A perfect 10 is a score of 10.000 for a single routine in artistic gymnastics, which was once thought to be unattainable—particularly at the Olympic Games—under the code of points set by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). It is generally recognized that the first person to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games was Romanian Nadia Comăneci, at the 1976 Games in Montreal. Other women who accomplished this feat at the Olympics include Nellie Kim, also in 1976, Mary Lou Retton in 1984, Daniela Silivaș and Yelena Shushunova in 1988, Lu Li and Lavinia Miloșovici in 1992. The first man to score a perfect 10 is considered to be Alexander Dityatin, at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. (However, in the 1924 Paris Olympics, 22 men achieved a mark of 10 in rope-climbing, with Albert Séguin getting a second 10 in the sidehorse vault, events that are no longer part of artistic gymnastics.) The FIG changed its code of points in 2006. There are now different top scores, all greater than 10, for the various events, based upon difficulty and artistic merit; there is no consistent perfect score. Execution scores are still out of 10, so the theoretical possibility exists for a gymnast to get a partial "perfect 10" (for execution) in addition to whatever maximum number they get for difficulty, but no such score has been awarded in decades.

History

Men's artistic gymnastics had been an Olympic sport since the beginning of the modern games. Women's gymnastics were introduced as a single (team) event in the 1928 games, but were not expanded until the 1952 games, when there were seven events. The International Federation of Gymnastics first drew up a code of points—for men—in 1949. Although the code was based on a maximum score of 10, until 1976 it was considered impossible to achieve a score of greater than 9.95, particularly at the Olympic Games. At the World Championships or Olympics, from when increased standardization of competition format and scoring (which was capped at a 10, a trend which would not be changed until 2006) was introduced at the 1952 Olympics, the very highest scores tended to be in the 9.400 – 9.600 range, and over the next few World and Olympic cycles through the 1950, 1960s, and 1970s, the top scores gradually got higher through the 9.700 and 9.800 range. During the post-1952 era, a couple of very early scores, essentially extreme outliers, that came very close to the 10 mark were Armenian-Soviet Hrant Shahinyan's 9.950 on optional rings at the 1952 Olympics and Armenian-Soviet Albert Azaryan's 9.950, also on the optional still rings exercise, at the 1954 World Championships. On the men's side, these scores might not have been surpassed, or even equaled, at a World Championships or Olympics until 1980, as even scores of 9.900 were extremely rare and, in some Worlds and Olympics throughout the 1950s−1970s, scores of 9.900 seem to have been non-existent for the men. One early example of a woman gymnast breaking 9.900 at a World Championships or Olympics in the post-1952 era was Soviet Larisa Latynina at the 1962 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships with a score of 9.933. Soviet Zinaida Druzhinina-Voronina also scored a 9.933, at the 1966 World Championships in the floor exercise finals. Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia was the first gymnast to achieve perfect 10s at a major competition in the post-1952 era, which she did twice at the 1967 European Championships, which were displayed on a manual scoreboard. Prior to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Omega, the official timers, asked the International Olympic Committee how many digits it should allow on the electronic scoreboard, and were told that three digits would be sufficient, as a score of 10.00 would not be possible. On 18 July 1976, however, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci scored a 10 on the uneven bars. Because the scoreboard was limited to three digits, it displayed her score as 1.00. This led to confusion, with even Comăneci unsure of what it meant, until the announcer informed the elated crowd that she had scored a perfect 10. An iconic press photograph (see above) shows a beaming Comăneci, arms upraised, beside the scoreboard. Comăneci scored a total of seven 10s at the 1976 Olympics—four on the uneven bars and three on the balance beam. Her main rival, the Soviet Union's Nelli Kim, scored two 10s in the same competition, in the vault and floor exercise. Comăneci's coach, Béla Károlyi, having defected to the United States in 1981, subsequently coached American Mary Lou Retton to gold at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where she scored 10s in the vault and floor exercise. The first man to score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition was the Soviet Alexander Dityatin, in the vault, on the way to a record-breaking eight medals in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Among other men to achieve the score was Comăneci's future husband, Bart Conner, who achieved two 10s in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Change in scoring

The code of points came under review as a result of separate incidents during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, in which gymnasts were believed to have received excessively low scores. A new scoring system was introduced in 2006. It consists of an "A" score, based on the difficulty of elements, and a "B" score, based on artistic impression. While the B score still has a maximum of 10, it is only a part of the overall score. The change had its share of critics. Béla Károlyi said of it: "It's crazy, terrible, the stupidest thing that ever happened to the sport of gymnastics.". Mary Lou Retton remarked: "It's hard to understand. I don't even understand it." Nadia Comăneci commented, "It's so hard to define sports like ours and we had something unique. The 10, it was ours first and now you give it away."

List of perfect 10s

This list may be incomplete.

Olympics

Paris 1924

Montreal 1976

Women

(Olympic database; Women's individual results; women's all-around results; women's team results )

Moscow 1980

Men

(Men's all-around results; men's individual event results )

Women

Los Angeles 1984

Men

Women

(Men's results; women's results )

Seoul 1988

Men

Women

(Men's results; women's results )

Barcelona 1992

Women

(Women's results )

Alternate Olympics

Olomouc 1984

Men

Women

Goodwill Games

1986 Goodwill Games

Women

1990 Goodwill Games

Women

World Championships

1934 World Championships

1950 World Championships

1981 World Championships

Men

Women

1983 World Championships

Men

Women

1985 World Championships

Men

Women

1987 World Championships

Men

Women

1989 World Championships

Men

Women

1991 World Championships

Women

European Championships

1967 European Championships

Women

1977 European Championships

Women

1981 European Championships

Women

1985 European Championships

Women

1987 European Championships

Women

1989 European Championships

Women

1990 European Championships

Women

U.S. National Championships

1984 National Championships

Men

Women

1988 National Championships

Men

1990 National Championships

Men

1992 National Championships

Women

U.S. Olympic Trials

1984 Olympic Trials

Men

1988 Olympic Trials

Women

1992 Olympic Trials

Women

Moscow News/World Stars

1979 Moscow News

Women

1988 Moscow News

Women

1989 Moscow News

Women

1991 World Stars

Men

1992 World Stars

Women

American Cup

New York City 1976

Women

New York City 1980

Men

New York City 1984

Men

Women

Orlando 1991

Women

Orlando 1992

Men

European Cup

1988 European Cup

Women

DTB Cup

1984 DTB Cup

Women

1987 DTB Cup

Men

1988 DTB Cup

Men

Women

1989 DTB Cup

Women

Cottbus International

1984 Cottbus International

Women

1985 Cottbus International

Women

1992 Cottbus International

Women

World Cup

1979 World Cup

Women

1982 World Cup

Men

1986 World Cup

Women

Tokyo Cup

1985 Tokyo Cup

Women

1988 Tokyo Cup

Women

Chunichi Cup

1976 Chunichi Cup

Women

1988 Chunichi Cup

Women

University Games

1987 University Games

Women

"Meta-Perfect" Scores of 20, 30, and 40

Although virtually hundreds of perfect scores of 10 were given at various levels of competition throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, "meta-perfect" scores of 20, 30, or 40 were much, much more rare. A "meta-perfect" score would be an instance where a gymnast received multiple perfect scores of 10 throughout a competition on an apparatus (culminating in an official "meta-perfect" score of 20 in the Event Finals, depending upon the era and competition), or on every apparatus in a segment of a competition (which would result in an official "meta-perfect" score of 60 for a male gymnast or 40 for female gymnast, depending upon the era and competition). Three possible scenarios in which to create a "meta-perfect score", that have occurred, would then be: 1) to achieve perfect 10s on every apparatus throughout a segment of a competition (Team Compulsories, Team Optionals, or All-Around) which would post an official "meta-perfect" score of either 60 for the men or 40 for the women, depending upon the era and competition; 2) to achieve perfect 10s on all performances on an apparatus throughout every segment of a competition (Team Compulsories, Optionals, All-around, and Event Finals), which would officially post a "meta-perfect" score of 20 in Event Finals, depending upon the era and competition; and 3) to achieve perfect 10s on all optionals performances on an apparatus (team optionals, all-around (if competed in), event finals), which might or might not post an official "meta-perfect" score, depending upon the competition and era – but this is a possibly necessary scenario to articulate because perfect scores of 10 were given much less often to compulsory routines than to optional routines, for a number of reasons. Olga Mostepanova seems to have been the only gymnast to do #1 at a major international competition. Svetlana Boginskaya, Nadia Comăneci, Maxi Gnauck, Olga Mostepanova, and Daniela Silivaș are women who have done this more than once. Dmitry Bilozerchev has done this probably more (4) times than any other man. No score of "30" (listed several times below) would ever have been an officially posted score to designate "meta-perfection" on an apparatus. This is merely a designation of either 1) "meta-perfection" on an apparatus in both phases of the team competition (compulsories and optionals) as well as event finals, but not in the all-around, and this is worth articulating relative to listed "meta-perfect" scores of 40 because the gymnast in question might not have qualified to the all-around, therefore no opportunity to achieve a theoretical "meta-perfect" score of 40/40; OR 2) "meta-perfection" on all optionals performance on an apparatus (see scenario #3, above).

Olympics

1976 Olympics

1984 Olympics

1988 Olympics

Alternate Olympics

Olomouc 1984

World Championships

1934 Worlds

1981 Worlds

1983 Worlds

1987 Worlds

1989 Worlds

World Cup

1979 World Cup

European Championships

1987 Europeans

1989 Europeans

American Cup

1976 American Cup

1984 American Cup

DTB Cup

1984 DTB Cup