Event
Floor exercise
Skill type
Dance
Value
D
Known as
Split leap 1.5
Tour jeté full
Gogean
Named after
Gina Gogean (ROU) – 1997
About
This skill’s D (0.4) value, making it worth the same as a double pike for instance, has rendered it exceptionally worthwhile for the world’s top gymnasts to attempt in order to bloat their difficulty scores.
Unfortunately, getting the height to both hit an actual split position and wrench around 1.5 twists proves to be too much for the majority of gymnasts attempting this skill. But that doesn’t stop them from trying.
The discussion of crediting (or not crediting) this element despite constant under-rotation from nearly everyone was the realm of gymnastics nerds until the 2024 Olympic floor final. Then it became the subject of actual international news, when Jordan Chiles was originally denied credit for this skill, then given credit for it upon inquiry to win bronze, then stripped of that bronze medal because her inquiry was allegedly submitted four seconds too late.
What was lost in the general news coverage of this mess is that the original judges who denied credit for Chiles’ rotation of the skill did not make a mistake or oversight. They very intentionally denied credit, which was consistent with their judging of the entire Olympics, as well as the judging of international meets of that and previous years in the Olympic cycle. The decision to give credit to the skill upon inquiry and raise Chiles’ score was a surprising break with precedent.
While always called the “Gogean” in gymnastics circles, the skill spent multiple decades unnamed. Gina Gogean was originally awarded this skill at the 1997 world championships in Lausanne despite very obviously performing a tour jeté 1/2 instead of a full. Her name later disappeared from the code of points, only to be reinstated in 2022.