All commentators stress the difficulty of certain skills. Certainly some of them are more prevalent now in competition than they ever were before, but extremely few were invented this side of the millenium which shows how innovative the 80's and 90's were when it did not pay to break the mould and perform a super-difficult skill. Here are the ones seen in London and their origins.
The Double Double/Silivas
This double double is currently a G skill and will be a H under the new code. In London it was performed by
Jordyn Wieber, Victoria Moors, Larisa Iordache, Vanessa Ferrari and
Anastasia Grishina. Though it is named after
Daniela Silivas of
Romania who performed it at the 1988 Olympics, it was first done by
Aleftina Priakhina of
USSR in 1986. Neither had great landings, but they were using a crap old floor.
Double Arabian beam dismount/Patterson
An exceptionally difficult beam dismount which requires a lot of height and speed. In London it was executed by
Aly Raisman, Viktoria Komova and
Marta Pihan-Kulesza. Carly Patterson of
USA was the first to perform it, at the 2003 Worlds but
Corey Fritzinger also of
USA did it first in 2001.
Standing Full twist- beam
A move which elicited awe when
Shawn Johnson did it but it's much older than that. Usually has quite a low landing due to the difficulty of fully rotating it in time. In London it was performed by
Gabby Douglas. This is another skill done first by
Aleftina Priakhina of
USSR, again in 1986.
Tucked full twist in acro line/combination
This one is more common as it provides more momentum to get the twist around, but is just as risky otherwise. In London it was performed by
Larisa Iordache. The inventor is
Ecaterina Szabo of
Romania who performed it in 1983.
Full twisting double layout
This is the other skill to be awarded H status in the code. Performed only by
Daiane Dos Santos of
Brazil but although
Catalina Ponor of
Romania warmed one up in podium training she never competed it. Named after
Oksana Chusovitina of
USSR (at the time) who performed it in 1991. It was first done by
Tatiana Tuzhikova of
USSR in 1987.
Li Ya Jaeger-Jaeger combination bars
Performed only by
He Kexin who despite growth has managed to keep this. Often called her original skill but it was first done by
Li Ya also of
China who competed it in 2006.
Tucked Barani/Grigoras
My favourite acrobatic skill on beam, it's quite rare.
Sui Lu of
China performed it in London and it was invented by
Cristina Grigoras of
Romania in 1980.
Chellsie Memmel had a nice one too.
Amanar vault
The most common difficult skill/vault. It was performed by
McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Maria Paseka and
Viktoria Komova. First performed by none other than
Simona Amanar of
Romania who did it at the 2000 Olympics.
Produnova vault
This was performed (read: sat down feet first) by
Yamilet Pena Abreu of
Dominican Republic in London. It is the hardest vault with a difficulty of 7.1 Notoriously difficult as it requires immense height and a powerful block. It was first attempted by
Choe Jong Sil of
North Korea at the 1980 Olympics but she completely crashed it so credit goes to
Yelena Produnova of
Russia who most notably landed it totally upright in 1999.
Def release- bars
The Def is a one and a half twisting Geinger, first performed by Jacques Def of France. His name has carried over to WAG as the first woman,
Snejana Hristakieva of
Bulgaria who first performed it in 1991 has a much less catchier name. It was done in London by
Elizabeth Seitz of
Germany. Interestingly, both perform it very sloppily but is IS possible for it to look neat- check out
Cha Yong Hwa and
Elena Dolgopolova.
Double Double bars dismount/ Fabrichnova
One of the hardest bars dismounts, this was performed by
Beth Tweddle and
Viktoria Komova in London. It was first done by
Oksana Fabrichnova of
Russia in 1993, and remains fairly rare.
Piked Double Arabian/Dos Santos I
This was performed by
Aly Raisman and
Beth Tweddle. The originator,
Daiane Dos Santos of
Brazil who first performed it in 2003 was in London but has not been doing it recently. It is one of the hardest floor tumbles and should be rated higher.
Full-in beam dismount
Having watched the 1996 AA all over again just recently, this was more common then. Performed in London by
Catalina Ponor of
Romania. It is was first done by
Albina Shishova and
Natalia Frolova both of
USSR in 1983.
If I have missed any others in London who performed these skills please let me know. I did watch every single subdivision but some things can be forgotten easily. I have real issues about the standing full..there's no way it was just done by Gabby. As for the originators, I stand by all of them as being correct.
