Perform a Google news search on "olympic gymnastics controversy" and you'll notice 1,230 articles (at least, at this point) pertaining to what seems to be evolving into a silly event.
I don't want to take away the athleticism of the participants. They do things that not even the best breakdancer, which is what I want to be when I grow up, cannot do. But the reward for their efforts is a couple of judges apparently randomly giving out scores. One time, I think I saw the South Korean judge with a Scantron, trying to create a flag pattern with his scoring.
There's an easy way to fix this. Give each judge a box with 10 switches, on or off. Make each participant break his/her routine into 10 segments. The judges, for each section, rate either good or bad. At the end, tally them up and give the winners the medals. I know, you can't count for difficulty or single missed jumps or landing out of bounds. But does anyone really remember that anyway?
And while we're on the subject, do you receive extra points for smiling in synchronized swimming? The thing is, I don't think I'd be smiling very long when I didn't have the chance to wipe my eyes every time I came up out of the water.
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