[Updated] Biased judging at the olympics?

I'm calling foul.

There was some speculation during qualifying, but now after watching the women's finals in gymnastics... definitely.

4 rounds of competition.

After round 1, the US team is up by .2 over China.

Round 2, the US team averaged a 15.99 score, with one girl getting the highest score recorded at the olympics this year, of 16.9

Here's where the bias comes in. After round 2, the US is down 1.25 points.

Now, for China to jump 1.3 points, would mean they would have to have averaged 17.3 ... and the first girl got a 15.975, a break to swimming (one of the most incredible 800m relays in history... shattered the world record by 5 seconds!) meant we didn't see the other two girls' scores. But we know neither got higher than 16.9.

So I ask, how exactly does the math work out, when they don't even break a 17 score, that they somehow manage to come out with a 17.3 average score to jump 1.25 points ahead of the US team?

Bias.

Chinese women's gymnastics has never received gold in the olympics. Ever. Until now, and conveniently they're on home turf. Sound fishy? Oh most definitely.

Update 08.15.2008

I think Autumn figured it out. Apparently the average score doesn't matter, that's just the NBC commentators mucking things up.

So it sorta works out, but I still find it a bit fishy. Watched the all-around women's gymnastic finals tonight, and damned if the Chinese weren't getting favorable scores. The US girls won, but had to fight hard for it... in each event they were far better than the Chinese girls (even the commentators were saying their scores were way too low for their performances), and after 4 rounds just managed to squeak by with a .6 lead over the Chinese.

One US girl got deducted a full .5 on the uneven bars, because she supposedly didn't do a full handstand. But when one of the Chinese girls FALLS on her landing in the vault... only a .1 deduction. Step across the line with 1 foot, is .1, both feet is .3, land outside the line is .5... but fall on your ass? meh! .1

Ridiculous.