Nellie Kim Reveals her Plans for Training Judges in Artistry

Nellie Kim Reveals her Plans for Training Judges in Artistry

Dec 4, 2012 by Anne Phillips
Nellie Kim Reveals her Plans for Training Judges in Artistry

Artisty in motion at the 2011 World Championships. Photo by Melissa Perenson

Nellie Kim was recently re-elected as the President of the FIG Technical Committee and did a rare interview with Sports Panorama which was then translated into english on Rewriting Russian Gymnastics. 

In the most interesting portion of the interview, Kim shared her insights on artistry in today's gymnastics and what they are doing to help train judges in the appreciation of artistry for the 2013 Code of Points. 

When asked about the innovations in judging in the new Code of Points, Kim was quoted saying:

"We shifted some elements from one group to another, depending on their popularity in the competitions. If an element is often performed, it’s not difficult and it should score less. And, on the contrary, if it is less performed, it means it’s difficult and deserves more points. We pay attention to connections, and still to artistry. We plan to introduce big deductions in floor and beam. We invited representatives from Cirque du Soleil, who trained our specialists how to understand and assess artistry. This happens for the first time. Never have there been so many deductions in this direction. The understanding of art, of music by the judges is more necessary than ever. But there is subjectivism and there will be. Everyone interprets beauty in their own way. But we’ll try to assess something subjective with objective criteria."

Read the full interview in english here. 

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