The other sport I watch

While I am only obsessive about gymnastics, I do watch one other sport and have gone to quite a few matches. It is called hurling and it is the fastest field sport in the world- worth checking out on youtube. The two main sports in Ireland are Gaelic football and hurling. Both are under the auspices of the GAA, Gaelic Athletics Association. Gaelic football is a bit like an adaptation of soccer- except that the ball can be picked up and kicked, and that it's not all about goals- points can be scored by kicking the ball between the uprights. Hurling uses the same set-up, it might look like some sort of hockey game or lacrosse but it is really neither. What really makes them special is that they are both amateur- no player or coach is paid, and the only real income the GAA get is from ticket sales and merchandise. Players therefore cannot be bought or sold- they play for their county and that is it. (There are 26 counties in the republic of Ireland, and 6 in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. All 32 have GAA teams) It means that there is a lot of local passion for both sports- and it also translates to friendly rivalry. GAA has no hooliganism or violence. No stadium is divided up into home or away fans or anything like that. Nor is the main stadium, Croke Park. It's perfectly possible to sit beside a bunch of rival fans and have a laugh with them. That is really the beauty of the sport. They are also very important on a local level- every single town and village no matter how rural- has its own GAA club. Most are kept going by local fundraising, though lots of licenses for a bar which helps with funds. Matches are always really exciting too because of the amount of scores. Hurling always has more. It wouldn't be uncommon for a hurling match to have a final score of 6-13 to 3-21 or something like that. The atmosphere is always unbelievable.
Hurling explained more

Of course, the biggest counties and Dublin which is where the capital city is of course- have a population and therefore talent advantage. Galway, Mayo, Cork and Tipperary as well as Dublin are all extremely successful. But, lots of much smaller counties have been able to take the all-Ireland title too. Anyway, here's a video of what hurling is like. Interestingly the stadium shown here seats 83,500 people. It's something like the third biggest stadium in Europe- quite a feat for one which only showcases amateur sport- and when it's not even a 'full' stadium as one end remains as a terraced end, not allowed to be built up because it would block out natural light for hundreds of houses.

(Match starts at 2:41)
Anyway, bit of a sports lesson maybe as although there are LOADS of GAA clubs in the UK, America and Australia in particular they are pretty much dominated by emigrants from Ireland and have not made the transfer over to the rest of those populations. 

Bits and pieces

Jennifer Pinches and Daiane Dos Santos have retired. Daiane, who is 29, had been expected to retire after London. She was hoping to make it to the Brazilian nationals (at which junior star Rebeca Andrade had tonnes of success) but was injured and decided to call it a day. Jenni's retirement, announced this morning on twitter, is more surprising. She is volunteering in Ecuador and has ruled out competitive gymnastics in her future but it seems to be more related to GB. She could well follow Danusia and go down the NCAA route, but looks like she's having a gap year first.

Still waiting for an update on what McKayla Maroney's injury is. ACL, hyperextended knee and broken leg are all rumours flying around. She has headed home from hospital on crutches though, after about 24 hours there. I almost find it funny when I hear 'a long wait in ER' as when I was in ER on holidays in America, the wait was around 3 hours and people were fuming and storming out in protest. In Ireland, the wait would be 18-36 hours and then you'd get a chair or a trolley in a corridor. Anyway, let's hope it's not something that will take her out for ages, but it does look fairly serious. Some people are saying it could be a blessing in disguise as a long rest will force ALL of her injuries to heal and she has had a rough 6 months of it- broken toe, fractured fibula, fractured nose, concussion and now this.
UPDATE: Diagnosis is a fractured tibia. This is on top of the stress fracture in her fibula, for which she was trying to compensate on her landing. It's absolutely not a disaster because it's not a knee or ligament injury which really would have impacted her and her recovery. It can vary in severity though. USAG statement blabs on about assessing about her possible return to the tour at a later date- I'm sure people who have bought tickets care but I really just want her to recover safely and be eager to get back to real training, not the tour.
UPDATE: McKayla has posted that she had surgery and that it was a success. Having surgery implies it was quite a serious fracture. She will be out for a few months anyway. 

Larisa Iordache's MRI has revealed no lesions, which is great news. However it appears that she has one leg slightly longer than the other, which was probably either the cause of the problem or a big contributor. She is having special sillicon desposits to equalise the pressure on her feet. Hopefully it's a total success and she can return to her peak form.

There is a lot of fuss over recent photos that have emerged of Ana Porgras. Certainly she looks tacky at best, but it's not for anyone else to dictate her life. Ana announced her retirement earlier this year, which was a huge shock as she was fully expected to be on the London team and had enjoyed success at world championships with her unbelievably graceful and beautiful beam and bars work. She had been dealing with a string of injuries and did not adjust well to the return of Octavian Bellu and Mariana Bitang. Ana has expressed outrage in interviews that people will not leave her alone on the issue and respect her wishes and accept that she absolutely does not regret her decision. Maybe she will return to gymnastics eventually- she is still only 18- but in the meantime, people should back off and let her do her own thing without making awful comments.

It's a little hard to believe that this was her not that long ago:

But if Ana is happy then so be it! She is definitely faring better than another former Romanian gymnast- Florica Leonida, who is allegedly working as a prostitute in Germany.

If you haven't already, read this. A translated interview with He Kexin that is a joy to read. It's rare that perfectly translated interviews of Chinese gymnasts are available, especially compared to Russian and Romanian gymnasts, but this is a gem.

Part 1: http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/?p=7199
Part 2: http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/?p=7210 

Bruno Grandi has had a general letter published addressing judging controversy etc. It's not that long a letter but he manages to say nothing and convey nothing of any merit in it, quite a feat. He does sound pissed at one point that the president of the IOC was there to witness the Kohei Uchimura score disaster, boo hoo. Oh and he implies that he wasn't happy that there was an inquiry into Aly's beam score. Excuse me? People should have to accept judges execution score but not if they screw up the difficulty score? How DARE anyone question the judges? He never really gets into the issue, or any other, he skirts around outright condemnation of anything- tie-breaking, inquiries and the judges. FIG needs to oust him and Nellie Kim yet they seem to be as entrenched as the Karolyi's are in USAG.

There have been some changes to the actual code of points, which I am trying to wade through. In the draft code, the D+A (acro)- which meant all of the leaps out of passes on floor- was replaced with D+B (acro). Since that would mean having to do a much harder jump like a sheep jump or Yang Bo, everyone rejoiced at how that would reduce the numer of leaps out of passes. The Olympics saw a TON of this connection. So what do the FIG do? They put it back to D+A! Enjoy more Lauren Mitchell-esque floor routines. In other news, Katelyn Ohashi's beam start value is 7.2 in the new code. If she rearranges her sheep jump in its combination, it could be 7.3. If she gets back her old full-in dismount, it would be 7.5. WOW. Beam will see lots of rising start values, but Katelyn seems ahead of the pack with that. The combination acro line on floor won't be as valuable as it was in the draft..damn.

Gabby is only doing half the tour, then going back to Chow's. Very interesting- she does have two book deals so maybe isn't as pushed at pursuing the media spotlight for money, but most speculated that since she has achieved the ultimate she would not have much motivation to continue training at the highest level and live that far apart from her family. I know that she is a very talented gymnast- there's no disputing that (it is her attitude in some of the statements she makes that puts me off her) so I would like to see a much better floor routine from her. In the last several quads, AA champions become the champion AFTER success at worlds and other big competitions. For a reigning Olympic champion to go to on worlds after Olympics is pretty rare. I really want to see Larisa Iordache and some new seniors shine, but we'll see what happens anyway. I am going to go to worlds, as it is only about a 2 hour flight away. I'm excited already..

Most of the Russian squads are training in Mallorca, just conditioning. Mustafina looks fierce and ready to go. She plans to compete at the Voronin Cup in December. It will be great to see if her beam routine is more like her old 2010 self, what a shame her injury impacted on her readiness on that event.

Comic interlude!

After absorbing miserable news and updates of injuries today, comedy was in order. These shorts are absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure exactly how well they travel outside of Ireland (humour and phrases aside- the accents are fairly incomprehensible to an outsider), but give them a go because they are classic.

The main accent is that of a southern county in Ireland called Cork. I have a lot of relations from there and it's accurate..so is the 'it's awful sad' one!

The Fierce Three

It brings it home how insane it is that McKayla and Aly have been injured on day TWO of the 40 stop tour (McKayla was not down to do all stops though) when you hear that the introduction of Kyla, Jordyn and Gabby at the end of the Ontario tour stop was..'The Fierce Three'. Both were injured on bars, McKayla on a flyaway dismount and Aly on a fall from a shaposhnikova transition. It emerged after London that Mckayla had been dealing with a fractured fibula, and has been seen in rehearsals with tape on her leg as well as her feet. This would mean it made sense for her to do bars which would not have put pressure on her injuries- despite the fact that bars is her weakest event. A flyaway dismount when others were doing double layouts was a smart choice, but unfortunately she landed awkwardly trying to avoid bearing weight on the injured leg, and fell. She was carried off by medics. Aly, surprisingly, fell on a shaposhnikova transition. Another whose bar work is deplored, yet she is extremely consistent on it. Unfortunately, safety and padding seems to have been lacking, and Aly's legs smacked against concrete. She did get up but ended up walking away off the floor. No further news yet on how injured both of them are. It would appear that McKayla's injury is more serious, as she was carried whereas Aly was able to walk away. How sickening for both.

Who is to blame? Whoever decided to skimp on the mats and padding would be a major one. Aly fell on a totally straight transition between the bars, so should have had amply sufficient matting to cushion her. Because the arena was not on a podium, impact is greater on the gymnasts. This is why it is surprising to hear that Aly is doing double arabians, Chellsie double layouts on floor, lots of double layouts from bars and that the boys are doing Kovacs etc. Tours usually scream of watered down gymnastics. It's hard to get excited about backhandsprings and layouts, but this is a wake-up call. Even though neither were hurt doing especially hard dismounts or skills, it's not safe for gymnasts to pull out all the stops when they have been taking a break from training, are exhausted from media appearances, performing in a dark arena and without enough cushioning for landings. McKayla DID play it safe by not doing a proper dismount, yet they could have played it safer by getting her to step down from the lower bar instead seeing as she was injured already. Aly might not have had it in her head that she could possibly miss a skill she hadn't missed before (at least in competition), yet as a whole it would have been nice if transitions were limited to hecht varieties or standing on the lower bar and jumping to high and if releases were scrapped altogether. This isn't a meet or their own gym, and conditions are clearly different. It's sad that the producers felt that watered down gymnastics was not enough. Hopefully Aly and McKayla recover soon and that it sounds worse than it is.

Update: USAG statement released. Aly bruised her knees, she will be following treatment but it sounds like she's good to go and will carry on with the tour. McKayla spent the night in hospital and is undergoing testing today. No diagnosis yet but the photo of her leg in a brace up to her left hip doesn't bode well.

I hate people. The first comment under the statement is somebody saying that they were at the tour last night and that they were 'bummed because we were hoping they would be at the meet and greet at least but they weren't'. WAY more important than assessing and treating potentially serious injuries! Knob.

Late starters

Most elite gymnasts will be in fairly serious training by the age of 8 or 9 and usually start at the age of 6 or even before. This Olympics saw most of the Fierce Five stating that they started in Mommy and Me classes at the age of 2. Some gymnasts start years after the normal age and still manage to be wonderful on the elite stage, progressing far faster. Here are two of my favourites.

Ludivine Furnon

Ludivine was the springy sensation who snatched a bronze at the 1995 World Championships on floor (the same Worlds that Lilia Podkopayeva dominated). A very strong tumbler who performed the very rare double layout punchfront later in her career and a really expressive tumbler- Ludivine only started gymnastics at the age of 11 and had been training for less than 3 years when she became an elite and performed at the 1995 worlds. She was able to stay on top of her game for several years, performing strongly at the 1999 worlds in particular, and taking gold at the 2000 European Championships. At Euros she beat an incredibly strong field- probably one of the strongest floor line-ups ever- Produnova, Karpenko, Amanar, Raducan and Zamolodchikova! Unfortunately an injury took her out of serious contention for Sydney, where she only did bars. Her beam, while not sensational, was fairly strong and she showed her confidence and expressiveness on that apparatus too. She competed at smaller meets after she recovered, and has worked for Cirque Du Soleil in Vegas. Her worlds medal was France' first ever. It's just amazing to see someone get to that level so quickly, especially as France is not one of the top 4 countries.

Daiane Dos Santos

Daiane has had an incredibly long career, but just like Furnon, she started gymnastics at the age of 11. Unlike her though, it took Daiane much longer to reach the higher echelons of the sport, though she too comes from a country not renowned for huge depth. Daiane burst onto the world stage in 2003, with an emotional gold winning floor routine at Anaheim worlds. Unfortunately, though she won many minor titles, she made costly mistakes at major competitions and in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic floor finals and the 2012 Olympic prelims. Her 2003 worlds gold was a first for her country. Daiane stands as one of the greatest floor workers, and certainly the greatest tumbler. Though she is most known for her two tumbles named after her- the arabian double pike and the arabian double layout- the second of which has never been attempted by anyone else- she showed an astonishing variety in her tumbling, much more than any other gymnast. In her career she displayed more than 20 different tumbling passes and at the age of 29 was competing a full twisting double layout, double layout and arabian double tuck! Her music was always a crowd favourite during her peak period of 2003-2008 and her astonishing tumbles and sense of rthymn drew them in. Sadly her incredible height was often her downfall to major titles as it meant that landings were very hard to control, often stepping out of bounds. Daiane was fairly average on other events, but did manage to compete a front layout onto beam! The only video sees her falling on it after landing, but she did manage it with more success on other occassions. Despite her familiarity with missing out on titles, Daiane's legacy is one of oustanding talent and difficulty. Hopefully Rebeca Andrade, the young Brazilian junior who also gets incredible height on her tumbling can follow in her footsteps.

 

The sickled feet debate

Arghhh. This sickens me. Although I am well aware that Rebecca has little choice but to do this, I still hate it. It really ruins her routines for me, great as they are otherwise. It's very possible to despise how this ruins a bodyline and hope that gymnasts who ARE capable of straight legs and feet can get out of the habit without being some sort of monster who hates Rebecca for her knock knees, but the internet thinks otherwise!

The fabulous Fabrichnova

Fabrichnova is my favourite Russian from the 1990's. I have absolutely no time for Khorkina, and found Kotchetkova to be clean with great skills but fairly dull to watch for some reason. Laregly overshadowed by both, Oksana is best known for introducing the double double bars dismount, named after her. It is one of the two hardest bars dismounts and still carries a high tariff and was performed by both Viktoria Komova and Beth Tweddle in London. She was also a great floor worker with an odd style and hard tumbles, and a fabulous beam worker. Vault was not her strongest point and she generally had issues with sticking landings, but she always had amazing form in the air. Unfortunately, she peaked in 1993 and struggled with injury and growth spurts thereafter. She did win several medals for bars and beam throughout her career, but her highest accolade is probably finishing 5th in the AA in 1993 worlds, the highest place for a Russian. Although she was in contention for the 1996 Russian team, she was not in a fit state to compete at that point. She travelled with a circus for years before turning to coaching at her old club in Moscow, Dinamo. Oksana wins bonus points for always wearing some of the worst 90's leotards seen in that decade..and it was a very fugly time for leotards. Nostalgic love for the 1993 one though.

Here she is on bars.

Great form, and the dismount is of course spectacular.

BHS-LOSO-LOSO-LOSO is the famous acro line done by Dawes and Miller but Fabrichnova's is far superior to me. Great move onto her back too, called the cradle. Total and utter confidence in her mount, tough acro line, perfect form and a very hard dismount!

Love her quirky style here, her Soviet balletic training showing through nicely. Great extension and form, again. That double tuck is pretty cowboyed, but love the rest.

Never had a great landing on either of her vaults, but they are both very tidy in the air.

So many under-rated gymnasts!