THE ALL AROUND

Gabby Douglas wins, Vika in second and Musty third. This was not really exciting, it was frustrating, difficult and annoying to watch.

Did Gabby deserve to win?
Yes, her greatest rival messed up her vault and Gabby hit four for four. She has really peaked at the right time, got all of her former inconsistency out of the way and she was exciting to watch. However, she was very overscored.

What overscores?
 Her vault was offline and she stepped into the red. It scored the exact same as her stuck TF vault which was itself overscored. The judges basically said that if Gabby had stuck in the middle line, they would have given her McKayla's score. What kind of bullshit is this? Even 4 year fans KNOW McKayla's vault is of much higher quality. Her beam score was higher than Catalina Ponor's routine from TF's, and both of Sui Lu's beautiful routines. Gabby is a great beam worker when she's on, but she had an error and the other two are excellent beam workers, with a few tenths higher difficulty, so a 15.551 for Gabby is insane. Vika's beam was overscored too, but not in the same range. Gabby's inflated bars score was inline with Musty's, who also jumped  four tenths. But Vika only jumped two. Floor was fair for all concerned, but the judges of the other three basically were applying Gabby bonus. It is unfair and so frustrating to see, regardless of whether she would have won without them.

But Vika came off the mat on her vault!
Yes she did, and that's what killed her. Keeping with overscored amanars, Vika could have scored in the 15.8-9 range, like she did in quals, with a well landed one. If she had, she would have won. Even with that, the fight between Vika and Gabby for gold should have been a lot closer and would have been if both were scored fairly.


Gabby hit everything though!
Yes, and well done to her. She is not responsible for her scores. But it is hard to watch someone being handed gifts like that. We all want a fair all-around. Gabby would have won regardless since Vika's vault was a big mistake, but FAIR SCORING should still be expected.


 Would Musty have won without her fall?
No. She would still have gotten bronze. Her lack of an amanar sealed the deal for her really, as well as her wobbly beam.

Aly and Musty got the same score, so why is Aly in 4th?
They determined bronze by looking at combined e-scores. As is expected and fair, Musty's were higher. Very tough for Aly who was rattled after her huge error on beam though. Correction: They actually looked at the the three highest scores of each and combined the total. This is where Aly's beam sank her, instead of her weak bars being dropped, her beam was dropped instead- usually so strong, it had a big error. That meant her bars were up against Musty's hit 3 routines, and Aly's amanar was not enough to save her. Tiebreakers are unfair, what's the harm in two bronze medals?


Where was Larisa?
Languishing way down the rankings. Larisa's bars got a half decent score, but she watered down hugely on floor, downgrading her double double to a full-twisting double pike and her triple twist to a double twist. Very costly. That, her big wobble on beam and her DTY sealed the deal. Very sad to see, let's hope she can get back on track.


Highlights
- Vika, Musty and Gabby's bars. BEAUTIFUL
- Vika having the floor of her life knowing she would not be able to catch Gabby's score.
- Deng Linlin's beam. Proved her worth, nailed everything
- Musty's floor. Such a strong performance. Music is growing on me, probably because the start and end sound like Cradle of Filth.
- Vanessa Ferrari's floor. Great as usual!
- Rebecca Tunney having a GREAT competition
- Same for Elizabeth Seitz! Well done to her
- Deng Linlin and Huang Qiushuang both nailing everything! Deng had a rough time in TF, and HQS is headcase extraordinaire
- Sandra Izbasa beating both and placing fifth! WOW. Nobody expected that. Larisa was always set to outshine even the top contenders, and it wasn't really known who they would have as their second contender. Sandra's bars are not at Larisa's standard, but they were good, and great for a Romanian. Along with her excellent vault and floor and her decent beam, they were enough to boost her right up there. Great finish.


Not-so highlights
- Hannah Whelan's crashed vault, score of zero and her devastation. Awful to see, especially as she was in front of a home crowd
- Musty falling off beam, it looks like she could have fought for that, she wasn't so offline that it would have been the point of no return
- Larisa watering down bigtime to stay safe, which cost her very dearly. Hard to watch someone with the highest potential not on form in the AA
- Vika's vault landing, which cost her gold.
- Gabby's beam, bars and vault scores. Far too high.
- Aly's huge wobble on beam and hand down. Heartbreaking to see.
- HQS wayyy underscored on her excellent beam. 14.133 for that?? That's 1.4 under Gabby's, who had roughly the same SV and a leg up.
- Aly's bars outscoring Deng Linlin's and Larisa Iordache's. This is outrageous! While the other two also count bars as a weak point, both have substantially better swing and form than Aly. Aly HAS improved her form on this event, but it is still fugly compared to the other two.  Aly also has the lowest SV out of the three..

I'm so annoyed about this! I would have preferred as I said, a podium of Larisa, Vika, Musty. I do not begrudge Gabby's win, she hit everything and she deserved it, especially in light of Vika's vault. I direct my ire at the judges who were on crack. She was not the only overscore- Musty's bars and Vika's beam spring to mind, but just like US trials and nationals, Gabby was on a different plane. It taints the whole thing when one is favoured.

Best leo: Larisa Iordache. I LOVE that Pikachu leo. Musty and Vika's was second, but a bit dull for me. Then Hannah/Rebecca's, then Gabby/Aly's. Would have preferred more variation from that lot. Vanessa Ferrari's had such promise, until I saw the cut-out shoulders- what the hell? Worst was the Australian leos. Bit fed up of Japan's now, it's gotten old.