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Tuesday 12 June 2012

Top 10 things that annoyed me at Visa Nationals


10. Sarah Finnegan not having as great a competition as I had hoped. Mistakes on floor and beam and a fall off bars won't do her case any good, she needed to be consistent. I was wondering if her higher SV on floor and beam could oust Kyla for that spot even with the bars deficit but it doesn't look like it. Maybe just inexperience which is such a shame as her gymnastics are so beautiful. However she still has trials but even if she knocks it out of the park, this team is too small. A great alternate though, she's my first alternate.



9. Kyla Ross' floor. Damn it Kyla, your floor could be great but 5.5 is NOT usable. This should have been done last year, why on earth not? Even just some leaps out of passes, bit of code whoring, it would help. This will mess up her chances of securing the 2nd AA spot in London


8. Kyla Ross DUN DUN DUNNN two OOB's Day 1, one of which was not deducted for. Nice to see a fluff about her but talk about focusing on the wrong issue..the issue is with the low SV, not uncharacteristic errors.

7. Seeing Chellsie Memmel timing routines instead of getting ready to compete was very sad, especially while watching Nastia tank her routines.


6. ..Which brings to me to seeing Nastia Liukin advance to Trials following these routines. Beam both nights blatantly overscored, bars day 2 I would say so as well. Her beam won't be used anyway, it's not valuable enough and those bars are NOT going to be fixed in time. She had a chance if they were perfect but they are far from it. I will go mad if she is named alternate even, there are so many more deserving girls. She got up there and tried, but she does not deserve to be on the National team OR at Trials. Blatant favourtism seeing as Chellsie Memmel was denied even Nationals. Neither have a chance at the team, but both should have been allowed retire gracefully after Nationals. (Hint: Nastia should retire gracefully. Now so it will die down for Trials)



5. Non broadcast of Elizabeth Price, Kennedy Baker, Sabrina Vega and Anna Li Day 2. I can't recall if any were shown Day 1 or not, I suspect barely any of their routines. Sure it makes sense to broadcast Aly, Jordyn, Gabby, Kyla and McKayla if they are up at the same time...but why not show the routines later? Far too much footage of gymnasts sitting and standing around (especially a certain blonde one) and not enough quality gymnastics. Price's amanar and floor, Baker's floor and Li's bars especially. Thank God they are uploaded seperately at least, but the nation deserves to know that while Nastia chokes her routines, other gymnasts are kicking serious ass. Baker has a Dos Santos I for feck's sake and Price's amanar IS the second best in the world.

4. Broadcast of McKayla Maroney's fall day 2 during warm-ups, which I am not embedding. McKayla fell on an overrotated triple twist and because the girl is the best WAG twister out there, the height she falls from is incredible and pretty scary. Of course we should all be thankful she landed flat on her back and not at an awkward angle or directly on her neck or head but we did NOT need to see that. Of course broadcasters cannot help showing injuries that occur during competition but this was not one of them. I was so thrilled to get an update on her, which quickly descended into OMFG are you effing SERIOUS am I actually being shown this sentiments.

3. Way too much coverage of Nastia Liukin. I do understand it, she draws in the ratings. It doesn't make it any less annoying though and was distressing seeing her face so much after she tanked bars night 1. Lingering shots of her sitting alone..and then lingering shots of Valeri, WTF? There is gymnastics going on out of view. Infuriating. In a way this may be more jarring for me as I am not that used to US TV. I watch BBC broadcasts of all past competitions if available but obviously no choice with internal US competitions.

2. Selective overscoring and underscoring. The way I see it is, if you are going to inflate scores substantially beyond what they would get internationally then do it for ALL competing gymnasts and not just a few. This is how Nastia got to trials and this is how Gabby almost beat Jordyn with a fall. Not that their routines were the only culprits, I will throw my hands up and admit that Jordyn's routines were also overscored, and Aly's. McKayla's were not. Sarah's beam was. Bridget and Anna's routines were not. Price was underscored. Be CONSISTENT with scoring damn you. Either everyone fairly or everyone generously.

1. McKayla Maroney's fall day 2, which again I am not embedding. Annoyed is the wrong word here, horrified fits better. She is my favourite US gymnast and I wanted her to get out there and proove she can do bars better than that, fix that third pass, and continue being awesome on beam and vault. (Yes her beam doesn't have a great SV but it's soooo steady with such great form). The good news of course is that she will be fine and it's nothing serious but I am so gutted for her that it happened at all and that it neccessitated being pulled out. She will bring it at Trials, no question.

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