1983 Worlds EF in HD and "news"

I thought I'd share this, and it's not too long. I LOVE seeing an old competition in high quality, and this is perfect. Check out Boriana Stoyanova's leotard! I am in love with it. This video contains Natalia Yurchenko (getting injured..), Boriana Stoyanova, Olga Bicherova, Ecaterina Szabo, Lavinia Agache, Maxi Gnauck, Olga Mostepanova and Hana Ricna.

This is of course extra interesting because it is the worlds before the Olympics boycotted by the Soviet bloc. Not only were the Soviet Union not in attendance the following year, but neither were Bulgaria, Eastern Germany and other states who all had fabulous gymnasts. The idea that Mary Lou Retton would have been able to take AA gold had 84 been fully attended is almost laughable. Olga Mostepanova would have swept the board without a shadow of a doubt. Check out the results from the Friendship Games, where she scored 12 perfect 10's. Friendship Games She scored 10's on every event in the all-around. I know, I know- what about overscoring seeing as she was the favoured gymnast of the Soviet team who couldn't compete in the actual Olympics? But I don't think any of them were undeserved, she was absolutely at her exceptional peak at that time. And WHAT a Soviet team, there's no way they wouldn't have taken team gold either. I do find the boycott annoying still, just for the waste of massive talent that were denied their chance. Anyway, back to drooling over her beam. HD is amazing of course, yet it has a tendency to pick up not so obvious flaws from the traditional bad quality of the same routines- like Maxi Gnauck's flexed feet on bars for instance. Vault scores are slightly hilarious too, with 9.9's and 9.95's being handed out for loss of leg form, seriously deep landings and steps. Still, wonderful gymnasts at these worlds.

And yes, there is no real news to speak of. It appears that nobody was added to camp at the National Camp that is just over. Waiting until January when it's a total neccessity. Don't see any good in drawing it out that long but anyway. Kim Bui of Germany has been added to the line-up of the Stuttgart World Cup, which also contains Elizabeth Price, Vanessa Ferrari, Larisa Iordache, Rebecca Tunney and Victoria Moors. Excellent stuff. Still one place left though. The dream is Mai Murakami but I think Anastasia Sidorova is more likely. Elizabeth price will also comepte at the Glasgow World Cup, also in December. I haven't heard anything about the rest of its lineup though. UPDATE: Glasgow roster released here. It is pretty much the same at this stage, not a surprise as they are so close together both in time and in location. The Price V Iordache battle which I assume will take place as long as Iordache is healthy will be very interesting. It's a very strong field otherwise also. I am now finally employed so won't be posting quite so frequently I'd imagine..but it means I can't go to either, and they are so close to me! Damn...

Silvia Zarzu and Stefanie Stanila of Romania both competed at a gala in France yesterday. Stanila turns senior next year, Zarzu in 2014. Both are definitely ones to watch. Zarzu in particular is one of my favourite juniors, I hope she is able to get her bars to an acceptable level because she looks well capable of a good vault and already has stellar beam and floor sets. (My other favourite juniors are Rebeca Andrade, Eythora Thorsdottir, Maria Kharenkova, Madalina Blendea, Bailie Key, Laurie Hernandez, Simone Biles, Maria Bondareva, Lu Jiaqi and Angel Romaeo). Here is Silvia's beam, (can't embed it) nothing else up yet. Extremely solid set, she's very comfortable up there. Hopefully she can get more flow to her movements in time, I doubt upgrades would be an issue.
Silvia Zarzu beam

Overrated gymnasts

I'm not one to be nasty about gymnasts. This is more about overblown hype. These girls are talented, but not as much as the hype allows for.

Nastia Liukin

..invented gymnastics if the hype around her is anything to go by. She was the well deserving 2008 AA champion. Nastia is of course famed for her beautiful long lines and extremely difficult uneven bars. Her beam and bars in particular were amazing to watch, especially skills like her Onodi, Ono and Healys which were so well executed. She was not, however, flawless. On bars her cowboyed dismount and bent legs on her giants are obvious, and her artistry is characterised by an uptight upper body and head throw-backs. She's regarded as an excellent dancer by most but her lines carried her and her choreography was dull, empty and stiff. I will also echo the excellent Spanny Tampson in deploring her stupid flexed wrists, which ruined lines. Butt shelves also are not valid choreography but she is of course far from the only culprit there. Nastia DOES deserve her success and was an excellent gymnast still showing several signs of that brilliance today. However her hype detracts from other gymnasts, exhibited by NBC cameras focusing on her face and her dad/coach instead of other routines performed by other gymnasts. Her hype alone got her to Trials, ahead of other gymnasts who performed much better than her. The crazies in the Nastia camp seem to forget that there were gymnasts before Nastia came along, and many were far better, which is not a good thing for gymnastics. I won't even mention her weak vault and floor being made up by her extraordinary bars difficulty as this is the case in general these days, though only in reverse in the US.

Svetlana Khorkina

Svetlana's fame has probably been well overtaken by Nastia now, but her dominance for an entire decade was unbelievable. Known interchangeably as the diva and the Queen of the Bars, Khorkina competed in three Olympics, an amazing feat. She was a great gymnast, especially given her height and it is sad that she never clinched the AA gold, especially in 2000 when she was well ahead of her contenders and the vault controversy and the upset of that causing her to fall from bars were the only reasons why she didn't. However, she competed against extremely difficult uneven bar routines like Mo Huilan's and Bi Wenjing's and won every single time, their added difficulty appeared not to matter. Bi did snatch the gold from her, but only in a World Cup. She was also blatantly overscored in the 2004 Olympics to try to get het to win, in order to 'make up' for 2000. This is such BS. 'Making up' to a gymnast score-wise is just ridiculous and I am glad it did not succeed. Khorkina in 2004 was gaunt and emaciated and her gymnastics had deteriorated- Carly well deserved that win. Khorkina's diva attitude and comments such as implying Carly's win was a fix are extremely annoying, I do not like rudeness and egos in any sport. However she clearly had a good side to her, I absolutely loved that she gave up her vault EF place to Zamo- her reaction to Zamo's perfect vault is priceless! She was a strong all-arounder even with her beam and vault getting worse over time, and she did make an impact on gymnastics by altering it to fit her height (especially bars) but I still think her fame in the gymnastics world is a bit over the top.

Mary-Lou Retton

Mary-Lou would never have won the AA had the Olympics been attended by the Soviets. In a way it seems to unfair to cloud her achievement like this but there were at least 5 Soviets who would have beaten her- Olga Mostepanova who achieved 12 perfect 10's at the friendship games that year was a given, but Baraksanova, Shushunova, Illienko, Yurchenko and Frolova would all been frontrunners too, if that many were allowed qualify. Mary-Lou was highly talented, I have no issue with her body-type, it's moreso her form, execution and presentation were wholly eclipsed by other gymnasts of the time. But it's easy to see why there was so much hype around her as the first US AA Olympic champion, it would be odd if it wasn't. The fact remains that she was not up against the best in the world and the hype often forgets that.

That's all I can think of for now. Gymnasts like Shannon Miller, Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci fully deserved the hype that surrounded each, all of them had amazing form, artistry and difficulty. It's harder to think of those that didn't fully deserve all of the hype.