American Jewish Olympian Aly Raisman. Photo: YouTube/Screenshot.

In a heated close-call competition, Jewish American Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman tied for third place with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina on Wednesday in the women’s all-around individual competition, with both athletes achieving a score of 59.566 points. Due to Olympic protocol, however, Raisman was not granted the bronze medal as Mustafina came out ahead after a series of technical determining calculations.

According to SB Nation, ties in the Olympic team finals first require the lowest apparatus score to be dropped and the remaining scores added. If no winner emerges, then additional apparatus scores are dropped, one at a time, until the tie is broken. If the tie remains unbroken, then the tie stands.

The same formula is also applied for the all-around final, except that if there is still no winner when the apparatus scores are dropped, then each gymnast’s total execution score will become the tie-breaker in addition to his or her total start value. If that still doesn’t work, then the tie remains.

SB Nation explained further: although Raisman’s lowest score on the balance beam (14.200) was better than Mustafina’s 13.663, those scores were dropped and Mustafina’s 45.933 edged over Raisman’s 45.366, thus Mustafina won the bronze.

Raisman’s Team USA teammate Gabby Douglas won the gold medal in the competition while Mustafina’s Russian teamate Victoria Komova won silver.