Celebrating Underage Superstars

There's something so impressive about watching a thrilling routine from the past and absorbing the fact that the gymnast wasn't even of age at the time. Personally, while I don't condone breaking the rules, I don't allow it to taint or spoil the enjoyment of the routine in any way as political decisions were and are nothing to do with the gymnast themselves. The below either admitted themselves or were categorically found through investigation to fall below the age limit at the time.


Lavinia Agache - Romania

Copyright - Tom Theobald

Lavinia competed at the age of 13 at worlds 1981, with her date of birth altered from 1968 to 1967. Interestingly, she also competed at the junior gymnastics championships in Japan the same year. She came into her own when she was actually a senior later that quad, but still managed to shine at such a young age, with super strong beam and floor routines in typical Romanian fashion. Not elegant, but very energetic and fun to watch with some nice original elements thrown in. Lavinia was somewhat overshadowed by teammate Ecaterina Szabo but was a great gymnast in her own right and was a solid contributor at worlds 1983 and the Olympics the following year.

Olga Bicherova - USSR

 

Source- gymnast.bplaced.com

Olga is one of the better known underage gymnasts, having won the 1981 worlds AA with an altered date of birth. She had an abundance of the qualities that made Soviet gymnastics great, displaying fabulous extension, form and elegance - with a mature ease far beyond her years. A true all-arounder. Her win drew criticism thanks to her baby face, especially from the US who also mention Lavinia and others (unproven), but reserve the focus for the winner, of course. Olga competed through the rest of the quad and beyond successfully despite the killer depth, but was a victim of the Olympics boycott like so many others.

Kim Gwang Suk - North Korea

Kim is without doubt the youngest gymnast ever to compete at worlds. Her exact age when she emerged as a senior at 1989 worlds is not known, but she may have been as young as 9 or 10. 4'4, she unleashed the counter-Kim or Marinich, a ridiculously hard release and in combination that only a handful have competed. Her bar routine is one of my all-time favourites and she also had some quite nice work on beam. She competed through to 1992 Olympics as the reigning bars world champion and Detective FIG only managed to nab her when her federation submitted her as being 15 for 3 years in a row in the early 90's. Which is still mind boggling, at least put some effort into the swindle! Kim fell off the radar after a ban was imposed, which is tragic as she would definitely have had a good few years left had she hypothetically remained healthy.

Yang Yun - China

Copyright- AP/Amy Sancetta

Yang Yun, the beautifully classic performer, was a complete surprise when she admitted on state TV that she was 14 in Sydney as she always looked very mature and older than 16, certainly older than teammate and fellow underager Dong Fangxiao. Yang was a beauty to watch on all 4 events, even vault (watch this immediately) and was particularly stunning on beam also where she displayed fabulous originality with gorgeous lines and extension. Sadly she fell in the Sydney AA which she would have won otherwise (after Raducan's score was officially wiped) - although her admission of her age though dismissed by the FIG on investigation would have rendered that a controversial win also. Yang did manage to pick up bronze on bars but sadly disappeared off the scene nearly as quickly as she arrived onto it, the Olympics was her sole competition of note.

Olga Mostepanova - USSR

Copyright - Tom Theobald

Olga is IT as far as the personification of Soviet gymnastics is concerned - although sadly majorly lacking in the medals to prove it. One of the greats, who would have won all around her in LA 1984 Olympics (instead racking up perfect 10's at Olomouc), Olga was underage during the competitive season of 1983. An accomplished all-arounder, she was best known for her stunning beam, complete with that press handstand mount. Her extension stood out even amongst her teammates which is saying a lot. Of all of the gymnasts and other athletes screwed by the 1984 Olympics boycott, it seems like a particularly heinous crime in her case, especially as she peaked that year and wasn't quite the same at worlds the following year.

Gina Gogean - Romania

Gina is remembered for a few things- somewhat safe routines (although she was not always boring) and collecting quite the stack of medals during deep quads, but competing underage in 1992 is not one of them. Her super lengthy career started off on murky terms, being officially too young during the Barcelona Olympics. At this point of her career she was far from the star of her team.  Despite competing strongly at Euros that year, she failed to make much of an impact at the games. Not that she was long developing into a strong all-arounder with multiple titles under her belt with the sole exception of, big surprise, uneven bars. A big help in her super consistency during her senior career was the unfortunate killing off of more difficult and unusual elements she had as a junior. Being boring really paid off for her!

Alexandra Marinescu - Romania

Alexandra, after huge success as a junior, had the great misfortune to a) be hyped as the next Nadia Comaneci and b) to be pulled from the AA at Olympics and worlds, the only two big competitions she competed at, in favour of teammate Simona Amanar. To be individually picked out for hype when she had such giants of accomplished teammates as Gina Gogean, Simona Amanar and Lavinia Milosovici shows how promising she was. Lacking the powerhouse tumbling of the others, she stood out for her elegance instead, with beam being her best event. The fact that her career was so short, especially when they went to the effort of changing her age in the first place is a tragedy, as is the fact that her name was blackened when the reason given for her forced withdrawals from the AA was that she was a poor worker.

Dong Fangxiao - China

Dong was another gymnast who had overshadowing gymnasts on her team to compete alongside with, in this case the likes of Ling Jie and Liu Xuan and the less accomplished but outstanding Yang Yun and Kui Yuanyuan. Dong was more of a team player than a star in her own right, but was a good all-arounder and strong on floor. Her investigation stripped China of their 1999 and 2000 team medals.

Hong Su Jong - North Korea

Copyright - Thomas Schreyer

Hong Su Jong is the infamous gymnast whose age falsification earned North Korea such a lengthy ban that they missed the London Olympics. Before the federation ban, she also earned a suspension for the use of Furosemide (a diuretic used to aid weight loss/combat fluid retention...which is downright odd in those circumstances when I type about it all the time in the context of cardiac babies!). Controversy aside, Hong was an extremely talented vaulter for which she earned silver at 2007 worlds, but she was also awesome on bars. Her handstands would earn her quite the battering these days, but such lovely clean work. Hong's career, by contrast to most of those mentioned here, was lengthy - she competed in the 2004 Olympics right the way through to 2010, although she missed Beijing through injury. She was, aside from the originator, one of the first to compete the Amanar vault, bringing it back mainstream along with Shawn Johnson. She is sister to Hong Un Jong who has not been involved in an age controversy. They may be twins, but the latter competed much later than the former.

Daniela Silivas - Romania

Copyright - Ellie Langsley

Daniela Silivas is regarded as one of if not the greatest all-arounders of all time and regularly tops fan polls of favourite gymnasts. Her battle during the 1988 Olympics AA with Elena Shushunova is legendary and thrilling to watch but....Daniela began her career by competing underage during 1985 worlds, at the age of 13. A true all-arounder, she was typical of her nation in that her beam and floor stood out, despite the horrendous choreography meted out to her that year. Super energetic and sparkly, she managed to nab the beam title but didn't come into her own until later in the quad. Certainly she was the best Romanian gymnast of the 80's, and there is seriously stiff competition for that.



It's strange these days to contemplate gymnast's passports and dates of birth being switched and manipulated on the whim of a federation coach. Not that I think the practice has been 100% eradicated (note: I have no interest in suspicions re: named, unproven individuals, ESPECIALLY those concerning a certain team from 8 years ago YAWN), it probably never will be when states like the above still exist and the age restriction remains punitive. Of course, we have no idea of the true extent of age falsification - FIG themselves only uncovered 3 - especially during the 1980's. There is just no way only a small handful of gymnasts competed underage the entire decade. My money is on Romania as the biggest overall offenders, the Karolyi's had no qualms about this practice at the time (despite repeat bellyaching post-defect to the US, which they really have a nerve complaining about every year), and clearly neither did another long-time head coach, Octavian Bellu. They also had much less depth than the super strong USSR (who definitely have several more skeletons in the closet all the same, which coaches have alluded to) and therefore greater motive to bend the rules. They also showed form for skulduggery when they actually had one gymnast impersonate another at a meet in the US in 1981.

Anyway, I'm a big believer in appreciating the performance and the performance only. I find it very sad that there's a lot of people who call themselves gymnastics fans, but who spend far too much time condemning gymnasts from 2 quads ago, and current gymnasts of the same nationality, because why not. If it's really the biggest deal ever to them, then they should also spend their time blackening the names of the likes of Silivas and Gogean too, which will never happen. Nationality (read: of Asian extraction with absolutely zero thought given to the fact that some ethnic varieties have the good fortune to look younger than others with slighter frames to boot) and the identity of who the suspect beats seems to be all important.



Who's your favourite? Does the inconsistency of FIG action and fan reaction annoy you too? Can't we all just get along on the Gymternet? ;)

1992 Olympics AA- "live blog"

The most controversial AA of all- and there are many. Notoriously, Roza Galieva who qualified after Tatiana Gutsu fell off beam was substituted for the latter. It's impossible to blame Tatiana as so many are stupidly doing, she had about as much say as Roza- ie. none. I would not wholly blame Alexandrov either, who made the substitution. If you're under immense pressure to bring home the medals in the last hurrah for Soviet gymnastics, it stands to reason that things like this would happen. It is the Soviet system of creating that pressure which is at fault. Anyway, this is also the all-around in which reigning world champion Kim Zmeskal, a Karolyi protege was also supposed to shine. The Boginskaya V Zmeskal battle was intended to be supplemented by Cristina Bontas of Romania and Tatiana Gutsu of Unified Team. But that's not what happened at all!

The fluff at the beginning corresponds to this. It doesn't start at the very beginning so I can't be sure if it actually ignores Shannon Miller, Tatiana Lysenko and Lavinia Milosovici. There's someone at the start- could be Milo- but the quality is so bad I can't tell. '..of a magic night, when little girl's dreams can come true'. Puke.

- At the arena. Ooo Elfi mentions Shannon. Still seems an afterthought though. Ah a report from the floor now! I love this, they talk about Shannon's liking for powder and her subsequent nickname as the 'Porcelain queen' before mentioning the health of Gutsu and Galieva. And now a reminder that this is the first time 'New Life' is being used, whereby prelims scores did not carry over. Personally I think this was a mistake.

Rotation One

Miller BARS It's always a bit of a shock to see height and weight displayed. Really light work here, nice hop full into geinger, looks like a bit of leg seperation. That is one seriously flat Tkachev, you'd imagine she should be able to soar well above the bar. Sticks her dismount, lovely. Classic white leotard which makes her look an elegant pixie. 9.925

Zmeskal FLOOR I have such a fondness for the perfection of the music to her three whips. Can we not watch a routine instead of waiting for Kim to step up on floor for forever? Here we go. Nice piked full in. Cringeworthy cute choreography that does not suit her in the slightest. Here it comes, three whips into double tuck. Ahhh such a great pass to the music. More idiotic prancing. Jesus the Karolyi's are literally the worst choreographers ever. Look at Shannon's height of elegance routines. Then look at Moceanu's and Zmeskal's. Then back to Gabriela Gheorghiu and Emilia Eberle's, which they are also responsible for. GROSSNESS. Great sky-high double tuck, Dos Santos style but just like Dos Santos it's too high to control and she bounces right out of bounds. A sad ending to only the start of her competition. And wow I have a lot of hatred for that turn at the end with her arse in the air.  Interesting that had she thrown the full-in instead as she was capable of doing she probably would have landed perfectly. Ugh I do NOT like replays of parents devastated for their children in these situations. First mention of Betty Okino! And only because Bela has to ditch Kim and go over to her. Another white leo, good choice 9.775

Bontas BARS Fairly boring stuff. Another super-flat Tkachev but I would imagine that only Dawes actually had notable amplitude on her releases this whole games. We'll see. SUPER dramatic music starts up right before she goes into what looks like quite a messy geinger, classic. Double tuck dismount. Yes this is dull, with an error. I wonder how expensive it will be. Quick! back to Kim's misery! More zooming, trying to catch a tear in her eye I suppose. Yes I think I can determine the flecks in her irises. I wonder if this is Hollie Vise's favourite cameraman? Back to Bontas. Standard Romanian leo, I like how they break out some originality in AA competitions these days. This is larely white with some blue and red. Suits her well. 9.862  

Gutsu BARS Nice form. She look taller than everyone else and she's only 4'8. Looks like a fawn or something. Lovely geinger. And a Tkachev which wouldn't win any amplitude prizes but is probably better than the other two seen so far. Very floaty on bars, nice handstands and a great stuck double layout. Jagged white and black leo, goes well with the fawn look. I would give Gutsu the G V M victory on bars. So would the judges, 9.950

More Kim Zmeskal doing absolutely nothing. They weren't able to show her during Gutsu's bars, a whole 90 seconds away from misery.

Boginskaya FLOOR Looking menacing with the heavy makeup. Shoots an excellent baleful look at the camera. Is this the guitar routine? I hope not. And a seriously low full in tuck, head on knees style. Nice leap series. Combination pass which looks very weak in difficulty but nicely done with her elegant long lines. Lol part of her music sounds really similar to a Metallica solo bit. Double tuck with a slight hop. Elegant routine with very weak tumbling. One of my least favourite leos ever, a nasty shade of green and it looks like either a baby puked on her shoulders or she stood out in the snow. Bleurgh. 9.912 and lucky to get it.

Okino BEAM Gorgeous press to handstand mount. Great floaty BHS-LOSO-LOSO. Quality isn't really enough to scrutinise her form on it but it did seem really nicely done. Glorious double spin. Oooo a planche! This is fabulous. Double pike, quite low with a slight adjustment but apparently she almost missed her foot on the beam so great job in landing at all. Replay shows her dismount is in between a tuck and pike. The hell is that? White velvety looking leotard, great on her. 9.850 and considering this was pretty much perfect besides the step, is too low. Worth a 9.9.

More fluff! Boginskaya, Miller (!!), Bontas and Zmeskal. Nadia namecheck count: At LEAST 7

End of rotation standings: Gutsu tied with Gogean. Miller third.

Rotation Two


Onodi FLOOR Great, I love her. Whip into full in pike, sooo clean. Working well to her nice elegant music. I am bad at counting twists- looks like a beautiful triple? And then a double full into punchfront. Amazing. Lovely low to floor choreography. Unusual spin, looks beautiful. And a full in pike to end, stuck. WHAT a routine. Nice enough leo with a much needed bit of colour, white with a cutaway blue bodice with a pattern on it. Give her a 9.95. No of course not 9.912 Underscored.

Gutsu BEAM Let's start of course with a flashback to her falling off beam on her mount in team optionals. Gearing up for constant CONSTANT replays of Asac's exact same mistake 16 years later. Flic-flac mount, sways slightly on landing. Standing full twist! Dead on, but she's quite low. It sounds like clanking metal on that beam. How is it that loud when she's only 5 stone?? Extremely floaty acro line, same as Okino's. Nice tic-toc and Rulfova. BHS-LOSO-RO- full in. Wow, lot of energy left for all that but the landing is really low. Stuck though. This would have a high enough start value today but seeing as the code then did not really award it, her score should reflect the errors made, a 9.912 is appropriate. YES it's a 9.912 Thank you for not inflating it.

Bontas BEAM Why does every Romanian have the exact same style as Nadia? Shut up John. Nadia would have choked at that bar routine- in fact, hers was more difficult. Flic-flac mount, well done. BHS-RO. That is one totally shocking jump if it was supposed to be split position. Very steady. Nice BHS-LOSO-LOSO, rock solid but looks like flexed feet. Very nice low to beam. Double tuck dismount with a bit of a kick-out step on landing. She's out after that and her bars. Looks like a 9.850 but it's so blurry.

Boginskaya VAULT Her second vault. FTY which was the prescribed vault of these games. (Not literally). Great view of the puke shoulders on her run. Textbook vault, seriously great. Maybe not as beautifl and flighty as one of the later vaults coming up, but wonderful stuff. 9.962 

Yang FLOOR Her beam better be shown. Dramatic drums piece, interesting. Nice full in pike. Lol now it's the music from a chase scene in a Western. GORGEOUS leap from the queen of leaps. 1 and a half into a 1 and a half, super clean but weak difficulty. Nice spin and low to floor but she looks a bit lost and unsure of herself. Double tuck, quite low. Dance did get better. Lysenko just walked by her, show me her! 9.837

Lysenko FLOOR Yes, finally! Even though this will be heartbreaking. Another dramatic drum beginning. Absolutely beautiful double layout which she almost brings to her knees and it puzzles me everytime- a mental break? It just should not have happened because she had the height neccessary to land it. Looks painful too. Decent dance, love her spin into back walkover..Groshkova did that too. So simple and it looks so elegant. Double tuck, punchfront straight into double twist punchfront, PERFECT! Fabulous pass. Full in tuck to end after some nice choreo, low enough. Damn. What a gymnast she was. 9.80 Bahhh.

Miller BEAM Excellent, I really want to see Nunno's jacket and Shannon's scrunchie instead of actual routines going on elsewhere. Okay finally, after almost 2 minutes. Love her mount and acro line straight after, all-time favourite mount sequence. Wobbles quite significantly though. Those wrists are unreal, really ruining her elegant pixie-esque line. The tendinitis in later life is really a mystery. Gorgeous BHS-LOSO-LOSO-LOSO but wobbles again. Lovely Valdez, really shows off her extension so well. Nails her full-in dismount but it's quite low. Woohoo there's Kim Gwang Suk managing to look small next to noted shortarses Shannon and Gutsu. Show me her bars and beam! 9.925 Sorry but she should have got the same as Gutsu or even lower, she had two wobbles versus Gutsu's one. Gutsu also had higher difficulty and both had the same low landing. This round goes to Gutsu too.

Zmeskal VAULT I want to see what the other Kim is doing! A very nice FTY with an upright planted landing but it had a tiny leg seperation and feet apart on landing. This games was noted for its fabulous FTY's so it's time to get picky. Actually she might be slightly slow on landing going by the replay. 9.937

Okino FLOOR Whip into double pike/tuck, slight movement on landing. At least they are not insulting her with a cutesy routine. She's so regal and would have excelled with better choreo. Bad angle- looks like a clean double pike. Great spins from her. Another loose looking double pike/tuck, what is the story with her leg form on these. Nice enough dance but that was weak enough and dull. And I like her! 9.862

End of rotation standings: Boginskaya leads Gutsu and Miller.


Rotation Three

Boginskaya BARS Not this leotard again, I can't bear the sight of it. At least Gutsu and Lysenko have shied away from it. Can you imagine Gutsu in that thing? Stand by for a boring routine. Okay-ish Tkachev, flat enough but I like the grip change straight out of it. Double pike dismount, it looked great and she stuck it but WOW the weakness of this Level 7 routine never ceases to amaze me. Notice how I couldn't say anything else because she didn't do anything else. 'She may not have the very most difficult routine in this competition'. Nice syntax Tim. 9.887 and Tim is surprised. Is he watching the same routine at all? 

Bontas FLOOR I'm not sure why Bontas was hyped so much. A very good gymnast certainly but not even the best Romanian at this point. She looks tired and maybe the Deva closure affected her, as it did so many others. I still expect a strong floor routine though. And it looks like it already- great double layout. Camera cuts away right in the middle of her next pass a bit..looks like a 1.5 into double tuck. Nice and clean. Very long pause in the corner and she does not mask it with arm waving. Full in tuck to end, stuck, slightly low. Great routine. 9.962 Hmm. Suppose there wasn't much to actually take away from this but seems a little high anyway.

'When we come back we're going to show you the other strong American, Kim Zmeskal'. Please, she tanked in the first rotation. Show more Kim Gwang Suk, Yang Bo and Tatiana Lysenko! 'Struggling to get into medal position'. She's in 8th! They've just copped Milosovici is having a great competition.

Milosovici FLOOR Love her start pose. Full in tuck punchfront, nice. Small hop. Fairly bog standard music, some 'rock around the clock' style dance going on. Moceanu definitlely used this music unless I'm losing it. AWESOME second pass, 1 and a half stepout into what looks like 1 and half punchfront stag leap. Had to rewind a few times, very busy pass. Fabulous though. Full in tuck, not that clean but well landed nonetheless. What an iconic end pose. 9.962

Miller FLOOR Needs a 9.938 for first. LOVE this music, so perfect. Whip into full in tuck, well done. Much more upright than a lot of them have been these games. Whip into double pike with a big step back, can't tell by how much she kept that in bounds..barely. Lovely elegant dance. Another full in tuck but this one was quite low. Hmm. 9.9 Now that is correct.

Zmeskal BARS Nice form from this dead-on angle and very nice geinger. Very flat Tkachev, but there's a big club of those here. Double pike dismount? Or extremely pikey double layout. Either way, this routine was fine but nothing extraordinary. 9.9

Onodi VAULT GORGEOUS vault, looks like a Cuervo variety, handspring entry. Fabulous form, height and upright landing. Okay it's a front pike with a half twist apparently. Tiny adjustment on landing in the replay. Had a crap beam apparently, damn. Second vault is the same but she underrotates so the landing is short and she actually hits her head off the mat. Ouch. The first vault got a 9.95 so she'll take that.

Gogean BEAM I forgot she was here. Nice leaps and gorgeous floaty LOSO's. Slight wobble on second acro series. Quick, say she's like Nadia! Check. Great stuck double tuck dismount. 9.9

For feck's sake, how many times do they have to mention Gutsu not qualifying and a replay of the beam fall. Move on to her actual gymnastics maybe?

Gutsu FLOOR I absolutely love the split leg double layout. Lands slightly short and has to take a step forward though. Her dance is a bit wishy-washy and she's not comfortable with it. I hesitate to call it crap but it's really not great. Whip whip into double tuck, perfect. More awkward dance. Full in pike, low enough landing. Very interesting. In the case of floor, G and M were equal. Both had a big step and both had a low landing elsewhere. Gutsu had higher difficulty though, so maybe she would edge it slightly. 9.925 Slightly too high, I think 9.912 is the right score.

End of rotation standings. Gutsu and Milo tie for first, Boginskaya third and Miller fourth.

Rotation Four

Milosovici BARS Elfi seems to be excited about this routine, not sure why. Very slight lep seperation. Nice geinger, decent Tkachev. Very blurry but looks like a full in tuck with a hop. Wow that was cowboyed quite badly in the replay. 9.90

Miller VAULT Long wait, but we all know what's coming up next. Shut up Nunno, way overboard with the last minute coaching. Here it is! The best FTY ever performed. Height, flight, form, landing, all perfect. Crowd and Nunno go mental. 9.975 and nobody's happy with that. Really deserved a 10. Here's the second one, another joy to watch but doesn't hold the stick long enough. 9.95. Robbed of the 10 for the first one.

Yes we know Zmeskal is out of the running, stop showing it and get back to gymnastics.

Zmeskal BEAM Such a fabulous start pose in handstand. BHS-LOSO, wobbles and takes two steps back. Horror from the trio so maybe she was supposed to do another one. Yes she was apparently. Nice leaps. Big break after the second acro line but saves it. Double tuck with a hop back. Mehh. 9.80

Gutsu VAULT Needs 9.939. Oooh lovely and flighty in the air. Feet slightly apart on landing and makes a tiny movement backwards. Replay shows legs apart on block. 9.925 Second vault, plants the landing. Replay shows it to be a bit pikey. 9.95 Too high, that's the same score as Shannon's second vault. They screwed themselves over with the mark of her first vault as the second vault was better and had to be given a better score. Gutsu takes the lead and they immediately switch to Shannon's face.

Boginskaya BEAM Needs 9.977. Why is she still in game after a weak floor and weaker bars? Nice mount. Moves very fluidly. BHS-LOSO-LOSO but they look quite laboured. Jesus, wobbles on the easiest leap. Elfi sticks the knife in 'She's gone'. Plants a nice double tuck dismount. Kinda boring routine all the same. 9.912 is greeted with boos.

Boginskaya is upset after that but it was fairly obvious going into the games that she did not have the routines and difficulty to challenge for gold or silver.

1. Gutsu
2. Miller
3. Milosovici

I do not agree with some of those scores, but I DO agree with the standings. Gutsu was the better gymnast on the day. Miller quite clearly had the better vault but Gutsu had better beam and bars and edged her out ever so slightly on floor with higher difficulty and more upright landings. Both had errors, especially beam and floor but Gutsu did deserve gold here. I can clearly see why the debate still rages on but I'm moreso annoyed Lysenko couldn't hold it together and beat them both. Oh and not showing Kim Gwang Suk's bars and Yang Bo's beam? Plenty of lingering shots of Kim Zmeskal which could have been filled in nicely but not only the best bars and beam respectively of the games but of all time!










 

A look back at the 1996 Olympics AA: "live" blog

I picked this one because it's arguably the deepest field of any all-around competition. It is one of the least disputed all-around results, but one of the most exciting too. Russia at this point was suffering a bit from the break-up of the Soviet Union but still had 3 talented all-arounders in the mix- Svetlana Khorkina, Dina Kotchetkova and Roza Galieva- Galieva of course fuelled by being unceremoniously chucked out of the 1992 all-around. Romania had a deep field of Simona Amanar, Lavinia Milosovici and Gina Gogean. This Olympics also saw an unfair switch- Amanar replaced Alexandra Marinescu who qualified and was deemed 'lazy' by Bellu. Lovely. USA had an incredible pool of talent and even though Kerri Strug was out due to injury, Shannon Miller coming off the back of Olympic AA silver and two consecutive world titles, Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu were all in the mix. Rounding off the top contenders were Mo Huilan of China and Lilia Podkopayeva of Ukraine- the reigning world and European champion, both of whom were most notable for not having a weak event, though both had suffered with inconsistency. Svetlana Boginskaya now competing for Belarus brings up the rear. So, 12 great gymnasts vying for the title. WOW.

Once again, can only get NBC's coverage. Complete with fluff of course. Opens with Dominique Moceanu who was probably one of the most hyped gymnasts never to actually achieve notable individual success. Now Kerri Strug's team final moment. Nice bit on Shannon Miller. Spicing it up now with some evil music for Tatiana Gutsu and tears from Roza Galieva. Lavinia Milosovici looking like a badass in a church, interesting. Some triumphant music introduces Dominique Dawes, Lilia Podkopayeva and Svetlana Boginskaya. The hell are they doing as afterthoughts when Moceanu is first? Nice, NBC. Okay back to the dome. On a side note, I hated this audience. Too loud for home gymnasts, barely reacting at all to superb performances by others. London this year got it right I think- loving their own, but so impressed by the others and really enthusiastic. great stuff. Moving on.

D'aww Tim looks so young. Nice close-ups of Kerri's seriously swollen ankle, delightful. Bigging up Lilia, good stuff.

Rotation One

Moceanu BEAM Looking terrified to be up first. Nice Silivas mount. Nails the BHS-LOSO-LOSO-LOSO combo. Love that combination, so hard to not wobble on it but she doesn't flicker. Her height here is ideal for it of course, 4'4 or something like that. Nice leap series, almost comes off on her punchfront but miraculously saves it. Lots of prancing going on here. Struggles to hold a handstand, she's rattled now. Really nice double tuck dismount, just a slight movement on the landing. Pity the huge wobble will take her right down on her first event. Fairly boring white leotard with some hint of red and blue, she looks well in it though. 9.6

Kotchetkova BARS Beautiful form, great handstands. Nothing too exciting, but really nice height and flight on all elements. Great looking double layout dismount, piked the first bit though. A red white and blue leotard, looks fine but a bit dull.  9.787 Nice


Podkopayeva VAULT I absolutely adore her vaulting and this vault is gorgeous- yurchenko half-on pike front-half out. Beautiful. Small hop back, nothing major- really flawless in the air. Second vault is the same one but she sticks the landing. Just gorgeous. And John Tesh comes out with the classic 'We talk so much about landings but it seems unfair to me that the bulk of her score is not coming from what she does in the air'. WTF?? Very elegant black leotard with a jagged sweetheart neckline, not gone on the mesh stripe on the sleeves though. 9.781

Khorkina BEAM Seems too tall for the beam, odd after the last routine shown was Moceanu. Nice acro mount straight into two layout-stepouts. Lots of random arm and leg posing. No real hesitation on anything though. Great dismount, gainer double full. Holds the stick for forever, bit like NCAA. I absolutely hate this leo, makes her look like a clown. Black with spiky white neckline. 9.787

Cut to Marinescu in the stands chewing gum, looking about 10. She doesn't look angry, just interested in the competition. Good for her. Cheers for Gogean.

Gogean BARS The eternal model of boring efficiency. Very boring transitions, but by no means the only one to use them. Nice pirouette, seriously low Tkachev, no air on it whatsoever. Really nice form and sticks a textbook double layout. Job well done. Romanian standard issue leo, I cannot remember anything about it except the colours as soon as she dissapears off the screen. 9.7

Mo VAULT Lovely DTY, great form and very speedy twisting. Big step forward to steady the landing though. I don't know if that was her first or second vault or what. Red white and yellow leotard but I like how it's done, one yellow sleeve, one white sleeve joining the red bottom half. And her second one is shown after Miller's bars. It's beautiful, lovely landing.

Miller BARS Gorgeous straight form and bodyline, nice hop full into Geinger, looks like some leg seperation but with this angle it's too hard to tell. Perfect double laout, stuck landing. I am bored of double layouts. White leo with giant red, blue and silver stars. Not a fan of giant stars in general but this looks pretty good. Enormous white scrunchie to match as standard. And that earns her a pat on the arse from Nunno.

Galieva BEAM Opens with a fluff on her in 1992. Contains Alexandrov stating that it was very difficult to take her out, but the pressure was on to bring home medals. Lots of lingering close-ups of her huge eyes. Also shows Tatiana Gutsu saying she understands but had no say- like duhh. She looks 20 years older! Back to the actual gymnastics. Gorgeous backhandspring mount. Really nice acro series, perfectly in line. Nice Rulfova. Chorepgraphy contains too much back arch-back arch for my liking, very Bai Chunyue. Double tuck dismount with a tiny hop back. Same clown leo. 9.825

I'd like some scores now?

Milosovici VAULT Milo wearing an ill-fitting leo with no bra and a fluffy fringe. Hmm. Really nice vault, handspring half-on pike off..or maybe it's supposed to be laid-out. Only a slight shuffle on the landing but if you listen to the commentary you'd swear she rolled off the mat. White leo with red and blue on the shoulders and sides, probably the same as Gogean's. Second vault takes a big step forward, but nice in the air. 9.743

Dawes BARS The original high flier. Fantastic Hindorff- HUGE height. Nice form throughout, some unusual moves. Great full-twisting double dismount but takes two steps back. Same leo as Miller, suits her also. And we are told she was prom queen, err..interesting. 9.812 With those steps, that's too high.

Boginskaya FLOOR I am still missing loads of scores here. Bogi looks like's raided the local MAC. Probably one of the best at using great chorepgraphy that broke the mould. Nice full-twisting double tuck, stuck. Very nice combination front tumbling pass into punchfront and runs right into another. And now a flail around the floor bit. A master as resting in the corners with arm movements. Nice last pass, twist into punchfront but out of bounds. Nice routine all the same. 9.6

End of rotation standings: Galieva leads, followed by Dawes and Huilan.

Rotation Two

Khorkina FLOOR Nice twisting first pass. Fast paced music slows down a bit for her second, which looks like a 1.5 into 1.5 from the very bad angle shown, takes a step. Nice leap series into prone. Lots of posturing with her hands on her hips. Clean front tumbling pass into a very dramatic end pose.Well done. 9.7 Ever so slightly generous.

Podkopayeva BARS Woah big form break at the start, completely bends her knees on a transition. Working well with the rest of the routine, great form. Laughable to hear that hop full-hop-full-geinger is considered three releases in a row, but it is cool. Nice dismount. Hmmm. 9.8 Slightly generous too. And the camera pans to Lilia's bleeding rip on her hand being looked after, lovely.

- AA ad break intro shows a serious amount of Moceanu. Hello, Miller? Dawes? Interesting that the only Karolyi gymnast is set as the biggest hope when in reality the other two far outranked her.

Miller BEAM Love her series of back rolls into handstands, a favourite of mine. Sadly this the worst case of flexed wrists ever. Nevertheless, a gorgeous routine so far. Very tidy punchfront. Nice layout-stepout series, moves her foot back to steady but no wobble. Yay a Valdez, love them. Ughh wrists. Into the dismount and sticks a full twisting double back, albeit with a low landing. Crowd goes NUTS. Replay shows her foot actually slipped off, great control not to even wobble on that. 9.862 WOW

Galieva FLOOR Oh no, I knew this was coming, Galieva not being able to hear her music again. I really love this music, very lively and suits her. Nice whip into full twisting double back, tiny bounce on the landing. Nice front tumbling pass, though I'm getting sick of these pretty fast. Here comes Shannon's dismount and the noise is seriously unreal. Galieva is determined but you can tell she's a bit lost. Nice combination pass into fabulously high straddle jump at the end. Noise has died down a bit but goes nuts again over Shannon's score. This is a joke. Galieva has a nice full-in again, but is rattled. Can't hear anything and struggles at the end into her end pose. This is hard to watch. 9.637 And she is devastated. She has had one of the worst Olympic experiences considering her talent and considering that nothing was down to injury or a mistake.

Mo BARS First transition has so much flight you can almost see her being able to sit on top of the high bar with it, it looks tough to actually catch. Here comes the Gaylord, superb. Second transition is really difficult, no sitting on the bar in straddle and jumping for her. Lovely high Tkachev. This is beautiful stuff, gorgeous lines. Nice double layout, tiny leg seperation and a small shuffle on landing. The best bars routine of the whole competition, bar none. 9.8 Pfft underscoredl. Dawes got higher with much bigger steps back. Joke.

Dawes BEAM Oooh another Valdez. Nice leap series. Acro line is impressive, roundoff into 3 layout-stepouts but they are seriously choppy. Pretty bad form but I doubt they will penalise her for it. It just does not flow very well at all. Difficult dismount sequence, but again very choppy. Replays highlight the leg seperations in her round-offs and how low her full twisting double back was. It will still get a 9.8  Yes 9.825 and nobody cares about form.

Milosovici BARS Nothing special, but super Romanian efficiency. Nice form and I like her high to low transition. Nice dismount. 9.737

Boginskaya VAULT Lovely clean form on a 1.5 Yurchenko. Has to take two giant steps forward though. Looks like they are vaulting into a sandpit. Replay shows slightly bent knees. Second vault is the same with a slightly smaller step forward.


Amanar BEAM Very clean punchfront mount. Nice acro line, BHS-LOSO-BHS-LOSO. Not perfect form in the air but good. Very efficient leaps. Nice double tuck with a small hop back. Good for her. 9.725

Moceanu FLOOR Please no. The Karolyi's are responsible for all the barf 70's Romanian routines, but I hate this one the most. Great full twisting pike back, but steps out of bounds. Really not at her peak here. Nice combination twisting second pass. Here comes the cringeworthy choreography. Not a bad front tumbling pass, gets a lot of height and bounces out of it. Oh god the part where she pretends to have a tantrum...ugh stomach turning stuff. Ugh more embarrassing choreo. Nice twisting final pass to end but another step on landing. Crowd are loving it. 9.687 and there is no comeback from that AND beam.

Kotchetkova BEAM Love her eponymous move, full-twisting back handspring. Slight hesitation on the second layout stepout, nothing major. Another with too much back-arching as choreography. Great Rulfova and a stuck double tuck dismount, nice. Well deserved 9.825

End of rotation standings: Dawes leads Miller and Kotchetkova who are tied. Crowd are ecstatic.

Rotation Three

Woah seriously glitzy leotard in the background! Black bodice with seriously glittery silver on the neck and sleeves. It would stand out even in today's sparkly leotard infestation. Camera pans to the Clintons. Little known fact: Clinton did everything he could to help the Northern Ireland peace negotiations and eventual Good Friday Agreement and had a big impact on it. So I like him.

Miller FLOOR Shannon is busy adjusting the huge scrunchie eating her head. Great double layout but stumbles forward a bit. Elfi is banging on about how much trouble she has had with it lately and how it cost her in team finals. Take the thing out then, no? That is costly. Moving on, lovely floaty second pass and I like this music, she dances well to it. Crowd are silent, either speechless after the mistake or miffed they can't clap along to this. Full twisting double and steps OOB. Damnit. That takes her out, she's gutted of course. 9.475 Ouch.

Mo BEAM Mounts with her one-arm handstand which is an utter joy to behold. Lovely precision in her movements.Stunning leaps and so high in her layout. Teeny tiny hesitations here and there. Lovely dismount, takes a kind of step that she kicks out. 9.8 Also very slightly high but I can't begrudge it for this routine. Elfi and co. are up in arms. Durr Dawes bars?

Dawes FLOOR Killer double layout, nails it. Love her music. Whip into twist into punchfront and underrotates it, her feet can't grip the floor and she sits down. This kills me every time. Huge groan from the crowd and her sparkle dies, but she keeps plugging away. Really nice full in pike, such a shame. As she's crying someone says off camera 'all right dom', yeah she's fine thanks for asking. Lots of charming close-ups on her face, just like they did for Shannon and Roza. 9.0 And the crowd boos. Did they not see her sit down? Gutting all the same.

Milosovici BEAM Why did they send her out in an ill-fitting cotton leotard and no bra? The mind boggles. Fabulous mount- in fact very few are using easy mounts. This is a tucked Korbut, very slightly offline but not seriously so. Great acro line but seems a bit clumsy. Soo solid, and nails her double tuck. Great work. 9.775

Amanar FLOOR Effortless double layout, what a tumbler. Some interesting attempts at dance. I actually like this music, much better than the barnyard hoedown she showed up with in Sydney. Such height on her leaps! Fairly meaningless posey bit. Super stuff though, whip into 2.5 twist into punchfront right back into another pass with a triple full. Glorious. And a full-in tuck to end. Amazing. 9.737 That is underscored, Moceanu got a 9.687 with two out of bounds and Amanar's difficulty is huge. Bahh.

Moceanu VAULT NBC keep plugging her as if she is still in medal contention. Sigh. 1.5 Yurchenko, nice in the air. Takes a giant hop forward though. Sticks the second one and the crowd goes wild. 9.706 and the crowd seem to be pissed it's not a 10 as they all conveniently shut their eyes for the huge hop on vault one.

Kotchetkova FLOOR Fabulous double layout. Good music too. Nicely done second and third combination passes, very floaty just a slight hop on the second one. I absolutely love all the backhandsprings into straddle jumps going on these games because the height on the jump just looks so awesome, another great one here. Interesting choreography and a sky high double tuck to end. Great routine. 9.787

Lilia fluff! I absolutely adore this music they use at the beginning of it. Dramatic sun and clouds shot, oooh. 'Lilia was told by her grandmother when she was brought to the training centre at Kiev "Do well or do not bother" ' Tourischeva's hair is gross here. Shots of a ballet, and Lilia talking about the emphasis on choreography. I like the fluffs purely for the look at Eastern European gyms and backgrounds. Emphasis placed on how important a gold medal would be for independent Ukraine which is well done.

Podkopayeva BEAM Solid punchfront mount. 'She took advantage at the last world championships of other's misfortunes', annoys me everytime as it makes her sound not worthy. Nice BHS LOSO into Korbut, slightly offline on the Korbut. And now let's talk about Dawes instead of this beautiful routine Al. Really nice choreography, very much in command. Clean full-in dismount with a small hop. Lovely work. 9.787 Underscored

End of rotation standings: Huilan and Kotchetkova tied, Podkopayeva in third.

Rotation Four

Milosovici FLOOR Lovely double layout. Fast music, dance is okay. Second pass three whips into a twist and punchfront- amazing! Still has it on floor. Nice low to floor bit. Last pass a full-in tuck with a step. Excellent work. 9.812

Dawes VAULT Good 1.5 Yurchenko but has a big enough hop. Very effortless for her. First vault not shown. 9.681

Moceanu BARS  Lovely Shaposhnikova. Extremely straight on her Pak, looks like she ran into difficulty with it after catching as she looks awkward on the low bar. Great release, lots of height. Hops on her dismount a bit. Replay shows she pikes it a lot. Hmm. 9.762 Slightly too high, but not by much.

Amanar VAULT Great DTY, lovely form. Slight adjustment on landing but no hop or step. Sticks the second one, fabulous. 9.843 Well deserved.

Kotchetkova VAULT Gets almost no block off the horse on a 1.5 Yurchenko. Lands in a deep squat and takes a step. Damn. It's amazing she got it around at all though but that takes another leader down. Second vault looks to have a slightly better position on block but the same result, deep squat and several steps to steady this time. DAMNIT. That is some shoddy technique right there. 9.581 and the fourth leader falls.

Podkopayeva FLOOR This is one of the most familiar floor routines ever to me. Double front half out, excellent. Why has nobody done this since?? Two combination passes, very clean. Definitely one of the greatest front tumblers ever. Very lively music for balletic choreography but that's why it works I think. Here comes the fouette bit! Not a fan of the flexed foot match after but oh well. Ooo 360 degrees handstand. Full in full out, great stuff. Lilia's face when she ends is amazing, she looks so pleased but so humble or something. 9.887 and Milo kisses her in congratulations. The two of them have a nice moment, I wonder what language?

And a short clip of Khorkina mistiming her Shap 1/2 and not coming anywhere near the bar to recatch. She's pissed. 9.262

Gogean VAULT Nice 1.5, small hop. Leg seperation on block but I think they're all doing that, just not showing the dead-on angle Gogean got all the time. Sticks the second one but it's not a true stick and she has to step forward eventually. Very efficient. Milo was by the side chewing gum ha. 9.775

Miller VAULT It's almost sad she has to go one better than her old FTY, as she performed the best one of all time.  I don't know what this vault is, looks great though. Such form in the air. The landing jars her and she looks in pain. Does the second one and it's beautiful with a perfect stick. Wow. It looks like a Yurchenko half twist into layout front. Shannon waves to the crowd who are going crazy for her. Nunno is seriously loud and annoying on the sidelines but he was a great coach, gets her to smile again. 9.724 Looks a little high because they weren't out of 10.0 like most other people's but there was really nothing to deduct so that's fair.

Mo Huilan fluff! Rice paddy field, soft music. Pretty standard stuff, Mo trains hard and very far from home. It makes what's coming next even worse. Documents how her sister was chosen ahead of her for the National team but she begged to be chosen too and was accepted. I've heard several times that the sister showed even more promise, it's sad she was injured and stopped training. 'This is why I choose gymnastics. To win gold medals. For honour. For country and family.' Sniff.

Mo FLOOR I preferred her 1995 typewriter floor but this is great too. Very floaty double layout. Nice second pass and great height on her leaps. LOL chicken dance bit, classic. Third pass is a twist to combination and she steps out of bounds and everybody groans. NOOOOOOOOOO. So sad. Lovely choreo and gets the typewriter bit in but the sparkle is gone unsurprisingly. Lovely piked full in to end. Manages to smile. Hmm I actually did not know this, but the routine is out of a 9.9 and she needed 9.857 to win gold. That means it was probably impossible anyway had she not made an error. Still, she would have taken silver easily but I thought she had gold for sure in her grasp. 9.650 So a tenth for OOB and another deduction for the step itself. That means it WAS impossible as 9.850 would still not have gotten gold.

And Podkopayeva wins! What a fabulous AA with 12 actual contenders for medals, we'll never see the like of that again. Of course it was sad that two who qualified could not compete- Strug and Marinescu and it was awful to see Galieva, Dawes, Miller, Kotchetkova and Mo fail. In a way, it is interesting that  this is the most undisputed Olympic win of all time, considering how many fell by the wayside. Clearly likeability has a lot to do with it. I do not like saying 'X was lucky Y fell' as it undermines their achievement and it is just how competition works out BUT if Gabby is lucky Komova had a crap landing on vault and Shushunova is lucky Silivas wobbled on beam then Lilia is lucky so many fell by the wayside, just as Carly is lucky Khorkina was wrecked at that point and Pavlova was underscored and Nastia is lucky the code favoured her whopper bars so much. That's how it works- you cannot blast Gabby's win and forget all of the other 'lucky' AA winners.

Final Standings

1. Podkopayeva
2. Gina Gogean
3. Simona Amanar, Lavinia Milosovici

Amanar was never going to get gold, but she was underscored. Dawes and Moceanu were overscored. Bleughh. I like doing this because it forces me to have a better insight and really notice the scoring like I wouldn't have before every other time I watched it. But it takes too long! I will do 2008 AA and maybe 1992 but it will take a while. Event finals ftw.

EDIT Thank you to GTT who explained there was something up with the composition of Amanar's floor- either she missed a requirement or failed to complete one so her start value was lowered accordingly. So I take it back when I complained about her low score. A big shout out to NBC who failed to show start values or even mention that perhaps not all routines (sans vault, which they did mention) start out of a 10. Because of that, this blog assumes pretty much everything was out of a 10. Even with that, the most blatant overscores still stand as a joke. I WILL include Mo and Podkopayeva in that, much as I love them, after thinking about this competition some more some of their scores were just blatantly ignoring mistakes.

Next up is 1992 AA. I will state that I wanted Lysenko to win (not at the time, I was 4). I think Miller and Gutsu were so evenly matched, neverthless- shady dealings there. I'm not going to bother with 2008 AA because that was sickening. 2011 BB and maybe the odd event final here and there.