Gymnastics at the Olympics
Jul. 23rd, 2012 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeSo, I am a huge gymnastics fan and The Olympics is my happy time. (Although World's is fun too.) Most Olympics fans are what we call four-year fans--nothing wrong with that, BTW! But I thought I might give you a little bit of background on the American team and the likely contenders.
The team format:
This Olympics, we have a different team format. There are only five members per time (plus 2-3 alternates), in contrast to past Games where we had 6 (Sydney in '00, Beijing) or even 7 (Atlanta in '96). Also 3 team members compete on any one apparatus--and most importantly all 3 scores count. It used to be that you could drop the lowest score on an apparatus, so if one member flopped, it wasn't such a big deal. Not any more. This format is known as 5-3-3. Bruno Grandi, the head of FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, the worldwide governing body of the sport) in an effort to curry favor with less-represented countries that traditionally have not been featured much in gymnastics, devised this system to that countries like the US, Russia, Romania et al. have less of an advantage--you need fewer good gymnasts to win. I personally hate the system, as do many fans, because I think it's crappy to make the teams smaller and allow fewer gymnasts to become Olympians. Small countries have plenty of opportunities to qualify for event finals or the AA--team finals are supposed to decide the best TEAM, as in plural.
Individual All-Around format:
Only 2 gymnasts per country can qualify, as opposed to the past where 3 could qualify. And I believe the top 24 (not 36) overall qualify.
The Players:
The US team are the current World champions. This is no guarantee of gold, though--in both '04 AND '08, we also came in as world champions. But we are definitely the favorites--I believe our strongest competition is probably the Russian team. However, interestingly, the Romanians beat the Russians in Europeans. China is likely not a threat in team competition. But anything can happen, as Beijing proved!
American Jordyn Wieber is the current World AA champion (and two-time US champion). Jordyn beat out Russian Viktoria Kimova in a controversial finish--Jordyn had had a bad bars routine which seemed to take her out of contention but then came back with flawless beam and floor routines, which were also difficult. Vika made no major errors throughout the meet but her sets weren't as difficult and she gave away a lot of tenths here and there...and they added up. When she saw that she'd ("only") gotten silver she burst into tears, and was...shall we say, not exactly sporting on the medals podium.
BUT. She is a lovely gymnast, and I hope both she and Jordyn hit in London. Vika is definitely out for blood and motivated, but she is a bit of a headcase. We shall see.
Another AA contender is American Gabby Douglas, who actually beat Jordyn Wieber in the Olympic Trials. ("Oooooh, All About Eve drama!") That dynamic is actually reminiscent of '92--Kim Zmeskal was the current US and World champion, but Shannon Miller won the Trials, and then Kim fell off the beam in the team prelims. Gabby's biiiiig strength is bars--she absolutely flies over them, as high as Dominique Dawes used to, she gets incredible air. Her weakness is that she's a little unreliable--in last year's Nationals she fell off the beam 3 (3? maybe 4) times. In one set. She's also relatively inexperienced, just a few big meets so far. But I think if she hits she has an excellent chance of medaling.
A Romanian AA contender is little Larisa Iordache, who is absolutely darling, a real old-school pixie. I am hoping she will sneak onto the podium, I enjoyed watching her at Europeans. Another Romanian is Catalina Ponor, whom you may remember from the '04 Olympics! That's right, she's making her comeback and doing very well. Catalina's events are the beam and the floor--she and Larisa traded golds and silver on those two events at Europeans.
McKayla Maroney is the current World vault champion, and you will see why when she competes. She has the biggest vault you've ever seen--she gets mad air. Goes up higher, stays up longer, lands further than anyone else. She makes vault exciting.
The vault final at Worlds was interesting--they had gymnasts from EVERYWHERE. Two particular favorites of mine were Yamilet Peña from the Dominican Republic, who tried to throw a very difficult vault and ended up sitting it down. She got up and with a big smile saluted the judges. What a trouper! She gave it her all--gotta love that. Peña has in fact qualified for London at the Olympic test Event, so I can't wait to see her. The other vaulter was a tiny slip of a thing, Phan Thi Ha Thanh from Vietnam who ended up winning the bronze! The joy on her face was incandescent--she was thrilled just to BE there, but to actually medal...!
Since she medaled at Worlds she automatically qualified for the Games but funding for her sport is very low and she's had much difficulty training. The other gymnast on McKayla's right is Oksana Chusovitina, a fierce HBIC who has been competing FOREVER. Remember Barcelona in '92? She was THERE. She competed as a Soviet, for the Unified team, for Uzbekistan and now for Germany. Chuso is Da Woman.
He Kexin, one of the age-controversial gymnasts in '08, will be back although just barely. She actually hasn't done so well since Beijing--a shame as I like her gymnastics. (Yes, I think she was underage--bitch, please. No, I don't blame her and would never blame the gymnast--she's part of a totalitarian system, she has no say in this.) But China needs her bars, so she's back.
Britain might actually medal this year, which I believe would be an Olympic first. Their big gun is Beth Tweddle, who is a past World champion in both bars and floor. REALLY pushing for her, I love her work *and* the fact that she's an older gymnast. I also get a kick out of how very ENGLISH Beth looks. Case in point:
Those are some CHOPPERS! But I kid because I love--best of luck, Beth, hope you perform well for the hometown crowd!
The team format:
This Olympics, we have a different team format. There are only five members per time (plus 2-3 alternates), in contrast to past Games where we had 6 (Sydney in '00, Beijing) or even 7 (Atlanta in '96). Also 3 team members compete on any one apparatus--and most importantly all 3 scores count. It used to be that you could drop the lowest score on an apparatus, so if one member flopped, it wasn't such a big deal. Not any more. This format is known as 5-3-3. Bruno Grandi, the head of FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, the worldwide governing body of the sport) in an effort to curry favor with less-represented countries that traditionally have not been featured much in gymnastics, devised this system to that countries like the US, Russia, Romania et al. have less of an advantage--you need fewer good gymnasts to win. I personally hate the system, as do many fans, because I think it's crappy to make the teams smaller and allow fewer gymnasts to become Olympians. Small countries have plenty of opportunities to qualify for event finals or the AA--team finals are supposed to decide the best TEAM, as in plural.
Individual All-Around format:
Only 2 gymnasts per country can qualify, as opposed to the past where 3 could qualify. And I believe the top 24 (not 36) overall qualify.
The Players:
The US team are the current World champions. This is no guarantee of gold, though--in both '04 AND '08, we also came in as world champions. But we are definitely the favorites--I believe our strongest competition is probably the Russian team. However, interestingly, the Romanians beat the Russians in Europeans. China is likely not a threat in team competition. But anything can happen, as Beijing proved!
American Jordyn Wieber is the current World AA champion (and two-time US champion). Jordyn beat out Russian Viktoria Kimova in a controversial finish--Jordyn had had a bad bars routine which seemed to take her out of contention but then came back with flawless beam and floor routines, which were also difficult. Vika made no major errors throughout the meet but her sets weren't as difficult and she gave away a lot of tenths here and there...and they added up. When she saw that she'd ("only") gotten silver she burst into tears, and was...shall we say, not exactly sporting on the medals podium.
BUT. She is a lovely gymnast, and I hope both she and Jordyn hit in London. Vika is definitely out for blood and motivated, but she is a bit of a headcase. We shall see.
Another AA contender is American Gabby Douglas, who actually beat Jordyn Wieber in the Olympic Trials. ("Oooooh, All About Eve drama!") That dynamic is actually reminiscent of '92--Kim Zmeskal was the current US and World champion, but Shannon Miller won the Trials, and then Kim fell off the beam in the team prelims. Gabby's biiiiig strength is bars--she absolutely flies over them, as high as Dominique Dawes used to, she gets incredible air. Her weakness is that she's a little unreliable--in last year's Nationals she fell off the beam 3 (3? maybe 4) times. In one set. She's also relatively inexperienced, just a few big meets so far. But I think if she hits she has an excellent chance of medaling.
A Romanian AA contender is little Larisa Iordache, who is absolutely darling, a real old-school pixie. I am hoping she will sneak onto the podium, I enjoyed watching her at Europeans. Another Romanian is Catalina Ponor, whom you may remember from the '04 Olympics! That's right, she's making her comeback and doing very well. Catalina's events are the beam and the floor--she and Larisa traded golds and silver on those two events at Europeans.
McKayla Maroney is the current World vault champion, and you will see why when she competes. She has the biggest vault you've ever seen--she gets mad air. Goes up higher, stays up longer, lands further than anyone else. She makes vault exciting.
The vault final at Worlds was interesting--they had gymnasts from EVERYWHERE. Two particular favorites of mine were Yamilet Peña from the Dominican Republic, who tried to throw a very difficult vault and ended up sitting it down. She got up and with a big smile saluted the judges. What a trouper! She gave it her all--gotta love that. Peña has in fact qualified for London at the Olympic test Event, so I can't wait to see her. The other vaulter was a tiny slip of a thing, Phan Thi Ha Thanh from Vietnam who ended up winning the bronze! The joy on her face was incandescent--she was thrilled just to BE there, but to actually medal...!
Since she medaled at Worlds she automatically qualified for the Games but funding for her sport is very low and she's had much difficulty training. The other gymnast on McKayla's right is Oksana Chusovitina, a fierce HBIC who has been competing FOREVER. Remember Barcelona in '92? She was THERE. She competed as a Soviet, for the Unified team, for Uzbekistan and now for Germany. Chuso is Da Woman.
He Kexin, one of the age-controversial gymnasts in '08, will be back although just barely. She actually hasn't done so well since Beijing--a shame as I like her gymnastics. (Yes, I think she was underage--bitch, please. No, I don't blame her and would never blame the gymnast--she's part of a totalitarian system, she has no say in this.) But China needs her bars, so she's back.
Britain might actually medal this year, which I believe would be an Olympic first. Their big gun is Beth Tweddle, who is a past World champion in both bars and floor. REALLY pushing for her, I love her work *and* the fact that she's an older gymnast. I also get a kick out of how very ENGLISH Beth looks. Case in point:
Those are some CHOPPERS! But I kid because I love--best of luck, Beth, hope you perform well for the hometown crowd!
