We all know the these Spring Creek Academy grads are anything but intelligent. Their way of associating one thing to another is a thing of miracle. I’m convinced that the only reason Nastia dated Evan Lysacek was because Lysacek going to the Olympics reminds her of her going to Olympics. “Brings back memories!” says Nastia all the time on Twitter and on Television. If I see a cheeseburger and it reminds of my first job working at McDonald’s and I tweet about it I would have practically no time to sleep. Somehow UCLA gearing toward NCAA’s led her to announce that she just designed the leotard for her summer camp. Somehow she has to announce to the world that she indeed appeared for a minute in a cheesy gymnastics movie ten years ago. Somehow Pac Rim has something to do with her too. “Brings back so many memories!”
But most importantly, what kind of person has her own freaking name written on her shoes? For a 20 years old, the girl has a mentality of about 14. Every once a while I find my NL hate uncontrollable and needs to be let out.
In real gymnastics news, the Russians are looking dominating at Euros, while USA/CHN are going to compete against each other as teams for the first time in a long while. Little Zeng Siqi was reported to be a wonderful beam worker, and Zhou Qiaohong grew bigger into a frightening monster of sorts. I am not a fan of Zhou. Somehow Jordyn Wieber is doing a jam on the low bar and Sloan might or might not have changed music. The Americans were reported to say thank you to Marta and the coaches after training the Eastern bloc totalitarianism way. Fascinating. Ksenia Afanaseyva has grown bored of the sport, not that she ever looked that interested to begin with. A semi-retirement can be expected this year.
My euro’s prediction for junior: team 1.rus 2 ita 3 rom aa 1. komova 2. grishina 3. bulimar
for senior: team 1. rus 2. rom 3. fra. Amelia Racea will win beam. Ariella Kaislin for vault. Beth Tweddle for bars. Anna Myzdrikova for floor. Youna Dufournet will be the AA top scorer, but there will be no AA competition.
I didn’t use to see the appeal of this little Russian, that’s because I never saw her old routine. Oh my! The youthful, innocent joy in these classic Soviet routines. Yulia Belokobyskaya and Anastasia Grishina are two gymnasts pulled straight out of a 1976 junior Soviet team or replicas of a young Soviet wannabe Nadia Comaneci in the piano music era. But what a treat anyways!
Everyone thought Beth Tweddle or Anna Myzdrikova had the hardest floor routine in 2009. In fact at one point, Kristina Goryunova also had a floor routine with a whooping 6.1 D score. The Goryunova sisters are able to throw big tumbling skills individually, but suffer from stamina issue. But nonetheless, this routine is no less artistic than Myzdrikova, and despite the form issues, is a convincing attempt in the difficulty department.
It was unfortunate what happened to Kristina in a seemingly innocent drug misuse case, although we have no idea what really happened. I have a very soft spot in my heart for Kristina. The girl is not the most talented, but she is never afraid of attempting skills outside of her capacity (thus the numerous scary dtys). This routine consists of two .2 CV passes, both indirect E connections. The only person who will ever attempt such an exhausting thing would be her sister.
The Goryunovas have been through a lot this year, losing their coach to cancer, Kristina being banned for four years ending her career prematurely, then Eleonora suffering from injury and not making Euros team. Despite her form and endurance issues similar to her sister’s, Eleonora is a talented one-of-a-kind junior gymnast, the kind Shantessa Pama, Daria Elizarova and He Yinghui once were.
Aunt Joyce had posted an interview with Kathy Johnson that is absolutely phenomenal and a must read. In summary: Bela Karolyi is a bigger asshole than he appears on TV; NBC is stupid and evil.
This brings me to again reflect the history of how USAG has been getting their way with Bela-bullying tactics. I must point out that at 2003 Worlds in Anaheim, the Chinese team was penalized for warming up on podium, while Hollie Vise was allowed to pin a number on her back a minute before she goes up without receiving a neutral deduction. I believe technically, if a gymnast doesn’t go up 30 seconds after the green light she should receive a zero. One must also take into account that Anaheim Worlds podium was the worst, the most cramped in all Worlds history. The roaring audience was sitting a few feet behind the judges and there was no resting areas down the podium with chairs for gymnasts to tape up and warm up at the last minute, which was why the Chinese were warming up on podium at the first place.
Paris World Cup is on the way. My girl withdrew for reasons unknown. He Kexin would only be competing bars. Wu Liufang would be competing three events except for vault, and Jiang Tong would be competing three events but bars. For those who don’t know who Jiang Tong is, I don’t either. The girl is Coach Liu’s hometown girl and was kept on the national team to motivate He Kexin after her old training mates Xiao Sha and Li Shanshan retired. She is also a vault specialist who can only do a Y1.5. Other big name WAG gymnasts include Aliya Mustafina, Beth Tweddle and Youna Dufournet, half of the Worlds bars EF here already. I predict a HKX-Beth-Youna bars placement if Youna throws and catches her Def.
Sui Lu’s new beam routine is jam packed with skills and combos. She and Deng Linlin are doing record level difficult routines at Wild Rose Invitational that maximizes at around 6.8. Ideally one should not look this good at this time in the year. Remember what happened to Jiang Yuyuan last year (together with the two Ksenias, Mattie Larson, among some others)? But if Sui and Deng’s consistency and shape withholds, the two will make Worlds and Asian Games team no problem.
By the way, you wonder why China sent an A team to an invitational in the middle of Canada? Here is your answer: Famous MAG chief coach Huang Yubing’s (aka the coach always getting lifted over in MAG team finals) wife lives in Alberta, or somewhere near in Canada, and he’s using this meet as a business getaway to visit his family. Also shocking news: the guy hasn’t seen his wife or his 23 year old son for six years. What kind of Communism is this?
Congratulation to UCLA. Anna Li is my half Shanghainese princess. She would have been a brilliant gymnast if trained under the Chinese program. But then she wouldn’t have been as happy as she was tonight. Anna’s parents were in the stands and cheering hard, looking like children. Certain things you can only have in America.
Stanford should have been second if they didn’t falter a little bit on beam early on. Their floor choreography were actually with great taste if they didn’t just copy and paste music from every popular elite routines from the past five years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Exodus reappears on that team. Stanford girls look nice, happy and naive, and Carly Janiga was quite a joy to watch. She looked a good three years younger than Susan Jackson on the AA podium.
Utah…oh my. This team made that one girl (Robarts?) who used Shawn Johnson’s floor music sound like genius. How trashy can floor music get? Utah has astounded me. Some of their girls also had such messy hair that looked like they just had sex with each other. This team deserved to be last even without counting falls.
I contest that every team needs a Wogette, just as mascots. UCLA has Allison Taylor who could score 9.1 with a routine deserving no more than a 7.8. Oklahoma has Hollie Vise, who wobbled at a stupid full turn on beam, dismounted with a gainer full and still scored 9.9. I understand Hollie being a nostalgic favorite, but the girl is consistently overscored to a degree only a true Wogette can full-heartedly embrace with smile. Hollie’s bars and beam routines have no difficulty in them, and how does she get a 10 SV on bars with a double tuck dismount not connected to anything? (or is a reverse grip giant worth the same as a giant full in NCAA?) Oklahoma is quite a hideous team on vault and Natasha Kelley is the only person with a little bit of spark. They also had a girl attempting a sheep jump with feet on her knee. One thing though, their beam anchor, Megan Ferguson looks like a smaller version of Hollie Vise and is probably the prettiest girl in NCAA right now.
Nobody ever really had anything to say about Alabama, like nobody ever had anything to say about Kassi Price and Geralen Stack-Eaton when they were elites.
Finally Florida. This team peaked too early. They were not sticking vaults and lost a few tenths due to a complete Marissa King meltdown. Truth to be told Florida used the most gymnasts in their lineup, with basically all their scholarship gymnasts plus a few others going up (except for Randy Stageburg). Florida was probably hurt by home court advantage as they looked like they spent too much time handling press or attending late night parties or something. (Or going to a butterfly museum..)
I only watched the first session yesterday, and Sharaya Musser was the absolute star. When she went up after the Utah gymnasts she looked like their anchor. She should have scored a tenth higher than Annie Diluzio on floor and whoever they had anchoring on vault. Nebraska was also very impressive. Their girls have the best lines. They would have made it to Super Six if they didn’t start on beam.
I’m very sad that NCAA is again over. I love the over the top chessiness of this sport and will always giggle when Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs turns her head the other way on floor. The UCLA floor routines are something of a treasure mine, even if they all look the same. I will also miss my Anna Li and the feisty Brandi Personett, among others.
Anna Pavlova is not the first one who used Exodus as floor music, and not the last.
Nicole Pechanec, a Stanford gymnast who used to compete for Czech Republic used the music first, in 2007. The dance was fluid and decent, but lacks depth compared to Pavlova.
Anna’s routine is widely loved for a lot of reasons. The choreography is exquisite and subtle. The music cut has an emotional climax built in, and the most important part, Anna’s variety of skills that was in every way an antithesis of the 2008 code — the very pretty front layout full to front stepout, a 1996 pass; the full twisting Shushunova, a 90s Khorkina signature skill now rated a B; the unique back attitude turn with leg held up. Everything considered, this routine is a gold medal winning 1996 floor routine. Anna made this piece of music more than itself, more grandiose, more distilled with real feelings, and ultimately the masterpiece of 2008 Olympics. Even if Nicole used the music first in the international scene, Anna owned the music.
Jiang Tong’s floor routine made everyone upset, including me, and it is sort of ironic because Jiang probably had this routine before Anna. The two bloggers live covering the Bercy World Cup(the all around and the gymnastics examinor) both failed to point out that Jiang’s floor music was identical as Pavlova’s masterpiece (it’s funny how fast people forget about things).
I shall say that Jiang Tong is the least flexible gymnast China has ever produced, possibly the only one who can’t do a switch ring on beam in the entire Chinese senior and junior team. Coach Liu has had anomaly like Bai Chunyue and Wang Tiantian before, but this girl is a new territory — the American gymnast type, somewhat powerful but zero flexibility. The Chinese program relies solely on flexibility to build up D scores, and it will be interesting to see where Jiang Tong is going to end up being. Needless to say, this music really, really has to go.
But here is the point I want to make in this post: why are music choice so homogeneous in current WAG floor exercises? Let’s count, how many gymnasts are using different cuts of the ratatouille music? Even though Anna’s piece is stunning, the music itself is not unique, hence the different versions of it to begin with. Much like figure skating, floor music is not progressing with the music industry whatsoever. Popular Movie OST, classic music, ethnic ballads (abused by the Romanian team) are the only three major choices. I look forward to seeing a floor routine to an edgy Tortoise song or a break dance piece.
Nevertheless, here I present the three routines with groundbreaking modern music, all from European gymnasts:
Alright. I’m with Rhonda Fahn. Hearing Georgia not making NCAAs gives me a nasty grimace. The Team of God has been bullying their way under heaven’s guidance all season, overscoring themselves and getting pissed while not getting the special treatment. Looking ahead, even a god heavenly CGAer like Cassie Whitcomb ditched her friendship with Shayla and jumped ship to UCLA. It will take a lot more convincing, after this season, to lure either Bridget Sloan or Kayla Williams, especially when they see the entitled WOGA duo getting the same treatment. UGA has, in a way, made Shayla Worley a saint with actual work ethics compared to the rest of the team.
UCLA and Florida are the only two teams in NCAA with actual style. UCLA has added a lot more difficulty into their beam routines and is not backing down after their previous meltdowns. That kind of commitment to quality is what will win them the championship. NCAA will likely go UCLA-Florida-Oklahoma, with all SEC teams sinking ships. My evil inner self has always compared SEC gymnastics to trashy southern culture and deems them to have no place in a sport of aesthetic value.
Paris World Cup went as I predicted. On bars Youna threw the def and went behind Tweddle, who trailed behind He Kexin. There are only two female gymnasts out there who you can count on to be more or less consistent: Beth Tweddle on floor and He Kexin on bars. They are the only two people who know for a fact that if they hit, they will win on their respective event. Racking up unreal difficulty has only one advantage. Domination is the ultimate source of confidence. Same can not be said about Wu Liufang on bars and Huang Qiushuang on all events.
In 2006 Beth won over Li Ya multiple times when both hit clean routines with Li Ya leading six tenths or so in A score. China is focusing exclusively on pirouetting angles and it showed. HKX’s pirouettes are not as fluid as Yang Yilin, but they are undeductable. With this streak, China will rack up huge points on bars in team finals.
Speaking of, Aliya Mustafina is not in shape. Her ankles are obviously hurt but without her, the Russian team will again sure to lose to Romania at Euros like they did in 2008. As always, the Romanian team is less distracted and more determined, with little resource they have. Raluca Haidu has gotten a DTY as expected, and they have a dream beam lineup of Chelaru, Racea and Porgras, when Russia might have to put Ekaterina Kurbatova on all four events if Aliya can not vault or do floor. The Russians can not stay healthy and they have some sort of a weight problem. This team is not on a Soviet diet for sure. Aliya looks bigger than a 26 year old Millousi (who is hot!). I might add that the only Russian gymnast who was never plagued by injury was the skeleton Queen.
At last, a NED-BEL-SUI tri meet was held this weekend. I gotta say this. Ariella’s floor routine is divine and more genius than any Valorie Kondos routine.
Every now and then I relive this awful nightmare and wish it never happened. This routine even makes me appreciate how worthy a champion Vanessa Ferrari or Carly Patterson was.
