Ashram's lead over Russian was 'simply enormous' - Olympic judge explains

Russian media is still reeling from the dramatic 0.150 point decision which led Israeli gold medalist Linoy Ashram to defeat the Russian Dina Averina during the final event of the rhythmic gymnastics all-around individual contest in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.

Many on social media are still furious at the judges' decision, which broke a stranglehold that Russia had held on the event since the year 2000.

On Monday, Russian media reported that one of the Olympic judges who made the call that day, Ukrainian Lydia Vinogradnaya, explained the reasons for Ashram's win, calling Ashram's 1.9 point lead over Averina in the body category performance "simply enormous."

"According to the protocols we work with, Linoy Ashram had a significant advantage and a much cleaner performance than [Dina] Averina, despite the mistake she made," Vinogradnaya explained.

Vinogradnaya — who has reportedly been the target of mass online harassment since the decision — said that "Linoy performed exercises at a higher level of difficulty and therefore received a high score despite the ribbon's fall." 

"I am satisfied with the score I gave," she reiterated.

Russian news site Sports Express reported on Sunday that the Russian Gymnastics Association appealed to the International Olympic Committee about Ashram's gold medal and asked to pass it on to Dina Averina. 

The appeal was rejected outright and the IOC's response stated that "any question concerning the judging of the competition should be directed to the person who drafted the rules. There is no reason to think that the judges' conduct was flawed."

Russian sports journalist Alexey Avdokhin on Sunday explained in detail why the reasons for Ashram's win were related to the higher difficulty levels of her drills compared to the Averinas and the rest of the finalists.

In the difficulty level, Linoy presented exercises that were 1.3 points more difficult (in total) over those performed by Dina Averina — 0.3 higher in the difficulty level in the hoop, 0.1 in the ball, 0.7 in the clubs and 0.2 in the ribbon. 

In fact, the difference between Ashram and Dina Averina at the end, which was only 0.150 points, indicates that Averina received better scores in the performance category totaling 1.150, but that was still not enough for her to reduce the gaps in the difficulty levels which Ashram had created.

While Dina Averina actually scored 0.6 points higher than Ashram in the difficulty level with the device, the talented Israeli scored 1.9 points higher in the difficulty level for body performance — and this is what gave her the advantage of 1.3 in the difficulty level, which was finally enough for her to win gold.

Some in Russia have claimed that after Ashram's ribbon fell during the last exercise, it should not have been possible to give her the gold.

Dina Averina herself criticized the decision, saying "The Israeli gymnast made a mistake and still received a high score, it is not fair. I am in favor of fair and clean sports and not in favor of judges making strange decisions."

But Avdokhin explained that these claims are unfounded, and any mistake can be corrected by the level of difficulty and quality of execution.

Avdokhin's claim was corroborated by the Israeli news outlet N12, which was quick to remind Dina Averina of the 2018 world championships, in which Averina won gold and Ashram won silver, despite the fact that Averina had dropped her ribbon during her exercise.

According to rules, which were adopted in 2017 and developed in part by Team Russia coach Irina Viner-Usmanova, dropping the ribbon results in a loss of 0.700 points.

Avdokhin also explained that the degree of difficulty itself consists of two parts — difficulty with the device, which examines the synchronization between the body and the device on each of the four devices, and difficulty in body performance, which examines body control  — jumps, turns, stability, etc.