Gymnastics Scoring Explained: D-Score, E-Score and Totals
Gymnastics scoring explained: how the D-score and E-score add up at the Olympics, what a fall costs, and why NCAA meets still award a perfect 10.
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Team USA & the Olympics22 min read
- Execution starts at
- 10.0
- Deduction for a fall
- 1.0
- Value of an A skill
- 0.1
- Open-ended code since
- 2006
Simone Biles has several skills named after her in the Code of Points, and not one of them earned her a 10. The last perfect 10 at an Olympic Games was awarded under a scoring system the International Gymnastics Federation, the FIG, threw out in 2006. Since then, the number on the board at the Olympics has meant something different.
Here is the short version of gymnastics scoring explained. A gymnast's score is two numbers added together, then trimmed. The difficulty score, or D-score, totals the value of the hardest skills performed plus credit for meeting the routine's requirements. The execution score, or E-score, starts at 10.0 and loses tenths for every flaw. Add the two, subtract any neutral deductions for things like stepping off the floor, and the result is the final score. A winning women's routine at the Olympics usually lands somewhere around 14 or 15, a men's routine in a similar range. There is no ceiling on difficulty, so there is no perfect score.
College is the exception. NCAA women's gymnastics, the version most Americans see on a Friday night broadcast from Utah or Florida or LSU, still scores out of 10, and it still gives out perfect 10s. Most of this page covers the international system used by USA Gymnastics at the elite level and at the Olympics; the college system gets its own section further down.
The final score formula: difficulty plus execution, minus penalties
The arithmetic is simple. What makes gymnastics scoring hard to follow on television is that the two halves are produced by different judges using different logic, and they arrive on the screen already added up.
| Part of the score | What it measures | Starting point | How it moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-score | Difficulty of the routine | Zero | Rises with each counted skill, each requirement met and each bonus |
| E-score | Quality of the performance | 10.0 | Falls with each execution or artistry error |
| Neutral deductions | Rule breaches outside the skills | None | Taken off the total for out of bounds, time, attire or conduct |
| Final score | The result | D plus E | Minus neutral deductions |
A worked example shows the structure. A beam routine with a D-score of 6.2 and an E-score of 8.1 gives 14.3. If the gymnast runs over the time limit, the panel takes a tenth off the total, and the final score becomes 14.2. Each of those parts comes from a different place, and each is explained in its own section below.
Why it lands around 14 instead of 10
Elite D-scores on the women's side run from the high 4s on a simple routine to well above 6 on the hardest. E-scores for a good routine sit between 8 and 9, because almost nobody completes a full routine without small form deductions. The sum is typically 13 to 15. Men's routines carry their own D-score ranges and land in a similar band.
It looks strange to anyone who grew up watching gymnastics in the 1980s and 1990s, when 9.8 was a strong score and 10.0 was the goal. The FIG accepted that strangeness as the price of separating difficulty from quality, and the arguments for and against that decision run through the rest of this page.
How the difficulty score is built
Start with the skills. Every element in the Code of Points has a letter value. On the women's side, an A skill is worth 0.1, a B is 0.2, a C is 0.3, and the scale climbs a tenth at a time through D, E, F and G and upward. The hardest skills in the women's code reach into the J range, worth a full point. The men's code uses the same letter-to-tenths scale.
Only the best skills count
A routine can contain more skills than the judges count. On uneven bars, beam and floor, the women's D-panel counts the eight highest-value elements, with the dismount among them. The men's code sets its own count, which has been higher than the women's in recent cycles. The FIG revises its codes after every Olympic Games, so the exact count is always tied to a specific cycle; what does not change is the principle that the hardest skills, not every skill, build the difficulty total.
That rule shapes routines. An extra easy skill adds nothing to the D-score once eight harder ones are already in, but it still gives the execution judges another chance to deduct. Coaches cut filler for exactly that reason.
Composition requirements
Each apparatus has a short list of composition requirements, often called CRs, such as a turn on beam, a flight element on bars, or a salto with a twist on floor. On the women's side, each requirement fulfilled is worth half a point, and missing one costs that half point outright. The men's code uses element groups, and a gymnast who includes at least one skill from each group earns credit for it. A routine that performs a spectacular set of skills but misses a requirement can lose a big chunk of D-score for a missing element that is easier than anything else in the set.
Connection value
The third component rewards linking skills directly, with no pause or extra step between them. Connecting two difficult elements in the right combination earns an extra tenth or two. On beam, where connections are hard and falls are costly, connection value is a major part of the strategy at the top level. A gymnast who hesitates between skills can lose the connection bonus even if both skills are performed well, and the D-panel will not credit it.
How the execution score works: starting at 10.0
The E-score is the one number in elite gymnastics that still uses the old scale. Every routine starts at 10.0, and the execution judges subtract for every departure from perfect form. There is no such thing as an execution bonus. The best a gymnast can do is lose nothing, which almost never happens.
What the judges are looking for
Small errors are things most fans will not see without slow motion: slightly bent knees, legs a few degrees apart, a flexed foot, a small adjustment on landing. Medium errors are visible in real time, such as a large step on a landing, a clear leg separation in a twisting skill, or a noticeable hip angle. Large errors look like mistakes to anyone: a deep squat on landing, a grab at the beam to stay on, a skill done with arms flailing.
A fall costs a full point. It is the biggest execution deduction in the code, and it usually costs more than the point in practice. A skill on which the gymnast fell may not be credited toward the D-score, the connection on either side of it is lost, and on beam the gymnast has a fixed time to get back on the apparatus before the routine is considered over.
Landings
Landings decide most close competitions. A step on landing is a tenth or more. Hopping, extra steps and a deep squat stack up. The so-called "stuck landing" that announcers praise is valuable because it is the one moment where a gymnast can visibly avoid deductions in front of every judge at once.
Artistry deductions also exist on beam and floor. Judges can take tenths for poor rhythm, a lack of expression or choreography that does not use the floor well. These are the deductions most often criticized as subjective, and they are among the smallest in the code.
Neutral deductions taken off the total
Neutral deductions are different in kind. They have nothing to do with how well a skill was done. They punish rule breaches, and they come off the final total rather than the E-score.
| Neutral deduction | Typical amount | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| One foot or hand touching outside the floor boundary | 0.1 | Floor exercise |
| Both feet, or another body part, outside the boundary | 0.3 | Floor exercise |
| Routine exceeding the time limit | 0.1 | Women's beam and floor |
| Incorrect attire or jewelry | 0.3 | All apparatus |
| Failing to salute the judges before or after | 0.3 | All apparatus |
| Coach on the podium or assisting improperly | Varies by breach | All apparatus |
The time limits are fixed. Women's beam and floor routines are capped at 90 seconds. The men's floor routine is capped at 70 seconds. Beam also has a warning signal before the limit, so gymnasts know they are close.
Out-of-bounds calls
The boundary call on floor is made by line judges, not the D or E panel, and it is entirely neutral: a gymnast can perform a perfect tumbling pass and still lose three tenths for landing with a heel over the white line. It is one of the most consequential calls in the sport because it is binary and cannot be argued about once it is made, and line judges watch nothing else.
At Paris 2024, an out-of-bounds deduction against Romania's Sabrina Voinea was one of the disputed calls in a women's floor final where less than a tenth separated third place from fourth. That final, and the inquiry that followed it, is the clearest recent example of how much a neutral deduction can matter, and it is covered in the inquiry section below.
Why vault is scored differently
Vault breaks the pattern because a vault is one skill, not a routine. There is no list of eight counted elements, no composition requirement and no connection value. Instead, each vault in the FIG's vault table has a fixed difficulty value. The gymnast's D-score is simply the value of the vault performed.
That value is assigned by the FIG's technical committee and published in the code. Biles's Yurchenko double pike, now named the Biles II, entered the women's code with a value of 6.4, the highest on the table. Most top vaults are worth well below that. The E-score is still out of 10.0, with deductions for flight, body position, distance from the table and landing.
- Declare the vaultThe gymnast shows the planned vault number to the judges before running.
- PerformThe run, the hurdle, the table contact and the flight are judged as one element.
- Difficulty creditThe D-panel confirms the vault performed matches the declaration and applies its fixed value from the table.
- ExecutionThe E-panel deducts for body shape, height, distance and landing from 10.0.
- Neutral checksLine deductions apply if the gymnast lands outside the corridor or does not salute.
- Two-vault eventsIn qualification for the vault final and in the final itself, a second, different vault is scored and the two are averaged.
The sequence under the FIG Code of Points for artistic gymnastics vault; specific deductions vary between the women's and men's codes.
Vault finals average two vaults
In the all-around and the team competition, a gymnast vaults once. To qualify for the vault final, and in the final itself, she or he must perform two vaults, and the two must be genuinely different: the code requires the second vault to differ from the first in its group or its flight, as the vault table defines them. The final score is the average of the two.
The averaging rule changes the strategy completely. A gymnast with one spectacular vault and no second vault of similar quality cannot win the vault final, because the weaker vault drags the average down. Vault specialists build their programs around having two high-value vaults, while all-around gymnasts sometimes skip the final because the second vault is not worth training for.
The judging panels that produce the numbers
Each apparatus at an Olympic Games has its own jury. It has two main parts, plus a set of supervisors.
The D-panel, normally two judges, identifies every skill performed, checks the composition requirements and connections, and agrees on a single difficulty value. The D-panel works from video as well as live viewing, and its members must reach agreement on what they saw. Where they cannot, the matter goes to the supervising judges.
The E-panel is larger. Each execution judge works independently, writing down deductions for each error without conferring. The FIG drops the extreme marks, the highest and the lowest, and averages the rest, so one lenient or harsh judge cannot move the score far. At smaller competitions with five judges, the single highest and lowest are dropped and the middle three averaged; at the Olympics, the panel is larger, but the principle of discarding outliers is the same.
Reference judges and technology
Above the panels are reference judges and a superior jury. Reference judges score execution in parallel, and if the E-panel's average strays too far from the reference score, the reference judges can step in and adjust it. Their job is to catch a panel that has gone wrong as a group, not to replace it.
The FIG has also introduced a judging support system, developed with Fujitsu, that uses three-dimensional sensors to measure body angles and positions. Its role so far has been support rather than replacement: it helps the D-panel identify skills and settle disputes, and the federation rolled it out across apparatus over several years. It does not score execution on its own.
The result is a system with many safeguards and one obvious limitation. The E-score still depends on human judges making fast calls, and the averaging only removes outliers. If every judge makes the same mistake, the system cannot catch it.
Inquiries: what a coach can challenge, and the time limit
A coach can challenge the D-score. Not the E-score. Execution is a judgment, and the FIG treats it as final; difficulty is a matter of what skills were performed and credited, which can be checked against video.
The process is fixed in the FIG's Technical Regulations. A coach must make a verbal inquiry before the next gymnast's score is shown. For the last gymnast in a rotation, the limit is one minute after the score appears. The verbal inquiry must be followed by a written one, and the FIG charges a fee for each inquiry, increasing for a second and third in the same competition. The fee is kept if the inquiry fails.
If the inquiry succeeds, the D-score is revised and the gymnast's final score changes immediately. The superior jury reviews the video and makes the decision, and it is final within the competition.
The Jordan Chiles case at Paris 2024
The time limit became headline news in August 2024. In the women's floor final at Paris, the American Jordan Chiles was initially scored fifth. Her coaches filed an inquiry on her D-score, the panel added a tenth for a skill it had not credited, and Chiles moved to the bronze medal ahead of the Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu.
The Romanian federation appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court found that the inquiry had been filed four seconds after the one-minute limit had expired, and that it should therefore not have been considered. The IOC then reallocated the bronze medal to Bărbosu. Chiles and USA Gymnastics challenged the ruling, including in the Swiss courts, arguing among other things that video evidence showed an earlier inquiry attempt.
The case exposed a problem the rules had not anticipated: a one-minute window, enforced by a timestamp, deciding an Olympic medal. It is the strictest timing rule in a sport where most other decisions involve judgment, and it has been criticized for exactly that reason.
Men's and women's gymnastics: six apparatus against four
The men's and women's programs are close to separate sports. Men compete on six apparatus, women on four, and only vault and floor appear in both programs, with different rules even then.
| Apparatus | Men | Women | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floor exercise | Yes | Yes | Women's floor is set to music and includes dance; men's has no music |
| Vault | Yes | Yes | Shared skill families, separate value tables |
| Pommel horse | Yes | No | Continuous swing, no stops |
| Still rings | Yes | No | Strength holds counted alongside swing |
| Parallel bars | Yes | No | Swing and release skills on two bars |
| Horizontal bar | Yes | No | Releases and giant swings, the men's equivalent of uneven bars |
| Uneven bars | No | Yes | Two bars at different heights |
| Balance beam | No | Yes | A beam four inches wide |
How the counting rules differ
The men's D-score has traditionally counted more elements than the women's, and the men's composition rules are built around element groups. Every apparatus has several groups of skills, such as swings, strength holds or releases, and a gymnast has to include a skill from each group to receive the requirement credit. Women's composition requirements are named more specifically for each apparatus.
The all-around tests that difference. A men's all-around competitor completes six routines, which makes the event a test of endurance and depth across very different apparatus. Specialists have a better chance on the men's side, because few gymnasts can produce world-class routines on pommel horse and still rings while also competing on floor and vault.
The women's beam is four inches wide and about 16 feet long. Its scoring demands both difficulty and steadiness, and an execution deduction for a wobble is taken even if the gymnast stays on the beam.
How scores become medals at the Olympics
The Olympic artistic gymnastics competition runs in stages, and the rules for counting scores change at each one.
- QualificationTeams of five compete, with four gymnasts on each apparatus and the top three scores counting for the team total.
- Team finalThe top eight teams return, with three gymnasts on each apparatus and all three scores counting.
- All-around finalThe top 24 individual all-around totals from qualification advance, with no more than two per country.
- Apparatus finalsThe top eight on each apparatus advance, again with no more than two per country.
- MedalsEach final starts from zero, and qualification scores do not carry forward.
Based on the format used at Paris 2024 under the FIG Technical Regulations; team sizes and counting rules are set separately for each Games and can change.
The team final has no safety net
In qualification, a team can drop its lowest score on each apparatus. In the team final, all three count. A fall in the team final costs the full point plus any lost difficulty, with no chance to hide it. That format is why team finals are so unforgiving, and why coaches choose their three gymnasts on each event as much for reliability as for difficulty.
The two-per-country rule
The all-around and apparatus finals allow no more than two gymnasts from one country. The rule has cost American gymnasts places on several occasions, because the United States frequently has three or more gymnasts who would otherwise qualify. In Rio in 2016, Gabby Douglas, the defending Olympic all-around champion, finished third among American gymnasts in qualification and missed the all-around final despite a score high enough to qualify on its own.
Breaking ties
Ties are broken on execution in the apparatus finals: the gymnast with the higher E-score ranks ahead. The logic is that a cleaner routine should win when the totals match. The FIG's regulations set further tie-break steps for the team and all-around competitions, and only when every step fails are the gymnasts allowed to share a place.
What counts as a good score on each apparatus
There is no single answer, because the scale is open-ended and the difficulty ranges differ between apparatus. A score that wins a vault final might be ordinary on uneven bars. What follows is a guide to scale, not a set of benchmarks.
On the women's side, elite scores in the mid-14s on beam and floor are competitive at international level, and scores above 14.5 on those apparatus are strong. Uneven bars and vault have tended to run higher, with top routines and vaults scoring in the high 14s and into the 15s. A score of 13 on any apparatus at the Olympics usually signals a fall or significant mistakes.
On the men's side, scores in the 14s are competitive on most apparatus, and the best routines on specific events, especially the pommel horse, rings and horizontal bar, can reach into the 15s.
Why comparing scores misleads
The FIG updates its Codes of Points after every Olympic Games. Skill values are raised or lowered, the number of counting elements can change, and new requirements can be introduced. A 15.0 in one cycle and a 15.0 in the next do not measure the same thing.
The same caution applies across apparatus. A 14.5 on beam is not the same achievement as a 14.5 on vault, because the possible D-scores on the two apparatus are different. The useful comparison is within one event, in one cycle, and the most useful number to watch is the E-score. Execution scores still sit on a fixed scale out of 10.0, and an E-score above 8.5 at the elite level is a clean routine by any standard.
All-around totals add four apparatus for women and six for men. Comparisons between eras of all-around totals are the most misleading of all.
The perfect 10 that survives in college gymnastics
On a Friday night in Gainesville or Salt Lake City, gymnastics looks like the 1980s again. A perfect 10 is announced, the crowd stands, and the scoreboard flashes. NCAA women's gymnastics never moved to open-ended scoring.
| Feature | NCAA women's gymnastics | FIG elite (Olympics) |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum score per routine | 10.0 | No maximum |
| How difficulty is credited | Through a start value, which must reach 10.0 | Open-ended D-score |
| Fall deduction | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Judges per event | Two, or four at bigger meets with high and low dropped | D-panel plus a larger E-panel |
| Team scoring | Six compete, best five count | Varies by phase; three count in the Olympic team final |
| Perfect team total | 200.0 | No maximum |
Start values
The NCAA women's code works from start values. A routine that meets every requirement and includes enough difficulty and bonus starts at 10.0; one that falls short starts lower, and the judges deduct from whatever start value the routine carries. On vault, the most common college vault, a Yurchenko full twist, carries a 10.0 start value, which is why it is everywhere in college meets. A gymnast performing a routine with a 10.0 start value and no deductions earns a 10.
Each team puts up six gymnasts per event and counts the best five scores. Four events of five scores, each out of 10, produces the 200.0 ceiling. Top teams score in the 197 and 198 range at their best.
Why college kept it
The perfect 10 is good for college gymnastics. It is easy to understand, it creates moments a crowd can celebrate, and it gives a college meet an identity separate from the elite sport. The NCAA women's game has grown attendance for years on precisely that appeal, and Title IX's role in sustaining women's programs is covered in our guide to Title IX in sports. Where those programs sit in the NCAA structure is in our comparison of Division I, II and III.
NCAA men's gymnastics is different. It follows the FIG's open-ended code with some modifications, so a men's college meet produces 14s and 15s, not 10s.
Scoring in the U.S. development levels
USA Gymnastics runs its own competitive structure below the elite level. The Development Program uses numbered levels, with the early levels built on set compulsory routines and the higher levels allowing optional routines. Those levels use a 10.0 scale with start values, much like college. The Xcel program offers a separate optional route. Only gymnasts who reach the elite level compete under the FIG's open-ended code, which is part of the path to national teams and the U.S. Olympic Trials.
From the 10.0 era to the open-ended code of 2006
At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, Nadia Comăneci scored a 10 on the uneven bars, and the scoreboard displayed it as 1.00 because the board had not been built to show four digits. It is the most famous moment in the sport's history and the beginning of the perfect 10 as a cultural idea.
Under the old system, a routine's maximum was 10.0. Judges assessed difficulty and execution together, and the start value of a routine measured how close it came to the maximum. As difficulty grew through the 1980s and 1990s, the system ran out of room. Routines bunched at the top of the scale, and the differences between them were compressed into a handful of hundredths.
Athens 2004
The 2004 Athens Games broke the old system. In the men's all-around, the judges credited the South Korean gymnast Yang Tae-young's parallel bars routine with a start value of 9.9 when it should have been 10.0. The American Paul Hamm won the gold medal, Yang finished with bronze, and the Korean appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport was rejected because the error had not been protested during the competition. A few days later, a crowd in Athens booed the judges at length during the men's high bar final after a score for the Russian Alexei Nemov, and the judges raised the mark.
The FIG adopted the open-ended code in 2006. Difficulty and execution were separated, the ceiling on difficulty was removed, and the scores grew to the 14s and 15s that viewers see now.
- 1976Year of the first Olympic 10
- 2004Last Games under the 10.0 system
- 2006Year the open-ended code began
- 8Women's skills counted toward difficulty
Dates from the FIG's scoring history; 2006 is the year the open-ended code took effect, and the count of 8 applies to bars, beam and floor in recent women's Codes of Points.
What the new code did to routines
The open-ended code changed what gymnasts build. Difficulty became the clearest route to a winning score, and routines became much harder. Skills that were once rare are now standard at the elite level, and the top gymnasts carry D-scores well beyond what the old system could express.
Critics argue the change has cost the sport some artistry and pushed gymnasts to attempt skills that raise injury risk. Supporters reply that the new code finally rewards the athletes who push the sport forward, and that execution deductions punish anyone who attempts more than they can perform well. Both have a point. What is beyond argument is that the open-ended code made gymnastics scores harder to read on television, which is why a college meet with a perfect 10 still feels easier to follow.
The same tension between a fixed scale and points for difficulty exists in other Olympic events. Our explainer on decathlon scoring shows how track and field turns performances into points with tables rather than judges. The organization that oversees American gymnastics and every other Olympic sport is described in our guide to the USOPC, and the rest of the section is linked from the Team USA hub.