Olivia Dunne’s sharp note and scoring policy in women’s college gymnastics, the two elements came face to face three weeks ago. Since then, a lot of arguments have been exchanged. Yet the neat result is still zero. According to Olivia, the current scoring policy in women’s college gymnastics has become a ‘concern’ and a barrier to getting ‘more eyes on the sport.’ However, the counter-logic has nullified the connection between the two factors. But almost everyone has admitted the presence of these two factors. And if you notice the events on February 21, you might notice another argument about the low-scoring fiasco. Let’s follow the storyline. 

On February 21, LSU Gymnastics competed against No. 9 Kentucky in the Memorial Coliseum. The visitor (LSU), continued its firebrand performance and claimed another victory on the road (197.200-197.075). But the gymnastics fans didn’t seem happy with the scoring policy during Olivia Dunne’s program’s meet. Especially, they raised their fingers at the Tigers’ third rotation in the match where Kailin Chio showed up at the floor exercise event. So what actually happened? 

In the floor exercise event, Chio marked 9.850. However, fans claimed that she shouldn’t have received such a low score given her performance in the event. In fact, someone wrote on X, “Horrendously low scores for each rotation.” Do these words sound familiar? 

Olivia Dunne didn’t feature in today’s match. But let’s get back to January this year for a better picture. LSU gymnastics had entered the ESPN Invitational, locking horns with table topper Oklahoma and two other ranked opponents, Utah and Cal. However, the Sooners bested the Tigers on the mat. But the latter didn’t leave the mat without gaining anything. They defeated both Utah and Cal!

So, it was a splendid day for the LSU gymnastics fans. But was it good for Olivia’s fans? No. They claimed Livvy’s 9.725 marked on the bar routine as “totally underscored.” A widespread protest, however, didn’t change anything those days. This time, however, each Tiger gymnast’s score in the floor exercise had the same tag, “underscore.” Well, what were the scores?

Apart from Kailin Chio, the floor exercise lineup for LSU had names like Aleah Finnegan, Sierra Ballard, Amari Drayton, Kaliya Lincoln, and Haleigh Bryant. Surprisingly, no one from the list could touch the 9.9 mark except Haleigh. The 2024 NCAA All-Around champion put 9.900 in the anchor leg and gave the Tigers an edge. Later, the added score helped the Tigers win the match. 

That victory ultimately came as a relief. But would the situation help in the upcoming Podium Challenge where Olivia Dunne’s squad will meet George Washington, Georgia, and Auburn in PMAC? The fans are concerned about this. Currently, they are questioning the scoring policy, though. On X, their anger is visible in the comment box. 

Olivia Dunne’s questions are getting more traffic 

Olivia Dunne wanted to see more perfect 10s on the gymnastics mat. As per her, perfect tens would bring more eyes to the sport. However, an enormous chunk of fans criticized her for ignoring the technical part of the performances and only focusing on the scoring part. But today, the scenes were different. Fans got to see the technical supremacy in Kailin Chio’s performance. But allegedly the score didn’t reflect that supremacy!

Keeping tabs on that, someone wrote on X, “if i absolutely Have to i can see 9.85 for this bc the tour jete half could’ve been a tiny bit under but this is so 9.925 coded. i can get 9.9 bc of chest on first pass and leg form on second.” This season, Kailin has attracted a lot of eyes because of her technical prowess on the mat. However, today she had bad luck in the office. Any major reason? 

Judging error? Scoring issues? Fans ticked every point. Such as, a gymnastics fan wrote on X, “Kentucky home judging has been the lowest of the SEC by far this whole season but goddamn.” On February 21, Olivia’s Tigers met Kentucky on the latter’s home turf in the SEC match. Is that something exceptional? On February 14, Kentucky faced Temple on its own turf in an SEC match. The host ultimately won the challenge without having any such debate. So the logic might not stand long. So? What now? 

Again, the discussion went to the judging policy. A subsequent comment read, “These judges are terrible!” Well, the same judges remained on the other side of the table, judging Kentucky’s performance. And they evaluated every move of those gymnasts. Still, any debate from the Wildcats’ camp has yet to come. In the meantime, someone kept the discussion open, without blaming any element. That comment read, “Very low!  Not sure why..outstanding performance!!” In the end, the Tigers won the contest and Kaitlin Chio took a major role in providing that. And the fans will not forget that.