So it's all over..tear. Lots of analysis to come, especially when videos are not taken down from youtube by whoever is working overtime to catch them on behalf of the IOC.
Best vault: McKayla Maroney, team finals 16.233
Favourite vault: McKayla Maroney, team finals 16.233
Best beam: Deng Linlin, event finals 15.6
Favourite beam: Sui Lu, qualifying 15.4
Best floor: Aly Raisman, event finals 15.6
Favourite floor: Viktoria Komova, AA, 15.1
Best bars: Tie: Aliya Mustafina, event finals 16.133, Beth Tweddle, qualifying 16.133
Favourite bars: Beth Tweddle, qualifying 16.133
Favourite choreography: Ksenia Afanasyeva, by a mile
Favourite music: Aly Raisman, I seriously love Hava Nagila
Most improved music after several listens: Aliya Mustafina. Still has an iffy bit in the middle, but the rest is great, took a good few of her floor routines to love it
Worst music: Sandra Izbasa, it was driving me mad. Or Gabby, I like that song but it's just misplaced
The one I'll end up watching most on youtube: Viktoria Komova. Vika had had an unbelievably miserable Olympics considering her talent but this routine showed us that she doesn't HAVE a weak apparatus. It was absolutely fantastic.
The event I'll never watch again: Vault. Aghh. Crashes, cannonballs, injuries and that's not even counting the horror of seeing McKayla sit a vault. Beam a close second.
The one I WILL watch most: Bars and floor, so exciting. Bars especially.
Best event final: Bars
Worst event final: Vault
Best gymnast of the games: Aliya Mustafina..and Aly Raisman. Both have shown exactly what they're made of and both go home with the highest number of medals..and of course, Aly should have 4.
Most exciting gymnast of the games: Aliya. Thrilling to watch and see the force of her determination at work.
Most surprising gymnast of the games: Sandra Izbasa. Sandra only started retraining bars this year, and it wasn't even certain Romania would put her forward as an AA contender. With an injured and very underpar Larisa, Sandra surged ahead of her to take an incredible FIFTH place! Amazing. A strong contributor to team finals too, she shockingly took gold in vault after McKayla fell. But, although she was a favourite to medal in floor finals and defend her title, she fell on her last pass. Even with that, Sandra has had a more successful Olympics than anyone predicted.
Biggest heartbreak of the games: Viktoria Komova combining inconsistency with sheer bad luck for every event. And her face and tears, awful to watch. Hope to see her come back in fighting spirit.
Biggest dissapointment of the games: Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn has been tipped for success at these games for years now and has been the most solid and consistent all-arounder of the quad. Though she goes home with a team gold medal, individually she goes home gutted. The world champion not being able to perform in the all-around for which she qualified in fourth place is a travesty, and then to mess up on floor after thatwas hard to take and hard to watch. Tough to imagine how she feels, yet she bounced back so well after the AA dissapointment to anchor her team with her performances. Her injury must have hindered her, but it does look like she peaked too soon too.
Most unfulfilled potential: Larisa Iordache. This fierce Romanian battled through qualifying, the all-around, team finals AND beam event finals despite the fact that she was in agony from plandular fasciitis- severe heel pain, and also suffered a bad tear in her palm for team finals. Sadly, she suffered falls and wobbles and instead of using her full amped-up difficulty, had to water down instead. She would have been a top all-around competitor, and instead was lucky to place within the top 10. Hopefully she will be fired on to continue
Biggest surprise of the games: There has been plenty, but trying to process the idea that McKayla had just sat down a vault and was sitting on the mat was incredibly difficult.
Best leotards: He Kexin, uneven bars final. Canada, qualifying. Great Britain, qualifying and team finals. Larisa Iordache, all-around and beam event finals.
Worst leotards: Australia, qualifying. Vanessa Ferrari, floor event finals. Sasa Golob and Tina Erceg, qualifying.
I'll look at all the podiums etc. another time.
So true about Vanessa's leo! SO UGLY. Like maybe she accidentally ripped one sleeve off? Idk but it was bad.
ReplyDeleteIt had potential, nice colour and the pink pattern wasn't bad at all. Sleeves aside, the see-through at the side showed her bra. And the sleeves, oh Vanessa. She's known for gross leotards. Anyway, she really deserved a higher score in event finals, gutted for her.
DeleteI Hope to see larissa in 2013, but was the the supposed resignation of belu and bitang, I wonder what will happen with Romanian gymnastics.
ReplyDeleteThe Couch Gymnast have published a more positive article, properly translated. It sounds like they're not going to resign, but wait and see instead as their contract is up. Catalina is still retiring though. I'd say Sandra will too. It's a pity Romania has quite a shallow talent pool at the moment, but it does give Larisa added incentive to keep going as she has massive potential and her experience will help her. I also want to see Diana Bulimar shine, and Raluca Haidu get some consistency!
DeleteI Hope so. It will be interesting to see who Romania will bring to thr american cup next year.
ReplyDeleteI Hope Alexandrov brings two two new Russian stars as well.