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. 

D-score table for Team Final

After seeing a blog post showing some upgrades and not others, I'm going to make a stab at it myself. This table is all known and projected upgrades (ie. Musty has a switch ring on beam from a photo, that's 0.2!). At this point, not giving Romania a second amanar as that is pure speculation. (their other 6.5 is a Cheng).

BARS
China: 21
USA: 19.4
Romania: 18.2
Russia: 20.5
Result: China take an 0.5 difficulty lead, Russia just more than a point ahead of USA who are 1.2 ahead of Romania.

BEAM
China: 19.6
USA: 19.1
Romania: 19.8
Russia: 19.4
Result: Romania's beam lead not as impressive as thought, hmm. Of course, no execution taken into account, but still. 0.2 over China, who lead 0.2 over Russia...last is USA, interesting who are 0.3 behind.
Accumulative total: China: 40.6 USA 38.5 Romania: 38 Russia: 39.9  (China, Russia, USA, Romania)

VAULT
China: 18.1
USA: 19.5
Romania: 18.8
Russia: 19.5
Result: Of course USA and Russia tie here, but full scores would be different. Romania are an amanar behind, and China another 0.7 amanar worth behind that again.
Accumulative total: China 58.7 USA 58 Romania 56.8 Russia 59.4 (Russia, China, USA, Romania)

FLOOR
China: 18 OR 17.7 (Sui Lu's d-score was 5.7, new routine looks more difficult- giving her 6.0 and the 5.7)
USA: 18.8 OR 18.6 (Gabby or McKayla)
Romania: 19.4
Russia: 18.1
Result: Romania take a clear lead with hit connections on their upgrades, 0.6 over USA's highest, followed by a much closer Russia and China

TEAM TOTAL
China: 76.7 OR 76.4
USA: 76.8 OR 76.6
Romania: 76.2
Russia: 77.5

LEADERBOARD (using Sui Lu 6.0 and Gabby's floor)
Russia 77.5
USA -0.7
China -0.8
Romania -1.3

Very interesting though it does of course have to be taken with a pinch of salt because sloppy form and amanars have no bearing on this, nor do wobbles, falls, form breaks and missed connections. This is also showcasing all known upgrades, not just competed routines. The blog in question gave Russia 3 amanars, but Romania none and no Cheng and did not include Russian and Romanian known floor and beam upgrades, so Russia tied with USA and Romania had a huge point deficit. I think it's fairer to give everyone the upgrade benefit of the doubt.

EDIT: Russia and Romania DID showcase upgrades- Catalina's event finals beam dismount, Russian switch rings on beam, Komova's amanar are some. But both played it relatively safe, and Iordache's injury also affected Romania a lot. So the American d-scores are by and large spot on (some missed connections) but the rest are a bit topsy turvy.

10 days to go OMGOMG

Anticipation unbearable at this stage! USA are on their way, Russia are leaving on the 21st. I have not heard anything about Romania as of yet. China are getting acclimatised in Salto, Northern Ireland and are a bit miffed with all the rain, glad they got here early so.

Full Twist has some excellent photos up and is uploading footage http://www.facebook.com/FullTwist.net A BBC news clip briefly shows He Kexin nailing her Li Ya combo, she looked sharper than she has in a good while, good for her if she gets her peaking right. The coaches got to visit the Titanic musuem (Titanic was built in Belfast) but made the gymnasts stay back and rest! Apparently they have a heavy police escort at all times, who patrol outside the gym. This is a volatile time of the year in Northern Ireland, usually referred to as 'marching season'. History bit at the bottom if you want an explanation. Anyway, not a time of year you would choose to travel there, so fair play to Salto and everyone involved for managing it in spite of the difficulties with the time of the year.

USA are picking up all of their swag in Washington right about now before continuing to London. Photos on twitter all show healthy girls. However, GGMB rumours state that Ebee is injured, and Sarah is having issues with her foot. Also states that Marta wants Jordyn to lose ten pounds and that McKayla has not fixed her third pass, and went OOB in camp. Brilliant. Anyway, these are all unconfirmed. If Ebee IS injured that's a disaster because she can fill in anywhere and has an awesome amanar. Sarah too is very valuable. Let's hope this is just rubbish. Diet rumours, although Jordyn has looked a bit bulkier this year, I cannot see her extremely protective coach allowing her to be starved. That infernal third pass of McKayla's had better be fixed, she has no hope of replacing Gabby in TF if it's still dodgy.

Translations of interviews with Sandra Izbasa and Larisa Iordache have been pasted onto intlgym forums. They are worth a read, even though not that extensive. Lovely positive attitudes, they seem extremely ready for this and appear to be peaking at the right time. Komova's personal coach has stated that he wants the hype around Vika to relax for her own good. In a way, this is a tad worrying as it suggests that Vika is a bit fragile and could be thrown off by extra attention. Anyway, let's hope she's able to stay focused and on her game. It's going to be a sloooow ten days waiting for all of this to kick off!










Skip if you've no interest in what the deal is in July in Northern Ireland
(History bit: On the 12th July 1690 the Protestant claimant to the British throne defeated the Catholic claimant, after he fled to Ireland to drum up Catholic support. This is celebrated by Protestants building massive towers of pallets for bonfires on which are burned numerous tricolours, the flag of the Republic of Ireland. The Orange order, an order dedicated to upholding Protestant traditions,  hold marches and deliberately provoke unrest by marching in Catholic areas, insisting on their right to do so. It has provoked bloodshed and mayhem in the past. This year they stopped outside a Catholic church which wasn't on their route and played an anti-Irish song. Lovely. Basically, it causes unrest every year, drags up the old hatred. Disclaimer: I have no issue with Protestants or Catholics who want to live peacefully. Those who deliberately antagonise and provoke the order side are basically, scum. The Orange order are known sectarian bigots. I would have the same problem if it was the other way around, but in this instance it's not)

And the US team coach is...

John Geddert! In a way, I'm pissed it's not Chow. But, he did have his turn and John Geddert is clearly a great coach, he deserves it. Hopefully he can avoid the temptation to tweet on the floor! I do think he's a little obnoxious but I'm not going to take that away from his coaching ability. He has the most determined and focused athlete on the team who remained almost undefeated for a few years so he must be doing somethig right, not that Jordyn is the only elite he ever coached of course. Although, those beam connections should have been changed earlier. But you can say that about nearly all of them..why Mckayla's third pass, why Kyla and Aly flinging horrifying unsafe amanars..etc. So, congratulations to John and I think he'll do a great job.

US team- cliquey?

So what? Is it not perfectly normal? Are we hearing reports of McKayla, Aly and Jordyn flushing Gabby's head down the toilet at camp? Until they actually exhibit signs of bullying or deliberate exclusion, everyone needs to STFU. Just because they are not all BFF's does not mean Gabby cries herself to sleep every night or that they won't work as a team. Has every successful team ever been a huge lovefest? Thought not.

Also, have to laugh at the double standards. A wild instagram appears of Jordyn, Aly, McKayla and Kyla. WHERE'S GABBY OMG CLIQUE IS SO UNFAIR WE'LL NEVER WIN IF THEY DON'T GET ON WHERE'S GABBY WHERE IS SHE I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A TEAM. And then other photos emerge of Anna, Ebee and Gabby. I don't see anyone going 'Where's Sarah??? Where's Aly????' Of course the point stands that Gabby will not have those girls in London, but it doesn't mean USA are going to bomb or that the other four hatch plots at night to sabotage Gabby. These girls want to win as a team. Kindly keep your drama to your own head instead of splashing it all over twitter and facebook- in fact, bringing it to the attention of the gymnasts themselves, like the absolute tool who challenged McKayla about it on twitter. Do they not have enough to worry about? No? Oh right, now they have to think over how the world perceives their unity or how many people are saying 'I wonder who is the biggest dickhead on the team'. How close are we to race being brought into this??

/end rant directed solely at those posting rubbish about this on twitter and facebook