Rumour has it that Vika and Musty have upgraded their floors. Vika to a 6.0 (from 5.8) and Musty to 6.2 (from 5.9). This is welcome news, as floor is a weak spot for them d-score wise. Although it isn't set in stone or even properly confirmed, it was always suspected due to Romania's and USA's huge lead over them on floor. Musty's floor will unfortunately have built in deductions due to her twisting form, so they are about the same. If Musty can bring even her own Mustafina vault, that would help her considerably. An amanar seems almost ruled out for her- she has only done DTY's this year. But this gives Vika a great boost, especially if she throws the amanar we know she has. Her old d-score was 25.6. The upgraded floor gives her a 25.8- a tie with Gabby, and a d-score Gabby has never fully achieved in competition. Iordache is a bit of a wildcard, as said previously we can expect anything from 25 (no amanar and using her lowest known scores) to 26.6 (amanar and all FULL upgrades). She will almost certainly break 26 anyway, not sure of the full potential. Musty will have 25 with the floor upgrade- by no means out of the running!
Russia's bars will help them out a lot against USA, as they will in the AA too. If Vika brings that amanar it looks like it could outscore Jordyn's and Gabby's or at least have the same score. Beam is weaker than the USA, not by much, but still. Floor will help them control and possibly surge into the lead- especially Vika with an amanar AND dem bars. Just stay on the beam Russia!A bit different when compared to Romania, who will wipe the floor with Russia on beam and floor. Bars of course concedes a few points to Russia, but vault is just about equal.
Vault: USA 3 amanars, Russia 2 known, Romania: Cheng and amanar, maybe another. Even if both teams bring 3 amanars/Chengs...USA wins, possibly by a lot
Bars: Russia wins. Gives them at least a point over USA, and several over Romania
Floor: Romania wins, at least a point over Russis, USA unclear but still beaten
Beam: Romania wins, substantially. But enough to beat the others when they have such a bars deficit...hmmm! Exciting
A glimpse of the Russian leos has appeared! They look very nice, a blue bodice style on a white background. Comes in red too. They're not as nice as the ones at Russian Cup that I fell in love with though. Let's hope it doesn't have cuffs! USA have confirmed 12 training leos and 9 comp leos! I hope we get to see even the design for them but I'm not holding out too much hope, USAG facebook keeps stating you won't see them until they march out for comp. I do hope we won't see much hot pink..certainly it suits pretty much all the team, but wow does it get boring. Aly has tweeted that the leos are beautiful.
I'm sick of hearing how mean the four girls are to Gabby. Stemming almost entirely from what looked like a bitchy convo between the 3 BFF's at Trials, and pictures of the four in an ice bucket after training at camp. McKayla has defended this against someone who said 'Is Gabby even on the team?'. Mckayla: That's crazy! She just goes in the small ice bucket because she doesn't need the big one! Say what you want but we LOVE Gabby!(:
I think this is definitely a case of reading too much into things. Certainly the other four are much closer, that doesn't mean they spend their spare time plotting about Gabby. It's possible to compete with someone, admire their skill, get on well on them...without being their BFF and texting them the whole time. SO WHAT if they're not as close. Gabby has Anna there at camp, and enough sense to not get upset about friendship when she's in for the experience of a lifetime.
Tatiana Lysenko gave an amazing interview, which has now been posted everywhere- Stoi, Aunt Joyce and GymTruthTeller all have links to it. Probably the best interview by a gymnast I've ever read. Interesting that she never got too bogged down when her inconsistency cost her medals. Great that she has made a success of her life since. One of my favourite Soviets/Unified team members.
Vika has launched a bit of a petty attack in an interview on USA. Who apparently hate Russia and ignored them. All indications are that the entire USA team are genuine and friendly. Probably they are more focused and 'in the zone' than Russia and it comes off badly. Nevertheless, Vika should not let it get to her to the extent that she blasts them in an interview. Especially when she already has a bad rep for poor sportmanship!
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