Gymnastic news #22 - Tokyo or bust

[allezfred]

Big belly flop from Petit.

 

[millyskate]

So lovely show from Listunova. Melnikova very lucky with scores, Gadirova doing as well as she could have. Morgan still such a good competitor, such a shame she's never recovered from her injury. It's been almost 2 years now - one has to wonder if she ever will

And massive from the German girls for wearing unitards. The British commentator issued a half-hearted poorly worded retraction of his statement about it being to camouflage execution errors

 

[FiveRinger]

@allezfred Those ridiculous buns have been a real pain since Nastia.

For whoever asked upthread, Nina had a slight foot/ankle injury and withdrew. Per an interview I saw (I think on the Olympic Channel) Melanie decided to not defend her title and to focus only on uneven bars at Euros so that she could peak for Tokyo.

ETA: The unitards are great! That's a trend I hope everyone will consider.

 

[3T3T]

Currently a Russian 1-2 in the Men’s, but there is only 2 rotations done so far. A few spills in PH.

RTE is reporting that Vernaiyev is serving a 2 year ban. Does anyone know what it is for? Oleg and the Ukrainian Fed had not disclosed anything that I’m aware off.

 

[skipaway]

Simone drops Nike

"We are excited to welcome Simone to the Athleta family and work together to further our mission of empowering women and girls," said Mary Beth Laughton, president and chief executive officer of Athleta. "Simone believes in championing the next generation of female athletes as much as we do, and we are confident this partnership will continue to build community with our customers and enrich our brand."
But Biles has often seemed overlooked during her time at Nike, despite her athletic success. A recent Nike ad highlighting Black female athletes did not include any recognizable images of Biles.

 

[Erin]

Where are Nina Derwael and Melanie Dos Santos? I hope they are not injured.

Nina had some kind of an injury and withdrew. I don't remember the details of it, but I think the withdrawal was more precautionary.

Melanie is coming off minor knee pain and only competed bars and beam in prelims. She added a Nabieva on bars, which she hit, but she fell on her dismount. She made beam finals so we should see her there. She is planning to upgrade her dismount to a full in for beam finals.

 

[3T3T]

A very exciting Men’s competition. Another 1-2 for Russia. Nagorny over Belyavskiy with a very impressive Kovtun claiming bronze for Ukraine. Order and Turkey were in the bronze after 5 rotations but had a disaster on high bar. Adam Steele was 21st, he was 11th on HB and 13th on Floor, which was a very dynamic routine.

There was lots of very exciting performances. HB and PB especially so. I was impressed by the gymnasts from Lithuania, Belarus, Turkey and Hungary. It was much more entertaining than the Ladies.

Nagorny was a very deserving champion, scored highest on 4 events. Is he The favourite for Tokyo?

 

[Braulio]

BBC Coverage of the Women's AA

BBC Coverage Women All Around FINAL 2021 European Gymnastics Championships

BBC Coverage Women All Around FINAL 2021 European Gymnastics Championships BBC Commentary Gymnastics Basel 2021Campeonato Europeo de Gimnasia ArtisticaAngeli...

youtu.be

 

[Braulio]

A very exciting Men’s competition. Another 1-2 for Russia. Nagorny over Belyavskiy with a very impressive Kovtun claiming bronze for Ukraine. Order and Turkey were in the bronze after 5 rotations but had a disaster on high bar. Adam Steele was 21st, he was 11th on HB and 13th on Floor, which was a very dynamic routine.

There was lots of very exciting performances. HB and PB especially so. I was impressed by the gymnasts from Lithuania, Belarus, Turkey and Hungary. It was much more entertaining than the Ladies.

Nagorny was a very deserving champion, scored highest on 4 events. Is he The favourite for Tokyo?

With Dalaloyan most likely out I guess yes, Nikita will be the big favourite for multiple gold medals at Tokyo. I predict 3 for him

 

[3T3T]

Another exciting day of gymnastics.

Sadly, no medal for Ireland. Rhys came of the PH and finished 5th. He was one of 4 fallers. Gold to Davtyan from Armenia, he tied with Nagorny but had a better E score. Not long after he appeared on RTÉ and gave a very positive interview. He fell on a new element but if he wants to win the Olympics he has to take risks.

Nagorny won gold on Floor, with a very exciting routine. Greece as expected took the rings. Steingruber was back for the vault with a strapped thigh but still took a comfortable gold. Bars a 1-2 for Russia, Melnikova over Urazova. Seitz and Martins both fell.

I didn’t know that the Gadirova’s were born in Dublin and are of an Azeri background (courtesy of wikipeida, so maybe not true?)

 

[millyskate]

Well the championships are over. Lovely to see Ukraine walk away with some medals despite Vernaiev being absent / banned.
And three medals for Jessica Gadirova! She was always the bubble gymnast in competition with Morgan and Kinsella for the fourth GB squad place so I guess she’s made her case as convincingly as she could.

 

[allezfred]

Does anyone know why the Russian anthem was allowed to be played here?

 

[floskate]

Jessica Gadirova was fantastic today. So clean and hallelujah a gymnast with actual performance ability!! Cohesive choreo too. I know her sister is the one who has been more heavily favoured up to now but surely this week's performance from Jessica means she'll be on the Olympic team? Christine Still let slip that she's been winning most of the internal trials. Could we realistically see a quartet team of Downie's and Gadirova's in Tokyo?

 

[danafan]

Does anyone know why the Russian anthem was allowed to be played here?

I wondered the same and a friend directed me to the latest FIG bulletin: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/bulletin/Bulletin252/document.pdf

"WADA outcome: During FIG events such as World Cups, the Russian national anthems can be played."

It's from January 27th.

 

[millyskate]

Jessica Gadirova was fantastic today. So clean and hallelujah a gymnast with actual performance ability!! Cohesive choreo too. I know her sister is the one who has been more heavily favoured up to now but surely this week's performance from Jessica means she'll be on the Olympic team? Christine Still let slip that she's been winning most of the internal trials. Could we realistically see a quartet team of Downie's and Gadirova's in Tokyo?

Yes it’s likely but Ellie has been open about big struggles this year and I’m not sure if injuries are involved. It could be whoever is healthy ...
With the GB team selection it’s all about individual medal chances because they are not contenders for a team medal (barring miracle).
Becky is probably the biggest chance. Ellie is only just regaining her vaults on soft landings so who knows if she’ll be ready. The Gadirovas would need upgrades but are outside medal chances on floor and vault (rumour is they have Amanars but GB gymnasts are always very cautious about attempting big vaults in competition even with medals on the line)
The Gadirovas, Morgan and Kinsella are all outside EF chances on beam but unlikely medalists.

So logically, if everyone is healthy enough, the Downie / Gadirova team makes by far the most sense.

 

[mjb52]

Isn't the anthem/flag thing only for World Championships and Olympics?

 

[Braulio]

I think given the UEG is organizing this championships the rule of cancel anything related to Russia/russian didn't apply here

 

[danafan]

It was an olympic qualifier so I was surprised.

 

[Coco]

What did happen to Sarah Voss at Basel? Lots of coverage about her unitard, but did she get injured on beam and have to stop? She only scored a 10.6 there, well below her usual.

 

[danafan]

What did happen to Sarah Voss at Basel? Lots of coverage about her unitard, but did she get injured on beam and have to stop? She only scored a 10.6 there, well below her usual.

I didn't see her routine but I'm guessing she just had a bad day. The score sheet shows 4.8 D and 5.8 E score. If she didn't finish the routine there would have been a neutral deduction of some kind (0.5 for no attempt to dismount for example).

 

[Coco]

Thanks @danafan Did she do FX or UB?

 

[danafan]

Seems she only did vault and beam. I found all the PDFs of results here: https://gymnasticsresults.com/results/2021/euros/index.html
The terrible live results page doesn't have them anymore (I never saw a scoring link so difficult to navigate before)

 

[Coco]

Anyone know what this ominous tweet by Beckie Downie means?

https://twitter.com/Bdownie/status/1388403783118594048

 

[danafan]

Anyone know what this ominous tweet by Beckie Downie means?

https://twitter.com/Bdownie/status/1388403783118594048

This apparently

https://twitter.com/jimnastics2/status/1388794079044059142?s=21

 

[Coco]

Omg ..that is such bullshit.


ETA: and thanks, @danafan for answering all my questions.

 

[millyskate]

Ah yes. A last ditch effort by Colin Still to get Kinsella on the team. (She’s coached by his wife). They have no shame.

 

[floskate]

Ah yes. A last ditch effort by Colin Still to get Kinsella on the team. (She’s coached by his wife). They have no shame.

This is un-fcuking-believable. I hope Becky competes angry and nails it. And I also hope that ITV get wind of this and blow the Still's out of the water. Enough!

 

[FiveRinger]

This is un-fcuking-believable. I hope Becky competes angry and nails it. And I also hope that ITV get wind of this and blow the Still's out of the water. Enough!

I rather enjoy the Downie sisters. I assumed that barring a major catastrophe we'd see both of them in Tokyo. Am I wrong? I don't know much about British gymnastics. I'm am familiar with the Downies, Fragapane, and the Gadirova twins as of late.

 

[millyskate]

I rather enjoy the Downie sisters. I assumed that barring a major catastrophe we'd see both of them in Tokyo. Am I wrong? I don't know much about British gymnastics. I'm am familiar with the Downies, Fragapane, and the Gadirova twins as of late.

The Downies were safe on the team until the Gadirovas came along. Alice Kinsella is a lovely gymnast who has done nothing wrong, but she has long been rumoured to benefit from political support because her coach is the BBC commentator and her husband, who is the subject of multiple ongoing complaints from former gymnasts, heads the selection committee and is a national coach.
There has been some internal animosity against Becky Downie because she only competes two pieces and isn’t super consistent. Some feel Kinsella and Morgan “deserve” the spot more as they do AA. The snag is that Becky does represent GB’s best medal chance as even the Gadirovas will have to hope for other’s mistakes since they have low start values. Alice is a very unlikely medalist.

Christine Still, probably wanting to lobby for a Kinsella selection, dropped on the live euro broadcast that Alice had won a trial. The gymnasts are strictly banned from disclosing trial results (a whole other issue) so this didn’t go down well with other gymnasts on the team and their families.
Gymnasts were supplied with equipment to train on of the same type that will be used in Tokyo, but the trials will be held on gymnova apparatus, a type that Becky is known to struggle with.

Becky appears to feel this is a personal attack on her chances. A lot of people who know the dynamics of BG are not surprised as it fits with the ongoing concern regarding political support for Kinsella. Kinsella trains on gymnova equipment and since her UB routine is a safe one, equipment changes don’t effect her so much anyway.

 

[canbelto]

another disturbing book about the Karolyis:

Bela Karolyi accused of horrific abuse of Nadia Comaneci in new book

Hall of Fame gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and his wife, Martha, face fresh allegations of physical and psychological abuse of young female athletes dating to the 1960s in a newly published book, a…

nypost.com