French World Cup and stuff

The La Roche sur Yon World Cup lineup and roster has been announced. It takes place 16-17th March. Luckily I despise the gigantic mess that is Dublin on St. Patrick's Day (revoke your citizenship if you don't pass out by 9pm!), so I'll probably watch a stream of this instead. This World Cup is the new location and subsequently name for Bercy. The roster/lineup is here. One of the nicest things is that Larisa Iordache will compete all-around, originally only being down to compete bars and beam. Must be as a result of dropping out of SCAM. Certainly she has enough to be getting on with, she should also be a star at Euros, which this year are individual only, much like Worlds. Diana Bulimar is competing beam only, there are other spots available on floor (I don't expect bars from her somehow..) so hopefully that might come to fruition. Russia are sending Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Maria Paseka! Maria is vault ony, Aliya bars and floor and Ksenia beam and floor. Here's the exciting bit....wait for it...Aliya and Ksenia will have new floor routines! YES! Presumably with watered down tumbling, but I can't wait to see what two of the most exciting and potentially most elegant floor workers have to show. I will also be watching out for Janine Berger's vaults and Celine Van Gerner and Kristina Palesova's bars. There are currently no Asians listed, though I don't believe North Korea can qualify, as they have not had berths at the Olympics or subsequent World Cups. I would like to see Shang Chunsong or Zeng Siqi make their mark. And a Japanese contingent would be delightful, or more representation from Britain and Canada. Edit: Another odd thing is that Diana Chelaru is down for floor. She was slated to have retired last year. She definitely did leave the National Team and retreated back to her home gym, but nice to see her get another outing.

March is shaping up to be fantastic.
1st- Nastia Cup
1st-7th- Russian Championships
2nd- SCAM
16-17th- LRSY WC
21-24th- Cottbus WC
23-24th- Jesolo
30th- USA V Romania V Germany V Spain

:D 

There have been some slight changes to the COP. One of which is pretty dull, scissones must land on one foot, and not two. Switch ring leaps are getting a bit of a makeover, the back leg must be bent at a 90 degree angle, along with the previous requirements of head release, back leg at head height or higher, front leg at least at horizontal. There will be an 0.1 deduction for angles between 45 and 90, and total discredit for angles less than 45. This I think is in reaction to this monstrosity:

Not a switch ring leap in any code, but was credited. And to add insult to injury, it comprises the front cover of her book. Here's me trying and failing at a skill! Gabby does not have bad form as a rule, so I'm sure they had a cache of much better images to choose from. Anyway, here's what a switch ring leap now has to look like:

And not like these, they would all fail to avoid deuction or even get full credit:

Eww, hideous! Sigh. The 90 degree angle is jarring and takes away from the line. Who on earth thinks that the first one is more aesthetically pleasing than the 3 below? The other change is to the sheep jump, which must now have a 30 degree angle in hip extension. I hope everyone else is picturing beam judges everywhere squinting with protractors, because I certainly am. This means little for Russia and China, who are well capable. I think they will drop off a bit in popularity elsewhere, as it won't be worth the risk for those less flexible. I do think this will increase the risk for sheep jumps to become scrappier in the fight for the correct angle- feet apart, knees apart, sickling, one leg higher than the other etc. Hmm.

Ebee's new upgrades are cited to include a full twising double layout on floor, and a Mustafina (or half on, full off for its correct term, as it isn't the Mustafina in the COP) as a second vault. Jordan Chiles has passed elite compulsory testing. She will now have to pass elite optionals, at the WOGA classic on February 16th. Looking forward to seeing her shine at Junior Nationals. Grace Quinn of Texas Dreams passed elite testing, I haven't heard of her before so will keep an eye out. Maddie Desch has reportedly torn her mesniscus. A horrible start to her senior career, but it doesn't have a particularly long recovery so she could easily compete at Nationals etc.

Here is one of the funniest 'action' gymnastics photos I have EVER seen. Signing off with the fiercest warrior of them all, Llomincia Hall (rhyme an unintended bonus).

 

A look back at the 2010 Worlds AA: "Live" Blog

This was a suggestion, to look back and comment on a past competition. I picked this one because I am very familiar with these gymnasts and because I am more familiar with the scoring, as opposed to the last quad. I also picked it because it saw the rise and domination by a true great.

2010 World Championships All-Around, Rotterdam

The greatest excitement in this all-around competition surrounds Aliya Mustafina of Russia, the highest qualifier who does not have a weak event. Rebecca Bross of USA also has high hopes surrounding her. Bringing up the rear are their respective tag teams, the highly entertaining one of the unbelievably bad amanar Tatiana Nabieva and the powerful one of the much lamented form, Aly Raisman. Also present are the beautifully elegant but with a shitty weak vault Ana Porgras of Romania and the ultimate headcase can-be-great Huang Qiushuang of China and the fan favourite Jiang Yuyuan.

The USA at this point are weak. Rebecca Bross has almost a clear field as the 2008 team have fizzled away and stars like Jordyn Wieber aren't able to compete at the senior level yet. (Except of course at SCAM, which does not folllow any noticeable rules). Aly Raisman is a worthy number 2 all-arounder, but has quite a few issues and areas to clean up. Russia are a mixture. Aliya Mustafina is the greatest prodigy they have produced this side of the millenium and Tatiana Nabieva is strong on some events, but they are also suffering from lack of depth halfway through the quad. Romania are going through an upheaval with the changing of the guard, and a hideous lack of depth. Ana Porgras is truly exceptional with gorgeous gymnastics but lacks power. A 1.5 Yurchenko has no place in a major all-around for a top competitor. China's super-young team of 2008 (ahem I do not believe they were underage) are a bit all over the place at this point, though some remain firmly in the game, puberty is taking its toll.

(Sadly, I cannot find BBC coverage of the AA. DAMN. NBC it is)

Rotation One

Raisman VAULT Having failed to perform an amanar safely earlier that year, Aly has reverted to a DTY. Nice colour pink/berry leotard, pity about the white swirls which add nothing. Elfi and Tim are pretty complimentary of her rock-steady status, nice to hear. A really efficient vault, bounces out of the landing but it's really well done. Slightly sloppy and her feet kinda ugly in the air, but still a very decent vault. 14.9 fair score

Bross VAULT I appreciate Bross as a gymnast, but I never enjoy her routines. She comes across as stiff and robotic with uninspiring choreography or expression. I hate to say it, but her sickled feet take away from her line terribly, even though I know she cannot do anything about it (there are LOADS who have no excuse!) it still is just not nice to see. Another DTY, loose leg form in the air and she lands quite low and takes a step back. She was still recovering from a shin injury though, so this was a really good effort considering. Same leo as Aly. 14.7

Nabieva BARS Here comes the delightful Nabs. Gymnastics is always in need of fiery or different personalities I think. Painful as her vault is to watch, her form on bars is a totally different story. Here comes her signature move! LOVE it, great height and straight into a Pak. Wobbles slightly in her handstands, Tkachev slightly flat but still fine. Plants her dismount firmly as if the mat had insulted her. BOOF! Replay shows loose enough leg form, damnit. Looking like a total badass in a glorious black leotard, looks like the same leo as Nastia and Shawn's 08 one. Fabulous in black. 15.133

Mustafina VAULT Mustafina eyes the vault with pure ice in her eyes. Great game face. The first amanar of the day and probably one of only 2. Twisting form is not spectacular, crossing and loose form is evident in her legs but it's not atrocious. Nice landing in the centre, just a small step. It's not until the replay that you see how dangerous it is, because she's twisting into the ground. Also highlights the leg form and leg seperation on her block. Urggh. Truly this is a day of ugly vaulting. Another who gets the job done though. She looks well in purple, but it's an overused swirly leotard which gets no love from me. 15.666

Porgras VAULT Ah here comes Ana to show us an elegant vault, pity it's worth feck all. Gloriously done, beautiful form. Nice landing too. White and black leo, something about it looks PVC. Inoffensive, not great. 13.966 Sigh

Huang VAULT Our favourite headcase sounds a return to fugly vaulting. It's not awful, a decent DTY with some leg form. Small hop forward. Replay shows her legs fairly bent at the knee, but not enough to be declared tucked or anything. Standard reddish leo, looks fine. Can't find the score on this, probably a 14.7 or something like that.

Jiang VAULT Beijing cutiepie of the super-expressive floor is back, looking a bit older. She had an amanar in 2008 but was pulled from team finals with it as she kept messing it up right before. Nevertheless, a good vaulter and here she shows a BEAUTIFUL DTY, textbook stuff and by the far the best one shown today. Jiang was one who was slightly all over the place after Beijing but this is a nice return to form. Replay shows bending of the hips and a tiny hop back on presentation, but still glorious. 14.833 Same standard leo.

- Rotation one standings: Mustafina leads by half a point. Not surprising!

Rotation Two

Bross BARS Truly one of the most aggressive bar workers ever. Great attack and handstands, nice height on her releases. I love her form on her stoop-throughs. Plants the dismount! Nice, but Mustafina's difficulty advantage on vault is fairly insurmountable. 14.933


Nabieva BEAM Excellent death stare! No casual stepping onto the beam from her, beautiful flic-flac mount instead. Brings her foot up on her barani but recovers fast. NICE barani though. And she's off on her round-off layout series, hitting her chest quite badly in the process which elicits a gasp from Elfi. Total shame. A bit rattled, probably in pain from that. Nice double tuck dismount, really sharp. Bahhh, fall deduction takes her right out of course. She is PISSED. NBC sees fit to replay the fall about 4 times, trying to see what she hit. Charming. 13.266

Mustafina BARS Yuss, a beautiful bars routine is on the way. Lovely crisp lines and fluidity. Lucky to catch her last release as it's really low but otherwise this is well done. Nice dismount, her own skill, just slight hop forward. Great routine. 15.350 Well deserved.


Porgras BARS Very reminiscent of Yang Yilin's lines, fantastic pencil-like form. Great height on her releases and flight between the bars. Plants a great double layout dismount. Fabulous. Could have done with higher difficulty, which is reflected in her 14.666 score.

Huang BARS Lovely pirouetting, nice and sharp. Big form break though, ughh. Really nice intricate high bar work. Great double layout with a planted landing. Ha she looks back at the bars like they pissed in her cornflakes, classic. 15.2 Hmm, seems a bit high considering.

Jiang BARS Not known as a great bars worker, but these are pretty nice. Very zippy in her movements, everything is done well and she has a nice pirouette combination. Lovely form and great full twisting double layout dismount. 15.533 WOW, nicely rewarded.

Raisman BARS Always her greatest weakness, and moreso here. Struggles but is doing okay until she messes up a turn towards the end and has to jump off. A great shame that her competition ends like this. Horrific flexed feet throughout. Nice dismount though. Lol at Al 'that could be a red flag for the Olympics'. Even with the power of hindsight that I have, that was a stupid statement to make, especially 2 years off London. 11.7

Rotation 2 standings. Mustafina has increased her lead to 6 tenths. Raisman and Nabieva are gone from the top, Jiang and Huang have replaced them. Lol at Al talking about Bross 'She's going to have to climb a big Russian mountain by the name of Mustafina'.

RotationThree

Mustafina BEAM Looking very determined here. Really nice double turn and a total stomp on her arabian. Leap series is totally badass. Extremely confident first half of routine, but some wobbles towards the end. Love her 'STOP' hand. Crossed feet in her triple twist dismount, but still a great routine. That leo looks worse as the competition goes on though.

Mitchell FLOOR First look at Australia's Lauren. Never going to be a favourite floor worker of mine, but she is a great tumbler. Woah seriously 80's elevator music. Really nice double arabian but was lucky to keep the uncontrolled stag leap in bounds. Full twisting double back is a little messy with a low landing, but sticks it. Awkward dance bit...fights to keep her cossack turn, but manages it. Really awful posey dance bit in the corner, she has great ability but her dance is eh not much to write home about. Beautiful combination twisting third pass. Another awful posey bit in another corner! NOOOO. Great double pike to end. What a tumbler, but the rest of the routine...I will end this by saying I really appreciate what she has done for Australian gymnastics AND only one pass had a leap out of it. Plainish black leo with red and blue swirly bits. Not bad at all, it's pretty decent actually.  14.6

Porgras BEAM Yay. Fabulous flexibility, great sheep jump. Pure elegance and form perfection. Really strong in her acro line. Gorgeous leaps. Really nice double pike, but takes an expensive step back. I like how Al says the Chinese now have to do something great to 'catch the Russian' because I'm now picturing them chasing Mustafina with nets. 15.433 Awesome

Huang BEAM This is a bit scrappy straight off the bat, leg up on first skill and misses a connection shortly after. Lacking confidence in her skills, but they are well done. And she's still on the beam, which considering her headcase label is great. Really nice double pike dismount. 14.7

Jiang BEAM She really is stunning. Really low landing on her pike front. Everything else is great, with planted landings but it's very skill-skill and doesn't flow very well. Nice Rulfova but it's all a bit stop and start, from the Deng Linlin school of beam routines really. Still it's a very good routine and she is precise in everything. Great dismount also. 15.066

Bross BEAM Needs a killer routine here to offset the Chinese. Mustafina is untouchable at this point. Runs onto the beam, nice attack. Can't get her balance after her arabian and ends up having to come off. Sad to see. Keeps her focus but it looks like she's going through the motions as she's clearly gutted. Loses her balance again but saves it. Heads into the Patterson and lands it well, slightly low but fine. Devastating fall though. That makes falls from both Americans, everyone else is largely clear of big errors. 14.1 Still in the game with a score like that actually, which is too high.


End of rotation standings (nice Ibiza vibe to the rotation music): Mustafina's lead still more than half a point. Jiang Yuyuan and Huang Qiushuang bringing up the podium. Bross in 5th, not too shabby after that fall.

Rotation 4

Porgras FLOOR Gorgeous spin straight off the top, though I think she dropped her heel early. Great planted first pass- full twisting double I think? It's so clean it's hard to tell. Another lovely pass, twist into layout. Wonderful elegance throughout this routine. Nice balletic-style dance with a good spin. Sprightly music suits her so well as it also screams class. Sky-high double tuck and a planted double pike, slightly low. She doesn't have huge power, but it looks decent enough to improve her vault, the weakness of which remains a mystery. Great routine and a great competition. 14.3

Huang FLOOR Lots of talking about climbing and mountains from Al. This is 'the second gymnast Bross has to climb over'. And she fulfils their wishes by landing out of bounds on her first pass. One of the most expressive gymnasts on floor though, really gets into the movement. Sad about the headcase bit, which always haunts her on floor. HUGE air on her full twisting double pike, plants that landing safely. Wonderful dance, working really well to her interesting tribal-mix music. Very nice double pike to end. Probably needed more difficulty to offset that OOB. Great dancer though. Replay shows her landing out of bounds, half a point off. Worse than previously thought. NBC are THRILLED. 13.7 bahhh

Jiang FLOOR Using her crowd pleaser 2008 music, excellent. Combination twisting first pass. Double tuck, well done. Seems a little lacklustre compared to her former sparkle on this routine, probably tired. Difficulty is a bit low too. Nice spin and double pike. A bit dissapointing, but well performed. 14.566

Bross FLOOR Needs a really high score to medal. Nice first pass, layout into double arabian to stag leap. Lovely combination second pass. Dance is a bit all over the place, she looks awkward. Another awesome third pass, should be enough..? Floor scores pretty harsh here though. 15.233 Now that is a bit of an overscore.

Mustafina FLOOR And the routine that will seal the deal. Love this music, so perfect for her. Gorgeous tucked arabian, really high. Bit of a meh stag leap out of it but haven't seen anyone do much better with it. Great twisting combination second pass, leg form not noticeable in real time or with the angle. Nice precise spins and lovely fluid movements. Third pass another combo one, sticks the landing and it looks great in the air. Triple full to end and out comes the crossing of the feet! Still, fabulous routine. 15.033

1. Aliya Mustafina
2. Jiang Yuyuan
3. Rebecca Bross


Okay wow that took a while. I absolutely love watching Aliya Mustafina at the top of her game, and hope to see her get back there again as she is clearly able to show more than she did in London. She literally picked up the competition and swept the floor with them. Amazing to watch. Rebecca Bross was quite hyped up for this but even without the fall she would not have been able to take gold. Maybe not the deepest of competitions, but a great one for the pure dominance of Musty. Some really bad replays here, lots with a gymnasts hands leaving the bar and catching it again, same with feet on a beam- err great? Some not so nice overscores and underscores too.

Bits and pieces

Jennifer Pinches and Daiane Dos Santos have retired. Daiane, who is 29, had been expected to retire after London. She was hoping to make it to the Brazilian nationals (at which junior star Rebeca Andrade had tonnes of success) but was injured and decided to call it a day. Jenni's retirement, announced this morning on twitter, is more surprising. She is volunteering in Ecuador and has ruled out competitive gymnastics in her future but it seems to be more related to GB. She could well follow Danusia and go down the NCAA route, but looks like she's having a gap year first.

Still waiting for an update on what McKayla Maroney's injury is. ACL, hyperextended knee and broken leg are all rumours flying around. She has headed home from hospital on crutches though, after about 24 hours there. I almost find it funny when I hear 'a long wait in ER' as when I was in ER on holidays in America, the wait was around 3 hours and people were fuming and storming out in protest. In Ireland, the wait would be 18-36 hours and then you'd get a chair or a trolley in a corridor. Anyway, let's hope it's not something that will take her out for ages, but it does look fairly serious. Some people are saying it could be a blessing in disguise as a long rest will force ALL of her injuries to heal and she has had a rough 6 months of it- broken toe, fractured fibula, fractured nose, concussion and now this.
UPDATE: Diagnosis is a fractured tibia. This is on top of the stress fracture in her fibula, for which she was trying to compensate on her landing. It's absolutely not a disaster because it's not a knee or ligament injury which really would have impacted her and her recovery. It can vary in severity though. USAG statement blabs on about assessing about her possible return to the tour at a later date- I'm sure people who have bought tickets care but I really just want her to recover safely and be eager to get back to real training, not the tour.
UPDATE: McKayla has posted that she had surgery and that it was a success. Having surgery implies it was quite a serious fracture. She will be out for a few months anyway. 

Larisa Iordache's MRI has revealed no lesions, which is great news. However it appears that she has one leg slightly longer than the other, which was probably either the cause of the problem or a big contributor. She is having special sillicon desposits to equalise the pressure on her feet. Hopefully it's a total success and she can return to her peak form.

There is a lot of fuss over recent photos that have emerged of Ana Porgras. Certainly she looks tacky at best, but it's not for anyone else to dictate her life. Ana announced her retirement earlier this year, which was a huge shock as she was fully expected to be on the London team and had enjoyed success at world championships with her unbelievably graceful and beautiful beam and bars work. She had been dealing with a string of injuries and did not adjust well to the return of Octavian Bellu and Mariana Bitang. Ana has expressed outrage in interviews that people will not leave her alone on the issue and respect her wishes and accept that she absolutely does not regret her decision. Maybe she will return to gymnastics eventually- she is still only 18- but in the meantime, people should back off and let her do her own thing without making awful comments.

It's a little hard to believe that this was her not that long ago:

But if Ana is happy then so be it! She is definitely faring better than another former Romanian gymnast- Florica Leonida, who is allegedly working as a prostitute in Germany.

If you haven't already, read this. A translated interview with He Kexin that is a joy to read. It's rare that perfectly translated interviews of Chinese gymnasts are available, especially compared to Russian and Romanian gymnasts, but this is a gem.

Part 1: http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/?p=7199
Part 2: http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/?p=7210 

Bruno Grandi has had a general letter published addressing judging controversy etc. It's not that long a letter but he manages to say nothing and convey nothing of any merit in it, quite a feat. He does sound pissed at one point that the president of the IOC was there to witness the Kohei Uchimura score disaster, boo hoo. Oh and he implies that he wasn't happy that there was an inquiry into Aly's beam score. Excuse me? People should have to accept judges execution score but not if they screw up the difficulty score? How DARE anyone question the judges? He never really gets into the issue, or any other, he skirts around outright condemnation of anything- tie-breaking, inquiries and the judges. FIG needs to oust him and Nellie Kim yet they seem to be as entrenched as the Karolyi's are in USAG.

There have been some changes to the actual code of points, which I am trying to wade through. In the draft code, the D+A (acro)- which meant all of the leaps out of passes on floor- was replaced with D+B (acro). Since that would mean having to do a much harder jump like a sheep jump or Yang Bo, everyone rejoiced at how that would reduce the numer of leaps out of passes. The Olympics saw a TON of this connection. So what do the FIG do? They put it back to D+A! Enjoy more Lauren Mitchell-esque floor routines. In other news, Katelyn Ohashi's beam start value is 7.2 in the new code. If she rearranges her sheep jump in its combination, it could be 7.3. If she gets back her old full-in dismount, it would be 7.5. WOW. Beam will see lots of rising start values, but Katelyn seems ahead of the pack with that. The combination acro line on floor won't be as valuable as it was in the draft..damn.

Gabby is only doing half the tour, then going back to Chow's. Very interesting- she does have two book deals so maybe isn't as pushed at pursuing the media spotlight for money, but most speculated that since she has achieved the ultimate she would not have much motivation to continue training at the highest level and live that far apart from her family. I know that she is a very talented gymnast- there's no disputing that (it is her attitude in some of the statements she makes that puts me off her) so I would like to see a much better floor routine from her. In the last several quads, AA champions become the champion AFTER success at worlds and other big competitions. For a reigning Olympic champion to go to on worlds after Olympics is pretty rare. I really want to see Larisa Iordache and some new seniors shine, but we'll see what happens anyway. I am going to go to worlds, as it is only about a 2 hour flight away. I'm excited already..

Most of the Russian squads are training in Mallorca, just conditioning. Mustafina looks fierce and ready to go. She plans to compete at the Voronin Cup in December. It will be great to see if her beam routine is more like her old 2010 self, what a shame her injury impacted on her readiness on that event.

Great gymnasts we won't see in London

Inconsistency, injury and recovery and sheer depth has done these gymnasts out of their chance to shine in London.

Ana Porgras

Ana is the most artistic gymnast to emerge this quad. Her lines are exquisite and very reminiscent of old-school beautiful lines such as Aurelia Dobre. She could also swing bars like Romanians haven't since the late 1980's. A beautiful bar and beam worker, she also had an elegant floor. Vault was her nemesis into breaking into the AA, as she never really mastered a DTY. Truly a gymnast who would have flourished in the perfect 10 code, Ana was dogged by injuries for most of her senior career and has now retired. With more and more older gymnasts making comebacks, we can hope she will also.

Mariya Livchikova

Mariya is quite similar to Ana, her artistry is evident in her beam and floor, which are works of art. Her beam also showcases great original connections. Unfortunately she also has the Ukrainian tendency to splat all over the place, but it was her injury last year which counted her out of receiving the only WAG place for Ukraine, who shockingly placed so badly they cannot field a time. We can hope Mariya will stick around.

Cheng Fei

Admittedly she had her chance at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, but individually failed to shine at both. A huge departure from the Chinese tradition of having petite gymnasts excel at bars and beam, Fei was a powerhouse on vault and floor, with an amanar and a double-double as her highlights as well as a fierce beam routine. This time around, her strengths would have been helpful in complementing those of her team-mates. Unfortunately, Fei has fallen victim to the plague of achilles tendon, ruptured performing a triple twist on floor. Her presence and strength on floor will be missed.

Rebecca Bross

 Rebecca Bross peaked in the middle of the quad. Seen as a lock for the US Olympic team two years ago, she will now be very lucky to make alternate. She blew her knee vaulting last year, and it appears to have impacted her greatly. She is now only training two events and neither will score high enough to justify taking her. A sad end for a great gymnast.

Mai Murakami

I've already spoken quite a bit about Mai. In short, she is amazing and has incredible difficulty. Inconsistency was an issue at the Japan nationals so she missed out. Thankfully Japan love sending veterans so we can hope she will be around for the next quad.. 2013 worlds!