Gymnastics News #21 - Tumbling on to Tokyo

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Erin said:
I didn't get a chance to watch the men but the third subdivision sounds like it was a disaster for injuries. I hope than something is done to address how things can be made safer for the athletes going forward because this just seems ridiculous.
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This. The code of points has gotten so ridicuously difficult that it's forcing athletes to chuck skills they really shouldn't be. Yesterday there were, I read, 7 injuries in the third session ALONE. We saw a lot of injuries in Rio, too. High Bar has been so decimated with the code of points that immense difficulty is needed in order to get even a 14, especially with E-scores being judged so harshly, only a handful from yesterday scored above an 8.0 on that mark. We also had a smashed face on the bar (and a lost tooth as a result), someone peeling off the bar after catching a release and being tossed like a sack of potatoes 10 feet away from the apparatus, and another awful incident that involved someone being carried out of the arena on a stretcher. :yikes:

Speaking of injuries, the French gymnast who broke his leg on vault in Rio competed on rings here and is currently sitting in 3rd place.
 
Fridge_Break said:
This. The code of points has gotten so ridicuously difficult that it's forcing athletes to chuck skills they really shouldn't be. Yesterday there were, I read, 7 injuries in the third session ALONE.
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I'm sure the Code is a factor (as you point out - Rio had its share of injuries) but at this meet, I feel like the equipment is also contributing as athletes have been complaining heavily about it. The vault is reportedly slippery, the lights are blinding the athletes, and the floor had a dead spot to the point that the entire last rotation of the men's last subdivision was given a redo after one of the Dutch athletes vehemently protested about it (and then hilariously did not even take the redo himself). And who knows how many other athletes before that were impacted and did not get a redo. I hope that the equipment issues are addressed immediately (it sounds like they were dealing with the floor, but I'm not sure about the lights, the vault, etc.), and I feel like there are other things that could be done to make things safer even without changing the Code, with having extra mats in place around the floor, extending the podium, etc. Wouldn't have prevented an injury like Uchimura's but some of the injuries sound like they could have been preventable just with extra safety measures.

I was hoping Canada would put on a good Worlds and it sounds like the crowd has been terrific but the organization could use some improvement.
 
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i keep losing the CBC stream... ugh.. same with the youtube..
 
Canadian women looked good in the floor no idea of scores though as no sound
 
The CBC commentators are embarrassing me with their inability to pronounce Russian names. Seriously, there aren't some producers or research assistants around that can write the names out phonetically for them??
 
ross_hy said:
I'm currently watching the Olympic Channel's re-broadcast of the 1996 team final. Wow, what an atmosphere! I've never seen anything like it.
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Yes, it was something else. I actually felt sorry for the other teams. They couldn't hear their music on floor, and I'm sure that any foreign competitor with nerves of steel would have been rattled having to compete against such a pro-America crowd. Then again, the stress of competing at home in that stadium couldn't have been any picnic, either.
 
bardtoob said:
The same thing happened to gymnasts like Nadia in 1980, so ... Home Field advantage.
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Except that in most other countries that fans are usually much more civilized. Here in the US, we take everything, and I do mean everything to the extreme....times a thousand!
 
FiveRinger said:
Except that in most other countries that fans are usually much more civilized. Here in the US, we take everything, and I do mean everything to the extreme....times a thousand!
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I think it all depends on how prideful the country is. The US is on the extreme end with a couple of others.

Karolyi later told the press, 'The Russians placed their military in the audience to disturb us. What is the cruellest thing you can do to someone who is trying to concentrate? Call their name. As Nadia competed, the crowd called to her: "Fall, Nadia, fall."' Comaneci has no such recollection - 'Bela has his memories,' she says. 'I have mine.'
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2004/jul/04/athensolympics2004.gymnastics
 
FiveRinger said:
Except that in most other countries that fans are usually much more civilized. Here in the US, we take everything, and I do mean everything to the extreme....times a thousand!
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I haven't seen anything near Atlanta 1996 Women's Team Final, the screaming was wayyyy tooo much, distracting for us viewers so I don't imagine how it was for the gymnasts, still remember when Rozalia Galiyeva had to do her floor exercise while the crowd was going crazy and screaming, yelling, cheering, you can't even hear her music
 
Braulio said:
I haven't seen anything near Atlanta 1996 Women's Team Final, the screaming was wayyyy tooo much, distracting for us viewers so I don't imagine how it was for the gymnasts, still remember when Rozalia Galiyeva had to do her floor exercise while the crowd was going crazy and screaming, yelling, cheering, you can't even hear her music
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Thank goodness Sydney, Athens, Rio, Beijing, and London were more neutral.
 
FiveRinger said:
Except that in most other countries that fans are usually much more civilized. Here in the US, we take everything, and I do mean everything to the extreme....times a thousand!
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Oh, goodness. Please send me back to the US 20 years ago because it is certainly not the US of today.
 
bardtoob said:
Karolyi later told the press, 'The Russians placed their military in the audience to disturb us. What is the cruellest thing you can do to someone who is trying to concentrate? Call their name. As Nadia competed, the crowd called to her: "Fall, Nadia, fall."' Comaneci has no such recollection - 'Bela has his memories,' she says. 'I have mine.'
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I never knew this. I was too young to remember the actual competition, and finding videos of it is very difficult. But that is horrible. Nadia was an unbelievable competitor, to be sure. Her retaining her title in Moscow was going to be a difficult task, regardless. People are still questioning Davydova's win all these years later.
 
FiveRinger said:
I never knew this. I was too young to remember the actual competition, and finding videos of it is very difficult. But that is horrible. Nadia was an unbelievable competitor, to be sure. Her retaining her title in Moscow was going to be a difficult task, regardless. People are still questioning Davydova's win all these years later.
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I have watched that competition over and over this Summer, and I am pretty convinced it was supposed to be the Nellie Kim and Nadia show but Nellie was having problems with the final pass of her optionals FX since she had upgraded to all doubles, double pike, double twist, and double tuck ... Davydova was very much the surprise winner.

BTW, I used to adore Davydova's FX, but now it is really starting to sink in how dangerous the Arabian 1 3/4 was.

:shuffle: I now really wish Nellie Kim had peaked at the right time ... I still love Nadia and was glad to see her come back with a 10.0 on the bars after the fall in the team optionals.

As maligned as it was, I started to adore Nellie Kim's FX when done well, although it was never performed perfectly.

https://youtu.be/EzqNEGe1KPU
 
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dramagrrl said:
The CBC commentators are embarrassing me with their inability to pronounce Russian names. Seriously, there aren't some producers or research assistants around that can write the names out phonetically for them??
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I'm assuming the online production is pretty low budget. Frankly, I'm happy to have the level of online coverage we do. Also, I thought it was super cool that Brittany Rogers was doing the commentary given that she was actually an alternate for the Canadian team and probably disappointed not to be out there competing, but you would never have known it from the tone of her commentary. She was so positive towards her teammates and provided a lot of insight about the team. Most interesting to me was that Brooklyn Moors is afraid of back tumbling - as someone who was also afraid of back tumbling, it makes me want to cheer for Brooklyn even more than I did before.

Watched all of the Canada-Russia session and a bit of the British session. Fragapane looked great, her tumbling looked cleaner than in practice. Tinkler isn't in the form she was in from Rio but should qualify into the all-around final at least. Haven't seen Georgia-Mae Fenton's bar routine yet but glad to hear she hit her bar routine. Both she and Nina Darwael hit their new skill, which should mean it wouldn't be named after either of them. But apparently, FIG is now saying it will be named after both. Which is what I think it should be anyway.

Russia had a pretty good day aside from a Melnikova meldown on floor, which she attributed to ankle pain. Scores were low for them on beam but they are low for everyone on beam. I just really hope that the judges stay consistent today with the low scoring because I'm going to be upset if no one from the first two subdivisions makes beam finals because the judges went crazy on day 2. Paseka's vaults were way better than in training and the judges showered her with generous E-scores. All three Russians were great on bars. Illiankova's form is divine, although she got edged for the lead by Eremina on D-score. Eremina btw is super adorable. I'd never seen her before this meet, but I really like her gymnastics. Gymcastic also has a cute interview with her on their twitter/facebook and she speaks English too.

Canada also had a great day, aside from Isabela Onyshko who had to stop on top of the high bar and had a hand down on beam unfortunately. Ellie Black had an awesome day and is leading AA and beam so far and I'm really really hoping she didn't waste it in prelims. Brooklyn Moors fell on beam, but that's not really her event...what's more important is that she hit her beautiful floor routine. Not sure if it will be enough to make floor finals - she is sitting second right now and I think there are about 8-10 contenders who could knock her out, although it really depends on if everyone hits and gets credit for everything. I think she has a decent chance for AA finals, as she's sitting 7th there, and I'm obsessive and counted 14-15 people I think will pass her. Anyway, for anyone who wants to see some artistry in gymnastics, watch her floor routine (and Nina Derwael's) and you can see it's not totally dead (just hard to find). And Shallon Olsen had the best floor routine I've ever seen her do, and followed it up with solid vaults - didn't do the Amanar, but did debut her Cheng and is sitting second behind Paseka and should easily qualify.

I think at this point, Canada could qualify quite a few gymnasts to finals - the only locks I would say are Ellie to AA and Shallon to vault, with Brooklyn into AA the next most likely. But if beam judging stays consistent today, Ellie should get into beam finals and I think she is about 50-50 chance to get into vault. Brooklyn in floor finals is probably the next most likely, with Ellie having an outside shot. Ellie's also a very long shot at getting into bar finals thanks in part to a very generous E-score she got there - would only happen if lots went wrong for others though, so I'm actually not wanting that. But considering Canada is usually lucky to qualify 1 or 2 gymnasts into an event final, this could be a very good result for them, which is nice for the home crowd, who have reportedly been very supportive to all the athletes.
 
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Beam judges were brutal yesterday. Not a single E-score above 8.0.. seems like it was tough judging everywhere, but beam was the harshest. Vault seemed to be the most loose with the scores, but still we didn't see much above a 9.0.
 
Vault and bars judging were pretty loose, beam judging was super harsh and floor judging was tough but not inconsistent with what we've seen at other meets this year, I'd say. And I'm OK with the harsh beam judging since it seemed to be consistent, as long as it carries over consistently today. The vault and bars judging unfortunately did not seem to be as consistent (Maria Paseka's Cheng vault and Ellie Black's bars probably being the two most notably generous E-scores I saw in comparison to others).
 
Fridge_Break said:
Speaking of injuries, the French gymnast who broke his leg on vault in Rio competed on rings here and is currently sitting in 3rd place.
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Yep, Samir Ait Said has made the rings final for the fifth time in his career - impressive comeback.
 
Iordache :fragile: So the AA Champion at this point will be the last one left un injured?

Which leads to the next question, is there something wrong with the Gymnova floor beyond what was fixed yesterday?
 
The gymnasium is horrible, so dark, it seems messy, you can't even get noticed if there is people in the stands, though the qualification coverage could differ from the one we will have during the TV broadcast but the atmosphere all that dark and obscure is just like an omen that this championships seems so odd and will most likely be forgettable
 
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