The United States of Extreme Difficulty

I freely admit that I am a giant hypocrite. I love seeing big difficulty once it's not scary and seeing juniors with crazy routines, like Katelyn Ohashi in 2011 with her beam and Norah Flatley with hers. But, enough is enough. There are too many now with routines that are just unnecessary at this stage, and others the same who are not even elegible for Rio. Injuries can happen to anyone but there's no real need to open the door and invite them in.

Look at Ariana Agrapides. She's not senior for another four years, so 2017 worlds would be her aim for the moment, and her Olympics would be 2020. With that in mind, she already has a DTY, double arabian and piked full-in. AND she's training an amanar. The first three skills are done very well, no doubt about it. Safe and secure and the DTY is one of the best I have ever seen. But that's not really the point. It's too much pounding at her age (12) and unfortunately, spells burnout. She went from not having an FTY to an amazing DTY in less than six months. Can this talent not be preserved? An amanar is just asking for trouble, and indeed, she currently has a fractured foot, not that I can tell the exact cause of that.

This is fantastic. But it's a little early and an upgrade is asking for trouble for her knees, joints and ankles. They just don't need that stress that early, and for what gain? The Jr National Vault champion. Not much of a trade-off. The same gymnast had an utter meltdown at Nationals on bars and her highest e-score over both days on that apparatus was 6.7. Going back to basics there could well serve her better in the long run.

It hasn't escaped my attention that if Ariana does do an amanar next year, she wouldn't be the first, three years off from being a senior. This exclusive club also contains Lexie Priessman. McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber also did it two years before becoming senior, at the age of 13, but they at least had London looming ahead.

Ariana has fabulous potential on vault and floor in particular. But what's the rush?

Irina Alexeeva has already attracted a lot of attention, Russian-born, WOGA gymnast with a flair for floor and beam. She competes at HOPES level, which is between elite and Level 10. Indeed she achieved the scores needed for elite I believe this year, but it was decided to not advance just yet. A wise decision given that she is 2002 born and therefore not senior until 2018. Yet, yesterday at Masillia she scored 15.850 on beam, with a d-score in the mid 6's. This score no doubt has a bonus included but think about it, 5 years from senior and she had more difficulty than anyone in the worlds beam final. It is like Aly Raisman trouncing seniors on floor, in 2005. I thought when Irina debuted this routine that it was too much for her and that she struggled a bit, and although the score from yesterday indicates that she must have mastered it totally, it is still craziness.

Not to mention Jordan Chiles, 2017 senior, who has a DTY and is also training an amanar. Not doubting her ability at all, and it looks good in the video, but I'm just hoping it stays in the pit until 2015. Or indeed Laurie Hernandez who showed up this year with immense upgrades on every event. Like Ariana her teammate, her skills look secure. But it could have waited another year.

What do you think? Am I fussing about nothing? Or is the trend for more difficulty younger and younger indeed worrying? We only have to look at examples like Katelyn Ohashi and Jordyn Wieber for athletes who it did no favours to. The code demands so much from gymnasts these days, but there has been no advancement in the structure of the body and how badly pounding can affect it. Look at the injury list before/during/after worlds. The longer gymnasts do these skills, the more likely an injury is. In the US, the depth of talent means you pretty much need to make a name for yourself. But pacing has never been so important. Being a superstar junior is not much good if it ultimately means that your senior career takes a huge hit.

The State of the US

The USA is always interesting to look at in terms of where their athletes are and who could make teams, because they don't need to preserve their gymnasts whatsoever. There could quite easily be a situation where none of the Fierce Five make any teams this quad and disappear completely, and they would still win all around them. But, after the insight of American Cup, Jesolo and Chemnitz...on with what's going on.

- Simone Biles is the strongest all-arounder. She is also the strongest possible contributor in team competitions on vault, a certainty on floor and bars and a good possibility on beam too. I must stress- at the moment. American gymnasts have an unfortunate tendency to be injured and we can never rule this out. Especially when you're throwing such hard skills as she is. Under her belt, as we all know, are the following- a very dynamic amanar (and TTY in training), a full-in beam dismount, a floor routine containing a double layout, double double, 1.5 to full-in and which she's not done upgrading yet, and a not-bad-at-all bars with strong releases. Her execution is not amazing by any means but it's not near bad enough to drag her down so no real complaints there. All in all, she's number one.
- Kyla Ross is as lovely and infuriatingly low in difficulty as ever. Her lines have improved with her height, and her beam is just stunning to watch. Many have tipped her as the new Bridget Sloan, the fairly unimportant Olympic team member who takes the world AA title the following year. Unfortunately, I just don't see this happening. Kyla's difficulty is just too low, her floor is out of a 5.3, her vault is 5.8 and her beam and bars are not much over 6. She has said she will not upgrade floor this year, which is very bad news for AA medal ambitions. A great all-arounder certainly with lovely execution but that isn't enough to triumph. Simone Biles has a 1.4 difficulty lead with vault and floor (this will widen too with her floor upgrades yet to come), with beam and bars being very similar. Larisa Iordache has about 1.8 on floor and beam (some swallowed up on bars of course, though almost 2 points would be tough going), and Aliya Mustafina has about a 1.4ish lead on beam and floor (set to widen when she upgrades her bars) etc. etc. I do think Kyla can be victorious and can win major titles, but not this year if her routines don't sharply upgrade.
- Katelyn Ohashi is currently recovering from shoulder surgery. I'd have no doubt she will be back in time for Classics and/or Nationals but this is still bad news, as her biggest issue aside from overall stamina are her pirouettes on bars which are all open to huge deductions and this recovery will not help. Katelyn has an unbelievable beam routine with a possible difficulty score of 7.3 with all connections hit and this alone will probably secure her a spot at this year's specialist worlds. But as an all-arounder and team contributor this quad she still has quite a way to go, her bars need a lot of work, her floor would not be used in a team situation and her vault, while much improved, is worth 0.5 less than many of her teammates. Katelyn is quite obviously a great gymnast but her routines look as hard as they actually are, her stamina doesn't seem to have kept apace with her growth and upgrades.
- Lexie Priessman is quite clearly not herself, or at least wasn't on the European tour. That was not the 2012 Junior European champion, this gymnast struggled- spectacularly so on a leap on beam and just wasn't doing what she's capable of. It is a fact that she trains at a gym with a reputation of breaking gymnasts; so too does junior Amelia Hundley who was also very much under the weather in Europe. It would be a grave mistake to write Lexie off though; she has a 6.7 floor in training and an amanar and second vault, as well as being a very strong all-arounder. Her beam and execution let her down, and I don't see her really rivalling Simone's place for instance, who while similarly strong on floor and vault is noticeably better on beam and bars. A worthy contender for the fourth spot and one who could be very valuable in future team competitions. As long as she stays healthy!
- Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney have both been back training for a good few months now. We know a lot more about Jordyn who has all of her skills back and is training a new one, a Weiler full on bars, thanks to her being the subject of the latest Gymnastike Beyond the Routine series, which unfortunately costs so I've just seen summaries. She'd be far from the first to get a skill named after her on her weakest event. A fully healthy Jordyn, especially with good non-dodgy beam connections is a fierce contender and although we haven't seen her at camp yet, she seems to have all guns blazing for Nationals. Jordyn would have a huge difficulty lead over Kyla if all her routines go to plan, and that would mean it makes no sense to leave her behind since Kyla is unlikely to medal on either beam or bars with her difficulty the way it is. There's no word about how McKayla is doing, though she has said herself she is vaulting Yurchenkos (halves, fulls, layout timers?) and concentrating on bars and beam as her leg still hurts. Healed, but sore. This was more than two months ago so presumably she is further advanced, and she was due to go to camp though pulled out at the last minute. Even with that, that must mean she had routines worth verifying. Her place in team worlds would be much more assured than this year, though if her vault and floor are back up to their old standard (and hopefully beyond with no super-sketchy third pass) and Lexie and Ebee remain unfortunate with their health then she'd be a good bet. The TTY speculation is all on super-springy Simone Biles now but McKayla is the other who looks well capable of landing one and has also mentioned it.
- Ebee Price, Sarah Finnegan and Maddie Desch are all either injured or recovering. Ebee was of course an Olympic alternate, beating Kyla in the AA at Trials, and took no less than two back-to-back world cup AA titles late last year. It's unclear what stage she's at now but she'd certainly be a very good bet for the fourth place at worlds if healthy. Sarah's strengths are beam and floor, an interesting combination. She would be vying with Katelyn for a place on this year's worlds team, since she is the only other one with a very difficult beam. Maddie is very similar to her, though perhaps not as polished on beam. She's recovering from a torn meniscus, rumour has it. Neither she or Sarah have competed since last summer, and Ebee last competed pre-injury in December.
- Peyton Ernst and Maggie Nichols performed strongly in Europe, having sprung out of nowhere. Peyton in particular has improved quite a lot since last year and could be a nice team contributor. However, I don't see her surpassing others for an all-around place just yet.
- Although Sabrina Vega has switched gyms, I don't see a big future for her in elite. Similarly I see Kennedy Baker fading too, though both girls should do extremely well at college.
- Mykayla Skinner has two vaults, ranked 6.4 and 6.3 respectively, the hardest floor routine actually competed (6.5) and has also improved on a weak event, bars. It seems crazy that she could easily fail to make major teams and is not even on the national team. Last year she was a bit inconsistent and this year crashed her double arabian in competition. It will be very interesting to see how she fares at Classics and Nationals as she could very well shake things up if she's consistent. 
- Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman who have both expressed that they will be back in the gym soon are in no way able to make the team this year. It will be interesting to see how they fare if they do go back as planned; particularly Gabby whose bars could be a great asset and who is blessed with the physique to remain longer in the sport at the top of her game.
- Liang Chow has a number of elite hopefuls; Norah Flatley and Alexis Vasquez who will both be aiming to qualify elite in summer and Rachel Gowey who is actually an elite and was at the last camp. Norah is extremely strong on beam with a fabulous routine, though I've no idea what her other events look like. Alexis Vasquez is supposed to be a stronger all-arounder but I haven't seen her either, and Rachel is totally unknown. Ones to keep an eye on, for sure.
- The brightest hopes for the future are Bailie Key, Laurie Hernandez and Nia Dennis. Nia is quite like Gabby Douglas, high-flying on bars and strong all-around. Bailie is very different from the rest, she has excellent execution, flexibility and difficulty and does not have a weak event. She has an amanar, arabian on beam and a Church and Downie on bars in the works, though she's being paced very well for her 2015 senior debut so we are unlikely to see all of these upgrades this year. She and Nia are elegible for YOG- Youth Olympics Games. Laurie is a 2000 baby and stunned everyone with her performances at the US Classic last year at the age of 11. She is a great dancer and beam worker, with a DTY, double layout and double arabian planned. While I found her choreography last year a bit repetitive, she really was compelling to watch. Looking forward to all three gymnasts becoming seniors.

Bars remain somewhat of an issue. Kyla Ross is the highest scoring gymnast they have, though her difficulty as ever could do with being substantially higher to challenge stellar Russian and Chinese routines. Power gymnasts Ebee Price and Simone Biles have surprisingly good bars ideal for team situations though neither could expect to qualify to a bars final unless the field is quite weak. There is always Jordyn Wieber and we can't write off the possibility of Gabby Douglas unleashing a strong bars routine next year. Bailie Key and Nia Dennis are strong on bars, but can't be relied on until 2015. Polina Shchennikova shows quite a bit of promise and Katelyn Ohashi would too if her bars were reworked. They are still in a much better position on this apparatus than Romania but it remains a weak point.

Beam has a much better outlook. The most valuable routine by far is that of Katelyn Ohashi. They also have Sarah Finnegan, Maddie Desch, Kyla Ross and Simone Biles. Jordyn Wieber too. Lexie Priessman and Ebee Price are very weak here and can't be used, but newcomers to the mix Peyton Ernst and Maggie Nichols look like good prospects in a team situation, if needed. Looking to the future, Laurie Hernandez and Bailie Key both shine on beam.

Floor is amazing as ever. Simone Biles, Ebee Price, Lexie Priessman and Jordyn Wieber are all incredible on floor, at least difficulty wise if not artistry wise. Katelyn Ohashi has improved but I don't see much possible upgrading in her future really. McKayla Maroney could be valuable here again, and gymnasts like Amelia Hundley, Laurie Hernandez, Bailie Key and Nia Dennis would be expected to contribute heavily also. Let us not forget that Mykayla Skinner, who showed herself to be inconsistent last year, has a laidout double double, tucked double double and double arabian in her routine.

The amanar fest is certainly here to stay, with two gymnasts capable of a TTY. Simone has a Lopez for a second vault and is training a Cheng. It's not known where McKayla is at but she's still in the mix even just for vault alone. Lexie and Ebee have amanars with second vaults in the works, and there's any amount of strong DTY's from others should they be needed. Bailie Key and several other juniors are training the amanar also. Mykayla Skinner has the current highest vault difficulty, with an amanar and Cheng actually competed.

The US look well able to continue dominating. It's up to everyone else to catch up. The worlds team, because of the depth, can go quite a lot of ways. I do think Simone Biles has cemented her place on it. I would say the same of Kyla Ross too, but Jordyn Wieber could potentially take her spot for the AA as Kyla is unlikely to medal in bars finals anyway. Katelyn for beam if healthy. And a four-way battle for the last spot, between Ebee Price, Lexie Priessman, McKayla Maroney and Mykayla Skinner. I see Jordyn taking Kyla's spot or nobody's, as she does not have a second vault and her coach has already stated that she has enormous difficulty with forward entry and it's why she doesn't have one. But the vault requirements have changed a bit, so you never know.

Simone Biles- AA, VT, FX, UB and BB attempts (wildcard for both)
Kyla Ross- AA, UB, BB
Katelyn Ohashi- BB
Ebee Price- VT, FX

That is one well-rounded team, though number four is very much up for debate. Who's on your team? Other juniors you think will storm their way to the top?

Piibunina is a great source for Jesolo (and everything) videos, and USAG have the full broadcast and individual routines from American Cup, which I'm not linking to since they've uploaded a billion videos since then.

Check out the The State of China here.

Bits and pieces

In an interesting twist, Laurie Hernandez emerged as the top junior at camp verification at the weekend, beating Bailie Key into second place. Polina Shchennikova was third. It's unclear who did NOT compete all-around so I'm not sure if Amelia Hundley did all four pieces or sat some out. What is clear is that she has grown even more and looks to have beaten Kyla Ross in the height stakes. Similarly in the senior ranks, it looks like quite a few didn't do the AA as Kyla Ross was first, followed by Brenna Dowell and Peyton Ernst- with no sign of Ebee Price or Simone Biles who really could not but be in the top 3. Ebee finished off 2012 superbly by capturing two world cup all-around titles in a row, but was hindered this year by an injury- so probably she is not all there yet. Simone is not, that we know of, recovering from an injury, but has more than proved herself as a top all-arounder this year. I am SO excited for Classics to see how all the girls pan out. The Olympic team can skip Classics by right but will probably use it as a competitive opportunity if they are ready in time- McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber that is, as well as Kyla Ross who is clearly ready. I think Simone Biles and Kyla Ross are pretty much guaranteed for the worlds team if they remain healthy. The other two are more than up for grabs. There is an opening for a second floor/vault girl- which Lexie Priessman, Ebee Price, Mykayla Skinner (I have no idea how she did at camp...). McKayla Maroney and possibly Jordyn Wieber (if she does actually produce a second vault, Geddert has said before Jordyn has enormous difficulty with forward entry) will be vying for. And they badly need someone for beam, which Katelyn Ohashi could take and be a back-up all-arounder. There are so many factors at play really for the second two spots- as well as, where are Kennedy Baker, Sarah Finnegan and Maddie Desch at? Sarah would fit in very nicely with my team if her beam d-score is huge again. I'm also very excited to see juniors Laurie Hernandez, Bailie Key and Nia Dennis with all of their upgrades, and newcomers like Jordan Chiles. Who do you want to see on the team? Do all-around? Should Katelyn Ohashi be taken just for beam? Can Lexie Priessman remain in one piece?

Here is Noemi Makra's floor and beam from the Slovenian world cup. I will keep raving about this girl because she is just exquisite and not enough people know about her. LOOK at that full-in pike, I think we should have an overlay of Diana Bulimar's over it, like the infamous Maroney-Uchimura 2.5 Y. Her execution is breathtaking and it needs to be acknowledged. Her third pass has no business in her routine, I'd like to see it replaced by whip-whip-double tuck or something. The technique on her turns is a bit mysterious, she starts out so well and they all drop, though it's kind of endearing the way she kept the first one going. Hopefully that can be sharpened up along with her too-easy pass. And much as it pains me, maybe some leaps to up the d-score. Her beam is another lesson in beautiful gymnastics (just like her bars. What's not to love?), with a gorgeous mount and nice connections. Sure the connection between the aerial-aerial is broken, the turn combination was not great and she biffed her last leap but these things are all tiny in the scheme of how great this routine is. The dismount is extremely high, she could maybe do a harder one. Though I'd hate to see an injury strike her, we've already lost two beautiful gymnasts so far this year, so it's nice that she's taking it slowly. There's no sound on her floor and her vault hasn't been uploaded yet, or you may be sure I'd have snuck that in too.

Grr not embedding. Her floor is here and is a must watch for the opening pass alone and her beam is here.

Rebeca Andrade is busy upgrading. A 2015 senior, she will hopefully be Brazil's candidate for YOG 2014 as she's likely to hoover up medals. Check out her new DLO below, it's gorgeous as it's one of the straight ones. She also has an amanar though the video of it shows a fall. Apparently she landed more to her feet, so it's all good. The video is via GymBlogBrazil who have plenty more videos uploaded.

I'm trying to think of every gymnast who has had Irish music. Only one actually predates Riverdance, Deliana Vodenitcharova, Bulgaria, 1988. The rest that I know of are Kim Zmeskal, 1998 (part of 98, she had two routines that year), Dominique Moceanu, 1998, Andreea Raducan, 2000, and Cheng Fei, 2003. Can anyone think of more?

Quick round-up- update Gabby Jupp :(

Maria Bondareva has won the Russian Junior Championships AA. Interestingly, Viktoria Kuzmina qualified in first and Maria in third- there must have been mistakes by one or both over the course of the few days. I am seriously excited to see Viktoria Kuzmina's bars- she is doing a piked double front dismount! Not to mention the interior of her routine must be great too- she scored a 15 during qualifications.

Australian gymnast Maddie Leydin is reported to have a Counter Kim- Gienger combination on bars, verified at a recent camp. I can't find this information but she must be either a new senior or became one last year- she did compete at Pac Rims and Gymnix last year but both incorporate juniors so that's no help. Anyway, WOW! I'm definitely not up with the mechanics of gymnastics but a Counter-Kim strikes me as being incredibly difficult to release out of as it's one of those built-in dead hang releases, so this girl must be amazing. I can't wait to see a video. Other reports from the camp are intriguing- several girls have DTY's, another has a Tkachev-Gienger combination and there's lots of interesting floor work- Alexandra Eade has a double layout, tuck full-in AND a 1.5 tuck full-in and Maddie Leydin has a whip-double arabian. Thinking about the Counter-Kim-Gienger again and I don't think it can be a direct connection as they go from different directions. What's far more likely (if the word Marinich is not a mistake- please let it not be a mistake...) is that she does an uprise like Becky Downie or something similar in between, that would also make more sense given the enormous difficulty in connecting a Counter-Kim to anything dynamic.

TripleTwist have compiled a list of girls at and not at the latest camp. You can find it here. I'm really pleased to see Kennedy Baker, Elizabeth Price and Sarah Finnegan back in the mix as well as of course...McKayla Maroney! There's no way she's at camp if she doesn't have something of substance to show. She said in an interview a good few weeks back that she has successfully vaulted a Yurchenko (full?) so maybe by now she the amanar back. What's arguably more interesting is what she has to show on the other apparatus. Strange that she is more ready than Jordyn Wieber who did not have near as many injuries to come back from. Jordyn does look well on her way though, with a new skill in the works- sadly for those who want her to ditch her Weilers on bars it is a variation- a Weiler full. Fascinating to think she could get a named skill on her weakest piece, but she would be far from the first to do so. It's unfortunately not a surprise that Katelyn Ohashi isn't there as she had shoulder surgery just a few weeks ago. I'm interested to see beam and bars work from new elite Madison Kocian who has been held back in the past with injury- especially bars, if they have upgrades she could be very valuable as a complement to a powerhouse gymnast. And of course, also intrigued to know whether or not Mykayla Skinner has gained in consistency now that she has an ambitious floor routine and vaults (laid out double double, amanar and Cheng respectively).Update: It appears that McKayla Maroney pulled out of camp at the last minute. If so, I still think it's positive that she was supposed to go, she must have solid routines to show.

This is my favourite of Aly's dances. I think she's doing a great job of the ballroom dances but I'm more into this as it's quite obviously much more personal to her, as well as my not having a clue about ballroom dancing..except names really. LOOK at that leap at 4:00, I've never seen her do a leap that good. And the series right after it looked like it has better form than what she has usually shown in the past. The major part of the video is the choreography obviously, and not the gymnastics bits...it makes me very hopeful that she will do a floor routine at least at Classics next year choreographed by Mark Ballas, her partner (and Shawn Johnson's first time around). I wouldn't care if it just had back layout passes, it would be just so amazing to see her instil what she has learned into her dance. And it looks like she has learned a lot overall..starting with counting music which she stated herself..and more than likely, emoting and relating to music in sync.

Gabby Jupp's injury has been confirmed as a torn ACL. Devastating that she will out for about a year. Hopefully she can use this time like Aliya Mustafina did to build a spectacular bars routine on what is already a very promising foundation.

Catalina Ponor, Tommy Ramos, Marissa King and Ashanee Dickerson have been added to the Pro Gym Challenge roster. I mentioned this a while ago and I'm still excited about it..they're adding people by the day and the roster is very impressive now! As well as the above, Anna Pavlova, Oksana Chusovitina, Jade Barbosa, Jessica Lopez, Vanessa Zamarripa, Chellsie Memmel, Alyssa Pritchett, Noel Couch, Kat Ding and Jana Bieger will be there. The MAG side has bigger names too. This competition will have no routines, it is moreso a skill challenge which wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I find the format interesting. The competition takes place May 10-11th.

This is video of the week for me, (a bit old..) where Mykayla Skinner's coach states that Mykayla would have had the laidout double double named after her had she performed it at Jesolo/Chemnitz. Snort. I also found the high drama of the whole piece hilarious, it didn't seem like they were gearing up for a gymnast performing a skill (albeit a new, very impressive one) in her own gym, but rather a space launch of some sort. There is a lot of fuss on the gymternet over Mykayla's own arrogance but I don't like commenting on gymnasts on anything other than their own gymnastics, so I won't. I hope she doesn't end up in the 'bad personality' box in my head as that makes me unable to enjoy their routines no matter how great they are.

Some news and musings. SCAM lineup announced!

NON-USA: There will be a livestream of SCAM! On www.dtb-online.de It's German so will presumably have German commentary, but who cares. It begins at 5:30 German time, 4:30 GMT and for anyone who can't watch it on TV in the US- 11:30 EST and 8:30 PST.

Gymnix rosters have been released. The Romanian team which differed between sources before is definitely Andreea Munteanu, Andreea Iridon, Laura Jurca and Paula Tudorache. The first three all feature in my New Kids on the Block Romania post. Very dissapointed not to see Madalina Blendea who doesn't seem to have competed in nearly a year, but word is she is not competition ready yet after an illness. Russia are sending lesser known girls to get experience. Apparently Seda Tutkhalyan has a DTY and round-off-layout on beam so that seems promising. Heaven Latimer, Aleeza Yu, Shallon Olsen and Rose Kayen-Woo from Canada will be there, as well as teams from Japan, Belgium and France. Should be very good. I'm expecting Romania to win. The final roster is here. (download)

In US news, the second girl for SCAM should have been announced by now! Patiently waiting. I fully expect Lexie Priessman but you just never know. Simone Biles would be another strong bet, or maybe Kennedy Baker. It looks like a very bad idea to push Katelyn Ohashi to compete all-around at the moment, so her name would be a huge surprise. The competitive field for this is quite weak so while you will hear a lot about the depth of competition from the commentators...in reality there will be two extremely strong US girls against a B team. In fact, there will be nobody else from the top 4 at all. I'm most interested in Kyla Ross' upgrades and my main hope is that it will be a good fight for bronze. Jordyn Wieber has reported that she is training and has almost all of her skills back. That will make for an interesting Nationals if she's ready. Aly Raisman looks to be a dead cert for Dancing With the Stars (Strictly Come Dancing) which should be good as dancing definitely does not come easy to her. The official announcement will be tomorrow. Aly's age first and foremost makes her a good choice as she does not have to jump through the hoops Shawn Johnson had to first time around- child labour laws, court, guardian at all times, reduced practice etc. etc. However, I think she's also a smart choice due to her sunny, pleasant personality and she seems very genuine and humble. It's no suprise that she is raking in endorsements all over the place. EDIT- Aly has been confirmed. The competition starts mid-March.

EDIT- Bit of a shock! Katelyn Ohashi and Simone Biles will be the two USA girls for SCAM! Kyla Ross has sadly withdrawn due to a bruised heel. It's fine apparently, but she has had to reduce her training in the last few weeks so isn't ready to go on all four events. I'm sooo suprised to see Katelyn Ohashi, as I expected her not to be fully ready on floor and vault yet, she scratched floor at the WOGA Classic and only did a FTY so I thought she would take longer to be fully ready as an all-arounder. Not liking the fact that injury has forced a complete reversal of the original American lineup..it's very early in the season. It has also kept Lexie Priessman out, she's recovering from an injury apparently. Really looking forward to Biles, and also to see what Katelyn has up her sleeve in an all-around. Koko Tsurumi has withdrawn and will be replaced by Maegan Chant of Canada. Ross may compete exhibition on beam. Full lineup is Moors, Chant, Jupp, Teramoto, Seitz, Ferrari, Ohashi and Biles with withdrawals from Price, Ross, Iordache and Tsurumi. There's a lot of snark going on about Kyla not being injured/recovering. There's no evidence for that but there is for the opposite so I'm going with that.

Peyton Ernst, another new senior, has been added to the National Team. She will compete at the Tokyo Cup, the previously unnamed USA spot.

Chantysha Netteb suffered a scary fall at a Euros qualifying competition at the weekend when she landed her beam dismount on her neck. She was taken to hospital as a precaution but thankfully the damage is only minor- a bump on her arm and some neck pain. There's a lot of optimism that she'll be ready to go for the next qualifying meet in a fortnight.Edit- Chantysha has her own blog. The fall sounds even scarier, she missed her foot before the dismount, attempted to get back up after and fell back down. She herself remains hopeful she can compete at the second qualifier. Get well soon Chantysha! Her blog is here. It's in Dutch of course, which translates fairly well but mixes up bars and beam. The accident happened on beam, not bars. I just left a comment which has probably translated as gibberish. I love when gymnasts have blogs- Jennifer Pinches has started to blog her London experience with looooads of photos, it's fascinating. I'll link the posts when she's done.

Does anyone else miss the old-style nicknames the Soviets got? I absolutely love them and wish they would be reinstated.

Olga Korbut- The Sparrow from Minsk

Maria Filatova- The Siberian Sparrow

Svetlana Boginskaya- The Belarussian Swan

Tatiana Gutsu- The Painted Bird from Odessa

Tatiana Nabieva- The Peacock from St. Petersburg

LOL JK Tatiana Nabieva does not have a nickname other than Nabs. In fact, this type died with the Soviet Union. I don't count Simona Amanar's nickname meaning airhead and Raluca Haidu's meaning dwarf (lovely bunch in the Romanian National Teams...), they have to be of this exact type. Sometimes a Russian comes along who deserves to be memorialised like former Soviet greats were. Tatiana is one, Aliya another. Bring it back!

The Lineup of Dreams

Mai Murakami and Aliya Mustafina will both compete at the upcoming DTB Pokal World Cup. I'm so excited I can't bring myself to remember the rest of the lineup, though the Japanese team is much the same as it was for the Asian Artistic Championships. Asuka Teramoto is not listed and wasn't at Japanese Nationals either so must still be dealing with her arm injury. Rie Tanaka and Koko Tsurumi have both made noises about retiring (personally, I think 25 year old Rie Tanaka moves with the ease of a 15 year old and looks to have a lot left in her, but then that doesn't mean she has not struggled) so the Japanese world team next year will be interesting. It's nice to get a good look at who's in the running. Some lovely moves from the Japanese too, such as Risa Konishi's 3.5 twist on floor! It was previously thought that Mustafina would not compete at all for the remainder of this year, so this will be exciting to see that even if she has watered down out of season, if her steadiness on beam in particular has improved. Both gymnasts will feature in the team competition segment..along with Oksana Chusovitina who has taken back her retirement AGAIN and is looking to Rio.

Vanessa Zamarippa will be making another shot at elite. I don't believe she would do so with any real expectations of going much further than Nationals, especially considering that the huge depth of talent is going nowhere fast. However, she had a glorious Cheng last time she tried, so it would be great to see that again.

Here is the lovely Mariya Livchikova of Ukraine at a recent meet. Mariya has been showing the typical inconsistent Ukrainian streak lately, but this is a glorious return to form with her trademark unique combinations. This scored 15.250. Looking forward to seeing her make an impact in the new quad.

Victoria Moors was slightly injured at Massilia as I thought, she had some muscle tears in her back and consequently watered down her tumbling. However it's not going to be an issue for long thankfully.

Rebecca Bross and Catalina Ponor are headlining an upcoming gala in Mexico. Should be interesting to watch, can't help but think it's a swansong for both- I am one of those who think Rebecca is done. Here are some highlights; both looking in great shape.

Cata fights back against high-cut leotards for once and for all!

The Kelloggs Tour is over, but Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber are all going on a second tour, which incorporates cheerleading. This of course also means that we are pretty much guaranteed not to see any of them at Scam or Jesolo or somesuch meet. McKayla Maroney as previously mentioned still has a few weeks left before rehab. We of course all hope that Kyla Ross is busy upgrading like a beast.

Polina Schennikova also known as mini-Nastia has been added to the junior national team. No word on other additions or on upgrades. Laurie Hernandez has some nice ones, impressive given that she's still only 12. Nice Hults, the most likely addition to the national team did not attend camp due to injury. It appears that Sarah Finnegan is also injured, having been pictured recently with a heavy splint on her elbow.

Spare a thought for Jacoby Miles, a 15 year old Level 9 gymnast from Washington who paralysed herself from the chest down a few days ago. Jacoby was in the middle of a double back dismount off bars into a pit when she got lost in the air and landed on her neck on a mat. The nerves are not severed, so there is some hope that she may walk again. Given how absolutely insane the cost of medical care is in America (which I have myself experienced firsthand), donations are sorely needed. You can find ways to donate or help here.

On a more positive note, Simona Amanar's new baby girl is nicknamed 'Amanar vault'. D'awwwwww. I've forgotten stuff, but I'll add to this.

2011 Balance Beam Final

I don't think I've ever seen such a 'beauty and the beast' lineup. Power- Ponor, Raisman, Wieber VS artistry Komova, Yao, Sui. Fascinating to see all of the different styles that will be on display. Komova has the burning desire of revenge, Wieber and Raisman are at a peak level and coming off team victory AND Wieber the AA victory. Sui Lu of course can never be counted out. The 2004 beam champion Catalina Ponor is in the mix, along with surprise AA bronze winner, newcomer Yao Jinnan. Exciting stuff AND I have BBC coverage for this.

They do a run through of the Wieber VS Komova rivalry all week which is well done..except for spelling Wieber wrong. Unforgiveable when they've been looking at her all week. Something about this arena seems quite dull and bleak, maybe just the colours they're using.

Catalina Ponor Switch side leap, wobbles slightly. Round off-layout, great height but another small wobble. Beautiful Onodi right into another acro line, steady. Serious speed in her hand movements. Another wobble on an aerial, brings her leg up. Sticks her full in dismount but very low. A very good routine for a comeback but too much hesitation. Gross leotard, her favourite black that she wears so well with sparkles only there's two nauseating maroon panels fighting with each other on the front that totally ruin it. 14.241 Very low even with her errors, but the reasoning is her very low difficulty, 5.7

Yao Jinnan Starts with a standing full twist, nicely done. Foot comes off when she lands but not too far and she easily gets it back on. Perfect acro line- BHS-RO-LO. Great precision. Nice leaps. If that aerial was supposed to be connected to that sheep jump there was way too much of a pause in between. Nice front somersault. Great spin and Yang Bo. Just the dismount left..double pike with a step back. Great routine, pity about the missed connection. Red leotard with some yellow swirls on the bodice. It's eh fine. 15.233

Aly Raisman Nice acro line straight off the bat, pounds the beam. Really crappy split leap with turn, does not hit 180. Pike front into a LOSO, slightly choppy form. Another not great leap but it probably achieved split. Looks like she's too afraid to really go for it on leaps. Into a pike front but as Christine says, 'she didn't make any attempt to join them'. Tiny wobble on her aerial. She is always perfect on her tuck and pike fronts though. Another tiny wobble on her turn. Aly can be much steadier and precise than this, dissapointing from her. Great double arabian dismount, tiny hop back but really well done. I'm conflicted about this leo. Red body which suits her so well, then dark blue sleeves with sparkles..but it's not the full sleeve, it stats from her neck and skips the shoulder. It's weird. 15.055

Viktoria Komova Nice roll onto the beam in straddle position- anything is better than just sitting on it as a mount. Lovely tuck front. Here comes the 1992 acro line- BHS-LOSO-LOSO! Great stuff, no hesitation. So floaty. Standing arabian, foot comes off but just like Yao gets it back on, no damage done. Nice L turn into walkover and she has a true connection to her sheep jump, but foot comes off again. Side somi, one of the most elegant ever done but wobbles slightly. Double spin and comes off. Ughhh. She could have fought for that at least somewhat..didn't seem bothered. The forerunner of things to come, that giving up. Nice double tuck but takes a step back. Just looks underpar and performs like it too, coming off injury. Nice dark blue leotard with some white, elegant but a bit dull. Loses some of her difficulty score too- 13.766

Yulia Inshina  Nice mount, press to handstand into a roll. Great split leap into a tuck back. Tiny hesitation but doesn't wobble. Sheep jump but her legs are too seperated on it, not pretty. Good leap combination, no hesitation here. Okay that was a really nice side somi. (?? side somi? nice?). Fabulous L turn. Steady in the free cartwheel. Good Yang Bo, only brings her head back for the smallest fraction of a second. Very nice routine, but doesn't have the difficulty needed either. Wearing the same leotard as Komova, but it suits Yulia better. 14.525

Jordyn Wieber She is so 'on'. Straddle mount, yawn. Nice free walkover, straight into one-handed BHS and LOSO. Very steady. Extremely effortless hitting her splits in her leaps, great pike front. Side somi, fine. Very slight wobble on her straddle jump, but she is working very well. Standing full twist into back walkover, tiny hesitation on the landing. This is just packed with acro and I don't see why it was changed for the worse. Ughh. Ha I can hear McKayla going nuts in the stand. Great 2 and a half twist dismount, just a slight hop. Super stuff from Jordyn, much more attack than Yao and Komova but no less dynamic and exciting. Wearing the berry pink 'tie' leotard, suits her. 15.133

Sui Lu Komova's fall is her opportunity as the second highest qualifier. Great pike front into Korbut. Tucked barani, wobbles slightly on landing. This is amazing stuff, acro line with a back walkover into tuck back. Turn into turn combination. Love it. Side somi, solid. Wolf jump into split leap, no problems there either. Great sheep jump. Another split leap variation into tuck back, tiny pause in between. Double pike, sticks it! WHAT a routine. 15.866 WOW

Amelia Racea Ooo a full twist in acro line, lovely! Wobbles and leans to the side but controls it well. Great split leap with turn, very effortless. Great straddle leap, they're rare. Free cartwheel into a side somi. Windmills her arms and her fellow Romanians shriek so loudly you'd imagine she'd jump off in fright but she's fine now. Lovely 2 and a half twisting dismount, takes a step. Lovely routine but too weak in difficulty. I seriously love this leotard, lilac body with white structuring stripes. It's beautiful. 14.533

1. Sui Lu
2. Yao Jinnan
3. Jordyn Wieber

Interesting competition. Amelia Racea and Yulia Inshina had the best composed and most elegant and fluid routines, a shame they didn't have higher difficulty. Aly should have been able to beat Jordyn but just wasn't solid and 'on' enough. Komova was recovering from injury here, but nevertheless showed how she does not fight for landings. Glorious routines from Yao and Sui and a good comeback from Catalina Ponor. Such difference between the routines!


I am pretty much done with old competitions. Sadly there is still not enough to talk about otherwise though.

Official: London judges actually on crack

The judges report has been released and it makes for interesting reading. Some very questionable and downright mad judging going on.

Qualifying

Floor

Lauren Mitchell got an 8.0 and a 9.0 in execution for this routine. Seriously a whole point between two different judges?

The 9.0 judge gave Afanasyeva and Raisman the same execution score, when every other judge rightly had 0.1-0.4 difference in favour of Afan. Interestingly, gave Tweddle her lowest execution score too. So you hate artistry or not?

Bars

One judge gave Tweddle a 9.2 execution score and Komova an 8.5! Not surprisingly, this was Komova's lowest execution score by three tenths. The same judge gave Mustafina an 8.3, also her lowest by three tenths. Going to go out on a limb here and suggest this judge doesn't like Russia?

Douglas, Mustafina and Jinnan all had an 0.7 range between their execution scores.

Beam

One judge saw a tenth in the execution difference between Deng's and Sui's routines. Another saw a full point.

Jordyn's scores ranged from 8.2 to 9.0- 0.8 difference.

Two judges gave Raisman and Ross the same execution score..

Vault

One judge gave Douglas a higher score than Maroney's amanar by three tenths. WTF. The same judge also scored Jordyn's and Aly's amanars two tenths higher than Maroney's amanar.

Actually, only one judge thought Maroney's amanar was better than Jordyn's.


Team Finals

Floor

Victoria Moors was lowballed, receiving 0.7 less than Raisman for execution by the same judge. Not one judge scored her higher than Raisman.

Vault

One judge thought Douglas and Wieber deserved 9.6 for their vaults and Mustafina a 9.5. No, just no. All three have form and technique errors. And had just two-tenths between Maroney and Douglas..

Bars

One judge has 0.7 in the difference for execution between Tweddle and Jinnan, and 0.8 between Tweddle and Qiushuang, both in Tweddle's favour. ???

Beam

One judge gave Iordache and Ponor 9.0's and Sui 8.3!

Kyla Ross' scores have jumped from qualifying, for the exact same routine.

0.7 difference in Asuka Teramoto's score range.

A full point in Hannah Whelan's. Also the difference between Hannah's highest score and second highest score is 0.6.

All-Around

If the reference judges scores were used, Komova would have won the AA.

Floor

One judge gave four scores over 9. The rest only gave one each. The same judge gave Komova a 9.5! Also gave Douglas a 9.3 which devalues it a bit.


Vault

Douglas received THREE 9.5's for hers


Raisman received a 9.6!

Mustafina's lowest score was a 9.4

Bars

Mustafina's scores jump dramatically.

Douglas jumps too, and has 0.7 range in her scores

Beam

An 0.7 range in scores for Raisman and Komova

Komova received a 9.4! The same judge gave Deng four tenths less.

Douglas' scores have inflated again.

Floor Finals

The same judge who gave Raisman and Mustafina 9.3's gave Ponor an 8.5. This was Ponor's lowest score by SIX tenths.

The e-panel's score gave Ponor one tenth higher overall execution. The reference judges gave Raisman two tenths higher execution. Because of the difference between the e-panel and ref judges of Ponor's execution- 0.4, it was averaged between the two. If it had not been averaged, Ponor would have received 15.4. Still would have lost though.

Ferrari was lowballed completely.

Beam Finals

One judge gave Ponor and Raisman the same score.

One gave Deng a higher execution score than Sui   

Vault Finals

Paseka received no less than two 9.0's for her (not a) amanar.

Berger was lowballed and got an 8.5 for her Rudi.

Maroney's amanar received a 9.8 (before the neutral deduction), despite being noticeably not as good as the team finals one.

One judge have Pena an 8.0 for her unbelievable mess of a first vault. Another gave her 7.0- another point difference.


Overall

- Far too much disparity between scores, several instances where there was an 0.7 range and a good few where there was a full point. Regardless of the highest and lowest scores being dropped, this shouldn't be happening in the first place.
- Vault judges all on crack. An amanar once actually landed on the mat nevermind what direction it was facing or how much the gymnast came off the mat afterwards was totally gifted. Not near enough deductions on vault in general- dynamics, height, block technique..all ignored. Not near enough difference between Maroney and others.
- Too much inflation going on. Raisman in particular was gifted a lot of her scores, but few remained consistent throughout the whole competition for much the same routine.
- Some gymnasts were totally screwed, Ferrari the most obvious. Qiushuang another. Sui Lu in team finals beam, and Deng in the all-around.
- What subdivision you were in in qualifying greatly affected your score.
- Overscoring a big problem. Hard to believe that everyone thought crappy amanars were going to get slaughtered and that beam and floor were going to be harsh.




 

3 hours to go!

A while ago, this AA was seen as more exciting. Everybody predicted Jordyn Wieber, Larisa Iordache and Yao Jinnan up against Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina and Gabby Douglas. Obviously now we are down Jordyn, Jinnan is injured and clearly off form and Iordache has been off form too, yet it's amazing she is here at all when she was written off just last week. It's hard to predict which Larisa we are going to see, I would imagine floor 6.7 vault 6.5 bars 6.5 beam 6.9 ie, her full difficulty is a bit out of the question, but floor 6.5 vault 6.5 bars 6.3 beam 6.7 is not. And that is still huge. Anyway, she is the one I am rooting for. My ideal podium is Larisa- Musty- Vika/Aly. What I actually expect is Vika- Gabby- Musty.

Who is the most likely to headcase?
Gabby and Vika. Vika has issues with endurance, Gabby has found consistency lately but beam should still be greatly feared and there's even more pressure on her now.

Least likely to headcase?
Aly! Then Larisa, then Musty. Musty might have another wobbly beam, yet actually having a huge error? Very very unlikely.

Who is the dark horse?
Aly and Larisa. Aly is the steadiest, Larisa's ability to shine as of today is not yet known.

What are Aly's chances?
Aly has the lowest difficulty out of her, Gabby, Vika, Musty and Larisa. She IS the steadiest. While she was the second highest qualifier, an underpar Vika still beat her. All of the others have improvements to make, whereas Aly shone and was at her absolute best at prelims. She doesn't have room for further improvements- though the improvement itself from Trials until prelims was phenomenal.

What about Vanessa Ferrari and Deng Linlin, the next highest qualifiers?
Ferrari is very strong on beam and floor, but aside from floor doesn't have the really high difficulty to really be boosted onto the podium. Deng's is higher, she is quite strong all-around but has already peaked and had a nightmare in TF, so her performance tonight will be very interesting. Both are very strong competitors, but not really podium material

Why isn't Larisa competing with Vika, Gabby and co?
She had a fall on floor and did not qualify to the top group. Hopefully BBC (and NBC and everyone else) will recognise that she should be broadcast!

Will we have a winner with a fall?
No, it's far too close. Beam wobbles will be the height of the winner's errors.

I don't know what it is about the question format, but I like it :) Prepare to be deafened by the noise of McKayla cheering from the stands! I watched part of TF back on the Eurosport livestream to catch the podium ceremony and without commentary, you can really hear her going mental!

Gabby to do beam in TF

Noooo!! She has proved over and over again that she cannot be trusted on this event, it clearly scares her. She did a good routine in prelims and usually nails her beam in training, but her hit record in competition is not enough. When have you last seen Jordyn fall off beam? Grab the beam? Have a huge wobble and bring her foot up? This is far too risky and quite frankly, an insult to USA's steadiest competitor. Jordyn may not get her connections credited but the girl is guaranteed to stay on. Let's hope Gabby is Aly-like steady, and that the likelihood of her posing a 15.266 again is worth it. I suspected this after Gabby's high score on beam yesterday, but thought a solid routine would win out over a gamble. Which is exactly what this is now.

The fuss about Jordyn

As we all know, a top contender for the all-around, Jordyn Wieber, who placed fourth in the all-around won't get to compete in the all-around final.

Why?
Jordyn falls foul of the two per country rule, which means because her two teammates outperformed her, she can't qualify even though her score was ahead of almost everyone else.



Why is the rule in place?
To allow for diversity and to give a chance to gymnasts from countries not in the top 4 the chance to compete.



Does it work?
No. If a gymnast is good enough, then they will qualify regardless. China, Romania, USA and Russia still dominate the top, while gymnasts from countries where gymnastics isn't a big deal flounder around the bottom and don't go near the top. Gymnasts from outside the top 4 have won or been major contenders (Onodi, Podkopayeva) but the rule makes little difference when you're that good- having it in place will not allow or disallow an exceptional gymnast from a lesser country to contend for the title. The issue is, they have lesser difficulty and having the rule won't help that.



Why was it changed from 3 per country to 2?
Much the same reason why the size of the team has been lowered too. The IOC and FIG are eager for countries with less depth to be given the chance to field a team and in general to lower the number of athletes so that other disclipines can be contested.



If the rule has been in place for ages, why is it only a big fuss now?
It has often been the cause for outrage before. The issue here is depth. This year, Anastasia Grishina will not get the chance to compete in the all-around. Yelena Zamolodchikova was denied twice. Zamo was a top contender, but Grishina is not- strong, but not podium material. Jordyn arguably is the best gymnast ever to be denied the chance.



Do other sports use this kind of rule?
Yes, but certainly not all. The IOC are big fans of diversity, but it absolutely is not across the board. The ones that do have it are similar, using the rule either in the qualifying rounds before the Olympics, or the actual heats/Olympic quals.



So why isn't there a fuss about Grishina too?
Anastasia Grishina was never really expected to qualify. She is strong on her events, but not exceptional. Komova and Mustafina were almost a certainty. By contrast, Jordyn WAS a certainty! She is the defending world champion and was if not people's predictions for gold, certainly a given to be a very strong contender and extremely likely to walk away with a medal. Gabby was expected to qualify- she has the highest difficulty and extrmely strong bars. Although Aly qualifed ahead of her, she was not expected to- only if Gabby messed up. That's how certain Jordyn's status was seen to be.



People wouldn't have cared near as much if it was Aly who got screwed over then.
Correct. People would have felt sorry that such a strong AA contender wasn't going to qualify, but Aly has never really been top, and would not have expected to make it especially since Gabby surged so spectacularly.



There wouldn't have been such a big fuss if this was another country that this happened to.
It would have, internally in the country and by gymnastics fans. But not internationally- there are so many people who watch gymnastics only every 4 years and they are mostly fed by NBC and the hype around the American favourites.
 

Will the FIG get rid of the rule?
Highly unlikely. There has been several uproars about it before, and in the meantime they downgraded the team size and the number per country who can qualify from 3 to 2. A modification is not out of the question, but actually abolishing it, not a chance.



Might we see Jordyn in the AA anyway, one of the others might step down?
Gabby and Aly earned their places as Jordyn exhibited some mistakes which were costly. To suggest one of the others should give their place up to her is ridiculous and insulting to their talent. The only way we will see Jordyn in the AA is if Gabby or Aly get injured before then.


But gymnasts have been pulled before?
Yes, famously Roza Galieva was pulled from the 1992 AA with a faked injury in order to get Tatiana Gutsu in- she fell off beam so Galieva surged ahead. Gutsu fulfilled her potential and won the AA but it is a decision that is still controversial twenty years later. Much less famously, Marinescu was pulled from the 1996 AA to make room for Amanar. USAG and co. are extremely unlikely to do this, in this day and age they would not be able to pull it off.


So where will we see Jordyn then?
Jordyn will be a huge contributer to USA in Team Finals, she is expected to compete all four events. Beam is a little in question- Gabby outscored her by a lot but Gabby is prone to costly errors. We will also see her in floor finals.



So who are the top AA contenders now?
Gabby, Vika and Larisa. Aly could well medal, but gold probably out of the question. But you're never safe from being surprised in this sport!



Will this taint the AA as others have been?
Certainly not as dramatically as the 1992 and 2000 ones have been but Jordyn's exclusion makes it less exciting and it will be a question of winning without contending against all of the world's best.


So, the fuss is justified?
Yep, it is absolutely shocking that we will not see the current world champion and 4th-place gymnast contending for the prestigious title she was seen as a certainty for and trained her whole life for. I draw the line at contesting Aly and Gabby's places, Jordyn did make mistakes and both of the others deserve their places. Although Gabby's beam was overscored by comparison and her vault should have incurred more deductions, the fact remains that had Jordyn remained in bounds on floor or not made her bars error or not been off in direction on her amanar, she would have made it and that's the important factor.

News from training

Hallelujah, Blythe is watching and liveblogging from the first training session. Hopefully she can get some updates after on the mystery that is McKayla Maroney. McKayla did barely anything yesterday, but today did a huge vault timer. Unfortunately, that was it..no other vaults, and did not train beam. Hard not to worry that she won't be ready in time, but it's very likely she can still vault on her sore right foot, just that she won't do too many of them when she doesn't have to. Floor would be more in question, but as I said before- luckily it isn't essential for the team. BUT we still have 3 days until official podium training, and 5 days until prelims..so who knows! Until I hear that Ebee is on her way to London to replace McKayla and not just cheer her on, I have total faith she will at least vault. It's worth mentioning that she seems to be in great spirits on twitter, and it's unlikely she would be if everything was in jeopardy. Interesting, USAG now has photos up showing McKayla on floor- could just have been a dance-through, but anything that shows her training is good news. IG is down..intriguing, we're not close enough to the Olympics for that, surely? Blythe reports Mckayla not limping, I'll take that as a good sign too.

Moving on, Blythe reports that Jordyn is ON. Nailing her beam connections and her floor and vault. Looks like Geddert really is getting her to peak at the right time! Great news. Kyla, Gabby and Aly all performing well too- Gabby appears to have nailed more than one amanar in training, good for her. Blythe saw He Kexin nailing the second half of her bars, she's been very consistent with the whole routine the last while, very exciting. Russians were typically Russian on beam, beautiful work, jumping off very easily. No need to panic, it doesn't automatically translate to competition. Both Musty and Vika look better than they did at Euros, excellent, Musty nailed a full beam routine. China on floor apparently look great, Quishuang in particular making her skills look light and effortless.

Training will reopen at 3pm (GMT) with Romania. All news reported was good and promising..except for McKayla! Will update with later training sessions..very exciting stuff, was hoping we would hear proper feedback before Friday. Blog layout will stay like this, I got fed up of the pink and purple I stuck on last night very quickly!

London rumours and a surprise UPDATE

6 days to go! All top teams except China WAG are now in London. Fear not, China's team have been acclimatising in Northern Ireland, about an hour's flight away, so they will be fine. Shockingly, after weeks of rain here near Dublin and all over Britain- the sun is shining! It's supposed to hold until about Friday. What's funny about that is that the opening ceremony actually requires rain, but they have artificial clouds in case the sun happened. Hilarious.

As expected, the training gym (tent really) is MUCH more overwhelming in its hot-pink-ness than the actual arena. Hopefully this will help them adjust better. The arena is going to have lots of cream mats and red down on the podium, and sponsorship messages on the side (coca cola and mcdonalds number one choice of all athletes!) so all in all, will be quite the combo. Yesterday the USA girls did eh nobody proud by wearing hot pink leos. Russia wore lighter pink ones. Headache inducing. Thankfully today USA at least are wearing purple ones. The Romanian girls, who just arrived yesterday, wore some nice black ones which WORKED with the hot pink surroundings. Cata is going to look great when she wears her trademark black in beam EF next to everyone clashing.

Lots of photos are emerging of the Russian girls having a laugh, great to see.

You can see the leo in this one, not a nice pink.

Currently only one blogger is on the ground, Alexa Ainsworth on NBC. Yesterday she reported on USA's and Russia's training. Vika fell off beam at least four times, but that isn't really a big deal as she ALWAYS tanks on beam during PT and jumps off. Mustafina hit a clean bars set. No vaulting was seen. She only saw half of USA's training but what is concerning is that McKayla was on the sidelines, while everyone else trained floor. As she herself states, McKayla may have trained floor before she arrived. My guess would be when bars were going on, as McKayla hasn't a hope of being used there. It's also possible that to save her back after the gruelling round of Nationals- Trials- camp, she isn't participating in every floor training. Regardless, I still think she will do floor ahead of Kyla. Barring injury, it makes no sense to use Kyla when McKayla's floor may well score higher than Gabby's NCAA-style routine. She deserves the chance to find out. It's also worth remembering that last year at Worlds, even though McKayla messed up floor in prelims, Marta still used her in the TF ahead of Gabby and Sabrina, which worked out for the team. As well as Marta's insistence that she will not take a girl for one event, John Geddert has stated that they are training 3 AA-ers (Jordyn, Aly, Gabby) and 2 2-eventers (Kyla, McKayla). So why is Kyla training floor? She's still a back-up for AA, I don't see any reason why she shouldn't.

There's also hysteria over Jordyn's health. In the photo above she is shown putting all her weight on one foot. OMGZ! In another team photo, ALL of the girls are posing like this. It's quite common. It's not even wrapped, unlike Gabby's heavily taped ankle all year, so if it IS sore it seems more preventative than actually injured. If she was injured enough to hinder her training or AA chances, we would have heard by now. Let's all stay calm until Sunday, or try! Luckily we'll have even more bloggers on the scene for official podium training, can't wait!

Now for the surprise! 

Victoria Moors of Canada. She of the awesome floor routine also has the most original bars dismount we have seen in a long long time. Has anyone seen one of these since the 80's? Brilliant, I was only wondering before this would anyone try one again, so sick of double layouts etc. Of course, the routine isn't difficult enough to see her do spectacularly well with this (and she has made costly mistakes as the first two routines show) but I just love seeing something so surprising and great.

UPDATE: McKayla did not train today either, and iced her right foot throughout training. She did do conditioning on bars and dance moves on floor. Hopefully it's nothing serious. She needs to vault five times in competition- luckily although her floor SHOULD be the first one up in TF, Gabby's floor is worthy too so it's not a huge loss if she can't do floor. Only a loss for artistry!  But her vault IS neccessary, very much hoping that by Friday (official podium training) that she's able to land her vaults and do floor safely. USAG have said she's fine though, so I am sure she will be.

The sliding scale of Amanar

We can expect to see nine of these in London at some stage, eight if Musty retains the DTY for safety reasons. The other two are either highly unlikely or impossible to be seen then, but need to be included.

11. Aly Raisman, USA

This is horrifying, and is placed here for two reasons. First, safety. She is twisting into the ground and her landing is dangerous, a prime stance for tearing an ACL. It is not worth it, especially when it won't get anywhere near a 15.5. A 15.3 in American scoring on this vault means 'please stop'. Although it probably won't be used in TF, she will be vaulting it in all podium training, and in prelims. If Gabby falters and she claims the AA spot, there as well. It scores only marginally higher than what her great DTY does. The second reason it's here is the form. Her legs are almost tucked, another huge deduction.

10. Aliya Mustafina, Russia

This vault is from 2010. Word is she has it back, but will only show it in London. The replays really showcase the problems with it, similar to Aly's issues. Safety, one leg is locked, a nasty premonition of what happened to her in 2011. All of her landings on this were at least slightly dodgy and unsafe. The form is pretty bad, legs wide apart, feet crossed and sloppy twisting. It is not unrealistic to expect that it may now have deteriorated further, but we can hope she is not allowed throw it if it looks worse than this.

9. Huang Qiushuang, China

This one is of course harder to judge, as it's just training. It's fair to expect an improvement in form. It gets bonus points for good twisting form (although, her DTY is usually a bit wonky and form tends to deteriorate from DTY to amanar..impossible to tell here) and for being safer, but it's still not an ideal landing. That leg sep could be pretty costly. Let's hope this is cleaner in London, it shows good potential.

8. Maria Paseka, Russia

This one should of course be last, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt because she has stood up amanars this year. No videos of them, so I'll have to take the crashed one. It looks about equal to Qiushuang's (when landed), leg sep, otherwise decent form. It's not pretty, but it sure beats teammate Nabieva's montrosity. That said, Nabs had half decent landings. Hmmm.

7. Gabby Douglas, USA

I know, Gabby has clean twisting form, and actually stuck the landing on Trials day 2. Unfortunately, her technique isn't the best though it looks to have improved, and she always sits a few vaults in podium training. This, along with the missed hand at Pac Rims on vault and being pulled out of vaulting at Classics due to inconsistency there, pulls her ranking down. In the first video, she twists too early. The second video sees her blocking correctly, but in both the block is flat, she doesn't get as much height and amplitude as she should, as well as distance and they are all deductable. So, kudos for the form but the block needs oomph and the instability means she's not in the top 5.

6. Larisa Iordache, Romania

Skip to 0.22. Like Qiushuang, this must be given the credit that it will have improved by London. It's clean, very high, and safe. Not by any means perfect. The reason it beats Gabby is its height and relative stability because of that, Gabby's form is not superior enough to best it that way. I love the fact this appeared on Romanian news and the vast majority who watched it would just have wished them well without really getting what they're seeing...but then it appeared on the internet and the gymteret exploded over the amanr and cheng! Classic

5. Jordyn Wieber, USA

The second best vault on the team, it's clean with good form. Inclined to lock legs a bit when she fights too hard to stick, it's much safer and better when she hops like above. She gets good height and distance but loses marks a bit because her twisting is a bit slow, she's too low completing the last half twist, when can be seen on screencaps. If it was faster it would help her spot her landing more safely.

4. Elizabeth Price, USA

USA have an alternate with a vault like this, on top of the 4 amanars on the team. It's so powerful and dynamic, what a great block. Good form, but when the vault is this good it's easy to nitpick and want it more 'perfect', if she could clean it up and stop doing that dodgy step to the side she could beat the vault queen.

3. Simone Biles, USA (Junior National team)

Simone literally exploded onto the scene this year! She's a Junior and is one to watch, she also has a killer floor. Now she normally hops out of her landing, but couldn't resist choosing her stuck one. She has the edge over Ebee's because although they are extremely similar, Simone's is higher with better landings.

2. Viktoria Komova, Russia

Right at the start (get out of the way you stupid man!). Vika's gets almost the top spot because it's the only one that reminds me OF the one in the top spot. Beautiful straight form, great height. Shuffled her landing but that's not a massive deal. She might be sticking them by now, who knows!

1. McKayla Maroney, USA

What a suprise. First is of course her 2011 TF vault, second is Trials by comparison. She stuck a vault in 2010 also, but this year they all have 0.3 steps. Although it's still far and away the most perfect amanar of all time, if she sticks it in London it would be incredible. As Elfi will bleat again and again, it IS the form. It is amazing. Her block means she has time to fix her hair while she's waiting to land. Just WOW. I'm not so biased as not to notice the tiny flaws though, aside from the step she usually shows a tiny leg sep before the block, it looks like that's improved on this year. The other deduction is for her slightly bent knees, which could well be due to her back problems. Regardless, this is the standard everyone else aspires to.

Top AA contenders: quick breakdown

Unlike d-score rankings, this is based on observation. Feel free to disagree! I am assuming seven top contenders, Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Larisa Iordache, Yao Jinnan and Huang Qiushuang

Name: Jordyn Wieber
Country: USA
Combined d-score: 25.5
Known for: Being extremely powerful, solid and dependable across the board. Very very focused and determined and highly unlikely to headcase
Best event: Floor
Wow skills: Full twisting double layout bars dismount, double double on floor, amanar
Worst event: Bars
Execution, vault: Jordyn has a very good amanar, good form, good height, distance and landing. Her twists could be faster to enable a slightly safer landing but it's fine as it is. The best amanar we will see in AA
Execution, bars: Jordyn uses brute power to complete the routine, this muscling up will be deducted. Aside from that it is clean with good form. Releases could be deducted for lack of height. She has shown that a mistake messes up the whole routine before, but competed with no mistakes at Trials.
Execution, beam:  The problem here is that she has been missing her connections all year. Aside from that, it's fine. Not going to wow anyone with it's artistry or form, but not going to be deducted for lack of either. Great dismount
Execution, floor: Great landings, clean tumbling. Nothing stands out as being bad or sloppy.
Artistry: Jordyn's floor is extremely clever, suits her down to the ground and IS artistic. A masterpiece in how to have a great floor when you are not balletic in the slightest
Needs to: HIT her beam connections which are being changed now at camp.
Headcase factor: Not a factor
Mistakes: Could mess up beam connections. Bars mistake a possibility
Overall: Power does not mean sloppy form! Jordyn always showcases clean, powerful gymnastics. her difficulty has been surpassed, but her unshakeable competition demeanour means she stands ready to bypass others who make mistakes

Name: Gabby Douglas
Country: USA
Combined d-score: 25.8
Known for: Having insanely high bars releases 'flying squirrel', high difficulty in every event but also for letting nerves get to her and headcasing, especially on beam
Best event: Bars
Wow skills: Standing full twist on beam, piked tkatchev that hits the rafters, amanar
Worst event: Beam, headcase reasons only
Execution, vault: Gabby's amanar has clean form, good twisting ability and a good landing. Unfortuantely she exhibits many sit-downs in training, and missed her hand at Pac-Rims so this isn't a certainty that she will nail it. When she does, she will be deducted for lack of height and distance.
Execution, bars: Gabby shows sky-high releases, great lines and sharp pirouetting. Execution score here will be very high.
Execution, beam: If she doesn't make any mistakes, execution will score high. Clean tumbling, great leaps and a standing full twist that is completely upright! Characteristically has wobbles and balance checks which will bring her down, and a fall is not out of the question either.
Execution, floor: Again, clean tumbling and great leaps. The problem here is her choreography which is jerky and NCAA-style. It might get hammered in London, it might not. If it doesn't, execution will be high. Has had some issues with landings at Trials, which could also cost her
Artistry: Potentially poor on floor, that depends on London judging. Beam flows very well.
Needs to: NOT headcase on beam, it needs to be as it is in training. Try to get more of a block off the vault, as the fact that it is flat is resulting in her poor distance and height.
Headcase factor: A big factor. High on beam, possible on vault
Mistakes: A perfectly hit beam routine would be surprising, one or more balance checks very likely. She has not hit her full potential on bars this year, missed connections.
Overall: Gabby has higher potential than Jordyn as she doesn't really have a weak event. She has had an amazing year after being written off in 2011. If she hits everything she will be tough to beat, unfortunately missed connections and her troublesome beam knock back her difficulty and e scores.

Name: Viktoria Komova
Country: Russia
Combined d-score: Could be as high as 26
Known for: Beautiful bars with pencil-like turns, her 90's style beam acro line and unfortunately known for poor sportmanship
Best event: Bars
Wow skills: Patterson beam dismount, amanar, double double bars dismount
Worst event: Floor
Execution, vault: Hard to tell as her amanar which recently surfaced is not shown from a great angle. It looks very clean with good twisting form but doesn't look very high.
Execution, bars: Extremely clean and precise, Vika has almost certainly the best bars execution we will see- especially if she nails that extremely difficult dismount
Execution, beam: Beautiful lines and leaps here, but has issues with balance checks. She has had a very troublesome year on beam, though was recovering from an injury. If she shows no mistakes this too could be the highest scoring on this apparatus execution-wise.
Execution, floor: Often shows deep landings on tumbles, other than that is is very clean
Artistry: Decent on floor, but not particularly special or noteworthy. It's dissapointing because with her lines you expect Soviet balletic grace. Beam has a lovely flow and is beautifully put-together.
Needs to: NOT fall off beam, or show any major balance checks there. Nail her double double bars dismount, she fell back after landing it at Russian Cup. Get slightly more height on her amanar.
Headcase factor: A factor, especially on beam where it's high
Mistakes: Again, beam is where she loses it a bit. Balance checks.
Overall: More and more with her upgrades, she's proving herself as THE one to beat. Floor is where she could struggle, as well as beam. Has the potential to blow everyone else away, especially now she is not injured or recovering.

Name: Aliya Mustafina
Country: Russia
Combined d-score: Could be as high as 26.1!
Known for: Her beautiful bars and fierce beam. She is seen as the 'diva' probably all due to her gameface. Also known for making a remarkable comeback, the queen in 2010, she tore her ACL last year and is now making great strides in getting all of her difficulty back
Best event: Bars or beam
Wow skills: Amanar
Worst event: Floor
Execution, vault: Great on her DTY, very clean. She crosses her legs almost at the knees on her amanar, which will hurt her bigtime. BUT it hasn't been seen this year and may have improved. Good at sticking landings.
Execution, bars: Very similar to Komova- precise, clean, great lines. Nothing blatant that will cost her.
Execution, beam: Very high, Musty is precise in her movements and shows great leaps. Very clean. Unlikely to fall off or show a big balance break
Execution, floor: Had mistakes at Euros but has improved since. Twisting form is bad and will cost her. In general, it's a little bit sloppy
Artistry: Has a great confidence in her movements so sells a routine very well. Beam is well done too. She has grace and power and showcases both well
Needs to: Clean up her floor, try to improve her twisting form. Land safely on that amanar!
Headcase factor: Not really a factor
Mistakes: It's her form that will cost her but underrotating on floor is a possiblity
Overall: What a comeback, Aliya stands ready to get on the podium, especially if she cleans up her twisting form. She will be one of the most determined and ready

Name: Larisa Iordache
Country: Romania
Combined d-score: Could be as high as 26.6, likely to be over 26 anyway
Known for: Incredibly difficult combinations on beam and a very difficult floor, but also weak bars by comparison to others
Best event: Beam
Wow skills: Double double on floor, amanar, full twisting layout in combination on beam
Worst event: Bars
Execution, vault: Hard to tell, again not a great angle on the video of her amanar that surfaced from training. It looks decent with good height, nothing amazing. Hard to judge the form.
Execution, bars: Far below the two Chinese and the two Russians, but it's not bad. Very good for a Romanian but she will lose ground here. Decent swing but shows form breaks and just isn't precise enough.
Execution, beam: Very high, she is just great in every way here. Very clean, great tumbling
Execution, floor: Sometimes bouncy on landings, if she cleans those up it will be very high. Lovely clean tumbling
Artistry: Exciting! her floor is so energetic and well choreographed, she sells it well and is so amazing to watch. Beam is more skill-skill but is not mechanical looking
Needs to: Clean up on bars, hit all of her connections and upgrades, stick her landings on floor
Headcase factor: Not a factor
Mistakes: Missing connections, leg seps on bars, bouncing out of floor landings
Overall: If she brings all of these upgrades and hits all the connections, her bars deficit might not be a problem due to her insane floor and beam difficulty. High execution could carry her through

Name: Yao Jinnan
Country: China
Combined d-score: Could be 25.6
Known for: Surprising everyone at worlds last year, Yao is very good on floor which is unusual for a Chinese gymnast. Great bars
Best event: Bars
Wow skills: Stalder shaposhnikova half on bars
Worst event: Vault- just lack of amanar really
Execution, vault: Clean and tidy DTY, not much to deduct except the landing which she doesn't usually stick cold
Execution, bars: Typically Chinese, beautiful, difficult and with incredibly sharp turns. Uses shaposh variation transitions so no dead hang which often mars a Chinese bars routine
Execution, beam: Not as innovative or difficult as her teammate Sui Lu, but clean and well presented nonetheless. Lovely lines. Has fallen off a lot unfortunately
Execution, floor: Crosses her feet slightly when twisting, prone to stepping or hopping slightly out of landings. Otherwise, extremely clean
Artistry: Another dissapointment! Her choreography is a bit scrappy and doesn't showcase her lines well enough. Beam is fine
Needs to: Not fall off beam, work on her artistry
Headcase factor: High on beam, very low elsewhere
Mistakes: Not sticking landings
Overall: A very strong all-arounder who could be up there even without an amanar, doesn't really have a weak event! Another who could clean up if others make mistakes.

Name: Huang Qiushuang
Country: China
Combined d-score: Could be 25.7
Known for: Beautiful lines, surprising power, THAT 2011 worlds leo and falling off bars and beam
Best event: Bars
Wow skills: amanar
Worst event: Bars or beam, just for the falls
Execution, vault: Again not a great angle to see her amanar but it's safe and well rotated. A big leg sep and a large side step on landing from what we have seen. On her DTY shows slightly sloppy legs, which is likely to be amplified when amanaring
Execution, bars: Beautiful lines, but has tiny leg seps and dead hang after transition. Muscles up kips. Usually sticks her dismount cold.
Execution, beam: Clean, great lines.
Execution, floor: Sells her routine, great form and lines, clean tumbling. Sometimes hops out of her twists, going OOB not unheard of.
Artistry: Amazing, she gets so into her music and really sells it. Great movements and it flows very well. Beam is fine
Needs to: Get more consistent! Clean up her vault
Headcase factor: Huge. Sadly, headcase is her middle name
Mistakes: Other than falling, going OOB a possiblity, steps on landings
Overall: Absolutely beautiful lines and such potential but it would nearly have to be a miracle for her to go clean on every event with no falls or OOB.

Wow I'm glad I'm not a commentator...not many ways to describe 'lovely clean form/execution'. I think I'll stop with the breakdowns now!