What is the highest difficulty score in gymnastics? Scoring and rules at the 2024 Olympics in Paris

The final score of a gymnast consists of two main components:

The difficulty of the routine determines the D-score, while the E-score reflects how well the routine is performed.

What is a D-score?

The D-score for vaults is straightforward. Each vault has an assigned value based on its difficulty level, with more challenging vaults worth more points.

Calculating the D-scores for uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercises is more complex due to the longer routines and the variety of skills involved.

Each event has four composition requirements, each worth half a point. These requirements ensure that gymnasts incorporate a wide range of elements in their routines, allowing flexibility in the difficulty of the elements chosen.

To achieve a good D score in gymnastics, you must meet all four requirements. Like in vault, more complex skills result in higher points.

Each skill is assigned a value from A to J, with “A” being the easiest and valued at 0.1 points, and each subsequent letter increasing in value by 0.1. The eight most difficult skills in the routine contribute to the final difficulty score. Gymnasts can also increase their difficulty score through connection values and bonus points for performing certain skills consecutively. These connections are worth either 0.1 or 0.2 points. These bonuses encourage gymnasts to perform creative and challenging combinations to boost their scores.

What is an E-score?

The D-score is determined by adding points, while points are deducted in the E-score for execution errors. The execution score is rated out of 10 points on all events. Deductions are made for each execution fault in the routine, with minor errors resulting in smaller deductions and major errors leading to larger deductions. Falling is considered the most significant error, resulting in a full-point deduction.

For the beam and floor exercises, the execution score also includes artistry deductions, which assess the choreography’s creativity and performance. The final E score is 10 minus all the accumulated deductions. The D-score and E-score components ensure a balance between difficult skills and good execution.

Gymnasts with a high D score but many errors in their routine will not score well, just as gymnasts with a beautifully executed routine but a low D score will also not score highly.

Neutral deductions - penalties

Neutral deductions, sometimes called “penalties,” are deductions for faults that occur outside of the routine’s skills. Standard neutral deductions include exceeding the routine time limit, stepping out of bounds, and, less commonly, behavioral or apparatus violations, as well as not having enough skills in a routine.

The final score is calculated by adding the Difficulty score, Execution score, and any neutral deductions, if applicable.

The highest difficulty score in gymnastics

In women’s gymnastics, skills are categorized into 10 classifications with increasing point values based on difficulty. The highest-difficulty skills can earn a gymnast 6.4 or more points.

There is no upper limit for the difficulty score in gymnastics; elite gymnasts typically score between 5 and 6 points. Simone Biles has pushed the limits of the sport with her high difficulty-scores.

She can achieve a difficulty score of 6.4 or higher. For example, her triple-double on the floor is currently the only J-level element, and her vault — the Yurchenko double pike — was given a provisional value of 6.6 at the GK US Classic in 2021. At the World Championships in 2023, the judges gave it a value of 6.4.

Due to Biles’s higher difficulty score, she was awarded a score of 14.6 for her qualifier floor routine at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. This innovative scoring system has empowered athletes like Biles to push the sport’s boundaries constantly.