Aliya Mustafina's interview translated

Translated by Lauren C ( translater's notes/explanations in Italics)

I didn't expect anything today. On beam I was lucky. On floor I had nothing to lose so I decided to go for the harder routine. Today was a reminder that I need to keep moving forward. I can't compete with my current repertoire; I know that. It's hard to learn new elements at my age. This year was hard because I kept taking breaks-first at the beginning of the year, then after Euros, then I had surgery and couldn't do anything for a month. I won't be able to take those kinds of breaks again before Rio.

It is difficult to have a personal coach who is really a choreographer. I have to make a lot of decisions on my own. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I'm not going to go scouring the earth for such a person, but if they happen to appear it would be nice.   

(They [interviewer] imply that she won't stop training until she's bleeding) : Certainly I train bars long after everyone tells me to stop. I keep going until I get it right. It's emotional vampirism.  

I have changed. It was time. I've begun to act more truly as myself instead of as I am "supposed" to. I communicate differently and more, I'm happy more often. Recently I realized that while you have to surrender yourself to this sport, you can't look at it as work. It can't be coerced; you have to want to do it, like a hobby. We have young ones who train with us who have to be forced. Some cry; some can handle it, some can't. The Americans are always smiling; they love it. Children shouldn't have to cry. Everything starts there.

Nobody told this to me, I just came to the realization over time. When things don't go my way in training, I tell myself it's okay, that there's always tomorrow. Or I have to sit around until I have a plan. Then I get up and train until I get it done, even when I rip all my calluses off.

[The situation with the younger girls] is a problem, of course. When Vika Komova, Tanya Nabieva and I were young, we could already do everything we do now. If I hadn't been in that kind of shape when I was younger I would never have achieved anything. I'm still not discouraged. I hope the younger girls can strengthen their programmes. It will be difficult to compete with the Americans, of course; they're strong, and that's putting it lightly. And it seems that it doesn't matter that we work to hit splits and point our toes; even though they're often not quite in splits or have not-quite-pointed toes, nobody cares.

*that last bit was a significant paraphrase and maybe a little harsher than she meant it. She's just saying that a vague "they" (probably the judges) don't seem to put as much emphasis on those kinds of deductions as they have said they would in the past

We'll still keep trying to make our exercises beautiful. If we could do as much difficulty as the Americans and even add a little beauty it would be a big plus. For the fans if not the judges. The judges are a separate issue. Sometimes it seems like they have already decided the outcome before the competition has even started. That's the worst thing, and sometimes it makes me want not to try. I understand that no matter what I do, they will place Biles ahead of me. The thought [not to try] occurs to me, but it goes away quickly. We [all] had two open training sessions every day, and the Americans were always doing something - running, circuit training, extra things. Some of it is probably genetics. Just look at them - they're healthy, brimming with life. We don't have gymnasts like them in Russia. Look at Polina Fyodorova, Masha Kharenkova, Dasha Spiridonova. They will always be small and skinny. They'll never have the kind of muscle the Americans have. Look at the Chinese....

Interviewer: By the way, have you lost weight?
Aliya: I don't see it, but I guess it looks like it.

I'm really comfortable with this team (she specifically mentions Masha, Elf and Alla). They're really nice to be around, they're not jealous and they don't say mean things. I want to help them. I help, they listen, and it's really pleasant for me.

*Translation note: When she says "I want to help them," she uses a reflexive construction which normally means she feels as though the desire comes from outside herself or is innate, as opposed to something she actively wants.

I'm on my third book this Worlds, an Italian novel. I listen to music while I drive to Round Lake. I'm an "omnivore" - I like a lot of things. Except I'm a picky eater. I hate onions. If a dish has onions, it's no longer even food to me. I have to take a napkin to meals here in China. Maybe that's why I've lost weight?

My leg is fine, but I do have other body parts. My back has been bothering for two and a half years. It was really bad at this Worlds. I don't like to talk about it and I feel I shouldn't, but during the team final I felt like I wouldn't be able to do anything at all. Sometimes I can't even run. I'm not protecting my leg. I don't do something if I'm not confident on it. So if I'm standing on the vault runway and I feel I won't be able to do the double, I don't do it. It's a kind of intuition. Sometimes I won't do something even when I think I can, because I can no longer think, "Oh well, if I underrotate a little, no big deal!" My ankle or knee start bothering me if I underrotate. My knee doesn't bother me anymore except when I land poorly. So I only perform an element when I'm certain I won't get hurt doing it.

I'm now thinking only of what to do in the off season and how to stay patient until Rio. No, not stay patient, but put all of my strength, everything that I have, into training for it.

The night before AA finals, my temperature started to rise, my throat started to hurt, I was congested and coughing, all at once. I tried not to think about it. I couldn't lift my arms or legs at training. We went to the doctor and asked for everything they had. Anti-fever [medicine], a load of pills, I sprayed something and gargled something. And when I got to the competition I was still shaking. It wasn't so bad the next day during bars finals. The worst part was the watery eyes - I wanted to rub them but they were made up! And when I was warming up on bars, sometimes I couldn't even see them. My eyes couldn't keep up with my body somehow.

                

Predictions, schmedictions

It's always fun to see how these pan out. Predictions post is here and was written almost exactly a month ago.

First, the all-around.

Prediction

1. Simone Biles
2. Aliya Mustafina
3. Kyla Ross
4. Larisa Iordache
5. Vanessa Ferrari

Actual

1. Simone Biles DING
2. Larisa Iordache. Up two
3. Kyla Ross DING
4. Aliya Mustafina. Down two
5. Yao Jinnan

2/5 placements, 4/5 names.

Team Final

Prediction

1. USA
2. China
3. Russia
4. GB
5. Romania

Actual

1. USA DING
2. China DING
3. Russia DING
4. Romania Up 1
5. Italy

Overestimated GB, underestimated Italy. Podium correct! 3/5 placements, 4/5 names.

Vault Qualifiers

Prediction

Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Giulia Steingruber
Oksana Chusovitina
Hong un Jong
Phan Thi Ha Thanh
Ellie Black
Maria Paseka

Actual

Simone Biles DING
Mykayla Skinner DING
Giulia Steingruber DING
Hong un Jong DING
Phan Thi Ha Thanh DING
Alla Sosnitskaya
Claudia Fragapane
Alexa Moreno

5/8 for names. Oksana and Maria would have qualified had they been there, I feel.

Vault podium

Prediction

1. Simone Biles
2. Mykayla Skinner
3. Giulia Steingruber

Actual

1. Hong un Jong
2. Simone Biles
3. Mykayla Skinner

2/3 for names, 0/3 placements. This was before it was known that Giulia developed a twisting block and Hong un Jong showed significant improvement at Asian Games.

Bars Qualifiers

Prediction

Ashton Locklear
Kyla Ross
Aliya Mustafina
Daria Spiridonova
Ruby Harrold
Becky Downie
Huang Huidan
Yao Jinnan

Actual

Ashton Locklear DING
Lisa Katherina Hill
Huang Huidan DING
Yao Jinnan DING
Ruby Harrold DING
Daria Spiridonova DING
Aliya Mustafina DING
Becky Downie DING

7/8 names! Just Kyla Ross who was surpassed in qualifications late on.

Bars Podium

Prediction

1. Yao Jinnan
2. Huang Huidan
3. Becky Downie

Actual

1. Yao Jinnan DING
2. Huang Huidan DING
3. Daria Spiridonova

2/3 for placement and names. Becky didn't have the best routine, unfortunately.

Beam Qualifiers

Prediction

Larisa Iordache
Simone Biles
Kyla Ross
Aliya Mustafina
Bai Yawen
Shang Chunsong
Maria Kharenkova
Andreea Munteanu

Actual

Larisa Iordache DING
Simone Biles DING
Kyla Ross DING
Aliya Mustafina DING
Bai Yawen DING
Yao Jinnan
Asuka Teramoto
Ellie Black

5/8 for names is respectable. Andreea, Maria and Shang all massively underperformed in prelims.

Beam Podium

Prediction

1. Larisa Iordache
2. Maria Kharenkova
3. Bai Yawen

Actual

1. Simone Biles
2. Bai Yawen
3. Aliya Mustafina

Lol. 1/3 for names, 0/3 for placement.

Floor Qualifiers

Prediction

Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Vanessa Ferrari
Claudia Fragapane
Shang Chunsong
Larisa Iordache
Roxana Popa
Giulia Steingruber

Actual

Simone Biles DING
Mykayla Skinner DING
Vanessa Ferrari DING
Claudia Fragapane DING
Larisa Iordache DING
Larissa Miller
Aliya Mustafina
Erika Fasana

5/8 for names

Floor Podium

Prediction

1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Vanessa Ferrari

Actual

1. Simone Biles DING
2. Larisa Iordache DING
3. Aliya Mustafina

Close! 2/3 for placement and names.

Overall, out of a grand total of 54 I had 37 names right and out of 22 podium places I got 9 correct. So I suppose that proves that it's relatively easy to predict the dominance of the big 4, but that competition is wildly unpredictable?

Good effort, and a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I'll post about today's finals and soon after a big post about worlds in general, reflections and such.

EF Day 1: Vault and Bars

For a mid-quad worlds, this is proving to be a truly exciting one in individual competition. Today for WAG, the vault and bars finals were contested.

Despite the fact that several of the people who ended up on podium were not a surprise, the competitions were very tight and very tense with some surprises thrown in. First, to vault!

Simone Biles has spent most of the year since Mckayla Maroney's latest batch of injuries as the known favourite for the vault title, which continued until Asian Games. At that competition, Hong un Jong of North Korea vaulted an extremely floaty amanar and a much stronger Cheng. Her improvement, and 0.8 d-score advantage were suddenly big threats to Simone. Would Simone go for the Cheng that has been in the works for quite some time, or even a Mustafina hinted at earlier in the year on her ask.fm? The idea of an upgrade was shot down, and so her execution would be the decider.

Hong un Jong is the 2008 Olympic vault Champion. Remarkably, she survived the long banishment of her country for cheating and emerged after the London Olympics with the same vaults, the Amanar and Cheng. The difficulty on both has gone down, to 6.3 and 6.4, but still makes a gymnast with them formidable. Last year, she used the difficulty to push through and take bronze behind McKayla Maroney and Simone Biles. Neither vault was particularly inspiring, with her Cheng especially struggled around. Considering the fact that she is now 24, the fact that she has improved the form and landings on both vaults is just incredible. It came down to the wire, especially with Simone only having a small hop on her amanar and just a tiny shuffle in place after a perfect Lopez, with Hong edging her out by less than half a tenth.

I'm very pleased for Hong un Jong and her coaches reactions were very touching. 6 years on, and just as good as ever. The absolutely tiny margin of victory just goes to show just how strong a vaulter Simone Biles is, to almost beat her. I'd imagine the death knell has been sounded on her Lopez, and while I'm sure an upgrade will look great, it is a pity as it just such an exceptional vault, so textbook and so pretty. There is something inherently pleasing about her vaulting, and it's the certainty. She isn't going to mess up, we're not afraid she will twist into the ground, land off the podium, not get her twist around in time, block completely wrong etc. etc. She'll block dead-centre with straight arms, lift into the ceiling, and land securely. Refreshingly great. I really look forward to seeing her develop on this event. Our gold winner showed that anything's possible.

A lot has been said about Mykayla Skinner and her vaulting, especially of course the block on her Cheng. Certainly the technique is quite wrong, she's twisting off one hand too early and the other hand is not repulsing her. We know this. But she has doing her job really well at her first world championships, a team extremely few would have put her in at the start of this year, and today was no exception. Her Cheng was very clean in the air with a great landing. It's not the most dynamic but it's still worthy of a good score, which she certainly achieved. Her DTY has improved quite a bit, form was tight and clean. She was much more pleasant to watch than those whose landings are far from a sure thing. Great effort from her and a well deserved bronze.

Alla Sosnitskaya vaulted the exact same vaults as Mykayla. Her Cheng is very new for her and it's quite dynamic, she looks to me to get more airtime than our other Cheng vaulters. It's such a tough vault! But it was from perfect, or even great. Almost a perfectly stuck landing but she was completely out of bounds, and it had loose sloppy form throughout. The DTY was much cleaner, but with bent knees. She has had a great competition and 4th here is a triumph that she can build on. I know she has an amanar in the works and I don't doubt that she's capable, but I hope they focus just as strongly on her execution. She could be really good.

Giulia on the other hand has been struggling a bit these worlds. Most notably, she has developed a block about twisting which threw her DTY out the window and has been limiting her at just the wrong time of year. Her Rudi certainly showed deterioration, very messy in the air and really fought around, and while her FTY was so much nicer, it was just an FTY really. Alexa Moreno fought valiantly on her vaults and so too did Phan Thi Ha Thanh but both really showed how hard their vaults are, and it wasn't surprising that their difficulty, especially Alexa's, didn't place them higher. Claudia Fragapane shows much more ease in hers, but they are relatively easy. It's strange how it looks like she's doing a completely different vault to Simone's Lopez BUT she really sharpened up her form on her DTY which I am very happy with.

Matchy matchy! Source- John Cheng/USAG

All in all, a tense fight for gold and a very strong field. Vault finals seem to be getting stronger all the time, long may that trend continue! Next year we'll more than likely see an upgrade from super-vaulter Simone and maybe even another comeback from McKayla Maroney...?

Highlights

No falls!

No Produnovas!

No 'impossible' vaults like an amanar from Phan to rightly give everyone heart failure

Very strong field and difficulty

Good variety of vaults

Lowlights

Um..I suppose form loss on some vaults

Some vaults were a bit of a struggle to land

Favourite vaults

1. Simone Biles Vault 2 Lopez
2. Simone Biles Vault 1 Amanar
3. Hong un Jong Vault 1 Amanar

Leotards

Niiice effort by the US, a little too shiny for my liking but simple and striking and of course, not pink. I like the simplicity of the North Korean leotard and the matching podium looked well, again! Not a big fan of Alla's leo, Alexa's was pretty, Claudia's was nice but needed more oomph, Giulia's was pretty also and I'm undecided about Phan...I think I like it?

Bars

Well, that was an extraordinarily deep and exciting final.

First up was Aliya Mustafina in her Pikachu leotard, the strong colouring of which highlights the fact that she's not well. All things considered, I didn't think she would upgrade as expected, and she didn't. Playing it safe when you're not at the top of your game is always wise, and it was very clean and nice to watch, albeit (and I feel mean) boring. It's not a routine I would have thrilled with had it medalled, despite how clean it was. I hope she can return and show us just a little bit more on this event.

Another super-clean gorgeous routine from Daria Spiridonova which unexpectedly propelled her in front of Aliya. What was a highlight of the whole competition was how delighted the latter was about that! Daria's lines are superb but her score was still a surprise, a nice one.

Having Ashton Locklear right after those two showed just how Russian her routine is in composition. Luckily we have some Brits to shake it up a bit. Anyway, Ashton showed no signs of her inexperience and delivered another great routine, hitting her massive combination with ease. It really build the tension with 5 elements! Her sickled feet (and Mustafina's and Lisa Hill's..certainly Ashton's not the only one) put me off a bit but a very enjoyable strong routine to round off her great worlds. The scoring and placement was right too. I know she ended up 4th, but in a field like that...amazing.

Rebecca Downie has been great all year, after a very disappointing 2013 in which she struggled to hit her fantastic routine the whole year, coming to grief yet again in Antwerp's bars final. But the Euros and Commonwealth 2014 bars champion has come on quite a lot since then, and this jam-packed routine was another hit for her. I love her variety of releases. That said, this wasn't her cleanest and she seemed to have to fight through it, but no major error and that rounds off an excellent year nicely.

Having a Bhardwaj AND a Zuchold means you belong in every bars final in my opinion. The former skill has been cleaner for her and the latter threw off a subsequent pirouette forcing her to count a fall...but it's just a treat to watch this routine. Ruby is so dynamic and daring, and she finished it off so well with a stuck dismount, declaring afterwards that she was just so thrilled to make the final at all.

It's great to see Lisa Katherina Hill in this final, and she certainly had the skills for it. It wasn't the cleanest and she had to save it a bit and fight, but she got through it nicely and I really loved her Bhardwaj, very clean.

Dun dun DUN arrival of the big hitters. Defending champion Huang Huidan was up first, and really went for it. Great Jaeger, dismount, smoother on her turns than she has been, really getting the handstands and minimising deductions. Just fantastic work and a well deserved huge score as a result.

And everything to play for Yao Jinnan, up last. The most nervewracking routine of worlds so far for me, as I really really wanted her to finally get a gold. It was thrilling to see her catch everything, nail her turns and the dismount. Her pirouettes are really stunning, just so precise. The Tkachev lets the whole routine down for me, it's flat, but the rest does make up for it. A very smartly constructed routine as it's so short..but 6.9 difficulty means she's far from messing about. And THAT SCORE! Finally a win for her! I understand that gold and silver could be argued for either way, but I was much more emotionally invested in Yao Jinnan winning so I'm very happy with the podium.

Highlights

7 hit routines

Tense, down-to-the-wire scoring

Lots of variety, transition heavy routines, balanced routines, rare skills, pirouettes..

Not-so-highlights

Ruby coming off bars

One or two routines sloppier than they have been prior to now

Russian routines were identical

Favourite routines

Our podium exactly. 

Leotards

Ashton looked good in USA's patriotic flavour of the day. I really like the red GB leotard and Lisa's was nice also, if slightly low at the neck. The winner is Yao Jinnan in lovely regal purple.

Source- Reuters/China Daily

Of course, we have to have some drama. First, Yao's lack of number. This was addressed after the competition in which it was stated that it fell off right before, and that it was presented to the judges and accepted. (This is what happens if you do back spins...Claudia Fragapane has permission to do this on floor). Even if it wasn't, too bad if the judges didn't catch it. Seeing accusations such as 'cheating again' is enraging. How could they possibly benefit? Who would risk an 0.3 ND? Seriously?

And, the tears. Huang Huidan was moved after her dismount and it was touching to see. Hitting a great routine when it matters most, it's perfectly understandable to feel such relief. This got ugly after Yao Jinnan's score came in and she was still crying, miserably this time, and STILL CRYING in the press conference, right beside Yao Jinnan. I have no patience with that. To hit such a fabulous routine and lose has got to be hard, but it should not have been such a surprise...Yao consistently beats her when they both it. It is perfectly acceptable to feel upset, but she should have sucked it up, sincerely congratulated Yao who after all, has just cemented her place on the Champions wall after years of trying and working though injury to do so, and waited until she was alone to let our her frustration and disappointment. It was quite in contrast to Aliya Mustafina who looked absolutely thrilled to be beaten by teammate Daria.

Nothing wrong with emotion, but there is when it dampens things for not just your teammate, but your friend...they train together in the same group. It's just...awkward. How is Yao supposed to reflect on a job well done and her triumph at last when she has to console her friend and no doubt feel misplaced guilt? It it just...annoying and unnecessary. In discussion earlier it was rightly pointed out to me that we cannot expect these girls to have the full maturity of their age due to their lack of socialisation, they are after all in a very insular and intensive training environment. Nevertheless, I am disappointed in Huang Huidan's inability to mask her feelings in public for her friend.

Now that I've got that way, I do want to emphasise that I am DELIGHTED with today's competitions. Only one fall, nothing too dangerous, and above all, lots of tense competition and nervous waiting for scores. Just as it should be.

What were your favourite routines/vaults? Do you agree with how Biles/Hong and Huang/Yao placed? Can tomorrow live up to today's competition? The US leotard for tomorrow has been described as 'fun'- does this scare you also?

Shiny pink (bee infested) podium

Source: draw-cartoons.blogspot.com

I just can't get over how hilarious that was. Larisa's deadpan helpful pointing out of said bee is also fantastic.

Source- see watermark

Okay, on with the competition!

What a thrilling final! We have our first back-to-back all-around champion in 20 years! Simone Biles repeated her feat...although I don't think anyone expected it to be such a tense nailbiter. A lovely person sent me the link for the AA stream and I tortorously avoided the gymternet on lunch and the whole way home. Congratulations to me for willpower. I am just about finished watching, with some catching up to do on non-broadcast routines of course.

Let's have a look at our top 8.

1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Kyla Ross
4. Aliya Mustafina
5. Yao Jinnan
6. Vanessa Ferrari
7. Alla Sosnitskaya
8. Jessica Lopez

Simone Biles was truly fantastic to watch, but she has been better! That was what made the competition so interesting though, seeing Larisa Iordache challenge her so fiercely with barely a tenth between them at times, with Yao Jinnan and Aliya Mustafina close on their tales. Only Simone's vault was truly one of the best she has displayed, with a much smaller hop forward that wasn't taken into account in her score. Bars were a little bit of a struggle, but the important thing was soldiering on, and the magnificent stuck dismount really helped. Beam was quite shaky, although thankfully it lacked the massive wobble and save she had in team finals. Breaking the connection hindered her there, but with floor to go it didn't seem like that big a deal. Until Larisa Iordache upped her difficulty at the last minute...and had an out of bounds. Very nerve wracking! Simone was bouncier than usual on floor but performed with her usual flair, stayed well in bounds with her chest upright and some really quite nice leaps.

She is just thrilling. I cannot get over the ease with which she does everything, and judging by the commentary, neither could Christine. Great performance (although as mentioned, not her best) and I can't wait to see how she does in event finals. Congratulations to our back-to-back champion!

Larisa Iordache. Well. I am so so so happy for her! Not since Euros 2012 has she been this strong in a major competition I feel, and while we knew there was strong competition for silver and bronze, I had no inkling she could get that close to challenging for gold. Especially with her consistency record when it really counts, and having to carry her team the whole time must be tiring. No sign of that today! Her floor and beam were highlights as ever, especially beam seeing her land the full twist and layout so securely. Upgrading her floor at the last minute was such a thrilling twist, one of the highlights of the entire competition. She was so fresh, so ready, and the only pity is that she couldn't inch that little bit closer. But who knows, she was so much more dominant than expected...

Kyla Ross Hearty congratulations to Kyla are in order. She's been dealing with an injury, has competed quite a lot so far with AA in TF and...pulled out her usual extremely consistent AA performance to take the bronze. Both Aliya Mustafina and Yao Jinnan sadly came to grief on floor, which just proves yet again that there's a lot to be said for a plan like Kyla and her coaches have. Slow and steady wins the race. However, it is a little sad to see Kyla further downgraded and only able to figure in to medals if others mess up, rather than last year where she was beating them by simply surpassing them. If she is happy to continue elite AA after this year then of course she would remain a great asset, but I feel she is becoming a bit susceptible to injuries and her gymnastics is deteriorating. I'd like to see her in NCAA where she would be so wonderful.

Aliya Mustafina seemed a little off from the first glimpse, so so pale and sombre looking and just a bit defeated looking. I was wondering was she tired or just extra focused, since as soon as she started competing there was no sign of an issue. Excellent DTY landing with nice airtime, great bars and solid beam with stuck dismounts on both. And then she stood up her double arabian opener on floor only to sit it back down. The most shocking part of the competition for me. She rapidly deflated after that understandably, but delivered an admirable floor routine all the same. I was unsurprised to learn afterwards that Aliya reported feeling unwell on waking up in the morning and felt that she gave her all to the team competition. It is sad to see such a fantastic gymnast drained by carrying her team on her back, yet AGAIN. I was really enjoying watching her in action and the commentary mentioning her ACL injury really drove home the point that her comeback has been amazing and showcased such determination and willpower. Hopefully she can show us what she'd made of in event finals and then take a well deserved break. Another fantastic performance despite the fall considering all of the factors against her.

Yao Jinnan is a consistent heartbreaker. She'll never be the gymnast we saw in 2011 and is sadly usually carrying an injury or recovering. At the moment she has been revisited by a recurring foot/ankle one that has had her compete in pain and she is just two weeks distant from the gruelling Asian Games. Nevertheless, she gave yet another strong performance today with exquisite massive difficulty bars, decent DTY and an excellent beam, an event she can be a bit hit or miss on. Floor though. I knew it was going to be a bad idea for her to finish on floor. It has been the event that she's struggled with since tweaking her foot again, and it really showed. I knew she wouldn't get the last pass. Such a shame for this super talented gymnast who seems dogged by bad luck. Gold on bars please after that and what happened in the bars final in Antwerp. Winning the Longines prize though was wonderful, very happy for her and it was definitely earned.

I'm really pleased with 6-8th. Vanessa Ferrari is her usual self, it has been impressive to see her regain the DTY and up her difficulty on floor at this stage in her career, 8 years out from her world title. I did not expect Alla Sosnitskaya and Jessica Lopez to place so well, particularly the latter but need to see videos of them to comment further.


Highlights

The medal ceremony.

Simone Biles repeating.

Larisa Iordache FINALLY proving herself in a major AA competition in truly spectacular fashion. Who suspected that she would come that close to catching Simone?

Yao Jinnan getting the Longines prize. Well deserved and nice after a great AA ended badly, again.

Stuck dismounts on bars from Aliya Mustafina, Kyla Ross, Simone Biles and Yao Jinnan were great to watch and really built on the momentum of the competition for me

Jessica Lopez breaking into the top 8! She usually barely even qualifies to AA and has some truly lovely gymnastics.

Kyla Ross proving that consistency still beats significant difficulty advantage.

Not-so highlights

Aliya and Yao falling at the last hurdle. Heartbreakers.

Shang Chunsong having a nightmare on one of her best events

Asuka and Natsumi both coming to grief on beam. Asuka did the exact same thing in team finals and Natsumi had a complete meltdown on bars last year in the AA so all in all, quite upsetting.
  
Favourite routines

Bars: Yao Jinnan, Aliya Mustafina, Roxana Popa
Beam: Yao Jinnan, Larisa Iordache
Floor: Simone Biles, Larisa Iordache, Shang Chunsong 
Vault: Simone Biles

Fashion Corner

Seeing all the pink just before they marched out cracked me up. First, to the biggest consistent offenders:

USA

This took a while to decide on. I liked the bodice shape, chrystals...and colour contrast! It worked well on both gymnasts and the shades were nice. The white accents were quite conflicting but in the end I liked the definition they gave.

6.5/10

Source- USAG/John Cheng

Romania

Not a huge amount to say here. A bit too shiny for my liking, not a shade of pink I can tolerate. Chrystals were nice but it was boring overall. Even in the blue shade they have it in.

4/10

Aliya Mustafina

An oldie but a goodie. The black collar bit throws it off still.

6/10

Yao Jinnan

She has gorgeous leos, and this isn't one of my favourites. Still though, very unusual and striking and it really suits her. I love the sweeping black bit and it all just comes together so well.

8/10

Vanessa Ferrari

An instant 5/10 for having two sleeves and no weird holes. Suited her down to the ground but was a little um, dominatrix for my liking. Not particularly nice but nothing majorly wrong with it.

5/10

Shang Chunsong's had too much going on, Roxana Popa's had lovely colour usage, Marta Pihan-Kulezsa's was AWESOME with a solid 8.5/10, Japan's paint party leotard is AMAZING and I will never have enough of it. In fact, it wins at 9/10. Congratulations Japan!

Source- Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang

The replay is here but it won't play inside the US. If you know of channels with uploaded non-broadcasted routines, please post in the comments. I expect Piibunina will be amazing as ever.

What did you think of the competition? Favourite routine/moment? How great are matching podiums? Is it true that Nellie Kim planted the bee in Simone's bouquet as a protest against athletic gymnasts? 

A post-holiday fuelled rant entirely unrelated to worlds

I know, right? I have no business writing about non-worlds things right now. But needs must.

Carriage. What is carriage? Carriage encompasses a lot of things, and is a little hard to really pin down and squash into a precise definition. For me, carriage is holding yourself correctly. Poise. Fluidity of movement. Grace and elegance in limb and head movement. It is utter awareness of everything your body is doing. It is long lines. Excellent posture. It is toepoint, attention to things like fingers. It is not expression or ability to dance and it certainly is not artistry as a whole.

It's important. A gymnast with good carriage makes for a pleasant viewing experience. It's something you see straight away, they either have it or they don't, it tends not to be something you only pick up on over time or after watching high quality videos.

Russian gymnasts have good to excellent carriage as a whole. It's emphasised in their training from a young age and it shows instantly, coming across even in photos. Chinese gymnasts have it more often than not. Romanian gymnasts don't have it more often than not. Americans with good carriage are thin on the ground and tend not to rise to the top. Kyla Ross whilst showing gorgeous long lines and form, does not have it. She is very stiff in her upper body. I'm not picking on her because I'm not a fan of her, but because her lines tend to mask this so she makes a better example than Simone Biles who also does not have it.

Having good carriage is great. It sets a gymnast apart straight away and makes them worth watching. It's one of the things the Soviets were so excellent at and is one aspect of that training that lives on in Round Lake today.

It is not everything. It's not even everything when we think about artistry. Expression, dance ability, choreography and performance are HUGE aspects of artistry. A gymnast who holds herself like a Bolshoi ballet dancer and moves accordingly is of no interest if she flops around with pathetic arm waving or has deplorable tumbling technique. Or numerous other significant faults. Carriage does not carry these things. Give me Claudia Fragapane and her complete lack of carriage and even lines thanks to her height rather than a dull, arm flailing spectacle complete with breathing like a bull in the corners and shoddy tumbling any day.

Here's what I mean.

Good carriage and lines. But she may as well be sleeping for the amount of performance quality and expression on display here and her dance is extremely lacklustre as a result. I have zero interest in watching this again. There are better examples and I'm sure I could find one with more time.

See how she glides, exudes bundles of Soviet goodness and elegance with every movement AND expresses. And dances. She would still be great without the carriage. It lifts her, but she has a lot of other positives going on.

General lack of carriage and lines going on here. And yet, it's wonderful. It's artistic. She is so into her dance and performs it so well. The music goes with her, it's not a totally unrelated background noise. This is WHY the overemphasis on carriage at the expense of other vital artistic components is so irritating.

Who cares so much about carriage? Some factions on the gymternet hold it in high esteem. Well and good. It is a great plus to someone's gymnastics. It is when its importance is inflated and gymnasts who don't possess it are completely denigrated when it becomes a problem for me. Look back to the glory days of gymnastics all you want. I love doing that. Prefer one style of gymnastics over the other all you want. But running other great gymnasts down and in a constant fashion, however impressive, however otherwise artistic because they don't hold themselves in a certain way sucks. I don't respect other opinions when they don't offer the same courtesy.

In other news, I flew back last night and highly resented getting up at 6AM this morning for work. I'm sure that came across here nicely.

Have you noticed this attitude too? The athletic gymnastic slandering and utter forgiveness of bad routines once the particular gymnast is elegant? When am I going to get a chance to watch the prelims streams back?