Why I miss Milo

First off, I almost shed a tear because when Googling Lavinia Milosovici, half of what you come up with relates to the Japanese video incident. This was Milo, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time. How sad that she resorted to that.

I miss that year after year, you knew she'd be at the Worlds, you knew she was one of the 5 or so to watch and expect great things from. Now Romania barely has a team, minus Porgras, if you even consider her worthy of attention (I don't). Milo was in every Worlds from 1991 - 1996. Wow, it's amazing she wasn't out with injury ever. I mean, who does that now?! (Obvious, there's the age rule change, but that aside). You knew that Milo would be there, and she was a force to be reckoned with. She was the backbone of the team. No she wasn't the neatest, cleanest gymnast, but she wasn't Amanar either. She rarely made mistakes. She was someone to count on.

Gosh. Nowadays, it seems like we already know who the winner will be. At least, that was certainly the case in Beijing and in London. It was one of two Americans. No one in any of the other countries can compare. How fun is that? Nothing at all against Bridget Sloan, but is she really good enough to be world champion? I know that in the year after the Olympics, we are essentially starting from scratch since so many retire, and that it is by no means the best time to watch out for stellar gymnastics, but....really? And I absolutely love Bross, but even with a fall, getting silver? On the one hand, that shows you how good she is (and really, better than Sloan), but on the other, can we please do away with gymnasts who have falls winning medals?

If we compare, at least in 1997 we still had some great talent. Khorkina seemed to peak at this time. Amanar's tumbling was amazing. Produonova came onto the scene. Bi Wenjing unveiled the Ono spin. Meng Fei was equally amazing on bars. I'll keep my mouth shut re: Gogean.

It seems like since after the 2004 Olympics, the level of gymnastics around the rest of the world fell, while it got much better in America. And yea it's nice to win, but competitions don't feel like competitions anymore.

To me, the 1995 Sabae Worlds was one of the best competitions in a long time. Amanar was on the rise, Gogean and Milo were steady. Kochetkova was coming off of a terrific 1994, Khorkina was a true contender, Miller was continuing to prove herself, Moceanu was off to an exciting start, Podkopayeva beat the whole world, Mo Huilan showed us perfection....

What do we have now? The showdown of two Americans at the last worlds...Ke Hexin, who competes brilliantly on just one event, Yang Yilin who looked tired and a fraction of the gymnast she was a year ago, an Australian and a Brit who are decent... it's just sad, on my humble opinion.