Medals with a fall

You would think, given the furore over McKayla Maroney's vault silver and Mustafina's tying for third (and eventually winning) in the AA, that these gymnasts had somehow cheated and deductions had not been applied properly. Given the open-ended scoring, relying on the gymnast's own difficulty, medals with falls were literally impossible in the old perfect 10 system- despite the deductions for a fall being much less. The current COP has sought to offset this by upping the fall deduction to a full point. It was 0.8 last quad. But there have been several medals with a fall since the new scoring, 2006, and possibly even before then. Certainly there are more than most people think, yet only a few inspire uproar!

2012

McKayla Maroney, Vault Event Final- Silver

McKayla's fall on her second vault took a full point off in the execution score. However, vault is easier than other event finals to bounce back from, because the fall deduction averages to 0.5 when the two vaults are averaged. McKayla had the highest difficulty and there was extremely little to deduct in the second vault except for the fall and lack of height. Interestingly enough, had she landed her amanar in bounds (she received an 0.3 deduction for not doing so)- she would have taken gold. Her medal is testimony to what an excellent vaulter she is, and also how weak the rest of the vault field was. If a girl with a fall and an out of bounds can beat you, then something is wrong. Izbasa's vaults were extremely weak for a gold winner, and Paseka's should have received a boatload of deductions, not least for not being fully around.

Yamilet Pena and Janine Berger both qualified to vault finals with a fall.

Aliya Mustafina, AA- Bronze

This is a bit of an odd one, because she did NOT win bronze with a fall. She tied for bronze with a fall. The medal was determined by her and Raisman's top 3 scores, so the beam of both was dropped. Therefore her beam had nothing to do with how the medal was determined- so it wasn't won with a fall. Nevertheless, Aly had a huge mistake on beam so she couldn't drop her weak bars. So she was left with counting a weak event. Mustafina did not count any weak event, and had 7.0 bars. Not a gigantic surprise there. Only 4 gymnasts were capable of vying for a medal. Mustafina was able to be one of those 4. In what world are Sandra Izbasa, Deng Linlin and Huang Qiushuang top AA-ers?

2011

Yao Jinnan, AA- Bronze

Yes, this one flies well under the radar. Yao fell off beam and would have ended the eternal Komova V Wieber controversy by beating them both had she stayed on. She was still able to score a 13.933 for an excellent beam, which was well able to beat Raisman's disaster of a time on bars where she received a 12.9. This was another fairly weak field, with Ana Porgras dropping well down due to her FTY and Huang Qiushuang once again being a bit of a headcase.

2010

Rebecca Bross, AA- Bronze

Rebecca also fell off beam. She received an extremely high score- 14.1, which was an overscore given the rest of the routine, which was not perfect. However, Huang Qiushuang whow as 4th had a bit of a nightmare on floor so the placement is probably correct. Another win with a fall that is totally blanked.


2009

Rebecca Bross, AA- Silver

Rebecca missed her tuck full in her last pass and put her hands down- which is technically a fall, and received an extremely low 12.875 for it. She had very high difficulty and only lost to Bridget Sloan by half a tenth, in yet another example of a desperately weak field.


2008

Cheng Fei, Vault Event Final- Bronze

This is the other medal with a fall that people remember, not just because of the fall but because she still managed to beat Alicia Sacramone, who vaulted cleanly. The reason behind this was that Cheng Fei had so much more difficulty than Alicia that the fall made very little difference. The difference in difficulty in Cheng's favour is 0.45. The fall (worth 0.8 in this code) averaged to 0.4.Alicia hopped on her landings and great as her form is, Cheng's is second to none. Controversial- but understandable.

Nastia Liukin and He Kexin both qualified into the uneven bars final despite falls in prelims because of their extremely high difficulty.

2007

Jade Barbosa, AA- Bronze (tie)

Jade brought a full-in pike to her knees and touched the floor with her hands, receiving a score of 14.00. Her high difficulty across her events still brought her up higher than 4th and 5th place finishers, Nastia Liukin and Yang Yilin. Her beam and vault really sealed the deal, and the high bars scores of the other 2 were no match.

Vanessa Ferrari, AA- bronze (tie)

Vanessa fell on her Comaneci on bars, literally a few seconds in. Similar to Barbosa, her high difficulty was enough to keep her ahead of Liukin and Yang. 

Li Shanshan, Beam Event Final- Silver (tie, no bronze awarded)

Li's beam was so flawless (fall aside) and so difficult- 0.6 and 0.7 more than the other medal winners, that this result was pretty much a no-brainer. She would have received a monster 16.7 without the fall and would have wiped the floor with Nastia and Steliana easily.

2006

Vanessa Ferrari, AA- Gold

The only gold medal with a fall! Vanessa fell off beam, and still received a generous 14.9 (15.7 without the fall). She exploded onto the scene these championships, and coupled with ehr high difficulty was just about able to steal the scene from Jana Bieger, who also had very high difficulty. Her bars won the day for her, as Jana was weak there. This still does evoke controversy, but Vanessa was still clearly the better gymnast that day. Sandra Izbasa who came third had such a low bars score I thought she had fallen too. But nope, just very sloppy.


So, 10 falls taking medals (or tying for bronze, as the case may be before tiebreakers) since the introduction of the new code. And at least four qualifying into event finals with a fall. Bear in mind this is only covering the major competitions- Worlds and Olympics. Clearly it is more common than what the average fan thinks, yet the majority of the above are not remembered and not talked about! It's a shame to lambast some with falls and ignore the rest. It is possible there are falls with medals in the old perfect 10 code, and I will investigate that- though it is much harder then of course. If anyone knows of any, let me know!

News

It appears that Sabrina Vega has moved to GAGE. She is as of now training at GAGE and although twitter exploded with the news that this is a permanent move etc., there is another train of thought that maybe she is just training there temporarily in preparation for the Kansas City stop of the Kellogg's Tour. We'll see. Sabrina's longtime coach is probably my favourite Romanian ever, Teodora Ungureanu. Sabrina has nice presentation and choreography and is lovely on beam and floor in particular. However, she desperately needs more difficulty if she wants to contend in the elite scene in the new quad, so a gym change is not exactly surprising if that is what has happened.

Stuttgart World Cup roster is out! See here Larisa Iordache, Vanessa Ferrari, Victoria Moors, Elizabeth Price, Elizabeth Seitz and Rebecca Tunney make for an AMAZING floor lineup. Hopefully none of those pull out. Larisa will I'm sure only compete if she is fully healthy and not in pain. The two empty spots will be interesting too I'm sure but Russia have effectively ruled out any of their Olympians competing. Maybe Anastasia Sidorova or Yulia Inshina might be in line for a spot though. I'd like to see representatives from Asia and South America. Mai Murakami and Jessica Gil Ortiz would be my picks. The men's lineup is equally impressive as it stands at the moment. The competition takes place 1-2 December and consists only of all-around, no qualifications. If back to her best and depending on who fills the other two spaces, Larisa should win. If she's still a bit off, then Price should be able to take it.

Diana Chelaru has left the national training centre and returned home to her local club to train. It has been stated that she is unsure of whether or not she wishes to continue. It is sad to see Romania lose talent, or in this case potentially lose it depending on Diana's decision, especially when they are not bursting with top gymnasts. Diana's pet piece is floor, on which she has won world medals as well as team medals in general. Hopefully she makes whatever decision is right for her.

Dityatin Cup results are out. For Juniors, Alexandra Yazydzhan of Russia took first in the AA. Kim Janas of Germany took second and Mariana Oliviera of Brazil was third. Senior AA results don't seem to be available yet. Ekaterina Kramarenko won bars EF with 14.5, Anastasia Cheong of Russia won floor with 13.9, Alina Sotnikova took first on vault with 13.813 and Anna Pavlova won beam with 14.275. Anna also took second on vault with 13.313 and second on floor with 13.725. Those scores are not that high and the competition was not not what you'd call deep, but still a great outing for Anna. Hoping to see videos of her especially. Evgeniya Shelgunova of Russia was second on beam with a 13.75. In the more junior category (2013 seems to count as senior), Kim Janas of Germany was first on floor and second on vault. Alexandra Yazydzhan, the AA champion, was first on bars and beam. Not sure about the senior AA yet as no PDF is opening from that page, but all in all it seems like a bit of a Russian domination.

Danusia Francis, former British gymnast (check out her great beam and floor) and current UCLA 1st year has a (newspaper hosted) blog. The first one is here. It's not very interesting and is just talking about how she came to be there. Future ones discussing training and of course competing will I'm sure be more worthwhile. She is a very sparkly gymnast and is just as exciting as new teammate Peng Peng Lee. 

Not exactly news, but I was waiting for Dityatin Cup results that are still not forthcoming. Brenna Dowell won the Mexican Open, Essenia Estrada of Mexico was second and Anna Dementyeva of Russia was third. Brenna, despite being quite sloppy, convincingly won due to her high difficulty. Her opening pass on floor, a front double pike is awesome. Demy was hampered not only by her scary FTY, but also by a fall on beam. Coming only third is not going to do her case any good for future Euros/possibly Worlds teams any good, unless she vastly ups her difficulty- her bars were lovely, but so weak in difficulty. Alexa Moreno of Mexico performed a piked Deltchev and a double arabian piked! Great stuff. The gala performed after is also available on youtube. Highlights are Anna Dementyeva's charming floor routine, and Daniel Purvis of GB's pommel routine wearing a kilt. Brenna did a sort of ballet class barre routine using the beam, which was puzzling given how unsuited she is to ballet work. Jessica Gil Ortiz and Jorga Giraldo swapped apparatus, competing on the parallel bars and beam respectively. Here is the whole competition in 4 parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 And the gala and award ceremony: here.

At the Eva Sanyo Memorial, Team Russia (Anastasia Sidorova, Anastasia Dmitrieva and Maria Kharenkova- senior, junior, junior) took the team title by about 16 points. The other teams were mostly Hungarian. Maria Kharenkova beat Anastasia Sidorova for highest AA total..but Hungarian junior Noemi Makra beat them both! She is going to be an interesting senior. Sidorova took vault and beam in event finals, Dorina Boczogo of Hungary took bars and Maryna Kostivchenko of Ukraine took floor.

McKayla Maroney will be on crutches for another 8 weeks. The boot for her toe will be for another 5 weeks, and the stabiliser for her other leg another few weeks after that. As expected, she is just appearing at the end of the tour shows and waving, and signing autographs. Kyla Ross is headed to camp! Hopefully with some planned upgrades in tow if she wants to compete at SCAM and be seen as an all-around threat next year. Elizabeth Price and Kennedy Baker are also headed, along with the vast majority of juniors. As before, it is expected that some juniors will be named to the National Team. The major suspects for this would be Nica Hults, Nia Dennis, Arianna Guerra, Alexis Buecler, Laurie Hernandez and Polina Schennikova.

Analysis of EF performance by AA medallists

Our reigning Olympic all-around champion, Gabby Douglas, has received a boatload of criticism for not winning any medals in event finals, the first not to do so. This is to look at previous AA medal winners, both World and Olympic, and see what their performances have been. Allowances have to be made for the rising difficulty and the increase in event specialists who have more time to devote to their event, but there are still gymnasts capable of taking the AA and doing extremely well in event finals. It seems that people forget that who they believe is the rightful champion, Viktoria Komova, also tanked in event finals. Personally I think it was astonishing to see Gabby peak at the right time. Anyway, on with the results, in reverse chronological order. Q for qualified in, F for finished in. Qualification results where available (read: easy to find). World Championships where the AA was not contested will be skipped of course. I have picked 1987 World Championships as the start point. This is because they were the first major competition with no boycotting or extremely shady dealings (1985) in a while, had high difficulty and were far enough back to get a good idea. I don't want to go back much further, into the 60's and 70's because difficulty was so much lower then and I think it skews the ability of gymnasts to excel in every event. Team medals are not included. Analysis is at the bottom.

2012. Olympic Games, London.

AA

1. Gabby Douglas, USA.
Q- beam (3rd), bars (6th). F- bars (8th), beam (7th). NO MEDALS
2. Viktoria Komova, RUS.
Q- beam (2nd), bars (3rd). F- bars (5th), beam (8th). NO MEDALS
3. Aliya Mustafina, RUS.
Q- floor (8th), bars (5th). F- bars (1st), floor (3rd). 2 MEDALS

2011 World Championships, Tokyo

AA

1. Jordyn Wieber, USA.
Q- bars (7th), beam (3rd), floor (3rd). F- bars (4th), beam (3rd), floor (6th). 1 MEDAL
2. Viktoria Komova, RUS.
Q- bars (1st), beam (1st). F- bars (1st), beam (8th). 1 MEDAL
3. Yao Jinnan, CHN
Q- beam (4th), floor (4th). F- beam (2nd), floor (4th). 1 MEDAL

2010 World Championships, Rotterdam

AA

1. Aliya Mustafina, RUS
Q- vault (1st), beam (6th), floor (1st), bars (4th). F- vault (2nd), beam (7th), bars (2nd), floor (2nd)  
3 MEDALS
2. Jiang Yuyuan, CHN.
 Did not qualify to any event finals. NO MEDALS
3. Rebecca Bross, USA
Q- bars (7th), beam (2nd). F- bars (3rd), beam (2nd). 2 MEDALS

2009 World Championships, London

AA

1. Bridget Sloan, USA
F- bars (6th) NO MEDALS
2. Rebecca Bross, USA
F- bars (3rd), floor (5th). 1 MEDAL
3. Koko Tsurumi, JPN
F- beam (6th), bars (2nd). 1 MEDAL

2008 Olympics, Beijing

AA

1. Nastia Liukin, USA
 Q- floor (4th), bars (5th), beam (2nd). F- floor (3rd), bars (2nd), beam (2nd). 3 MEDALS
2. Shawn Johnson, USA
 Q- floor (3rd), beam (3rd). F- floor (2nd), beam (1st) 2 MEDALS
3. Yang Yilin, CHN
Q- bars (1st). F- bars (3rd). 1 MEDAL

2007 World Championships, Stuttgart

AA

1. Shawn Johnson, USA
Q- beam (3rd), F- beam (8th), floor (1st) 1 MEDAL
2. Steliana Nistor, ROU
 Q- bars (5th), beam (4th) F- bars (6th),beam (2nd) 1 MEDAL
3. Jade Barbosa, BRA
 F- vault (5th), Q- beam (6th), F- beam (7th) NO MEDALS
3. Vanessa Ferrari, ITA
 Q- bars (6th), F- bars (8th), floor (6th) NO MEDALS

2006 World Championships, Aarhus

AA

1.  Vanessa Ferrari, ITA
 Q- bars (4th), beam (8th), F- bars (3rd), beam (6th), floor (3rd) 2 MEDALS
2. Jana Bieger, USA
 Q- bars (6th, but fell foul of 2 pc. Replaced Memmel, 2nd). F- bars (5th), floor (2nd) 2 MEDALS
3. Sandra Izbasa, ROU
Q- beam (3rd),F- vault (8th), beam (2nd), floor (6th) 1 MEDAL

2005 World Championships, Melbourne

AA

1. Chellsie Memmel, USA
 Q- bars (2nd), beam (7th) F- bars (2nd), beam (2nd) 2 MEDALS
2. Nastia Liukin, USA
 Q- bars (1st), beam (6th) F- bars (1st), beam (1st), floor (2nd) 3 MEDALS
3. Monette Russo, AUS
Q- bars (7th), beam (3rd), F- bars (7th), beam (5th), floor (5th)  NO MEDALS

2004 Olympics, Athens

AA

1. Carly Patterson, USA
 Q- beam (2nd), F- beam (2nd) 1 MEDAL
2. Svetlana Khorkina, RUS
 Q- bars (1st), F- bars (8th) NO MEDALS
3. Zhang Nan, CHN
Q- beam (8th), F- beam (6th) NO MEDALS

2003 World Championships, Anaheim

AA

1. Svetlana Khorkina, RUS
 Did not qualify to any event final NO MEDALS
2. Carly Patterson, USA
 Did not qualify to any event final NO MEDALS
3. Zhang Nan, CHN
Did not qualify to any event final NO MEDALS

(2002- no AA)

2001 World Championships, Ghent

AA

1. Svetlana Khorkina, RUS
 F- vault (1st), bars (1st), floor (3rd) 3 MEDALS
2. Natalia Ziganchina, RUS
 NO MEDALS
3. Andreea Raducan, ROU
F- vault (3rd), floor (1st), beam (1st) 3 MEDALS

2000 Olympics Games, Sydney (adding in Raducan as 1st, using Olaru and Xuan in their final placements)

AA

1. Andreea Raducan, ROU
 Q- vault (2nd), floor (3rd), F- floor (6th), vault (2nd) 1 MEDAL
1. Simona Amanar, ROU
 Q- vault (4th), floor (1st), F- floor (3rd), vault (6th) 1 MEDAL
2. Maria Olaru, ROU
 Q- beam (1st), F- beam (6th) NO MEDALS
3. Liu Xuan, CHN
Q- beam (7th), F- beam (1st) 1 MEDAL

1999 World Championships, Tianjin

AA

1. Maria Olaru, ROU
 F- vault (3rd) 1 MEDAL
2. Viktoria Karpenko, UKR
NO MEDALS
3. Elena Zamolodchikova, RUS
F- vault (1st) 1 MEDAL


1997 World Championships, Lausanne

AA

1. Svetlana Khorkina, RUS
 F- bars (1st), floor (1st), beam (1st) 3 MEDALS
2. Simona Amanar, ROU
 F- vault (1st) 1 MEDAL
3. Elena Produnova, RUS
F- floor (3rd) 1 MEDAL

1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta

AA

1. Lilia Podkopayeva, UKR
 Q- bars (2nd), beam (3rd), floor (2nd), F- bars (5th), beam (2nd), floor (1st) 2 MEDALS
2. Gina Gogean, ROU
 Q- vault (3rd), beam (7th), floor (6th), F- vault (2nd), beam (3rd), floor (7th) 2 MEDALS
3. Simona Amanar, ROU
 Q- vault (1st), bars (1st), floor (3rd), F- vault (1st), bars (5th), floor (2nd) 2 MEDALS
3. Lavinia Milosovici, ROU
Q- bars (7th), beam (7th but replaced by Marinescu for final) F- bars (8th) NO MEDALS

1995 World Championships, Sabae

AA

1. Lilia Podkopayeva, UKR
 F- vault (1st), bars (2nd), beam (2nd), floor (7th) 3 MEDALS
2. Svetlana Khorkina, RUS
F- vault (5th), bars (1st) 1 MEDAL
3. Lavinia Milosovici, ROU
 F- bars (5th) NO MEDALS

1994 World Championships, Brisbane

AA

1. Shannon Miller, USA
 F- beam (1st) 1 MEDAL
2. Lavinia Milosovici, ROU
 F- vault (3rd), floor (2nd) 1 MEDAL
3. Dina Kotchetkova, RUS
F- bars (3rd), floor (1st) 2 MEDALS

1993 World Championships, Birmingham

AA

1. Shannon Miller, USA
 F- bars (1st), floor (1st) 2 MEDALS
2. Gina Gogean, ROU
 F- vault (4th), beam (3rd), floor (2nd) 2 MEDALS
3. Tatiana Lysenko, UKR
NO MEDALS

1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona

AA

1. Tatiana Gutsu, EUN
 Q- bars (1st), floor (5th),F- bars (2nd), floor (3rd) 2 MEDALS
2. Shannon Miller, USA
 Q- vault (1st), bars (3rd), beam (3rd), floor (8th, below 3 ties) F- vault (6th), bars (3rd), beam (2nd), floor (3rd) 3 MEDALS
3. Lavinia Milosovici, ROU
Q- vault (4th), bars (3rd), beam (8th), floor (3rd), F- vault (1st), bars (3rd), beam (8th), floor (1st)
3 MEDALS

1991 World Championships, Indianapolis

AA

1. Kim Zmeskal, USA
 F- floor (3rd) 1 MEDAL
2. Svetlana Boginskaya, URS
 F- beam (1st) 1 MEDAL
3. Cristina Bontas, ROU
F- floor (1st) 1 MEDAL

1989 World Championships, Stuttgart

AA

1. Svetlana Boginskaya, URS
 F- floor (1st) 1 MEDAL
2. Natalia Laschenova, URS
 NO MEDALS
3. Olga Strazheva, URS
F- bars (3rd) 1 MEDAL

1988 Olympic Games, Seoul

AA

1. Elena Shushunova, URS
 F- vault (8th), bars (3rd), beam (2nd), floor (7th) 2 MEDALS
2. Daniela Silivas, ROM
 F- vault (3rd), bars (1st), beam (1st), floor (1st) 4 MEDALS
3. Svetlana Boginskaya, URS
F- vault (1st), bars (5th), beam (5th), floor (2nd) 2 MEDALS

1987 World Championships, Rotterdam

AA

1. Aurelia Dobre, ROU
 F- vault (3rd), beam (1st), floor (3rd) 3 MEDALS
2. Elena Shushunova, URS
F- vault (1st), bars (3rd), beam (2nd), floor (1st) 4 MEDALS
3. Daniela Silivas, ROU
F- bars (1st), floor (1st) 2 MEDALS

ANALYSIS

• There are 24 All-around Champions between 1987 and 2012 inclusive.
• Of these, Gabby Douglas IS the first Olympic champion not to medal in EF.
• 2 World Champions have also managed this feat- Bridget Sloan (2009) and Svetlana Khorkina. (2003)
• Of the other 16 Olympic AA medallists, 5 failed to medal in EF. These are Viktoria Komova, (2012) Svetlana Khorkina, (2004) Zhang Nan, (2004) Maria Olaru (2000) and Lavinia Milosovici. (1996)
• Of the other 33 World AA medallists, 11 failed to medal in EF. These are Jiang Yuyuan (2010), Jade Barbosa, (2007), Vanessa Ferrari (2007), Monette Russo (2005), Carly Patterson (2003), Zhang Nan (2003), Natalia Ziganchina (2001), Viktoria Karpenko (1999), Lavinia Milosovici (1995), Tatiana Lysenko (1993) and Natalia Laschenova (1989).
• 4% of Olympic Champions, or 1/24 failed to medal in EF.
• 12.5% of World Champions, or 2/16 failed to medal in EF.
• 31.25% of Olympic bronze and silver AA medallists, or 5/16 failed to medal in EF.
• 33.333% of World bronze and silver AA medallists, or 11/33 (1/3) failed to medal in EF.
• Of these, 4 medal EF failures took place in the 2009-2012 quad.
• 3 in the 2005-2008 quad.
• 6 in the 2001-2004 quad.
• 2 in the 1997-2000 quad.
• 3 in the 1993-1996 quad.
• 1 in the 1989-1992 quad.
• 31% of all medal EF failures took place in the 2001-2004 quad.
• The worst competition was the 2003 World Championships where all AA medallists failed to medal in EF.
• The second worst was the 2004 Olympic Games where only one medal was managed, by Carly Patterson.
• The best competition was the 1987 World Championships with 9 medals.
• The second best are the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games with 8 medals.
• 13 EF medals were won by AA medallists in the 1989-1992 quad.
• 18 in the 1993-1996 quad.
• 10 in the 1997-2000 quad
• 7 in the 2001-2004 quad
• 18 in the 2005-2008 quad
• 12 in the 2009-2012 quad
• Of the 12 EF medals in the 2009-2012 quad won by AA medallists, 5 or 41.6% were won by Aliya Mustafina, in 2 competitions.
• Of the 18 EF medals in the 2005-2008 quad won by AA medallists, 6 or 33.333% (1/3) were won by Nastia Liukin, in 2 competitions.
• Of the 7 EF medals in the 2001-2004 quad won by AA medallists, 3 each or 42.86% were won by Svetlana Khorkina and Andrea Raducan in 1 competition each. Together they won 86% of all medals available.
• Of the 10 EF medals in the 1997-2000 quad won by AA medallists, 3 or 30% were won by Svetlana Khorkina in 1 competition.
• Of the 18 EF medals in the 1993-1996 quad won by AA medallists, 5 or 27.8% were won by Lilia Podkopayeva and 4 or 22.3% by Gina Gogean in 2 competitions each. Together they won half of all medals available, or 50%.
• Of the 13 EF medals in the 1989-1992 quad won by AA medallists, 3 or 23% were won by Shannon Miller.
• * NOTE: Some of the above won more EF medals in their quad, but medals they won when they didn't place in that AA are NOT counted*
• The highest total of EF medals by any AA medallist is 7, the feat of Svetlana Khorkina.
• Nastia Liukin, Daniela Silivas and Elena Shushunova all managed 6.

Clearly, gymnastics is still able to produce excellent all-arounders who are able to collect plenty of event final medals, despite the rise of event specialists which the likes of Silivas, Miller and co. did not have to contend with. Aliya Mustafina and Nastia Liukin prove this point, especially as Mustafina is still active. Gabby Douglas is quite clearly not alone in failing to garner an EF medal, and of course, may yet do so in the future. The poor record of the 2001-2004 quad is a sight to behold, and confirms how weak a period that was. It's reassuring to see that all is not lost and that we are and will continue to gymnasts sweeping medal tables.

Skills: The Best of. Part 1: Floor Tumbles

As it says in the title. Some of these are more subjective than others, but a few cannot be argued with at all.

Best Double Arabian



Anna Myzdrikova, Russia, 2009 Worlds EF

She stumbled on her third pass and handed her title away, but her other 3 passes were fantastic- one of which is a triple twist tuck back, perfectly done. THIS is amazing, legs glued together and knees at the same height (almost..she does correct it) is incredibly rare. Not to mention how light it is and how she plants the landing beautifully. Stunning. Others with great double arabians are Inna Sckarupa, Alicia Sacramone and Liubov Sheremeta.

Best Double Front



 Ivana Hong, USA, 2008 Visa Nationals 

This was the easiest, because nobody's compares to this really. Mariya Livchikova came close, but this skill is famous for cowboying and basically everyone else is an offender. Glorious- knees together, feet pointed, light landing.

Best Double Piked Arabian (Dos Santos I)
 



Chellsie Memmel, USA, 2008 Olympic Trials

This was really hard. Although it's one of the most difficult tumbles, there are still quite a few to choose from. The majority are quite crooked in the air. Chellsie's is also, but she corrects it and as well as being one of the straightest she also has great form in the air and sticks the landing. Most take a hop forward, or if they do stick it, it's ugly. Also, quite a lot land it dangerously low. Others in consideration were Sarah Finnegan and Alicia Sacramone.

Best Triple Full



 Cheng Fei, CHN, 2004 Olympics TF

You would think it would be easy to pinpoint people who have a perfect one, and find examples on youtube. It isn't. So many beautifu floor workers with clean tumbling- Pavlova, Komova, Yao, Ukrainians en masse and many others all failed me. You think it's fine until you see it in better quality or on the replay. But Cheng throws out a perfect one, with zero crossing of the ankles. So high, clean and tidy with super perfect form.The only other that came close was Mattie Larson.

Best Double Double (Silivas)

 

Mai Murakami, JPN, 2010 All Japan Gymnastics Championships

It can be tough to pick out the 'best' because not many have actually done it badly or had a rough landing. (Excusing the 80's originators on their unsuitable floor) It seems to be quite easy to keep form on, but some have better, cleaner tuck positions than others. Mai brings a lightness and grace to such a difficult power move. And what a landing! Others considered for this were Cheng Fei, Larisa Iordache and Jordyn Wieber.

Best Double Layout



Lavinia Milosovici, ROM, 1994 Worlds EF

This is probably the most subjective of all. Countless times I went back and watched noted elegant tumblers with lovely floaty DLO's only to see leg seperations, a lot of piked positions in the second layout, bent knees, sickling of feet, totally flexed feet...urghh. To me, this is about as textbook as it gets. Beautiful. Others who came close were Mary Lou Retton, Mattie Larson and Cristina Bontas.

Part 2 will be a mixture of bars releases, bar and beam dismounts and leaps.

News

Brenna Dowell leads the Mexican Cup after Day 1. The competition is being split over two days, vault and bars were contested, beam and floor is next. Anna Dementyeva is in fourth place, knocked down after a very scary yurchenko full which she barely got around after no block. Dowell had a DTY, the only one of the competition. Although she is a GAGE girl, Dowell's form is pretty sloppy. Nevertheless, her difficulty puts her ahead- her bars contained shaposh 1/2, Jaeger and a full twisting double layout dismount. Demy is usually excellent on beam, but doubtful that it will be enough for gold at this point. Dowell is strong on floor and will be looking to get a double front piked credited. It was apparently downgraded to tucked position before, which as a deduction as she already has one of them. If you're that good at front tumbling, do Podkopayeva's double front half out in place of the tuck and save the penalty! Georgia Rose Brown of Australia is in third and Yessenia Estrada of Mexico is in second, delighting the home crowd. Tomorrow will be a strong day for Brenna Dowell and Marta Pihan-Kulesza who would be able to work her way up the rankings. Nobody's sure what Demy can or will bring on vault and beam, hopefully enough to medal. Videos are available, I will be putting up highlights in a new post along with Dityayin Cup videos, if they become available.

Amanda Reddin is the new head coach for Team GB. Amanda is the long-term coach of Beth Tweddle, as well as Hannah Whelan and Jenni Pinches. It is very obvious from seeing how she interacts with her gymnasts and looking at Beth's longevity and continued extremely high level of performance that she is a fantastic coach. Former head coach Adrain Stan is moving on to high level coach development. Bring on the continued beautiful gymnastics of Rebecca Tunney and the new era of wunderkinds Gabby Jupp and Angel Romaeo!

Amelia Racea of Romania has retired. Amelia most notably had success in 2010 Europeans, where she won beam. She qualified to 2011 worlds event finals on that event, but was hindered by low difficulty. Nevertheless, she had lovely gymnastics and would make a nice addition to Euros teams. Amelia is just not feeling gymnastics anymore and has gone to university, so fair enough. This year has seen the retirement also of Ana Porgras and Gabriela Dragoi.

McKayla Maroney has rejoined the Kelloggs tour. McKayla was still in two casts last week, so I highly doubt she has been medically cleared to do any actual gymnastics. She will of course need to spend a lot of time getting back into peak condition anyway after resting for so long.

Along with the Mexican Cup which will be streamed live here, the Dityatin Cup in Russia is attracting some interesting faces. Anna Pavlova, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Evgeniya Shelgunova are the major Russians competing. Anna has quite low difficulty now and seems to train more recreationally but still gets decent vault scores which shove her up the rankings. Ekaterina is she of the infamous vault touch-automatic zero from 2007 Worlds. Not sure what shape she's in, but I'd say her floor is still worth watching. Evgeniya is a 2013 senior, and is quite promising though probably not the best Russia will have in its arsenal leading into Rio. From Ukraine, Darya Kloptsova, a junior with a lovely elegant floor is competing. Kim Janas, a German junior is also very exciting and elegant. Hope to see videos from this. I'll put some up of both comps if they become available.

China's roster for the Asian Championships has been announced. It's quite the break from the usual faces, but should be very interesting. It is composed of the girls who excelled at the recent Nationals. Zeng Siqi, Li Yiting, Huang Huidan, Shang Chungsong, Wu Liufang and Luo Peiru.

America's new wunderkinds

Not content with the huge talent moving up through the ranks in time for Rio, attention is begining to hone in on those who are too young for it. Jordan Chiles who is 11 will barely miss Rio. She has quite an incredible arsenal of skills in training which you can see here. These include a front triple twist-layout front which is my favourite and which I will embed because it's awesome, a double layout, 3.5 twist, double arabian, DTY, double layout bars dismount and a triple twist beam dismount (currently competing a fabulous 2.5). She has nice lines and hopefully will be able to achieve better extension and form. Twisting appears to be her strong point..and tumbling in general too. Weak points I would say handstands on bars and leg form on LOSO's on beam, but hey, she's 11. Seeing as she is not a senior until 2017, I hope she is preserved very well and doesn't burn out, because similar to Shallon Olsen of Canada who is a 2016 senior, her skill level is already extremely high.

Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.

News

Rebeca Andrade has won the all-around at the South American Junior Championships. A great pity we won't see Rebeca in a much stronger field like Euros, but hopefully other competitions like Pan-Ams will see her square off against stronger competition. Her score was 54.8 Her highest score was 14.5 on vault, a DTY, and her lowest was 12.633 on bars, her nemesis. She does not do much on bars but she has a Comaneci salto..hopefully they can be improved over the next few years. Beam and floor are good events for her too. Brazil won the team competition also. Rebeca is elegible for the 2014 YOG and is lucky to be turning senior for a home games, as serious money is being poured into the gymnastics programme of which she is recognised as the shining star.

Kristina Goryunova of Russia who was suspended from international competition and therefore missed the Olympics due to a positive doping test- has won bars, beam and floor at a local competition called SDUSHOR. Kristina herself has said her difficulty is not high enough for international competitions, but she is thought to be quite useful at the moment as Russia are not bursting with talent. Hopefully we will see her again, even at Euros.

Lexie Priessman has committed to Georgia. Fear not, she will be competing as a senior elite beginning next year. 2016 would be her startdate really, and longer if she wants to hold out. I have limited knowledge of NCAA but there seems to be a lot of dissapointment that it's not UCLA. Georgia I know have been on a slump since the glory days of Courtney's Kupets and McCool but maybe Lexie and fellow recruits can drag it back into the top 6. It is up to her what university suits her best, location, and which gymnastics programme so I think her choice should be respected.

Rachael (whatshouldgymfanscallme.tumblr.com) has uploaded a history and background to Alexandrov's dismissal. It begins with a brief background of him, goes through his recall after the disaster of 2008 and ends up with post-dismissal. Rachael understands Russian so her insight is very valuable. This is extremely well written and don't be put off by the gifs, they add to it! I will add these articles are not suitable to be read on phones because of the amount of gifs. MUST READ.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Anna Li has a double twisting double layout dismount. Invented by Elise Ray, it's one of the hardest dismounts and is extremely rare. Shawn Johnson also did it. Anna would be the biggest contender the USA have to take the bars title at worlds, especially if she actually does have a Kovacs up her sleeve by then as well. Sadly it does not seem like Marta would give her an international assignment like that again. Here it is though:

Also here's a hilarious video of the girls on tour learning shuffling. Mostly hysterical because Nastia seems so bewildered by the whole thing, or else just in awe of Anna, at the front. Rebecca Bross is on the right of Nastia, pretty sure that's Jordyn behind at the back right and Julie Zetlin is behind Anna to the left.

 In other tour news, Gabby has committed to the whole thing and it looks like Kyla has already left as she is tweeting about high school a lot. McKayla did go to Oklahoma with Kyla for the tour stop that was filmed (Oct 14th air date) but seeing as she was in two casts, I doubt she did anything other than wave or something. We'll see. (Or see when it goes up on youtube in its entiriety, as the case may be). Sabrina Vega is expected to join the tour for its east coast stops. It is currently in Texas.

A high-quality version of Yelena Produnova's famous 1999 Universiade double front vault has been uploaded. In this one you can even make out how unimpressed the woman beside the vault is and the amount of chalk on Produnova's legs. No less an amazing feat than it ever was- but I did not realise until the dead-on replay how cowboyed it is. Nothing says 'never let anyone try this vault again' more than how even Prod had to speed up her rotation that much to land it at all.