This study examined the advantage theory of the gymanastic contest. Ninety gymnasts from 24 countries were investigated during the 2003 World University Game held in Daegui, Korea. The main purpose was to find out the effects of the performance and the interrelationships among the winning factors of difficulty, originality, insurance and elegance. The following three categories were used to investigate 4 judges judging 90 gymnasts in group B in terms of their judging scores in 1) the main effects and interaction effects of the different start values and the deduction scoes on the final performance; 2) the judging priority of the difficulty, originality, insurance, and elegance; and 3) the winning strategy used by Chinese Taipei and China teams. The results of the statistical analysis revealed three points. First, significant effects were found in high start values and low deduction scores, but no interaction effects were found between these two variables. Second, significant correclation was found between the start values and the final scores of the 90 gymnasts (.843, p＜.0l); the deduction scores and the final scores (.535, p＜.0l). the landing stability and the final scores (.522, p＜.0l); the landing stability and the decuction scores (.899, p＜.0l) respectively. The start values and the deduction scores totally accounted for 99.5% of the variation. The judging priority of start values (.842) was found to be greater than the deduction scores (.533). 3) The winning strategies of China team were due to using high start values and low deduction scores, and due to use of originality. This study suggests that the Chinese Taipei team needs to improve its start values of difficulty and technical elegance factor for better performance.
