold in 1964 and 1968. She was so dominant that judges favored gymnasts who were like Caslavska.

So in 1972, along comes Olga Korbut. Korbut is everything Caslavska is not: short and tiny, daring and dynamic. Her athleticism and explosiveness were great to watch and she played to the crowds. The problem was, she was wasn't given any credit for her higher levels of difficulty and lost points because she wasn't anything like Caslavska.

Since Korbut in 1972, judges awarded points for higher levels of difficulty, paving the way for Comaneci and Retton. Korbut forever changed women's gymnastics because her scores in Munich were preposterously low.

Olga Korbut Bars