Quick round-up

Sadly the rumour is true, no Larisa Iordache at LRSY this weekend. This makes it her fourth missed world cup. She is still slated to compete at Doha and Cottbus world cups, and is expected to be a certainty for Euros. I'm not sure why they bothered overloading her with assignments as now they face more indignity in pulling her out of this one- and at a very late stage too. A slight injury was cited as the cause, I'd be more inclined to believe her March and April schedule is packed enough moreso than an injury. If it is, then hopefully it's a very swift recovery. We have to see her this year sometime..she can't withdraw from everything...right? Maria Paseka is not there either, the reason seems to be another visa problem- which makes it the third in quick succession, Mei Jie could not attend Massilia and Andreea Iridon could not attend Gymnix for the same reason. Sort it out, major gymnastics federations...

The good news is, Diana Bulimar has been added to the LRSY floor line-up. She is also down for Cottbus, Doha and is another almost-certainty for Euros. However she has less pressure on her and is not as of yet a brilliant all-arounder- though she has upped her game on vault. Really looking forward to her floor. The impressions from training report states that she is using her choreography and music from London. Fine by me. You can read it here, in French. I'm proud I understood without translating. Finally!

Update: What a splatfest. Really sad to see gymnast after gymnast come to grief at the hands of bars, vault and beam. Not to mention Janine Berger and Kristian Thomas who injured themselves on vault. The prognosis on Janine is that she will be out for two weeks. I was most dissapointed to hear that Becky Downie had a disastrous time on bars and that Diana Bulimar fell off beam twice. Bars and beam were a case of whoever doesn't fall, qualifies. Well done to Ksenia Afanasyeva for hitting both of her routines. However, I am disgusted she was wrongly awarded 0.5 CR for a front/sidewards element on floor as she did not perform it, she left out her front aerial. Her turn combination was beautiful though. I was a little dissapointed with her beam as she left out a very pretty connection from Russian Nationals. The routine seemed like a fight, it wasn't anywhere near as graceful as it could have been, but there's plenty of time to iron that out, hopefully. Ugly dismount too, sigh. Afan's floor being judged incorrectly means that Diana Bulimar should have won floor by a landslide. Which would have been nice considering her beam. I didn't see anything wrong with her leaps, two of which failed to get credit. Will have to rewatch. Although Anne Kuhm's beam was a meltdown, her BHS-LOSO-LOSO looks like it will be absolutely beautiful. Carlotta Ferlito's beam was another highlight, very strong and it looks like she has absolutely nailed the new arm-swing rules. Her acro line was totally Li Ya-esque in its lack of arm swing, brilliant to see. I've no idea how this rule physically affects gymnasts, but it seemed like it set Marine Brevet off balance..

Our winners are:

UB- Giulia Steingruber
VT- Giulia Steingruber
BB- Carlotta Ferlito
FX- Ksenia Afanasyeva

Afan fell off beam, handing the title to Carlotta. I haven't seen Afan's floor yet (issues with the livestream..) but she did have an aerial in apparently. Didi scored just one-tenth lower, I don't know yet if she had her leaps credited. Her tumbling was a little scrappy, especially in slow-motion. Bit of a dissapointing competition given all the falls and some odd judging. Here's to Jesolo being better!

And for the day that's in it (it's a disaster zone and I avoid it like the plague here. Tip: If you're ever visiting Ireland, don't coincide your trip with Paddy's Day); here is Kim Zmeskal with the best example of an Irish music floor routine that I've seen yet. I really love this music, and it works so well. She even has little movements inspired by the dance..not many, just the ones after her second and third passes, but still. She changed this routine for nationals and had different music. Boo. This one rocks.

I'm too late for the old news that Beth Tweddle has won Dancing on Ice. I wonder if the gymnasts lucky streak will continue for Aly Raisman though. Really looking forward to seeing her first dance. I think she will at least initially face the same criticism Beth did- too much focus on technicality, not enough on losing herself in the dance and her presentation. I think it's hard for gymnasts to do the opposite of what they do so much of- keeping the body tense and being incredibly focused on technicality. Obviously not that hard, since they're winning everything they enter, but still..

I am so thrilled at the vast improvement of Andreea Munteanu. Andreea is a 2014 senior, whose strengths are floor and beam..no surprise there for a Romanian. Thankfully, she also has superb toepoint, leaps and extension. She stood out on beam in particular last year at Junior Euros but has really come on since then. I could look at her 1/4 straddle all day long. And she already has a (nice and high) tuck full! Much as I enjoy Larisa Iordache's superb beam work, her toepoint is severely lacking and her leaps aren't a patch on Munteanu's. So I'd have no problem for her to be surpassed on beam by the girl with superior form. Really great to see her comeback after a vastly dissapointing TF and AA and take the beam and floor titles and a bronze on vault. Hopefully Laura Jurca can recover quickly, she aggravated an old injury on floor and then scratched vault..the reason why they finished last with 2/3 in their vault rotation. Andreea herself would have easily claimed the AA had she not had a disaster on bars. A modest score of 12.8 would have given her a generous lead. Sigh.

This is the greatest thing I have seen on twitter, ever.

Looks like me with my teammates from Olympics hahahah twitter.com/CPonor/status/…
— ponor catalina (@CPonor) March 14, 2013

There's a meet in May that I've never heard of before, but it sounds very interesting. The Professional Gymnastics Challenge will pit two groups- USA Vs The World- of mixed gymnasts against each other. Gymnasts will compete head-to-head in an offence against defence format where the first group devise a skill or series and the other team must better the originators effort in order to be the new offending team. Tumbling is one category, there are plenty of others. I can't wait to see how it pans out. It's not new, but it is to me! On the US side will be Jana Bieger (still training..?), Anna Li, Kat Ding and a whole bunch of big enough MAG names. The international team includes Oksana Chusovitina, Anna Pavlova, Jade Barbosa, Jessica Lopez and Lisa Mason. Jade's gym has dropped their professional programme and fired a whole bunch of staff, leaving her, the Hypolito's and a few more in the lurch. (It's not clear how this affects Rebeca Andrade who is too old for the recreational programme for younger kids which is being kept, but is not a senior pro and is not named as being affected. Nevertheless, the coaching situation will impact her if nothing else). So if Jade has not withdrawn as of yet, hopefully that's good news and she has somewhere good to train. The website is here, for a better explanation of how the competition will work. I'm most excited about Anna Li as there is an uneven bars bit..and Jade Barbosa anything.

Chantysha Netteb and Noel van Klaveren will compete for the Netherlands at Euros. Absolutely thrilled Chantysha rebounded quickly from her scary fall at her first attempt to qualify, but dissapointed they are not sending more. After all, they're sending six MAG. Sanne Wevers (queen of turns) still scores high on beam and Daphne Slingerland could do with the experience. Hmm. Elizabeth Seitz, Tabea Alt and Sophie Scheder will compete at Chemnitz. Sophie is the reigning junior Euros bars champion, looking forward to seeing what she has up her sleeve for her senior debut, and Tabea too. Mariya Livchikova and new senior Darya Matveyeva placed first and second respectively at Ukrainian Cup. Presumably both will be headed to Moscow. Darya was very flaky last year at Junior Euros, though very promising as is usual with Ukraine. Let's all pray to something that Mariya can stay on the beam as her original and daring routine is probably worth more in this code...

More News

Alexander Alexandrov is in Brazil this week, with a view to forming a contract to coach their senior National Team. Brazil already poached another ill-treated Russian coach, Oleg Ostapenko, who coaches the junior team. While this would be beyond fantastic for the team leading into their home games...it would be a great shame for his personal student, Aliya Mustafina, who has already been dumped by her personal coach before. (Not Alexandrov..) So I'd be happy for Alexandrov to take up this oportunity, or indeed any fabulous opportunity that comes his way as he is an excellent coach and deserves it. Just after Mustafina retires would be preferable.

A video of the Chinese National Team training has emerged, shot by some Australians who were beyond lucky to even be there...though it's hard to call people suffering through Beijing's poisonous levels of air pollution lucky. Sui Lu can be seen on floor at the start. Shang Chunsong is the one on bars doing the lovely Hindorff to uprise. Zeng Siqi and Tan Sixin are tagged. It's great to see that Tan is back on the National Team and in full training, though it's obvious she has deteriorated. Hopefully just growing pains, she should be able to adjust. Zeng looks great, lovely connections. The other two on beam towards the end are Wang Wei and Yuan Xiaoyang, two of the most promising juniors. Wang is the one who falls on the layout and then nails it. It's private so I can't embed, watch it here.

Videos are circulating of Beyond the Routine- a Gymnastike documentary following Mary Lee Tracy at her gym, CGA. I find it hard to watch, from the dog on the mats to her beratement of the younger girls, the explanation of Amelia Hundley's nickname, her condescension to her gymnasts, favourtism, obsession over some stupid clock all the way to her dangerous driving. All in all, it confirms what I had already thought about how she operates, and then some. In a much more uplifting documentary (and this time free, so I'll link), we get a look at the daily lives of elite gymnasts. Very excited about this one! It's called Off the Mat and first up is the lovely Nia Dennis. The first episode focuses on her family life, the morning routine, her interaction with her cutiepie little sister Mya, and how her parents balance her gymnastics with quality family time- like her dad's conversations with her on the way to gym. An immediate impression is created of a great supportive family, it's nice to see. Next will be looking at her daily gym routine I think. The first episode is here.

Here is yet another great interview with McKayla Maroney, at the Metroplex Challenge where she signed autographs for 3 hours and only left because she was made to- I like hearing stuff like that. McKayla insists that she's not done and will be gearing up for worlds. She has an automatic berth for Nationals given her Olympian status, though if she misses it and verifies routines before Worlds, she would still stand a very good chance..particularly with a TTY or Y double back.

Alicia Sacramone has officially retired. Given the excellent shape she was in last year after another injury in late 2011, it's a shame, but she's definitely been around long enough and has a lot of medals to her name. She's not a gymnast I particularly like or enjoy watching, but I appreciate her enormous talent and longevity. I'll miss the fierceness of her beam certainly.

Here's Beth Tweddle's third performance on Dancing on Ice. Sadly her expression regressed a bit, though I can't blame her for entering wooden gymnast mode given the huge complexity and difficulty of her routine, which she nailed. Hopefully she can polish her performance more in the weeks to come.

None of this is particularly new because the One to Watch post took me 3 days or so, so news got old in the meantime.

BUT this is new- Romania will only have 3 girls at Euros! Dropping a place is a little ominous. I'm thinking Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar and Stefanie Stanila. There's no team finals, much like worlds, though I'm not sure if there's an AA. If there is, I don't think Iordache will do it because she will have done so at LRSY a month before. Germany will not have Elizabeth Seitz or several other elites because of the timing, right in their exam season apparently. Edit- Diana Chelaru is returning to the National Team and Sandra Izbasa is in full competitive training for this year so both of them are in the mix. I'd like to see Daniela Andrei get the nod for Euros though, especially if they don't want to tax Iordache and Bulimar.

Ellie Downie will compete at the WOGA Classic. She is the younger sister of Becky and has some lovely work, looking forward to seeing her. Also Jordan Chiles, who will be competing optionals in her bid for elite.

Danusia Francis won beam at UCLA vs Stanford! Nice. I.want.videos. Time difference kills me.

More news- Do not adjust your VCR

UPDATE- Added Lizzy LeDuc's routines from a few weeks back, and Bridget Sloan's brand new floor for Florida, debuted last week.

China, who took the team title at AYOF despite four falls, did not dominate in the AA and EF, sadly. However, they did accrue some more medals- Mei Jie took third in the AA, first on bars and third on beam, Luo Huan took second on bars, Liu Zhilin second on floor and third on vault and Chen Siyi second on beam. All in all, they went home far from empty handed, and at an inauspicious time of the year for them, still in the middle of Winter Training. There is great dissapointment that they did not sweep the board, but I don't think they should be written off...they are not used to competition, particularly international, and will not have been training high level skills for long. A good point was made on IG, that Deng Linlin was extremely inconsistent as a junior. Conversely of course, Tan Sixin and plenty of others never translated their potential as a junior to a senior. I am very impressed with Britain! Hope to see all of these girls in the future.

There's a US National Team Camp taking place. Some more appointments to the Junior National Team would be nice. Sarah Finnegan is not at camp, no idea as to why not. Hopefully not an injury. If she is not present at the next camp at the end of February, it is unlikely that she will be in contention for the competitions in Italy and Germany coming up in March. This one will no doubt be focusing on upgrades for those meets, and the summer season- Classics and Nationals, as well as SCAM of course.

Norah Flatley, Alexis Vasquez and Jordan Chiles will all be trying for elite this year. Norah and Alexis are Chow's most promising Level 10's, with some gorgeous beam work and artistry. Jordan is the girl I posted about a while ago, who has an arsenal of awesome skills in training- a DTY, a front triple-layout front etc. but sadly is not elegible for Rio. They would all make fabulous additions to the Junior National Team. I am most excited for Bailie Key, who now has a Downie and Church (!!!) on bars, and a standing arabian on beam. No doubt she has plans for floor and hopefully vault too. She will make excellent competition for Amelia Hundley.

Here is Michaela Chernoch's of Southern Utah's vault from a while ago, versus UCLA. It's the last one, at about 20 seconds. It's a one and a half on, full off. There's a lot of debate over whether it is a vault or not. It's extremely expressive in that a) she lands it and b) she lands it dead centre, and not off the mat...that's a very difficult vault to control the direction on. It also of course, looks awesome. But I'd have to agree it's not a vault, the vault is in her way, not a tool for her to rebound off. She gets pretty much no repulsion off the table and barely touches it. So, not a vault as it does not conform to the three stages of one. But wow!

Beth Tweddle performed for the second time on Dancing on Ice at the weekend. On her first outing, she was commended for her skill and bravery, but condemned for her roboticness. I would agree that she is much more watchable this time around, and has clearly made a lot of effort as regards her presentation. Well done Beth! Particularly impressive in that she was not felling well and had been hospitalised during the week.

Here are Lizzy LeDuc's routines from a meet a few weeks ago. The super-stylish junior who garnered quite a fanbase, moved gyms from WOGA after breaking both her elbows and dropped to Level 10. She failed to qualify elite last year, and has moved gyms again. This is an interview she gave after that move. It won't work for me, not sure if it's under gymnastike's gold' premium section or what. She seems happy with the goal of a college scholarship in mind, and indeed her routines look very NCAA. LOVE that floor. Still, I'd say ruling out her return to elite is premature.

Bridget Sloan did not dissapoint with her new floor routine. It makes the most of her choreography potential, and there's plenty of room for her to increase the difficulty in her tumbling, which is fairly average at the moment. I especially like the opening part.

This is my routine of the day, Hope Spivey at the 1994 NCAA EF on floor. Not only because she was 26 and still awesome, but for the difficulty, form and flair she shows here. Did I mention...reverse choreography??? Wow. Do not adjust your VCR!XD

I made a tumblr. I'm not sure exactly why, as I've no real interest in the tumblr world of OMG REBLOG LOL and I only ever look at a grand total of 3 tumblrs. Boredom I suppose. Predictably, you can find it at http://beautifulgymnastics.tumblr.com It looks extremely bare right now. I will use it for more informal snippets/pictures/videos. You can ask me questions or suggest something for a post on this blog. I won't be neglecting blogger in its place. EDIT- I got very sick of it and deleted it. I just don't like tumblr.

Origin of London's difficult skills

All commentators stress the difficulty of certain skills. Certainly some of them are more prevalent now in competition than they ever were before, but extremely few were invented this side of the millenium which shows how innovative the 80's and 90's were when it did not pay to break the mould and perform a super-difficult skill. Here are the ones seen in London and their origins.

The Double Double/Silivas

This double double is currently a G skill and will be a H under the new code. In London it was performed by Jordyn Wieber, Victoria Moors, Larisa Iordache, Vanessa Ferrari and Anastasia Grishina. Though it is named after Daniela Silivas of Romania who performed it at the 1988 Olympics, it was first done by Aleftina Priakhina of USSR in 1986. Neither had great landings, but they were using a crap old floor.


Double Arabian beam dismount/Patterson

An exceptionally difficult beam dismount which requires a lot of height and speed. In London it was executed by Aly Raisman, Viktoria Komova and Marta Pihan-Kulesza. Carly Patterson of USA was the first to perform it, at the 2003 Worlds but Corey Fritzinger also of USA did it first in 2001. 

Standing Full twist- beam

A move which elicited awe when Shawn Johnson did it but it's much older than that. Usually has quite a low landing due to the difficulty of fully rotating it in time. In London it was performed by Gabby Douglas. This is another skill done first by Aleftina Priakhina of USSR, again in 1986.


Tucked full twist in acro line/combination

This one is more common as it provides more momentum to get the twist around, but is just as risky otherwise. In London it was performed by Larisa Iordache. The inventor is Ecaterina Szabo of Romania who performed it in 1983.


Full twisting double layout

This is the other skill to be awarded H status in the code. Performed only by Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil but although Catalina Ponor of Romania warmed one up in podium training she never competed it. Named after Oksana Chusovitina of USSR (at the time) who performed it in 1991. It was first done by Tatiana Tuzhikova of USSR in 1987.

Li Ya Jaeger-Jaeger combination bars

Performed only by He Kexin who despite growth has managed to keep this. Often called her original skill but it was first done by Li Ya also of China who competed it in 2006.

Tucked Barani/Grigoras

My favourite acrobatic skill on beam, it's quite rare. Sui Lu of China performed it in London and it was invented by Cristina Grigoras of Romania in 1980. Chellsie Memmel had a nice one too.

Amanar vault

The most common difficult skill/vault. It was performed by McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Maria Paseka and Viktoria Komova. First performed by none other than Simona Amanar of Romania who did it at the 2000 Olympics.

Produnova vault

This was performed (read: sat down feet first) by Yamilet Pena Abreu of Dominican Republic in London. It is the hardest vault with a difficulty of 7.1 Notoriously difficult as it requires immense height and a powerful block. It was first attempted by Choe Jong Sil of North Korea at the 1980 Olympics but she completely crashed it so credit goes to Yelena Produnova of Russia who most notably landed it totally upright in 1999.

Def release- bars

The Def is a one and a half twisting Geinger, first performed by Jacques Def of France. His name has carried over to WAG as the first woman, Snejana Hristakieva of Bulgaria who first performed it in 1991 has a much less catchier name. It was done in London by Elizabeth Seitz of Germany. Interestingly, both perform it very sloppily but is IS possible for it to look neat- check out Cha Yong Hwa and Elena Dolgopolova.

Double Double bars dismount/ Fabrichnova

One of the hardest bars dismounts, this was performed by Beth Tweddle and Viktoria Komova in London. It was first done by Oksana Fabrichnova of Russia in 1993, and remains fairly rare.

Piked Double Arabian/Dos Santos I

This was performed by Aly Raisman and Beth Tweddle. The originator, Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil who first performed it in 2003 was in London but has not been doing it recently. It is one of the hardest floor tumbles and should be rated higher.


Full-in beam dismount

Having watched the 1996 AA all over again just recently, this was more common then. Performed in London by Catalina Ponor of Romania. It is was first done by Albina Shishova and Natalia Frolova both of USSR in 1983.

If I have missed any others in London who performed these skills please let me know. I did watch every single subdivision but some things can be forgotten easily. I have real issues about the standing full..there's no way it was just done by Gabby. As for the originators, I stand by all of them as being correct.

 

 

Top 10: Bars

I love watching perfect routines like Fan Di and Lu Li, but innovative routines always win for me. The ones I have included here that have insanely difficult release skills are always perfect or almost perfect elsewhere- there are quite a few for example doing the Def very sloppily so they won't be included! The ones without a unique release move are there because they are innovative or awesome in some other way. Bars top 10's are always China-heavy and this is no exception.

10. Irina Krasnianska, UKR 2006 Worlds QUAL

Irina was probably the most inconsistent Ukrainian, which is a feat in itself. She had a long career and performed this exact routine many times, and this is the only one without a major error. GORGEOUS long lines and fabulous German giant combination, very tidy double front too.

9. Amy Chow, USA 1996 Olympics TF

My favourite part is her high-to-low transition, the straddled Pak which is named after her. I'd love to see it used again as it looks amazing. Amy has fantastic lines and form- even in her very difficult dismount. What's noticeable is that her height does not mean she loses form on her downswing- some taller gymnasts like Nastia and McKayla break form slightly when they are clearing the lower bar and it ruins the whole look. Amy does it perfectly.

8. Beth Tweddle, GBR 2012 Olympics QUAL

A-MAZING. Love her release combinations and the Ezhova transition. Fabulous dismount and she has spectacular height on the Markelov which is often flat for everyone else. Beth also has absolutely perfect form and toepoint. It doesn't really get more exciting than this in the new codes.


7. Zhou Duan, CHN 1997 East Asian Games TF

Zhou Duan was a nifty vaulter, which were and continue to be rare in China. However her unbelievable bars really outshine her other events. Zhou performs a Gaylord 1/1- so a very rare Gaylord release WITH a full twist. Really just astonishing. Beautiful pencil-like form throughout- and another 2 releases on top of that. Fantastic.

6. Li Ya, CHN 2006 Cottbus World Cup

I picked this routine because it has her combination AND that dismount..piked double arabian, wow. Li does the Jaeger combination a lot straighter than He Kexin, fabulous to watch. Very very crisp turns and perfect form.

5. Liu Xuan, CHN 1996 Olympics TF

Liu Xuan's one- arm giant was one of the greatest tragedies of the code of points..it was considered dangerous and was lowballed into a C rating, meaning it wasn't worth performing. Liu did ditch it, but kept it for the Olympics. It's incredible, especially as it's done right into a release. Fabulous lines and form in the rest of her routine, and I love her high-to-low transition.

4. Mo Huilan, CHN 1996 Olympics AA

What made Mo stand out amongst China's fantastic bars workers at this time and overall and even over her teammate Bi Wenjing who also did the Gaylord was her flight, especially on the hecht transition. She completely hangs in the air- nobody can fly like that. Fantastic height on all of her releases, perfect form and line throughout and at a time when jump to high from the low bar was perfectly acceptable Mo was doing two much more difficult transitions. Perfection.

3. Teodora Ungureanu, ROM 1976 Olympics AA

Teodora never made it beyond Nadia's enormous shadow. In my view, this routine is more interesting by far, and performed to the same excellent standard. Everything about this routine is great. 
 

2. Elena Mukhina, USSR 1979 Spartakaide AA

Everything about this routine is amazing, the first transition, the form, the Mukhina flip and her original dismount. Seriously the greatest gymnast ever.

1. Kim Gwang Suk, PKR 1991 Worlds EF

Not a suprise, I've mentioned quite a few times how much I love this routine. I do see the bent knees but the excellence of the routine- and her age- make it totally forgiveable. Unbelievably easy swing, perfect handstands and form, crisp pencil like line and turns and THAT combination. Outstanding.

Honourable mentions: Enilia Eberle, Bi Wenjing, Elvire Teza, Yang Yun, Liz Tricase, Hollie Vise, Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool, Elise Ray, Ma Yanhong, Li Li, Lu Li, Fan Di, Olga Roschupkina, Becky Downie, Lori Strong, Emilie Lepennec, Cha Yong Hwa, He Kexin, Viktoria Komova, Yang Yilin, Nadia Comaneci, Karin Janz, Steffi Kraker, Gabrielle Fahnrich, Nadia Hategan, Aleftina Priakhina, Olga Korbut, Elena Abrashitova, Charlotte Mackie, Daniela Silivas, Maxi Gnauck

Thoughts on London's podiums

Not literally podiums, though the team finals one could have been bigger of course and they reminded me of Cadbury's (way way nicer than American chocolate). Moving on..

TEAM FINALS

USA on top looked like a foregone conclusion earlier this year, until USA's amanar advantage suddenly seemed to be eaten up by Russia's 2 confirmed and 1 possible amanar which along with their bars advantage made them a formidable threat. This only increased closer to the games when beam and floor upgrades started emerging practically every day.  Romania's resurgence with such a small pool of talent was realised probably most forcefully at Euros, which they won. Obviously dismal on bars, the huge start values on beam and floor and the videos of an amanar and cheng made their case for potential gold, especially if mistakes were forthcoming from the other two teams as consistency has long been Romania's greatest weapon in the hunt for medals.

Only a few days before prelims, disaster struck when the news of Larisa's very painful injury came to light. She was immediately struck out of the AA, then reinstated. Doubt over her ability to perform at her best was realised when she watered down in prelims and fell on floor. Romania on the whole played it safe and did not unleash all of their potential upgrades, which lessened their chances of gold or silver even before team finals. Russia did quite well in prelims, but played it safe too and had a good few wobbly beams and a weak floor from Komova to contend with, as well as being one amanar short of USA. USA on the other hand despite showing some errors like Kyla hitting her feet off the low bar (please stop growing Kyla..) and Gabby running out of bounds on floor, fulfilled their promise and stayed ahead of the pack. A great advantage to have going into team finals, even though it did not do their men's team any good in the end.

In the end of course, USA got it together and even though their team had a giant headcase, made no big or even medium errors. Gabby was clearly coached to peak for the right DAYS. Russia had to count a low-scoring amanar from Paseka, very wobbly beams and not one but two disastrous floors from Grishina and Afanasyeva. Romania had a subpar star, who could not do the amanar her team needed to push ahead further, or produce an excellent floor. Bulimar did a beautiful job in Larisa's stead, but counting 5.8 SV when you had a potential 6.7 is galling. Both Russia and Romania played it safe again, while USA fired ahead with all of their long-term upgrades. A closer fight would have been great, but there's no arguing with the final result. Had Russia hit 12/12 they would have gotten a LOT closer, but a 5 point lead is too much. A well deserved win, even if it was heartbreaking to see Russia crumble and Romania unable to fight as hard as they could have done with Larisa at her peak.

Too long, didn't read: Well done USA on a very decisive win, pity Russia and Romania weren't able to give it their all.


ALL- AROUND

This AA was much less exciting than everyone expected heading into the games. In fact, it was anti-climatic and a bit boring. Frustrating too, as overscores were blatant. Not that Gabby was the only culprit- hers were the worst but Komova, Raisman and Mustafina got some gifts too. Larisa Iordache, who could quite convincingly have taken gold had she been able to perform at her best with full difficulty, was placed in the second group. Yao Jinnan fell foul of the two-per-country rule, a thigh injury prevented her from being anywhere near her best, and Deng Linlin and Huang Qiushuang both qualified ahead of her. Not forgetting reigning world champion Jordyn Wieber who also fell foul of it, but much more controversially as she placed 4th, not 19th and did not have an outright 'bad' performance at all. So all in all, a deflating start to the competition, minus three possible stars. Gabby and Vika were always going to be top contenders, as long as both did not headcase in prelims and face the likelihood of being ousted by another all-arounder in their respective teams. Doubt was in evidence as to whether Mustafina had it in her to medal, a bad performance at Euros and a difficult road of recovery being the main reasons fuelling the speculation. Raisman was expected not to qualify at all, with a slim likelihood she could have done so if Gabby had messed up. Surging ahead of Gabby and placing higher than her in prelims, which knocked Jordyn out as she placed behind Gabby- was a huge suprise to everyone. Miss Raisman obviously worked intensely hard to improve her form, and that's all it took. Unfortunately, it also meant she faced a backlash from the media for knocking out the world champion (even though technically Gabby did) and huge attention was placed on Jordyn's plight while Aly's triumph was ignored. Not a great start to the biggest competition of your life.

Gabby retained the quality of performance she showed at team finals, her headcase label was nowhere to be seen. A strong amanar, a steady beam set, great bars and staying in bounds on floor was all it took, 4 great performances in all. Komova unquestionably would have taken the title off her IF she had performed at her best, but she couldn't get it together. A bad landing on her amanar right at the start sunk her, as she scored a huge four-tenths less than she could have done. Great bars, a very strong beam and THE best performed and most beautiful floor of the quad, which nobody thought she had in her..was not enough, she fell just short of Gabby's enormous total. We can argue all day long  about whether Komova's higher standard of beauty in her gymnastics should have swung the gold in her favour, but I don't think so..not with THAT vault. Although Gabby got some sickening scores like the second highest beam score from the whole competition, outscoring all of Sui Lu's and Catalina's magnificent team finals beam, and an insane score on bars, Vika was quite frankly gifted in some of her scores too, most notably beam. I would not blame the judges for marking her execution higher there because of her exquisite form and leaps, but it's clear to see that it wasn't just one gymnast being overscored.

Moving on, wow a tiebreaker. The first of five, but we weren't to know that. And how heartbreaking, especially as both Aliya and Aly had to bear the knowledge that they both had big errors. If either had hit all four, it wouldn't have been an issue. Had they both hit, it most likely wouldn't have been either. But to know that if you were in a tiebreak situation because you didn't do your best is really tough. Aly's big error on beam did her in, as it meant her bars had to be counted. Every other time, her beam could be relied on for a nice high score, but not this time. Aliya had to handle the fact that she fell off beam, staying on would have put her substantially ahead of course. Every tiebreaker sucked, this one the worst I think. Both deserved the bronze. Aly had to go back with the knowledge that she missed out on a medal she earned thanks to a ridiculous rule, and knowing there would be lots of smug fuckers thinking 'Should have given her place to Jordyn'. All in all, a very dissapointing competition. Gabby and Vika's positions were correct thanks to the latter's errors but a tiebreaker really sucked the fun out of it in the end,

Too long didn't read: Gutting that Jordyn, Larisa and Yao weren't in it. Gabby's gold deserved due to Vika's crappy vault. Tiebreaker sucked.


VAULT FINAL

There are no words to describe the horror of this event final. It is almost reassuring to note that the biggest proof of Maroney's talent is not that she still managed a silver, it is that had she repeated the amanar she performed in team finals again here, she would have gotten gold. Gold with a fall. That's incredible. It received a three tenth deduction of landing on the red (fascinating to note that the FIG don't care if your vault landing is so bad you have to come off the mat entirely and practically hug the judges- just as long as you land on white there's no deduction!) and another for landing offline. Anyway, it was very dissapointing that the fantastic Giulia Steingruber failed to qualify after falling on hers, that Maksiuta fell also and that Ti Phan's struggles this year were very much in evidence as she bombed as well.

Disaster struck early on when Elsabeth Black crashed her vault and got a zero. Clearly injured, she had the unbelievable determination to line up again for her second vault. Luckily she realised that it wasn't worth it and she ran past the vault, subsequently being treated for her injury. Very sad to see. Tension struck again when Pena arrived to cannonball her way to a deep squat, the best that could be hoped for. Her coaches clearly believe that instead of correcting her technique- she has the power but it is converted into unneccessary distance instead of height- the best way was to teach her to always get her feet to touch first to avoid a zero. Brilliant. Usually thrilled to be alive after her vault, Pena was absolutely devastated, which was not only saddening to see but also to realise that she must have had insane pressure to medal despite the fact that she had never stood up any of her life-endangering handspring double-front's. It should have been a lesson when not even Produnova managed an upright landing more than once.

On it went, with Chuso being the beast she is and landing both of her vaults. The second one was actually really nice in the air. Her Rudi has deteriorated in form but since we are all in awe that she can handle the pounding of vault there's not much you can really criticise. WHAT a career she had had. Janine Berger proved her selection by landing two really well done vaults, the same as Chuso's but much better performed. She has a lot of power, so much that she could not control the landings well. One to watch. Here comes Paskeka with a 2.25 amanar! What a joy it is to note that the judges DID do their job and award it as a DTY but a certain ex-Soviet Nellie Kim overruled it and gave it as an amanar. Oh Nellie. What an absolute travesty. There's also a furore over Paseka's second vault, which although lovely to watch is being debated as to whether it was laid-out or not, the general consensus being that it wasn't. And up comes Maroney and because she nailed the best amanar ever in team finals, it was almost dissapointing to see her amanar here lost a little form on its usual perfection, was offline and landed out of bounds. But no matter, she'll still win..except the unthinkable happened. Although her Mustafina is much lower than her amanar, she herself stated she has never crashed it. Of her vaults total, she crashed the amanar once as a Junior in competition. It was extremely hard to process that she was sitting in the middle of the mat. So what a huge surprise it was when she found it hard to come to terms with and didn't grin like a maniac afterwards. Sandra landed two very good vaults afterwards and her gold was deserved. But it doesn't change anything about Maroney's status as best vaulter in the world, especially since even with the fall a better amanar would have put Sandra in silver and it doesn't negate the horror of seeing crashes, an injury, a death-defying vault, a wrongly awarded amanar and a deserving bronze winner being screwed over.

TL; DR: Awful, awful, awful. Nellie Kim screws Berger over, numerous crashes and an injury. Worst vault final ever. Gold and silver deserved, rightful bronzer winner robbed.

BARS FINAL

How refreshing, and what a deep field. Komova the defending world and euro's bars champion, He Kexin the defending Olympic champion, Beth Tweddle former world champion and Mustafina and Douglas, both national champions. He Kexin proved the doubters wrong, Jinnan redeemed herself after a miserable experience up until then, and Mustafina showed just how valuable all of the extra time she spent training on bars when she was too injured to tumble or vault has been. Crushing to see Vika miss out again after a fluke mistake and to see Beth's steps on dismount cost her a higher medal- but she is very lucky to hold onto that bronze, for which she can thank Komova! Lovely to see her finally medal, great moment.

Not much else to say here, this was a fabulous final even with Vika and Gabby's errors. Fully agree with this podium.

BEAM FINAL

Quick, women's haven't had a tiebreaker in a while! After the awesomeness of bars final, hopes were high for another final with fair scoring and few errors. It was not to be. Iordache, controversially subbed in for the may-or-may-not-have-been-ill (cough low difficulty..?) Bulimar, fell off. Komova gave up entirely, failing to fight to stay on and then sitting the Patterson. A clearly knackered Gabby who had been fighting inconsistency for so long prior to the bars final, returned to her former hit-or-miss self and fell. The veteran Catalina showed nerves and had an error and wobble-filled routine, breaking hearts everywhere. Afanasyeva gave a gloriously elegant performance without much of a chance at medalling due to her low difficulty. Fabulous to watch. Deng Linlin and Sui Lu nailed EVERYTHING, but they got the order wrong..Deng's routine was stiff with too many pauses, compared to Sui Lu's sensational exercise. Lu was robbed. Oh, and they couldn't even get Aly's d-score right, and Mihai was too dense to contest it. Luckily the Karolyi's saved the day and got his ass in gear by screaming at him from the stands. Certainly not the best beam she's ever done, but it deserved bronze in light of the amount of disasters in this final. Along with vault in particular, a huge argument for ONE-TOUCH WARM-UP!! I agree with the three on this podium, but silver and gold should have been switched.

FLOOR FINAL

A mixed final, though not with quite the same disaster level as beam or vault. I had high hopes of Afanasyeva's amazing routine medalling, Raisman or Ferrari clinching the bronze and either Sandra or Cata taking the other medal. A redemption by Jordyn for her non-AA appearance would have been great too, although her difficulty with uncredited leaps would effectively have thrown her outside of the medals anyway. It was tough to see her not at her best, going out of bounds and lacking fire in her eyes. Afan did well to maintain her stamina and land everything, but those out of bounds were a killer. Very dissapointing for this wonderfully choreographed and exciting routine. Crappy to see Sandra fall on her last pass after doing so well also. I would not have put Aly in gold medal position  but her performance was mindblowing, amazing landings, the first showing of her phenomenal first pass these games and she had such a sparkle and surety in her oft-contested leaps. No question here, Aly killed it and deserved that medal. Her difficulty was very tough to beat, especially as Cata did not do her full-twisting double layout and the other two main contenders faltered.

Beautiful routine by Mustafina, but Ferrari was really destroyed here. She deserved a higher score. Graceful dancer she is not- but neither are Raisman or Cata. She is furious over being in a position to lose that tiebreaker, which is no surprise as she really was screwed. The fifth tiebreaker, and probably the scabbiest one of all, especially as Aly went on to her own glory after her AA dissapointment.

In case you couldn't tell, writing overly long sentences is an ingrained habit of mine and which required heavy editing of all of my essays in university before printing..ah the frustration before deadlines when I realised there were were sentences of six or more lines. Anyway, I'll try to be more cautious of this in future but I'm too tired to edit it here!

AMAZING bars final!!

This is exactly what we needed after yesterday's awful vault final. (Saved by Sandra Izbasa's great and emotional win). So, onto bars where the lineup was just spectacular..He Kexin the defending Olympic champion, Viktoria Komova the defending World and European champion, Beth Tweddle world champion along with the fabulous Aliya Mustafina, Yao Jinnan, Elizabeth Seitz and Koko Tsurumi.

He Kexin Looking amazing in a black leo with mesh sparkly sleeves with deep pink swirls and matching hair ribbon. Suits her so well. Leo of the comp for me. Moving on, this was an excellent routine and really set the bar high for those coming after her. Second jaeger of her Li Ya release combination was quite low which cost her and she had to muscle up some moves, but what a great routine. Well done to her, massive improvement for her on 2011 and proving that 4 years after all all the uproar over her gold, she can come back and show everyone she is still the one to beat even though she used her safe routine- she actually has higher difficulty but went for the consistent option. 15.933- and well deserved.

Viktoria Komova Beautiful blue leotard, I was hoping we would get to see it- it was shown in a screenshot of a video ages ago. Beautiful crisp lines with her pencil-like turns as always. Just lovely to watch. Unfortunately it looks like she hit her foot on her downswing before the dismount and had to take an extra swing to make up for it, which cost her. Great double double dismount, the hardest dismount we'll see here with just a step. Nobody does extension quite like what Komova has brought to these games. Sad that after all of her amazing and beautiful routines she will go home gutted with two silver medals and another dissapointment in these bars finals which she was a favourite for. Come on Vika, you can come back from this! That was an awesome score considering her mistake. 15.666

Elizabeth Seitz Nice deep pink colour on her leotard, really suits her. She brings great energy to this final- throwing a Def, a one and a half twisting geinger, which only a handful of female gymnasts have ever done. Great height on her releases and she has really cleaned up her form from what it was, but the slightly lower difficulty and her messy legs on the Def (although she held form on it for longer than usual, I thought) brings her down. 15.266 What a great routine from her! Not expected to challenge for medals but she is just thrilled that she brought her all on the day, well done

Yao Jinnan The defending World AA bronze medallist has had a tough year and a tough time at these Olympics, she injured herself on a DTY a few months ago and has been dealing with a thigh muscle strain at these games, so has been well underpar, suffering uncharacteristic mistakes. Along with Iordache, it's sad to see huge potential affected by injury at such a crucial time. She's wearing a white leo with a red pattern- I don't like it, but it's not ugly or anything. Yao steps up and has a FANTASTIC hit routine, showing her 2011 self in all of its glory. Extremely precise turns and handstands- her turns were my favourite here, everything done so well and then a stuck double layout dismount! Her slightly lower difficulty keeps her just out of contention, but what a way to bow out of a dissapointing Olympics for her! Well done and a very well deserved 15.766

Beth Tweddle The roar of the crowd when she was introduced and before she did her routine was amazing, and really touching. Beth is world champion on this event but has been dissapointed in the Olympics before- a step on her dismount put her just out of medals after a wonderful routine in Beijing. Now 27, Beth has been fired with determination to put it behind her and has increased her difficulty to keep up. Wearing a super-glitzy flag leotard, it really shows how much this means to her. Perfect routine from her, hits all of her difficult combinations, fabulous routine and so exciting to watch, helped by the roar from the crowd growing in crescendo...really nice double double, she holds the form really well but a costly step keeps her below 16. 15.916, wow.

Aliya Mustafina Her teammate Viktoria is dejected on the side, but Aliya has her gameface on. What a comeback this is! Wearing the red white and blue qualification leo which is quite bland, her beautiful eye-makeup and glittery hair make up for it! Perfect routine, she hit everything. Beautiful lines, precision, flight between bars and then she sticks her one a half twisting double back- which is original. Amazing to watch. What a thrill for her and a 16.133 which beats He and puts her into the lead!

Koko Tsurumi Koko, the Japanese veteran looking well in the Japanese rising sun leotard. A tiny gymnast, she zips well between the bars and has great lines and energy. Her releases are quite low and flat and her lower difficulty means it's a very good routine and great to watch, but not exceptional. Well done to her for qualifying and a great performance. 14.966

Gabby Douglas Huge roar from the crowd for the AA champion. Gabby has had the most amazing year and a truly exceptional games, but despite her signature bars routine, is not expected to contend for a medal as her difficulty is the lowest- tied with Tsurumi. While I may not be thrilled with some aspects of her gymnastics or the overscoring that accompanies her- this is a fantastic bars routine and incredible to watch. Starts off really well, lovely turns and amazing as ever on her height in her releases. Unfortunately she messes up a turn in handstand, and has to take an extra swing to cover up. It was really well concealed but that will be costly. Great double layout, she pulled herself together. 14.9, with an 0.3 deduction from her start value that really was costly. Dissapointing her her to underperform but she still has beam and goes home with gold in AA and TF regardless. Blinding silver leotard, very Kristen Maloney-esque. It's the tinfoil version of her and Aly's AA leotard and while she can pull off the colour, it was just too bright.

LOVED this final, delighted for Aliya, He and Beth. Great stuff from all contenders. I really love this crowd, so supportive and delighted with that feast of gymnastics they got.

Subdiv 3- Beth is a hero

WOW. This was an insane subdivision. USA, France, Canada and the home team GB all competed. First up was USA on vault hammering out their amanars, which went very well. No very costly errors this time around really, Gabby ran out of bounds on her double arabian pass, Jordyn had an overarched handstand, Kyla had an OOB, Hannah Whelan fell off beam..I didn't see any other mistakes, but then not every routine was broadcast.

Highlights

- Beth Tweddle getting up amidst huge expectation, nailing EVERY part of her impossibly difficult routine and then almost sticking her Fabrichnova dismount! HUGE roar from the crowd, great amount- and a whopper score to match, sending her straight to the top of bars EF- 16.133. Well done Beath!
- Aly Raisman on floor. Same as always, but cleaner form and leaps! Brilliantly done, and another huge score to match
- Victoria Moors on floor. Like, duh. I probably love her a bit too much to really analyse her floor, which isn't going to make floor EF with a 14.1. She's very young though, I want to see her with more difficult third and fourth passes to match her potential.
- McKayla Maroney on vault. Yes, she had a big step and a shuffle on landing. For two reasons: One, her broken toe. Two, THAT HEIGHT! Literally her block just gets better and better, but that makes landing much harder. BBC were dead right, she gets TOO MUCH HEIGHT. It's insane. Beautiful form in the air, she's gotten back to her best there. A 15.9 that you could expect to hit 16.2 if stuck, or even higher given what they were giving the other amanars. Phenomenal. I DIDN'T SEE HER MUSTAFINA- they tried to show it after but it cut out. Can't wait to see.
- Gabby and Kyla on bars. Clean, precise, insane squirrel releases, beautiful double layout dismounts. Just lovely to watch
- Hannah Whelan on floor, she's such a great performer.

There's a big shock which you'll find in the spoilered post below. It has exploded over twitter but if you're relying on tape delay and trying to avoid the internet, don't read it either! And on to subdivision four!

I am in LOVE with the GB leo. I don't like the ones that were publicised a while ago, but this was a great use of red and a lovely bling pattern. Canada's wasn't as nice as expected. USA's was a great colour- love it on a leo, but I do NOT like that star mesh explosion on the front, gross.

A look at the next quad's code

As we have seen, the race for increasing difficulty means that perfect execution doesn't matter as much anymore- chuck a skill and fall or have major errors on it, and you can still beat lesser routines. This has been seen most memorably when Cheng Fei who fell in 2008 Vault EF beat Alicia Sacramone to the bronze, after Alicia exhibited clean and well performed vaults. This is why we are seeing so many Amanars, so many Pattersons, so many skill-skill-skill beam connections, so many pirouette combos and release combos on bars, and so many leaps out of passes- all in a drive to up the D score. But FIG are not happy. Upping a fall to a point off and decreasing skills counted from 10 to 8 hasn't helped, actually it has made it worse because the skills counted now have to be more difficult. This is not the individual gymnasts or coaches fault- the code is there to be played. It is the code entirely at fault for what we are seeing now.

Next quad's code, 2013-2016, was released in draft form a few months back. Doubtless it will see alterations after the London Olympics,but the changes it has made are significant.

VAULT

Here we finally have the solution to falls winning and to sloppy amanars scoring well. The current way is of course to average the two vault scores. The new way is absolutely different and will big time penalise execution. Both vault D scores are added together and averaged, then 10 is added. And here's the fun part...the total deductions for both vaults is then substracted from that total. What does that mean? It means sloppy amanars will not be worth doing over clean DTY's. It means falling on a vault like Yamilet Pena's Prod won't be worth doing either. It is good news for knees everywhere. It doesn't change a thing for McKayla Maroney, if anything it keeps her further ahead of other amanars. She would still have won 2011 worlds EF. BUT Cheng Fei would not have medalled in Beijing EF under this code.

THE AMANAR IS BEING DEVALUED. Hurray! Admittedly it is only going from a 6.5 to a 6.3 which isn't much BUT it helps the case for a clean stuck DTY over a messy amanar. Cheng is too, down to 6.4. I think both need to be harsher because the incentive to do them sloppily and still get a big score is still there.

Run length must not be more than 25 metres, or it will take an 0.5 deduction. I'm not sure I like the sound of this, I think the run length should be whatever the gymnast is capable of in order to harness her power on vault.

BARS

Pirouette combos are going to be hammered, they are not going to be allowed stack up conenction bonus for D score anymore. Most people tend to look at leaps out of passes as total code whoring, but so were the beautiful routines of Nastia, He and Yang! This is good news for release combinations and transitions (think He Kexin's and Beth Tweddle's release combos) and bad news for those who relied on turns instead of releases. If Beth can hang on for another quad, she will be rewarded for her insane difficulty even more than she is now.

FLOOR

Nothing major composition wise happening with floor, the element requirements seem to be the exact same. Tumbling passes are still restricted to four, thankfully. BUT...artistry will be much more important! There will be deductions for pasuses greater than one second before tumbling passes, deductions for more than one stationary pause in the corner, deductions for lack of expression, lack of creative choreography, insufficient use of floor space and for lack of fluidity. Choreo can be 0.3 or 0.1, the rest are 0.1. This is BRILLIANT news!! We can expect a return for balletic grace being rewarded and sloppy mechanical routines being slammed by the code. The major emphasis seems to be that the routine MUST continously flow and the gymnast must express her theme from beginning to end and interact with her music. Routines that barely connect with the music or do not connect enough will be harshly penalised too. Fantastic. This is good news for beautifully performed floor routines. Of course, not all of the above is new but taken together it really shows FIG's stance on valuing artistry again.

One of the biggest pet peeves people have had with floor codes is the huge emphasis on sticking the landing. This code will allow for one lunge, woohoo! Maybe more when it's finalised? Connection bonuses look exciting too, D+A (dance) sounds interesting. C+E makes for exciting tumbling lines, with twists into a double salto...a la Maroney's troublesome third pass which is great when performed correctly. Turn combos will be rewarded also. Everyone's favourite leaps out of passes will not getting connection bonus unless they are at least a B. Expect to still see them, but much less. Higher difficulty rewarding is being brought in apparently- H elements- but no further info on that yet.

BEAM

Is following floor's lead. So often are we seeing beam routines with amazing skills, but absolutlely no flow or grace. Skill-skill-skill- arm wave. Lack of expression, fluidity, choreography, pointed feet and aesthetic presentation are all going to be hit. Hopefully we will see this enforced as it's not a major diversion from the previous code where we are seeing horrendously choreographed beam routines. You can do it FIG, kill lack of artistry!



Interesting! Vault is the one changing the most, but it is great to see the emphasis on artistry elsewhere. It is of course unclear as to how much this code will change before it's finalised. My guess is that after London they will be ever more determined to penalise lack of artistry and sloppy amanars, but we'll see!

UPDATE: I found the submissions from individual federations and individuals. Australia do not want deductions for feet landing apart and for deep landings if head is above hip height- what? The latter especially looks terrible and needs to be deducted. France want MOARR LUNGES, excellent. They are also loving the drive for rewarding artistry on floor. Plenty want higher difficulty for some dance moves. India want acro and dance on floor to be judged entirely seperate to each other..hmm. Russia want 4 up, 3 count in TF. YES! I wonder how many of these we will see in the finalised code.

British team predictions

Congratulations to Rebecca Tunney! Knew she had the potential in her to be great. I hope the delightful NBC trio glorying in her meltdown at SCAM were watching. Jenni Pinches has made huge strides in improvement too. Hannah Whelan did not have the competition she had hoped for but still is a lock. Imogen Cairns and Becky Downie made strong comebacks too and Beth's floor is much improved choreo-wise. Missed her bars and it's been removed off youtube (brilliant...) but apparently she did not compete full difficulty, saving herself from London. Also doesn't change her lock status. Unfortunately Danusia Francis has done damage to her status, her floor is great but the tumbling is so weak difficulty-wise. Beam is what she makes the team for, and a fall coupled with Beth's status as a specialist may mean she's out in such a small team.

Beth Tweddle, Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Tunney, Jenni Pinches and Imogen Cairns.
Alternates: Danusia Francis, Ruby Harrold and Niamh Rippin.

Olympic teams named

Excitement is building now that teams are being named. Japan, Australia, France and four-fifths of the Chinese team have now all been named. Japan's team was surprising in that almost all of its members are veterans of the 2008 Olympic team and do not include Mai Murakami. Australia's team includes Georgia Banora as the fifth spot, a spot which Mary Anne Monckton and Georgia Rose Brown were supposedly locks for. China's team seems to be taking risks for a medal- Wu Luifang and Huang Huidan are not even in contention for the fifth spot, whereas surprisingly, Huang Quishang has been named.

Britain will name their team on July 4th. They have depth on some events so this isn't very predictable. Hannah Whelan and Beth Tweddle certainly are locks. Rebecca Tunney has a very good chance. Danusia Francis could be picked for her beam alone, which GB are very weak on- but that puts pressure on the rest if she is picked just for beam and Tweddle is picked just for bars, and possibly floor. Jenni Pinches and Ruby Harrold also stand a very good chance, and Becky Downie is still competing for her second chance.

USA will of course name their team at Trials. Whoever wins Trials is guaranteed a spot. This is no longer Jordyn's spot, if Gabby hits she could take it, her difficulty is higher and she is overscored more than Jordyn is inside the US. These two are locks, and so is Aly Raisman. Number four is less guaranteed but is extremely likely to be Kyla Ross, barring injury. Plenty of ideal teams floating around the internet are forgetting her entirely and are using Sacramone and Maroney. That would be nice, but Sacramone's beam is not needed and there are enough decent amanars. She can't be used on bars. Fifth spot is Maroney's to lose. She adds the biggest difference to the team total and does not even need to show more than one event as the other four have those covered. It is however likely she could outscore Gabby on floor in Olympic prelims with a fixed third pass, we shall see. Certainly it is the most elegant and artistic floor routine they have in that team, and should be used. Not forgetting that she was injured at Nationals, but there is no reason to suppose she will miss Trials. Her petition was accepted and she is being monitored closely in the gym. The fact that she never lost consciousness and that the fracture is described as being very minor are both very positive signs. She does not really need to showcase AA at Trials. Her beam is extremely steady and can be used if it comes to it. Her bars are fairly unusuable, though substantially better than Aly's. Her floor can be great and her vault is always perfect- she could get away with only doing the two but hopefully can do all 4.

Code-whoring and hypocrisy

We hear a lot about code-whoring, which basically means taking advantage of the current code for scoring purposes. And yet, why shouldn't gymnasts and their coaches do this? If the code allows for bonuses for certain connections which are easier than throwing hard skills, why wouldn't they be overused? It makes perfect sense. And yet, it's not really open-ended scoring and overused connections that annoy me, it's the selective response to this overuse, which to me IS hypocritical. The prime example in this code is, leaps out of passes, which absolutely are overused but are a quick and easy way to up SV on an event where scoring can be quite low (internationally, NOT in the US).

Lauren Mitchell is the scapegoat for this. She was definitely amongst the first to do it, and generally does it after every pass or almost every pass. Sometimes they appear quite forced, which ruins the flow, but it's moreso that they are low and don't have the 'wow' factor. Her artistry and sense of dance is so nonexistent that she needs all the help she can get from difficult tumbling and bonus connections. This is smart manipulation of the code, and not her fault everyone else jumped on the bandwagon. Here is her 2011 worlds AA floor, probably the best she has ever done her leaps. Lauren is far from the only one who gets the flak for this, but is the most obvious.

Aly Raisman has been criticised for it, but not near as much. Her leaps are much higher so tend to look better, but are arguably worse as the form on them is bad- particularly the last one with flexed feet.

They are quite similar as regards floor styles- no artistry or dance, HUGE tumbling. Lauren should take a lesson from Aly here, if your music is good and matches your power you can manipulate people into forgetting the lack of artistry.

But this is where the hypocrisy really comes in. When the leaps are done brilliantly as well as having great height, everyone keeps their mouths shut and gazes in awe at the exact same code-whoring they complain about when others attempt it. Here are two examples of great leaps

These leaps are high with great form. So nobody cares that it's the same code manipulation they criticise others for doing more sloppily! Very very annoying, either censure everyone for it or quit complaining about it full stop.

This isn't of course the only 'code-whoring'. Last quad, it was pirouettes on bars. Yang Yilin, He Kexin and Nastia Liukin showcased very beautiful turns in handstand, Onos and Healys and with their pencil bodyline it looked amazing. Yet it was done so much solely to boost difficulty in combination, Beth Tweddle needed a huge amount of releases and releases in combination to rival their D-scores. But you'll find very little about that manipulation and overuse- again, because it looked great.

The moral of the story seems to be- we don't mind code-whoring, once it's done well. But woe betide sloppy form- suddenly they face a barrage of criticism. Infuriating.

(It's interesting to note that FIG do not appreciate overuse and code-whoring. Next quad's code gets rid of pirouette combination connection bonuses AND leaps out of passes have to be at least a B leap- making it far more difficult to do. I'm sure there will be overuse of something else, and the same hypocritical opinions though!)

My Olympic EF podiums

Bars

Beth Tweddle so deserves this gold. Under the modern code, bars do not get more difficult than hers. Of course she does not have a Counter-Kim or Gaylord I or II (check out Zhou Duan's uneven bars for the Gaylord II...incredible) but since these moves now incur a deduction because they will end in a dead hang, it is inadvisable to do them (unfortunately). Sadly for Beth, her form and handstands are not as crisp as others and for that reason I do not see her getting the gold. Silver

Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina have amazing bar routines. Beautiful lines, transitions, releases. It's all there. Komova will pip her team-mate for gold, leaving Aliya with the bronze. She is just that bit crisper.

Vault

This is a lock for McKayla Maroney. The most certain gold of any we can expect. Although she is the reigning world champion on this event and has a much more difficult second vault now, she is not a certainty for her team. However she has a brilliant chance at taking that fifth spot.

The other two spots are a little up in the air. Chusovitina is still in the mix amazingly, but her vaults recently had quite low landings. With her age it is of course astounding she can still throw difficult vaults at all. In a small reversal of Worlds standings, I see her taking the bronze and Phan Ti Ha Thanh of Vietnam taking the silver.

Floor

This is much harder to predict and will be very exciting. There is one US gymnast, Sarah Finnegan, who could so easily medal here ahead of her US teammates, yet she is fairly unlikely at this stage to make the team at all. Larissa Iordache clinches it for me. Her floor is just so difficult and exciting, I see it making it's way to the top for gold. Anastasia Grishina does not have the same clout as most of the other contenders for team Russia but her floor is ahead of the rest, even Afansayeva. Grishina's beautiful artistry so prevalent in this exercise will take silver. Bronze is a bit tougher, at this stage I see Jordyn Wieber clinching it but that might change.

Beam

Sui Lu of China takes gold, her beam is just a work of art. Iordache and Catalina Ponor also of Romania will fight for the other two spots, Cata I think landing the silver.