Artistic Gymnastics in : Judging panels and inquiries · 524

Simone Biles — 41 Olympic and World Championship medals, 30 of them gold (through Paris 2024) The sport's modern identity was set in 2006, when the FIG abolished the perfect 10 and replaced it with an open-ended system: a difficulty score with no ceiling, added to an execution score that still begins at 10.00 and only falls. That single change turned gymnastics into an arms race between what is possible and what is clean. A triple-twisting double somersault is worth more than a double-twisting one, but only if it lands; a fall costs a full point and, in the three-up three-count Olympic team final, usually costs a medal too.

Geographically the sport has always been a contest between systems rather than individuals. The Soviet Union won ten consecutive women's Olympic team titles from 1952 to 1992; Japan's men won five in a row from 1960 to 1976 and won again in Paris in 2024; Romania built a school around Nadia Comăneci; China swept both team golds in Beijing in 2008; the United States produced the most dominant gymnast in history in Simone Biles. Paris 2024 then scattered gold to Algeria, the Philippines, Ireland, Armenia and Brazil — evidence that the pipeline is finally global.

Two separate panels judge every routine. The D-panel establishes the difficulty score by identifying which elements were actually performed and whether the composition requirements were met. The E-panel judges execution and artistry, starting from a notional 10.00 and subtracting for each departure from the ideal shape, line and landing. Coaches may formally challenge a difficulty score through an inquiry, lodged immediately and backed by a deposit; execution scores cannot be appealed.