Kinda want to know the answer to this myself...
I'm loving that so many people have seen Ellie's capabilities and potential at these worlds. The most exciting thing about her, beyond her mental toughness, her power and her technique is the fact that she is gradually developing skills and her limits won't be reached until 2020 provided she stays injury free, which I know is a big if. The 6.0 floor only emerged about a month ago, as she was basically only getting used to the piked Arabian, which in itself was only learned after she landed the double layout short last year and wrecked her ankle. I. So impressed that she hit all of the stag out of the Arabian every time given that the entire pass is so new. She has three tumbles that land forward purely to protect that ankle. She could push her dance elements on FX too IMO. Now that Claire Starkey is no longer her coach, I think the fresh outlook is actually doing her good. I'm only disappointed she didn't do her Patterson dismount on beam as she has that in her locker and just hoping she can clean up her bars and find consistency there.
You're right that Komova doesn't fight as much as she should. But the problem is that she is not rewarded for the things that she does exceptionally well. She has gymnastics qualities that are 1 of a kind in the current gymnastics world. It's very easy to have a good attitude when everything appears to go your way. But for Komova -- silver at Worlds AA, silver at Olys AA, 1 out of 4 tied gold medals -- it's never gone her way in her entire career! And, it's hard to be positive when you know that you *have* worked very hard on your form, your lines, your carriage, your toepoint -- and you're never going to be rewarded by the judges for any of those qualities in the scores. For example, I think Biles' toepoint is horrible compared to Komova's, but that makes absolutely 0% difference in the scoring...The reason Komova doesn't get the benefit of the doubt (from me at least) is because she's a quitter with a bad attitude. 2011 Worlds she wasn't exactly a paragon of consistency although IMO she should have won but her AA beam was a wobblefest and her FX nothing to write home about so it was hard to be too outraged. I was no fan of Weiber's but she fought (key word here) and held on when her bars started to go awry then came back fighting.
2012 we saw what she's all about on that vault. She didn't fight with every fibre of her being to keep it on the mat, the one time it was really important that she did. Had she done that she'd be the AA champion. I do credit her with coming back strongly in that one instance and for pulling out the best FX of her life when she needed it most. But too little too late; she'd already sabotaged herself. After that she pouted and sulked her way through errors in the EF's instead of taking advantage of those wonderful opportunities to win herself an Olympic title.
And then we fast forward to this years TF. That 'fall' on her arabian was an absolute disgrace. She didn't even try. You can see on the slo mo that once she wobbled initially she just lets go of her core and literally jumps off. Contrast that with Biles' amazing save in AA (or going back to Nastia in 2006 with that amazing handstand exit from her acro series). Those girls gave a shit. Komova just doesn't.
This is where her attitude really showed its true colours. Instead of looking in the mirror and acknowledging that she didn't do her job, she blamed everyone else and this time it's bitten her in the ass. It's so obvious that she believes, because she has the best form, she should win despite the errors; that her E-score should somehow be enough to make up for it. Basically that it all be handed to her on a plate. No fight required. That is what is wrong with Komova. As a fan of gymnastics, I'd like nothing better than to see her on top of the podium. When it works her gymnastics is glorious!! Like yesterday - of course she should have won the gold outright in the UB final. But after all that's gone before it's hard to be that bothered for her really. Girl needs a complete attitude U-turn. If she's able to realise that she still has to fight for it, despite all the natural gifts she has, and show some respect for the girls who have only a fraction of her talent but work infinitely harder and have a drive for success she could only dream of at this point; well then she might have a chance.
All this is JMO obviously
Catherine Lyons - BeamWhere has Lyons competed? I don't recall ever seeing her before. I'm guessing she's just up from juniors? I don't know Mattis either.
Either way, I have to say I MUCH prefer NBC's pre-recorded coverage vs. live. They crammed a lot of routines in and there was very minimal wasted time. Whereas a live broadcast we get about 20% gymnastics, 15% commercials, 5% fluff pieces, 15% of Al's manufactured drama, and 35% of shots of gymnasts standing around as floor music is played in the background.
