SCAM podium training live! Update- 2nd session videos

I hope everyone who can is already watching this! EDIT- Video has been changed to archive footage of the whole thing. MOAR EDIT- Couch Gymnast just tweeted a very interesting fact from Simone's interview- she is training triple yurchenkos! I knew she was well capable but WOW!!!

Thoughts so far:

(It's only showing Americans, currently on first event- beam)


Kyla is soooo solid on beam. It looks like a carbon copy of her London routine. That sheep jump would not get credit now outside of US, same for the switch ring leap. But so great to see her like this! She is definitely taller, looks like she'll be pushing 5'4 before long. I'm wondering the possibility of her exhibitioning bars too? Don't forget she can exhibition all 4 events, like Gabby last year.

Simone is steady, though not as much as Kyla suprisingly. Great attack on her punchfront and pike back. She is pretty much doing her 2012 routine too, with...dun dun dun..a full in beam dismount! I have no idea what that does to her SV, I'm guessing good things obviously. She looks more confident and her cossack turn which I think now has more rotations than the single one she was doing last year looks amazing.

Katelyn looks much better than she did at the WOGA classic. Her connections look more fluid, and crediting them won't be a joke, though still a little generous. That series looks like she will be absolutely nailing it without a doubt soon enough- the Onodi, aerial, aerial, Sheep one. The layout full is still very piked though she's now landing it very well. Worth making it tucked all the same, I don't see her ever getting it to a creditable laidout position (except in the US.) She looks very confident. Will be interesting to see what she pulls out for vault, that is the dealbreaker now.

According to live hits Elizabeth Seitz is doing a Geinger, not a Def. She has not done it since London I believe as the Geinger was surfacing in its place in other competitions post London. If she doesn't fling it on Saturday then the bronze I had already pretty much awarded her looks under threat. All eyes on what Asuka Teramoto will bring. Vanessa Ferrari is also a good bet for bronze, but I don't think she will be throwing full difficulty here at all. She's in it for the money, and nothing wrong with that. I relish any chance to see her perform.

Gabby Jupp has a full twisting double layout bars dismount! Excellent stuff.

Update: I think they are at least seeing if Kyla can do more than beam in podium training..she is training floor. Some nice double backs with too much power. She's a giant now, you can tell even by the amount of space her backhandsprings on floor take up. Taller than me at least. (Note: I am 5'3) Loooads of repetitions of her leap series. The switch ring leap looks to have the required 90 degree angle. The second leap is giving her trouble, she's short of 180 degrees on it. Simone had some crazy fast tumbles, a sky-high double layout and a lovely full in. I missed others people were talking about..a 1 and a half into double pike and a possible 3.5 twist (???). She definitely threw a double double apparently, yay! I missed it. On rewatching, all of these things happened- couldn't swear to the 3.5 twist but it was facing the right way and did not look like a 2.5. WOW. The floor rotation was really short. I saw Katelyn do a Memmel turn and that was it. Hmmmm. Gabby has a double turn on beam. Elizabeth Seitz falling all over the place on beam, damn.

Moving onto vault. Kyla is doing vault timers. So that's 3/3 events being trained so far. Her heel is wrapped. Okay, nobody doing anything other than timers, they're saving the hard pounding. Simone's timers are enormous, so looking forward to seeing her on Saturday. Katelyn's seemed fine. Gabby looks nice and sharp on floor. A contender for bronze??? The camera has cut away from showing bars, I really wanted to see Asuka doing something other than chalk! Victoria having issues on beam, and crashed a DTY earlier.

Oooo, bars! Katelyn and Simone absolutely nailing handstands, especially Simone, but both deteriorated as the repetitions went on. Kyla looking well, messy shap 1/2 but it did improve. She didn't push herself and only did half routines. Her Pak looks a little jarring, it doesn't flow as well as it did. Gorgeous lines, and fabulous double layout dismount. Simone had issues, fell on a Shap and then came back and stormed every Shap since with no chance of falling short. She fell on a release twice, fairly sure it's new so maybe she won't include it in her routine yet. Nice and sharp, her form looks better too. Her dismount was way above the bar and looks like she could do a double double tucked or laidout in her sleep, lands completely upright as if she was doing a flyaway. Nice crisp turns. Katelyn looks zippier on bars, though she was a little sluggish towards the end. Her legs are still coming apart on (late) turns but she seemed more confident. She does that thing I hate that WOGA always do before stalders, where their back completely bends first- I don't know what you call that, but Bross was a big offender. It's still a routine with lots of little flaws, I would agree with the concensus that it looks too much for her. I didn't see a totally wonky Healy, but that could just be the angle I'm watching at. Hard to tell who was strongest on bars really...

SUMMARY

So, in a very interesting and awesome turn, Kyla is training all 4 events! This to me does not mean the injury story is a con, but that it was impacting her training so they've lessened the pressure on her by making her the exhibition. So she can do as much as she wants. I think she is recovered, just that the story is correct- it affected her training for a few weeks and ability to definitely have all 4 events down. Looks like she will anyway, but I hope she does at least 2 events.

Simone has upgrades! A full in off beam, a double double on floor, a 1.5 to double pike and what I'd swear is a 3.5 twist, two new bars releases and a transition and an acro line on beam with a layout- very Chinese. Her bars were not brilliant for her though, with some falls. Hopefully she will just get that out of her system now and be perfect on Saturday. Her bars thankfully look cleaner, her beam is crisper, her floor has fantastic looking upgrades and her vault will no doubt raise the roof. No idea what vault Katelyn will bring since they all just did timers. Kyla looks capable of bringing her London routines, I don't think we will see any upgrades from her though. But seeing her at all will be a treat. Katelyn looks improved from WOGA classic, much sharper. Her bars still have numerous issues but I'n not sure if the glaring one, the Healy, is still present and they look a little tiring for her. Beam is very snappy, she looks much more on but the layout full still needs to be binned. Utterly fabulous beam routine but all in all, I'm not convinced she can win. She will need more an FTY and some unfair scoring or mistakes to do that.

Sadly I didn't see near enough of the other competitors. Great reports about Gabby Jupp and Maegan Chant, as well as Vanessa Ferrari. Elizabeth and Victoria both displayed numerous issues, and Elizabeth will more than likely not throw the Def. Not much said about Asuka so I can't really judge where she's at. The fight for bronze will be equally as interesting as the fight for gold.

VIDEO now is the archive footage. The girls are wearing Under Armour leos, who have secured a contract with USAG until 2020. Personally I'd prefer Adidas (actual Adidas, not GK swirls..), with a mixture of old school and newer type leos. They are perfection. So these leos are nothing to write home about but Alicia has worn some brilliant ones so there is plenty of hope yet.

UPDATE- Some videos from the second podium training session. Much nicer leos, love the colour of them and the style. This one has proper floor and vaults, a wise move to save it and spread the four events.

SPOILER- Katelyn has her DTY back and Kyla is still using her old music. I did not notice the head fling plaguing it so maybe she either did not do all of the choreography or has mixed it up a bit. Katelyn's DTY has winner written all over it. Her bars will be leniently dealt with, her beam is ginormous, she has an acceptable vault now and her floor is half decent. Simone will need to be more on than she showed today to beat her, but since I don't know her start values or indeed Katelyn's except her vault and beam it's really hard to know who has what d-score advantage.

Kyla had a great upright DTY, noticeably better than Katelyn's, as would be expected. She seems to have lost form a bit on it though, and I noticed the same about her bars...maybe she is just not pushing herself to the limit, understandable. It could be her height either messing things up a bit. I wonder what all of those back layout passes will transform into! If not now then later on in the year. Simone's vault is as huge as ever, though I'd love if she tightened up her feet a bit.

Simone and Katelyn both have new floor routines. There's a comment under Katelyn's saying it's a Eurovision song. Hmm, can't have been a great one or I'd know it. Edit- It's Azerbaijan 2009. Fun fact- two other Americans currently (well, 2012..) have Eurovision floor music- Jordyn Wieber with Ukraine's 2004 entry and Alexis Buecler with Ukraine's 2007 entry. The former was a winner and the second did very well. The second one has to be heard to be believed- there are lots of Eurovision songs that push the weird boat out but nobody has ever topped this, it's insane! And awesome.

Moving on...I like the routines of both girls. I think Simone's old music may have suited her style better, but a bit early to really confirm that. GREAT tumbling, double double, double layout..so easy for her. It would be fantastic if she can plant those landings in competition. I wonder if she'll sneak a jump or two in? They can still be done, and she has crazy power. She didn't show all of her passes from earlier, but that is just one routine, so who knows. Katelyn's tumbling is a bit sloppy looking, hopefully she can get it more polished. Still a very good routine though, loving the last combination pass though it spells RISK all over it.

American Cup lineup announced

I'll try not to call it SCAM, but it's tough. For some reason I have it in my head that it takes place in the same venue in New York every year. Maybe it often does, but the NBC commentary is in my head 'It's in this venue that Nadia blah blah blah'. Anyway, it's not this year- it's on Aly's turf, Massachusetts.

The American lineup is Kyla Ross and Elizabeth Price.  Not very surprising as these are the only two with senior international experience, and who are fighting fit to compete. Kyla needs to show strong upgrades to stand a chance of beating Ebee, who has monster d-scores and is coming off the back of two easy World Cup wins. Two very different gymnasts- should be interesting! No word yet on whether there will be an exhibition gymnast. If there is, my money is on Lexie Priessman, who, like Gabby Douglas before her, is quite capable of equalling or even beating her compatriots.

The international lineup (2 free spaces currently) is Asuka Teramoto, Vanessa Ferrari, Larisa Iordache and Elizabeth Seitz. Vanessa was expected to fade out from competition, she only did the World Cups a while ago for money to get an apartment with her boyfriend. Presumably this competition is furthering her quest. Not that I think it's a bad thing or anything. Asuka, who was in London, was the new-found star of the Japanese team, who is very very strong on beam and floor. Hopefully she can step it up on bars and beam and really contend well. She was injured last year and did not compete at the Asian Games or Japanese Nationals- I cannot wait to see her again. Please please please let Larisa actually compete this time. This is probably to make up for her being pulled from the World Cup last year. I hope to see her in full health. Elizabeth is really quite strong and could be very successful at least at Euros if she cleaned up her form and polished her routines some more. Lovely floor routine- and I hope she throws her Def. I don't care if it's sloppy. As for the two remaining places- I would think one would be a Brit- Kristian Thomas is competing, makes sense to send someone with him. Not neccessarily Rebecca Tunney (who if she does show up, should be unrservedly apologised to for the awful commentary she had last year at the hands of the trio), but one of their new seniors- and they have several. There really is no new faces in this lineup, would be nice for the last two spots to be filled by them. I'm going to guess no Russians. Chinese...hmm. They are and have been for a while sequestered in winter training, which the competition comes right at the end of. It's not great timing, not sure how much they would be bothered over a biased competition even with the lure of experience. I would think the likeliest scenario is a Brit and a Romanian or South American- the men's side has quite a few.

World Cup and Stuff

Qualifications for Sunday's team finals took place today. Surprisingly, Germany qualified first ahead of Russia! I would be suprised if that result repeated itself when it matters though. Highlights were Mustafina's bars and beam, Kristina Goryunova's beam and Anna Rodionova's beam and floor. Mustafina played it safe by not doing major leg events. She watered down her bars quite a lot- no need for the full 7.0 and her 5.9 was crisp, clean and beautiful. Beam was a bit wobbly but the skills look great and she seems very 'on'. If it's much steadier on Sunday that would be no surprise. Goryunova's beam was excellent, surprisingly so as she is not long back from a one-year ban and has not competed at that level in quite a while. Rodionova shows beautiful lines and precision in her skills. Mai Murakami was either having an awful day or is injured, she scored extremely low on bars and beam and only did a 5.0 vault. Floor, her signature, also had quite a few issues.

First up before the team finals is the AA tomorrow. Larisa Iordache and Victoria Moors have both dropped out, which pretty much hands Elizabeth Price the victory. Ebee has a new 6.6 bars routine which coupled with her amanar and high difficulty floor scream domination. What's annoying about her is that she wasn't really peaked for the right time..with a second vault (seriously WHY doesn't she have one), 6.6 bars and strong floor she would have been a much bigger contender for the Olympic team. Ones to watch are Elizabeth Seitz and Rebecca Tunney who are both very good AA-ers and interesting to watch.

There are vicious rumours circulating about the new code requiring 10 elements, just like the 2005-2008 code. This is unconfirmed and will hopefully soon make the journey to confirmed bullshit. While FIG can usually be relied on to fly in the face of common sense, this would be very uncharacteristic even of their own thinking on the issue.

Catalina Ponor has confirmed her retirement. We will receive further assurance of this in the new year one way or the other as she would need to confirm her status with the Romanian federation. Not a gymnast I particularly enjoy watching, but I appreciate and admire her achievements nonetheless.

I already said this but Shallon Olsen has won Top Gym. This meet is always well attended by star juniors and has been won by big names in the past. Shallon is the first from a non top 4 to win. She also won the vault title. Please don't burn out please don't burn out...anyway we won't be seeing her contend until the Olympic year as she is a 2016 senior.

 Elizabeth Price has convincingly won the Stuttgart AA, by 3 points. Elizabeth Seitz also had a very good competition winning silver, and Giulia Steingruber too with the bronze and who has also recovered her vaulting to its former excellent standard. Rebecca Tunney counted a fall and other errors, Vanessa Ferrari a fall and Niamh Rippin no less than 3 falls. Hmm. Kristina Goryunova who so impressed in qualification had a bit of a disastrous beam and was all over the place. Very strange. Let's hope for some glorious performances tomorrow. Price's amanar and 6.6 bars including full twisting double layout dismount predictably stomped all over the competition. I'd imagine other countries are in awe over how a girl with so much talent failed to make the Olympic team. Price still needs substantial work on her execution of course, but what a great performance. What will be interesting is seeing what this does to her status, and will it enable her to keep ahead of some of the 2013 powerhouses. Videos are here.

Yana Demyanchuk of Ukraine has retired. Yana was of the typical Ukrainian mould, gorgeous work and lines, awful consistency record. Good luck to her in whatever she chooses to do.

Russia have won the team competition. They are quite lucky that only two scores count, because Anna Rodionova only scored a 4.8 on bars. She fell on her Pak and cried, did not complete the routine and reportedly left the hall after. If she is injured (she did reappear for the medal ceremony which is a bit reassuring) hopefully it's nothing serious. As a result, Aliya Mustafina further added to her legendary status a bit by stepping up for vault- which was not supposed to happen and which she had not prepared for. Just a Yurchenko layout but seeing as she is carrying a foot injury, added impact is not exactly welcomed. There was no livestream so not near as much news and videos. Japan stepped up and got second, the only news about Mai Murakami is that she did not fully complete her triple full dismount so it got downgraded. Still scored a 14.050 on it! Very nice to hear. Will add more news and links for videos when they become available.

News :)

Not as new as I would like, as I am working all the time and am permanently wrecked. (Okay not all- but 37 hours in retail feels like 90).

Japanese Nationals have just been held. (Asuka Teramoto is injured, and possibly did not compete at all). Rie Tanaka was 2nd on bars and third on floor, Koko Tsurumi was first on bars and second on beam and Mai Murakami was first on floor and sixth on bars. Beam was won by Yuko Shintake and vault by Wakiko Riyu. Risa Konishi who is down for the Asian Artistic Championships looks pretty valuable, she came second on vault and floor- which are Japan's weak points. A news clip of the competition is below. It heavily features Rie Tanaka, who everybody loves (like duh). That is Mai Murakami at around 5:30! She has grown so much, although her landings are a little unsure on her double double and triple full..hey, she has a double double and triple full, and they look great in the air.

Lavinia Milosovici will give birth to a boy early next year. This is fantastic news, seeing as Milo lost her daughter Denisa Florentina at the age of 4 due to a nervous system disorder. Simona Amanar, the godmother of Denisa, is due to give birth within a few weeks also.

McKayla Maroney who has played up her obnoxious ham side in interviews recently, gave an excellent interview the other day. The fact that she is so comfortable doing both types of interviews and can be very articulate points to the possibility that she could well be a very good actress. This interview is gold, probably the best I've seen by a gymnast- past or present.

Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland won the recent Arturo Gander Memorial. Mariya Livchikova of Ukraine had a bit of a meltdown, falling on her beam dismount and going out of bounds on floor, to finish 6th. Very dissapointing for her, from her injury at worlds making her unable to attend the Test Event and take the Olympic spot for Ukraine, to winning Ukrainian Nationals..to this. Hope to see her back on form soon.

The Swiss Cup took place just today, and was won by Elizabeth Seitz who continues to prove herself as a strong all-arounder...and didn't even have to unleash her Def to win. Giulia Steingruber was second and Kim Bui of Germany was third. Mariya Livchikova fell off bars. Probably tired from the Gander Memorial, as Niamh Rippin of Britain must have been too, she fell on 3 of her 4 floor passes.

Glasgow World Cup roster has been added to. Not sure about Stuttgart. Kaitlyn Hofland of Canada is competing, and Victoria Moors isn't on it. Hmm. I was sure she was doing both, but the links I was using for the rosters before no longer work, so can't say for sure. If she's out of both, her floor is a great loss. Wakana Inoue of Japan who is also competing at the upcoming Asian Artistic Championships is on the list, which means Mai Murakami has recieved zero international assignments this year. Get that girl some consistency and luck! The last place is Niamh Rippin of Britain. (Niamh is pronounced Neev and is an Irish name). She is pretty good on vault and floor. On a British note, get ready to watch Danusia Francis be totally awesome at UCLA this season. I feel like Peng Peng Lee is getting a lot of attention, Danusia deserves just as much hype. Excellent beam and such a great dancer on floor. Not to mention her bubbly personality, anytime I think of her I see the photo of her holding Komova!

Anna Pavlova has won the International Tournament. She competed a very solid DTY, whip to triple on floor and a beautiful beam. She did have to jump off on bars, but got through the rest of the routine fine. Some endurance issues and some of her leaps weren't great, but her turns and elegance were out in spades. You can see videos here.

Not much going on, and I've very little energy to construct blog posts in my head- feel free to give me ideas.

Origin of London's difficult skills

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

The Double Double/Silivas

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


Double Arabian beam dismount/Patterson

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

Standing Full twist- beam

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


Tucked full twist in acro line/combination

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


Full twisting double layout

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

Li Ya Jaeger-Jaeger combination bars

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

Tucked Barani/Grigoras

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

Amanar vault

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

Produnova vault

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

Def release- bars

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

Double Double bars dismount/ Fabrichnova

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

Piked Double Arabian/Dos Santos I

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


Full-in beam dismount

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

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

 

 

AMAZING bars final!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bits and pieces

Barbosa will NOT be at the Olympics. Despite signing the contract in the end, because she missed so many selection meets, she has been deemed out of the running. Very sad that a great gymnast will not be there and of course, sad that the reason is not even injury but some sort of total bullshit about sponsorship. This should NOT be affecting someone's career or shot at the Olympics, though as I said earlier, I will hold off on blasting Jade as it's not clear who really is to blame, various pressures involved, and possible motives etc.

The German Olympic team has been named! After less than stellar performances at German nationals I had a slight niggling fear that Chuso would not be named but thankfully that is not the case and she will compete at her SIXTH Olympics. I would love to hear a lengthy interview with her not just about her incredible life story, but on her thoughts and observations on all of these Olympics, various gymnasts, the BIG change to the scoring, the changes to the code and the push for difficulty. We know her vault form has detiorated but she is still an extremely likely vault EF medal contender. I am more excited about her other routines- they're so old school! Elizabeth Seitz appears to have come on in leaps and bounds, she won the AA. Apparently, and judging by videos, her form has improved. Her bars in particular are incredible and though I don't see her beating Vika, Musty, Tweds and co. I can possibly see her beating Gabby. Must re-check SV's, but it's possible and would be a great coup for her and for her team. Nadine Jarosch is a really strong contender too. I really hope Germany can continue to improve and re-emerge as a contender with the top few.

The British team will be named tomorrow. We know Tweddle, Tunney and Whelan are locks. The other spots are more in contention- Cairns, Downie, Francis, Harrold and Pinches all fighting for them. I believe Pinches will get the fourth. Francis is so valuable for her beam where GB is weak but she had a pretty bad Nationals where beam is concerned and her other events aren't strong enough to justify it. Her floor is so worth a watch, while deploring its low SV. So I think she might well miss out. In the veteran stakes, Cairns had a better competition than Downie. Harrold will I think unfortunately miss out, her great bars aren't enough to make up for what she lacks. So I think the team will be Tweddle, Tunney, Whelan, Pinches and Cairns with Francis and Downie and Harrold as alternates. Niamh Rippin may make alternate in place of either, hard to tell. She had a GREAT competition and her DTY is very valuable to the team.

The Russian team will be named July 8th! Sidorova being injured shakes things up, as does Paseka crashing both her vaults. Musty, Komova and Grishina are obviously on it. Maybe Afansayeva and Inshina? Or Demy? (Demy was invited back after Sidorova left).

News report shows Romania looking well. Beating Russia at Euros looks as if it will really fire them in London. Iordache has an amanar- how did I miss that? I knew she was rumoured to have one and was the obvious choice for one but ACTUALLY having one is news to me. Damn USA taking all my attention! Izbasa's Cheng looks really sloppy though, hope that's fixed. Looks like they may give Russia a great run for their money now.

Some hopes for things I want to see in London:

- Certain veteran Romanians in WELL-FITTING leotards. I sometimes wonder what is going on there- is it an issue with them being crap at ordering sizes? Do they enjoy looking sl***y? Who knows.

- Russians being SOLID. Especially beam. It won't be much fun if USA get gold because Russia tanked beam, I want it to be close and exciting with these girls hitting when it counts. Of course even if Russia hits USA are very likely to get gold anyway but it's a bit like if McKayla hadn't made the team, whoever won vault EF gold would feel a little bit 'empty'. We all want a close competition, now one where Russia has to count 3 falls something.

- Romanians, Russians and Chinese ONLY doing Amanars if they are a) safe and b) non-sloppy. Unfortunately it is a given we will see both of the above. This bodes well for McKayla to really stand out but is bad news for knees everywhere.

- A close AA. It's sooo not obvious this year, woohoo! I want all of these girls to hit: Jordyn, Gabby (I really think she will beat Aly to the spot and I believe Kyla won't be given the opportunity to try for the AA), Jinnan, Iordache, Vika and Musty. Quishang could give them a good run for their money too but she is of course the ultimate headcase.

- An awesome bars EF with NO falls.

- Musty with improved twisting form. As is stands, it will really hurt her floor score and therefore her AA medalling chances. She is an outstanding gymnast and I want her to be ON. As I have mentioned, Ponor has managed to improve her twisting form so hopefully Musty can too. As is stands, it's probably the worst I've seen.

- Some nice camraderie and interactions between the various gymnasts. They are out to beat each other of course but I LOVE seeing gymnasts from different countries appreciate and congratulate the efforts of their 'enemies'. Especially in the case of the really outstanding routines like McKayla's vaults and Vika's bars.

- CLASSY leos. The Russian team leo from their Nationals I posted in 'some favourite leos'- PLEASE. Their team warm-ups don't foretell classy leos underneath, but I LOVE the sheer break from tradition those warm-ups are. And Russia are masters of classy leos. I'm not really loving the British team leo designs- might have to give the accolade to USA this year. Really excited about USA's. I want an Olympics absolutely devoid of sleeveless leos, one-armed nightmares and horrific colour combos and mesh bollocks. Impossible, as Italy will be there. We can hope..