Challenges of female vault finals for the 2008–2016 period
Background Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) competitions are determined by the rules of the Code of Points (CoP) which experience changes in each new Olympic Games (OG). One of the WAG CoP rules states that in the Vault Finals, gymnasts need to perform two different vaults. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of the vault performances and the differences between them during Vault Finals at all major competitions held from 2008 to 2016. Numerically higher values of Difficulty Scores, Execution Scores and Final Scores of the first vault compared to the scores of the second vault have been determined at all the analysed competitions. Results The differences between the scores during different competitions have been determined as significant, but they have not been determined as significant between the scores achieved at the OG held in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Significant differences between the Difficulty Scores of the first and the second vaults have been determined at the World Championships (WC) 2010 and OG2012; and within Final Scores of the first and the second vaults at WC2009, WC2010, OG2012 and WC2015. Conclusions It was concluded that female Vault Finalists performed two structurally different vaults of similar Difficulty Value equally well.