Arbitrary

The more I've been watching gymnastics lately, the more I'm kind of getting miffed that things (i.e. rules) are not more standardized. I mean, gymnasts basically give up their entire youth to dedicate it to their sport. And it seems like, depending on what era it has been throughout history, results could have been drastically different than they are.

Let's take the '89-'92 Quad. Well, you didn't have to nail two vaults in the all-around because you got to drop your lowest score. Good thing, since gymnasts like Onodi fell on one of them in the '92 Olympic AA (I know she wasn't going to win an AA medal, but still...). And, by the same token, good thing in the '06-08 Quad, Nastia didn't need two different vaults like gymnasts did in the '97-'00 Quad, or she might have been screwed.

And in the '89-'92 Quad, even if your difficulty hypothetically went over a 10.0, if you made a big enough mistake, it didn't matter. Risk did not necessarily = reward. Look at Kim Gwang Suk's uneven bar routine in event finals. (Why this didn't at least get a bronze, btw, is beyond me). (The fact that she was prob. underage aside).

And, I mean, technically, it's always been the rule that pirouettes on uneven bars should end in handstand. But this was never enforced until '06. Well, gee, that sure did come in handy for the 5 previous years for the Romanians. In fact, form in general was conveniently ignored for a good while, at least as compared to the degree to which it's considered important now.

And what about ties? In '92 they were allowed, and there were several. If memory serves me, wasn't there a 3-way tie for bronze on FX. WTF? Now, we go to obscure tie-breaking means, as in Beijing with Nastia & He Kexin. But had that been 16 years earlier, a tie would have been no big deal! And why is it that when there's a tie for say, second place (back in the day when ties were allowed), there's no bronze medal given? There's still technically someone whose score was third-best and it's not her fault that the 2 of the 3 people above her tied. Someone is getting screwed out of receiving a medal. And remember the days when falling meant losing the chance of winning a medal? Well, no more since Shanshan won a medal at the '07 Worlds and Cheng Fei won bronze on vault in Beijing. But, if the rules had allowed such things in the past, then who knows, Mo Huilan may have won a medal in the AA in Sabae at the '95 Worlds! Even minuscule obscure rules like I think in '95 at National level competition, gymnasts got .1 bonus for doing 2 different vaults. And what about the Phelps vault, the thing I abhor more than any other skill... no one really enforced the layout position (deducting for pike), nor did anyone pay attention to the twisting direction! IG had a good write up on this in '97 or '98, in which they concluded that, depending on the direction in which the gymnast twists, it could be considered two different vaults, and that technically, Amanar was the only one performing it correctly! Did no one care about rules?!

Arg, it's just frustrating how arbitrary some things can be.

Random thoughts on New Year's Eve

1. I miss John Tesh
2. I really disliked the Phelps vault -- why did they not amend the rules any, when every gymnast had a different way of doing it, none of which were correct?
3. Roza Galieva is queen of the gymnasts with sassy walks & neat salutes
4. I wonder how Atler would have fared playing the "Sacramone role" (i.e. no bars)
5. Jamie Dantzscher really had one of the nicest triple fulls and double fronts I've ever seen.
6. The 2000 Olympics really were disappointing...so much exciting talent and yet the Romanians racked up the medals.
7. I really would have given Cheng Fei the bronze over Patricia Moreno at the 2004 Olympics on FX EF.
8. I'd be really curious to interview Elise Ray, Kriten Maloney & Jamie Dantzscher about their experience in Sydney -- I don't think it was good for anyone.
9. How did Emilie LePennec win the UB title in Athens? I mean, she had a Def, but seriously? What else?
10. Can't wait to see more from everyone this year, but most especially Bross, Hong & Shapiro!

Happy New Year!

Top Gymnastic Pet Peeves

(in no particular order)
The Memmel Wrist

She doesn't move her arms at all, she just moves at the wrist. Three times. Ick. It's not graceful at all. I'm thinking it's not technically correct. It's not just when she "salutes" but also during choreography. It seems like a bad example of Americans trying to be graceful. Russia nor China would approve.

The Gogean Recycling Program
Honestly, it seems like in just about every beam or floor routine Gina Gogean did, she recycle these arm movements in her choreography. And yes, that is Romania for you, but it seemed to happen more with Gogean than with any other gymnast.
Here @ :56

Here @ :48

Here @ 1:24

...you get the picture

The Khorkina Fudged Landing
It seems as though time and time again, judges conveniently overlooked Khorkina's mis-steps, including her landings on floor. Now, I love Khorkina, but I do think she was often times given the benefit of the doubt.

After the first tumbling pass. I don't like this for two reasons. It's deliberately designed so as to be difficult to judge, because how do we really know how well she "sticks" it? Sorry, but that gets a thumb down from me.

The Sacramaloney Faux Salute
Alicia and Kristen are both guilty. I REALLY don't like this. Rather than definitively landing a vault/dismount, they take a little hop, then turn to salute without finishing the landing first. ARG DO NOT do this. Thisis just annoying. Take your time. Don't be so hyper to finish. Be definitive in your landing. so you didn't stick it. Who cares? FINISH the move. Ewww ew ew this is just annoying beyond belief.
A-Sac:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYxnSZdniw
Or Maloney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVn5CI0lx3o (ew ew EW!)


Bogi does NOT approve

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.

Am I the only one who wasn't overly impressed w/ Porgras?

I mean, who has done a double back tucked on FX since 1993? Yea, she still gets in her difficulty, and she's a nice dancer but... is she great or are we just starved for talent anymore? (outside the U.S.... from the traditional powerhouses of Romania and Russia).



Is it really just me? I just know that after the worlds, she was quite the buzz topic. But I'm not sure I understand why. Yea, nice lines. Yea, she's skinny (and as my friend says, the current code is the Nastia/if-you're-skinny-you'll-do-well code).

It's a sad state we're in now

I miss Lavinia Milosovici. That is all.