Gymnastics Explained

Start value

Under the pre-2006 perfect-10 system, the maximum score a routine could earn: a base score plus bonus points for difficulty.

Before 2006, gymnastics scores were capped at 10.0, and each routine had a start value — the most it could score before deductions. The start value was made up of a base score, awarded if the routine met all its requirements, plus bonus points for difficult skills and combinations. Gymnasts aimed for a start value as close to 10.0 as possible, and the judges’ deductions came off it.

Over time the base score was lowered, so that more of the 10.0 had to be earned through bonus: from 9.4 in 1992–1996 to 9.0, then 8.8 in 2000–2004 and 8.6 in 2005–2006.

The system’s fragility was exposed at the 2004 Athens Olympics, when a start-value error of 0.1 on one gymnast’s parallel bars routine was found after the men’s all-around final. In 2006 the FIG replaced start values with today’s open-ended D-score and E-score.

Related guides

  • From the Perfect 10 to Open-Ended Scoring

    The FIG replaced the capped perfect-10 system with an open-ended D-score/E-score model in the mid-2000s, partly in response to scoring controversies at the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Related terms

  • D-score

    The difficulty score: the value of the skills performed plus credit for composition and connections. It has no upper limit.

  • E-score

    The execution score: it starts at 10.00 and is reduced by deductions for faults in technique, form, landings and, in women's gymnastics, artistry.

  • Code of Points

    The FIG rulebook for judging, published separately for women's and men's artistic gymnastics. The current editions run from 2025 to 2028.

Sources