Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.
Sunday 7 October 2012
America's new wunderkinds
Not content with the huge talent moving up through the ranks in time for Rio, attention is begining to hone in on those who are too young for it. Jordan Chiles who is 11 will barely miss Rio. She has quite an incredible arsenal of skills in training which you can see here. These include a front triple twist-layout front which is my favourite and which I will embed because it's awesome, a double layout, 3.5 twist, double arabian, DTY, double layout bars dismount and a triple twist beam dismount (currently competing a fabulous 2.5). She has nice lines and hopefully will be able to achieve better extension and form. Twisting appears to be her strong point..and tumbling in general too. Weak points I would say handstands on bars and leg form on LOSO's on beam, but hey, she's 11. Seeing as she is not a senior until 2017, I hope she is preserved very well and doesn't burn out, because similar to Shallon Olsen of Canada who is a 2016 senior, her skill level is already extremely high.
Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.
Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.
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OOh just watched all of Jordan Chiles's training videos. I'm not used to watching non-Elite gymnastics, but that beam routine seemed pretty good for an 11-year old. Especially those combinations- wolf jump to tuck front was nice, as was the front aerials + bhs + loso (would that be 0.3 for CV?).
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of the age limit- doesn't FIG realize that they can't prevent gymnasts from practicing difficult/dangerous skills anyways?
Me neither, but I love when I stumble across Level 9-10 routines, because they have more time to use complex beam mounts! I am not sure what that would be in the new code. I think it takes a lot of time to really absorb all of the information neccessary to be able to code offhand..I'm kind of working on it, but not actively! Love the super efficient 2.5 twist at the end, you can tell she was more than ready for a triple attempt.
DeleteI don't agree with scrapping it, but I'd like to see it lowered by a year. I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference- especially as there seems to be a trend for juniors to have a high level of skill, USA in particular. (China have unbelievably low level of skill in their juniors by comparison). This girl is not even elite yet!
I didn't see her dismount actually. Was this in her new "elite beam routine"? And yes, the new beam scoring is the most confusing! I'm still digesting the new "series bonus" addition. Can't wait to hear Tim remark, "and yes, that little hesitation costed her the SB." Not.
DeleteOkay, I hate to bring up the body type issue but I think most Chinese gymnasts hit puberty a little later (sure, genes play a role, but especially when they work out all day since they were like 4- probably stunts their growth more). So therefore, it's a little more unfair to have that age limit when American gymnasts hit their peak potential earlier. (And the iconic Nadia also rocked the gymworld at 14!) It's no wonder people always make "underaged" accusations...
There's really no good way to set a limit because safety precautions have more to do with body weight/height/development and less to do with actual age (like, rollercoasters often have height limits, but never age limits).
I'm not sure, I think it was a Level 10 meet or something. That's very true, age is not neccessarily a good indicator.
DeleteI'm not a fan of wonderkids. You see them all the time. Whether it is gymnastics, figure skating or something else. Unfortunately, most of them grow up and their skills change or it is no longer as easy as it use to be. Also because they've been so hyped up a lot of them can't handle the mental pressure either.
ReplyDeleteThey're still exciting though. I know they can be dissapointing, but not always. Katelyn Ohashi for instance will probably have at least some success, but may have to specialise if she can't get her vault back. Jordyn who definitely was also a wunderkind can't be classed as a failure either, and might not be done.
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