Women's gymnastics - Qualifying continued

[vesperholly]

Especially when the field was actually lowered from 36 to 24.

Right? If they really wanted to spread the wealth, 36 competitors enables a lot more obscure gymnasts qualify to the AA.

I hope this doesn't turn into badwill for Jordyn. No one from her team has cried foul over the results.

[Jimena]

People complain about it all the time. People STILL complain about Gutsu getting subbed in and then winning over Miller. This isn't new and it will be forgotten about as soon as the AA is over. It isn't as if Jordyn or her coach has asked for the rules to be changed before the AA finals. People look for ANY reason to jump all over Jordyn and her coach. It is becoming gross.

I'm not jumping over Jordyn and her coach. Don't get defensive. Tim, Al, Elfi, etc. talking about the "new" rule that has been in place for almost a decade, however, get on my last nerve. And Tim saying that Wieber was underscored in both beam and floor... Please.

Jordyn's the one who's handled this the best.

The only criticism I've made towards Wieber's coach was when Karpenko said people were saying judges had told Jordyn's coach she wasn't going to get credited for the connections on beam.

[Mayra]

I'm so glad I stayed up to watch the NBC live feed with Shannon and the Brit commentator. Night and day describes it best!

[DimaToe]

I'm not jumping over Jordyn and her coach. Don't get defensive. Tim, Al, Elfi, etc. talking about the "new" rule that has been in place for almost a decade, however, get on my last nerve. And Tim saying that Wieber was underscored in both beam and floor... Please.

Jordyn's the one who's handled this the best.

The only criticism I've made towards Wieber's coach was when Karpenko said people were saying judges had told Jordyn's coach she wasn't going to get credited for the connections on beam.

Agreed, Kudos to Jordyn for handling this with class. She is the only one that would have had an excuse to be whining non-stop over this, but I guess that'll be NBC/Coach's job.

[flipforsynchro]

Especially when the field was actually lowered from 36 to 24.

Okay, so maybe its not a total wealth spread, but it must be a total pissoff to be 4th and then to be shut out while someone with a score way worse gets in just because they're from a more obscure country.

[pollyanna]

I'm tired of the "oh now that it affects us let's complain about it" conversations going on about the top-2-go-to-AA rule. Yes, it sucks for Wieber. But that's them rules.

Well, it's more pronounced tonight because the defending World AA champ didn't make the cut, and that's never happened before, plus Jo was 4th which is pretty high to be cut. But it affects Russia and Romania too. Grishina and Bulimar are both fab enough to be in AA. (I believe B&B didn't let Bulimar compete AA because they were afraid she would outscore an injured Iordache, JMO.)

Plus teams are no longer made up of 6 AAers. Most nations have 2, maybe 3 AAers, and the rest are specialists. So the wealth is already automatically spread. IMO it's a rule that no longer makes sense, and I don't say that because just because of Jordyn.

[BigB08822]

I'd say Ponor got the .3 bonus for being a multiple Olympic Champ? She should not have qualified to any EF's but somehow made both, with major mistakes.

[HeatherC]

I'd say Ponor got the .3 bonus for being a multiple Olympic Champ? She should not have qualified to any EF's but somehow made both, with major mistakes.

I'm not a fan of griping but I kind of feel like crap after finally watching everything unfold tonight so I'll just say that I totally agree with you and the whole thing makes me sad. It shouldn't be that way.

[AragornElessar]

Can I just say and a to Black and Rogers for qualifying for Vault Finals, this has got to be the strongest result for the team program since 84, Team Finals, an AA finalist and to EF finalist! I don't expect to see a medal in any event, but the fact that Canada has gotten this far is only going to help them in the future as they keep building the program. I truly believe this started way back in 1999 at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg when the women won gold beating a heavily favored US team... we've had some bumps and stumbles along the way, but I believe everything has built to this moment, good on ya girls!

You know, I can only think of one more thing to add to that.

WAAAAHOOOOO!!!

They said they wanted that Team Finals spot. Well Misson Accomplished!!

So thrilled and proud of them. That actually had me more thrilled than our Bronze in Diving truth be told. I think because that was expected, whereas our girls making all those Finals was not and combine that w/their reactions on finding out they'd made it to Team Finals...

I'm still doing this ----->

WTG Girls!!! Now just let it fly and have fun in those Finals!!

OTOH, shocked and sad for Jordyn. Could not believe my ears when I heard the news and the little I saw of her on CTV...Wanted to reach through the screen and give her a hug.

I did have to laugh at Mom about Aly's interview w/CTV though. We're watching and Aly keeps going on about how excited she is about it all and...

For someone so excited about her results and performance, she's awfully robotic isn't she?

What a wacky Games these have been in Gymnastics so far. Wonder what the Men's Team Event will bring us today?

[bek]

I agree. Komova is easily the best AA gymnast I think but she had more mistakes than any of the top gymnasts and has sacrificed her execution a little bit on every event for difficulty IMO. That extra dimension level of perfection she brings to bars and beam wasn't there in prelims overall, and she just didn't really fight for a lot of tenths that were deducted (mainly beam and a little bit floor). Something tells me that she might not be able to pull it off in the end, but then again I'm also really worried that Gabby is most likely doing 4 events in TF and then another 4 in the AA. I would love for her to be a rockstar but I don't have faith in 8 hit routines there, it's almost too much to expect out of somebody. I actually think Mustafina might have more fire in her belly than any of the contenders by the time of the AA competition, and if she somehow goes for and lands the Amanar I do think she has a legitimate shot at the title. If Aly Raisman doesn't biff her bars she could really win the whole thing too the more I think about it (she would need mistakes from 2 or 3, but its the AA and her biggest competition is prone to error), can you imagine how watching her parents in the stands would be for that routine? Man the fact that its a real possibility is just unbelieveable.

I don't know. I have a feeling that the judges aren't going to want Raisman as AA champ and her scores will drop. The Russians are SURE to start a campaign on this. With the possiblity of two girls on the AA podium. The got Memmel's scores to go down back in 2003! (Please give me this hope)

As for Komova; I'm kind of in two minds. A part of me felt like Komova didn't care so much on floor. But then a part of me thinks maybe Komova this time was just focused on qualifying, and didn't want to give her all.. What I mean is that she was incredible at prelims at worlds last year than last. Maybe this time she just wanted to go out there do well, but leave something back.

I think she's a bit more of a fighter than folks are giving her credit for being. I I think she is fighting a bit more on beam lately than she use too.. She fell at Russian cup in Team Finals and then really seemed to go all out in AA. I think she's got a good track record of pulling out better in the AA..

As for Mustafina and the Amanar. Here's the funny thing, Miss Aliya may not need an Amanar to win here if Komova/Douglas screw up just a little.

[bardtoob]

There is something about Aly's demeanor that reminds me of Britney from Glee.

[bardtoob]

Aly had to hit on the floor for the team because of all the flubbed routines.

[genevieve]

Jordyn very classy in her interview - she must be so devastated I really enjoyed her gymnastics, very clearly the highest quality overall on the team, just had a rough go. I'm a bit surprised that Gabby scored higher than Jordyn - can anyone give me a nutshell? I know it's that I'm not in teknik and don't know the deductions/difficulty differences.

LOVED Gabby though.

ugh, NBC and their antics are so tiring

[Cyn]

I fell asleep during the prime time NBC broadcast, but woke up a bit ago during the overnight repeat, only to hear Tim refer to Gabby Douglas as "The McKayla Maroney of Uneven Bars" .

Um, in what freaking universe, dude?

[Loves_Shizuka]

It's all so

[bardtoob]

Ponor's floor score, really? She was less than a point under Wieber.

[Hedwig]

What is the issue about Ponor's floor score? she had one element she did fully not do but she didn't get a lot of deductions for it because she did not steps or OOB. Her D score suffered from it but as only the highest scoring elements count towards the D score an other element will have counted against it and she will only have lost about 2-3 tenth overall.
it was really clever of her to react as she did and to make sure that the mistake wasn't as costly.
Iordache should have done the same. Her triple twist was never going to happen. If she had stopped at a single or a double twist she might have qualified over Ponor because the rest of her routine was so excellent.

[kwanfan1818]

I don't know. I have a feeling that the judges aren't going to want Raisman as AA champ and her scores will drop. The Russians are SURE to start a campaign on this. With the possiblity of two girls on the AA podium. The got Memmel's scores to go down back in 2003! (Please give me this hope)

If this were Survivor or Around the World in 80 Plates, the judges would have voted off Wieber, so that other gymnasts had a better chance

[Loves_Shizuka]

Just noticed how close Germany were to qualifying. Sigh

Asuka Teramoto qualifying 8th

The Japanese are my little revelation so far. Loved their work in qualies.

[millyskate]

I'm tired of the "oh now that it affects us let's complain about it" conversations going on about the top-2-go-to-AA rule. Yes, it sucks for Wieber. But that's them rules.

It sucked for Bilozertchev when he didn't win AA in 1988 because the team scores carried over. It sucked for Shannon Miller because in 1992 the team scores did NOT carry over. Plenty of examples like that.

That's the way the chips fall some times.

This. Gymnatics is a sport where people get to send 5 athletes, all elligible for individual medals AND a team medal. That does not happen in any other sport that I can think of. People should be grateful that many get to compete, not the opposite...
Jordyn got beaten fair and square. In Judo, you can get beaten by the eventual Gold medallist in the first round too.... irrespectively of whether you're the second best athlete in the competition and could have won the silver had you been pitted against another opponent. Same with about half the sports in the Games!

I'm extremely irritated by all of this "not enough spots" talk. The USA has 2 athletes with a shot at an AA medal. They have a team with a shot at the Gold. That is a lot, that is enough. Jordyn is a great gymnast who didn't quite do enough on the day - I wish people would take it as graciously as she does.