Podium Training news

The good

- USA looking ready to go on basically everything
- Maroney nailing her amanars (still with the step but even so..) and her Mustafina
- Musty looking very sharp and clean on all four- sticking DTY's
- Hannah Whelan has a DTY! That will help her out, especially when the new code kicks in
- Pena not dying on vault. Prod still questionable but she's not crashing them completely
- Millousi and Preziosa rocked their awesome beams
- Victoria Moors great on floor
- Vika landed amanars well
- Beth Tweddle looked awesome on floor
- Great bars from Huang Qiushuang, Gabby, Kyla, Vika and Grishina
- Huang Qiushuang in general having a great day
- Russia had a surprisingly good beam rotation
- Aly pointed her toes on bars! Stronger bars than her usual. This will help her out IF she manages to qualify for AA
- Afan was fantastic on floor..so impatient to see this routine!
- Jenni Pinches looked really good on floor, maybe she has found consistency?
- Campana, the last-minute substitute for Deagostini of Italy had a really good comp and confirmed the justice of her selection
- There's not just Vika and Aly's Patterson's- Elsa Garcia of Mexico nailed loads of them!
- Daiane Dos Santos lands a full twisting double layout and a double layout. Now aged 29, it doesn't look like any gymnast can ever top her tumbling power.
- Romania looking great on floor which they really need with the partial loss of their star. Diana Bulimar could really shine now.
- Lovely bars from Rie Tanaka. Will have to look up her difficulty but it would be so great to see her in bars EF
- Cata has a full twisting double layout! Really making her case for floor EF medal now
- Izbasa throws her Cheng and a beautiful Mustafina! Vault silver??
- Chelaru does what appears to be a timer for an amanar. Intriguing!
- Iordache did a full beam and bars, and did some vault and floor work (very light). Such determination when she is clearly in pain. Maybe this fire can help her compete strongly

The bad

- No floor from Maroney, who is being preserved and only doing vault. A beautiful routine which will be missed at these Olympics
- This means using Kyla in prelims, her score can be dropped but it makes it more annoying that it has such a stupidly low SV when she has such potential
- Rebecca Tunney hurt herself on a tumbling pass and cried BUT she did vault after so it doesn't seem serious
- Canada had a really crappy time on vault
- Lauren Mitchell had a really rough time, messing up badly on both floor and beam
- Aly had issues with her first tumbling pass
- Koko Tsurumi after throwing some low and dodgy tumbling on floor landed on her head on one, and was unable to continue on floor. However, she did compete afterwards..
- Paseka crashed her amanar more than once, the only thing she is on the team for- though stood them up all week
- Grishina's Silivas not looking competition ready
- Yao Jinnan had a pretty rough day and does not look on top form. UPDATE: Rumours of a thigh muscle strain :(
- Deng Linlin still wearing a back brace and looks to be in pain
- France who have a pretty scrappy team after being plagued with injuries looked rough and not ready, as they have done all week
- Brazil having issues with vault, Hypolito in particular
- Gabby sat at least one amanar and had problems on beam...not a suprise but both are her weak points if she's going four for four
- USA had an unbelievably gross leotard. Not only was it a disgusting pepto pink shade, it was also way too shiny with tacky looking silver stars AND mesh cut outs and weird stripes in the chest area. If Maroney cannot make it look good, it's an eyesore. 
- Not one but TWO leopard print sleeveless leotards! Rotten Tina Erceg of Croatia and Laura Svilpaite of Lithuania were the offenders.

The injuries

- In heartbreaking news, Bitang has confirmed Larisa Iordache will not do the AA. Terrible news for her and her team and B&B- but also the Olympics as a whole, she has very exciting routines and was a top contender for the AA. Devastating. She will compete on bars and beam but it still means Romania are almost certain not to medal now..Bitang said the same too.UPDATE: Iordache's AA status now said to be 50/50, with the decision up to her. It is possible if she gets through prelims that she will have rest and pain relief enough to do the AA..nerves of steel just as important with a decision like that. Hopefully she can, though not at the expense of her health!
- Adrien Gomes of Brazil is out and will not compete. Brazil has been plagued by bad luck and injuries this year, and are pretty much out of replacements at this point. They are extremely unlikely to qualify for TF
- McKayla Maroney is competing on a broken toe and is in pain. Although it is brilliant and very lucky for her team that she can vault and did so today, her floor is a big loss and she also has a decent beam routine.
- As I mentioned before, Anna Li is unable to train as she will be in a neck brace for the next few weeks. It appears that she landed on her neck on her bars fall..very very scary! USAG seem to have a different meaning for 'fine'- what an absolute disgrace. 

A tribute to two victims of the 5 member teams

Danusia Francis

Danusia is endearing and exciting because of her sparkly personality on top of her beautiful gymnastics. I did think she wouldn't make the team as her beam had major errors at Trials and her floor is too weak in SV but it's still very sad. She will be missed! Here we have a great showing of her personality- her photo 'holding a Russian' in a challenge the British girls had at Euros. Vika looks bowled over by Danusia's charm, even with an obvious language barrier!

Here is her beautifully choreographed and well put together floor.

Her awesome beam

Danusia is heading to UCLA this year. No doubt she will be a shining star!



Sarah Finnegan

Sarah Finnegan is my own favourite of the US National team, just behind McKayla. Say what you want about Al Fong and GAGE but they are SUPERB at teaching excellent artistic gymnastics, with beautiful dance and unique elements. Sarah has the bearing and qualities of gymnasts twenty years before her time and more. Sure, she didn't originate the triple-turn in squat on beam but she certainly performs a move known for looking ungainly and not graceful- fabulously. Her floor is also fabulous, and beautifully choreographed with such clean tumbling. Surprising everyone with her performances at Jesolo as a new senior, she struggled at Trials. It was reported by those live blogging that she seemed sluggish and tired all week, and then she underperformed. Perhaps sick, perhaps just sick with nerves. One thing's for sure, it's a mark of her incredible floor and beam and their value that she was still named alternate after sub-par performances. Hopefully she will stick around.

We will of course not be seeing a lot of gymnasts in London due to injury, premature comebacks and struggles with recovery. There are others too that SHOULD have made the team if it was bigger. These are just two, and are my own favourites.

Canadian team named and Barbosa signs

The Canadian girls really have a lot going for them, it's a great pity they don't have higher difficulty (read: 7.0 bar routines or a few amanars) to really challenge the top 3. However they will give Australia, Britain and maybe even China good run for their money. A great pity Lee is injured of course because she has such AA potential, but nevertheless, it's a strong team. Vaculik, Moors, Rogers, Pegg and Black. Desperately want to see Moors in the EF for floor, it's amazing. Must look up her SV to see if she has a fighting chance.

Jade Barbosa has apparently agreed and has signed the contract. What this means for me after the Olympics is hard to tell..I hope she doesn't end up penniless. That of course is speculating that there was a good reason for it and not just greed. Or huge pressure from her sponsors.

I did not watch MAG Night 1, not that I could have really what with REGION BLOCKING. I am not comfortable with downloading IP blockers and disabling nti-virus, particularly since I keep hearing that to watch the live streaming you have to enter a password from your satellite/TV company anyway. That team looks similar to WAG in that three are locks and the other two are still a bit up for debate. Looks like Orozco, Lleyva, Mikulik, Horton and...Dalton or Legendre. I find pommel horse and rings extremely boring. High bar is great, I enjoy that and vault and floor are fine. PB..snore. Anyway I find Orozco very endearing and easy to root for...Lleyva less so. I hate the towel thing and his super crazy coach having heart attacks all over the podium. It just smacks of 'easy for NBC to get fluff out of this'.

British team predictions

Congratulations to Rebecca Tunney! Knew she had the potential in her to be great. I hope the delightful NBC trio glorying in her meltdown at SCAM were watching. Jenni Pinches has made huge strides in improvement too. Hannah Whelan did not have the competition she had hoped for but still is a lock. Imogen Cairns and Becky Downie made strong comebacks too and Beth's floor is much improved choreo-wise. Missed her bars and it's been removed off youtube (brilliant...) but apparently she did not compete full difficulty, saving herself from London. Also doesn't change her lock status. Unfortunately Danusia Francis has done damage to her status, her floor is great but the tumbling is so weak difficulty-wise. Beam is what she makes the team for, and a fall coupled with Beth's status as a specialist may mean she's out in such a small team.

Beth Tweddle, Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Tunney, Jenni Pinches and Imogen Cairns.
Alternates: Danusia Francis, Ruby Harrold and Niamh Rippin.

Olympic teams named

Excitement is building now that teams are being named. Japan, Australia, France and four-fifths of the Chinese team have now all been named. Japan's team was surprising in that almost all of its members are veterans of the 2008 Olympic team and do not include Mai Murakami. Australia's team includes Georgia Banora as the fifth spot, a spot which Mary Anne Monckton and Georgia Rose Brown were supposedly locks for. China's team seems to be taking risks for a medal- Wu Luifang and Huang Huidan are not even in contention for the fifth spot, whereas surprisingly, Huang Quishang has been named.

Britain will name their team on July 4th. They have depth on some events so this isn't very predictable. Hannah Whelan and Beth Tweddle certainly are locks. Rebecca Tunney has a very good chance. Danusia Francis could be picked for her beam alone, which GB are very weak on- but that puts pressure on the rest if she is picked just for beam and Tweddle is picked just for bars, and possibly floor. Jenni Pinches and Ruby Harrold also stand a very good chance, and Becky Downie is still competing for her second chance.

USA will of course name their team at Trials. Whoever wins Trials is guaranteed a spot. This is no longer Jordyn's spot, if Gabby hits she could take it, her difficulty is higher and she is overscored more than Jordyn is inside the US. These two are locks, and so is Aly Raisman. Number four is less guaranteed but is extremely likely to be Kyla Ross, barring injury. Plenty of ideal teams floating around the internet are forgetting her entirely and are using Sacramone and Maroney. That would be nice, but Sacramone's beam is not needed and there are enough decent amanars. She can't be used on bars. Fifth spot is Maroney's to lose. She adds the biggest difference to the team total and does not even need to show more than one event as the other four have those covered. It is however likely she could outscore Gabby on floor in Olympic prelims with a fixed third pass, we shall see. Certainly it is the most elegant and artistic floor routine they have in that team, and should be used. Not forgetting that she was injured at Nationals, but there is no reason to suppose she will miss Trials. Her petition was accepted and she is being monitored closely in the gym. The fact that she never lost consciousness and that the fracture is described as being very minor are both very positive signs. She does not really need to showcase AA at Trials. Her beam is extremely steady and can be used if it comes to it. Her bars are fairly unusuable, though substantially better than Aly's. Her floor can be great and her vault is always perfect- she could get away with only doing the two but hopefully can do all 4.

Other challengers for TF gold

I do expect USA to clinch TF gold but I can't say I would be devastated if they didn't. Dissapointed obviously as they really have the most potential by far and such great depth of athletes compared to other countries BUT as my country is not a contender at all, not having patriotic ties sure helps!

Now I really don't think Russia can take that gold from US. Komova appears stronger and better able to contend than she was last year. I also love the fact she appears much healthier looking and lost the waif look, yay! Mustafina, great to see her back. I would say she will have regained almost all of her previous difficulty by now, but she has lost the sharpness. Her twisting ability while never perfect, has deteriorated badly. Ponor on the other hand improved hers, so all is not yet lost for Aliya, I wouldn't count out a big improvement there but she will still be hurt from floor scoring and vault. If she competes an amanar I will cry. She was never able to land it perfectly, her legs were always locked and dodgy looking so the ACL wasn't a big surprise. But the pressure is on with USA fielding 5 amanars (this is using MY team of Wieber, Raisman, Ross, Douglas, Maroney. AND another with Price as alternate). Komova could have it beautiful in the air however and really help scoring. Bars of course a HUGE strong point. Floor is a little bit weaker. Grishina's is amazing, Komova and Musty at this point do not appear able to really outscore US on this, but we'll see.

Loving Romania's comback from basically nothing! It was great to see them victorious at Euro's. Hopefully that means they can really motivate themselves against an improved Russia and the dominant US in London. I see them fighting spectacularly for silver with Russia, couldn't call a winner at this point! Iordache is just fantastic, love her energetic and difficult floor- that double double looks great. Isbaza looks in great shape with lovely routines and Ponor's beam is spectacular. Her floor has improved, but I doubt they'd use her in TF on it. They will get high scores on floor and beam. their lacklustre to say the least bars and uncertain amount of Amanars/great DTY's might pull them down.

After such an amazing TF in 2008, China have lost their sparkle. They still obviously have strong points but it all looks a bit scrappy and as if they won't complement each other near as much as the 2008 team did. Beam and bars will no doubt be beautiful but other events just do not look as if they have high scoring potential. Which is a great shame after such a phenomenal performance but hey, they might pull a few surprises out of the bag.

I am devastated Ukraine will not field a team. United Kingdom on the other hand may well be able to place better than 5th. Hannah Whelan and Rebecca Tunney in particular are very strong competitiors, Pinches, Tweddle and Francis also looking very well. Tweddle's bar routine is astonishingly difficult, yet she seems to be hurt with her execution score. Hopefully she can tidy it up because if anyone deserves EF gold on bars, it's her.