Controversial scoring leaves Liukin in 2nd

Nastia Liukin learned the hard way Monday in the uneven bars, losing a gold medal tiebreaker to China's He Kexin before admissions of confusion over rules and allegations of unfair judging.

Neither Liukin, 18, of Plano, Texas, nor He, 16, knew which gymnast won gold when they posted 16.725 scores with high-flying routines. Ditto for Liukin's father and coach, Valeri, and 18,000 fans, most waving Chinese flags and cheering.

Only after the last gymnast in the eight-person final performed did the public-address announcer declare He the winner of the complicated tiebreaker, determined by a computation of the averages of six judges' scores.

"It wasn't that I got second by three- or five-tenths," Liukin said. "I had the same exact score, and that's what makes it a little bit harder to take. Unfortunately, you can't control the judges. After you land the dismount, it's all up to them."

The tiebreaker went to He by 0.33 of a point because she had a lower average of form deductions on her routine. The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) used its second tiebreaker, taking the average of the three lowest deductions of the four possible.

Contrary to in-arena talk, FIG didn't factor start values — the degree of difficulty for a gymnast's routine — into the tiebreaker. Liukin and He both had 7.7 start values.

"I hope they know what they're doing," said Valeri Liukin, who shared a horizontal bar gold with a Russian teammate at the 1988 Games. Ties were allowed in Olympic gymnastics until 2000.

The elder Liukin conceded he didn't know the tiebreaker rules, sanctioned by FIG but enforced by the International Olympic Committee. And Nastia conceded she didn't know she was tied with He until about 10 minutes after she stepped off the mat.

When He executed four release-and-catch moves, Liukin failed to process He's score since she was on deck. Liukin performed three 360-degree pirouettes for an identical mark but declined to look at her score, seeing she was listed second behind He.

USA Gymnastics women's national team coordinator Martha Karolyi informed Liukin she was the silver medalist — Yang Yilin of China claimed bronze with a 16.650 — as she walked into a staging area.

In men's event finals, China's Chen Yibing made his country 5-for-5 with a win on still rings.

In the men's vault, Poland's Leszek Blanik earned the gold.

Chen's victory was hardly a surprise. He's a two-time world champion on rings, and his routines are masterful. When his feet slammed into the mat with a thud heard around the arena, he closed his eyes and pumped his fist.

"This is the highest individual honor for me," he said, "and I waited a long time."

Local Athlete schedule

Today's events

Softball

USA vs. Japan, Semifinal, 6:30 p.m. (Jennie Finch, Tairia Flowers, Lovieanne Jung, Caitlin Lowe)

Baseball

USA vs. Taiwan, 4 a.m. (Jason Donald, Brian Barden, Mike Koplove)

Volleyball

Quarterfinals: USA vs. Italy, 7 a.m. (Kim Glass)