The senior AA results at last weekend's 24th Women's European Championships have been hotly debated by gymnastics enthusiasts, mainly on the net. There are those who claim Verona van de Leur was the victim of a Russian orchestrated conspiracy and was blatantly robbed of the gold. Others beg to differ saying van de Leur is inferior to Khorkina in terms of presentation and execution.

Fact is that Khorkina started badly with her knees touching the mat on first vault - a RO- 1/2 twist on tucked 1 1/2 off. The judges deducted .988 for the vault. However, after an excellent bars routine and a beam set that avoided serious errors, she climbed back up the ranks. Without doubt, the AA saw one of the best competitions to date by van de Leur, who was the more consistent of the two, but wobbled too much on beam, a fact which might have cost her the title - all six B panel judges had Verona clearly behind Svetlana on that apparatus. The same applies to bars, where Khorkina still reigns supreme. (see individual scores below). Much has been made of Khorkina's floor score of 9,387 (9,7 SV) - while her tumbling - whip to immediate triple twist, double pike and 2 1/2 twist - was certainly not as difficult as van de Leur's, she had little visible deductions apart from the step on her final tumble...

Fact is also that the wait for Khorkina's floor score was unusually long and elicited an angry reaction from the audience. Dutch media have claimed one judge scored Khorkina's routine with a 9,70, thus equalling her SV, and had to lower it to 9,5. Possible? Sure. The fact that established stars tend to receive a tenth here and there is hardly a state secret, and it is not difficult to imagine that the top nations have little interest in more competition for the medals. Breaking into the ranks of the established power houses is never easy, and in this respect the Dutch team -14th at the 1999 World Championships- has achieved amazing results. Their seniors left Patras with a medal in each event they entered, no mean feat.

However, those who claim Khorkina's continuous success is exclusively the result of behind-the-scenes-politicking are mistaken. While her complex personality may not endear her to everybody, the nonchalance and calm tempo with which she performs her routines can easily let one underestimate the technical finesse of this gymnast. Since she makes difficult elements looks so easy, her gymnastics must be easy, right? Wrong.

So, who should have won? Khorkina? Possible. Van de Leur? Possible. A tie? Also possible. Can one really separate two gymnasts by .050? Maybe - you be the judge.
This AA joins a row of other competitions still strongly debated on the net. The greatest scandal in gymnastics history? Hardly.

Exklusive on gymworld the scores given by the individual judges (B panel) in the AA:

nora schuler