PARIS, France — The more intricate the Olympic gymnasts' routines become, the less their scoring system seems to make sense — at least to the casual viewer.
We'll watch Simone Biles fly 12 feet in the air and perform an original, mind-boggling skill named after her to receive a score like 14.6.
But, is that score good? And how do the judges come up with it? We broke it down for you.
Olympic gymnastics scoring explained
Gone are the days of the simple, straightforward "perfect 10."
The modern scoring system, which the International Gymnastics Federation introduced in 2006, features two components: difficulty score + execution score.
The difficulty score starts at zero. A gymnast earns points for the difficulty of the skills in their routine as they complete the required moves on each apparatus.
For women, each routine receives points for the eight most difficult elements. For men, it's the 10 most difficult elements.
The only exception to this is vault, where the difficulty score is determined ahead of time and shown to the judges on a scoreboard at the beginning of the runway.
The execution score starts at 10.0. You can think of this as the old-school "perfect 10," although the modern system virtually eliminated the possibility of a perfect execution score.
As the gymnast goes through their routine, the judges deduct points for errors like falls, bent knees, bad form or steps on landings.
Final score = difficulty score + execution score - neutral deductions subtracted by the head judge
What's a perfect score in gymnastics?
Because of the varying difficulty scores, there isn't exactly one "perfect" score that can be achieved.
A score under the current system typically lands between 12 and 15. But, NBC News explained what we can consider a "good" score.
Gymnasts who have less than a point to a point and a half of deductions tend to be in a good position on the scoreboard. That means their execution score would be above 8.5.
The news outlet provided some examples based on past Olympians' scores:
- Vault: 14+ is a good score; 14.5+ could contend for an Olympic medal
- Uneven bars: 14+ is a good score; 14.8+ could contend for an Olympic medal
- Balance beam: 13.5+ is a good score; 14.2+ could contend for an Olympic medal
- Floor exercise: 13.5+ is a good score; 14.0+ could contend for an Olympic medal
For context, Simone Biles earned a 14.6 on her floor routine during the qualifying round of the Paris Olympics. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Biles earned a gold medal and set an Olympic record with a score of 15.966 on her floor routine.
NBC helps viewers by putting little symbols next to the scores. A green triangle indicates an excellent score, a yellow square indicates a solid score and a red triangle indicates a below-average score.