Gymnastic news #22 - Tokyo or bust

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If Marta favoured Aly, she had a reason to - Aly was solid as a rock on three out of four events and was the reigning Olympic champion on FX. She not only regained her previous skills in her comeback from 2012 to 2016, but improved in pretty much all areas despite her comparatively "old age". (I don't think she was old at all, but most gymnasts that age are losing skills rather than gaining them, unless they are superhuman like Simone.)

I don't agree with many of Marta's decisions and definitely don't support her coaching methods, but if I were her, I would have favoured Aly, too.
 
From what I’ve heard, Mihai did a pretty good job of taking care of Aly everywhere outside of the ranch. Perhaps Marta didn’t mess with him.
 
Other than her blip at 2015 Worlds in Glasgow, I can't think of any other time where she was anything other than an absolute rock for the US team at Worlds or Olympics. I love Raisman for that very reason - she was soooo clutch when it came to team events and Marta totally loved her for that. Sure she didn't have much in the way of artistry; terrible feet, poor extension (never much of a concern for Karolyi gymnasts let's be fair), form issues and then some on bars. But she delivered, again and again and again. I totally admire her for that ability, and the fact she came back better than before. She was clearly a very hard worker! Plus she was pretty much unbreakable - Marta's dream come true. Mihai's leg workouts saved Raisman over and over I think, especially on those early amanars! :scream:

This video from the 2010 American Cup sums up Marta's attitude towards Aly brilliantly. I don't think I ever saw Marta this effusive over anyone ever! (There's a better quality vid of the set but it misses out the reactiosn after).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_PdmlgVHBs
 
floskate said:
Other than her blip at 2015 Worlds in Glasgow, I can't think of any other time where she was anything other than an absolute rock for the US team at Worlds or Olympics. I love Raisman for that very reason - she was soooo clutch when it came to team events and Marta totally loved her for that. Sure she didn't have much in the way of artistry; terrible feet, poor extension (never much of a concern for Karolyi gymnasts let's be fair), form issues and then some on bars. But she delivered, again and again and again. I totally admire her for that ability, and the fact she came back better than before. She was clearly a very hard worker! Plus she was pretty much unbreakable - Marta's dream come true. Mihai's leg workouts saved Raisman over and over I think, especially on those early amanars! :scream:

This video from the 2010 American Cup sums up Marta's attitude towards Aly brilliantly. I don't think I ever saw Marta this effusive over anyone ever! (There's a better quality vid of the set but it misses out the reactiosn after).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_PdmlgVHBs
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I totally agree. Aly has never been my favorite gymnast for all of the reasons that you mention. But I admire her as an athlete. She’s got nerves of steel and a competitive drive that you can’t teach. I also admire her tenacity in the Nassau case. She’s not settling, she’s doing everything that she can to force everyone to release the evidence that they have and to do a proper investigation. I respect her as an athlete, a team member and as a person.
 
canbelto said:
I think Aly was the gymnast Marta most favored. She was the kind of solid but boring gymnast in the mold of so many Romanians of the past. She was pretty awful on bars.
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Well she was coached by a Romanian, so ...
 
VGThuy said:
When did Romanians start being lackluster on bars? Generally-speaking.
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I would say the late 1990s/early 2000s. When Romania won the team title at the 2000 Olympics, they had the lowest bars team score in the team final and it's the first time I remember them not having a gymnast in the uneven bars final. After that they managed to have maybe one gymnast at a time on their team who was good on bars (Petrovschi, Sofronie, Nistor). They just stopped keeping up with the trends on that event for whatever reason (although when she was at her best, Iordache was decent on bars and had a routine that kept up with current skill trends).
 
Lisa Mason (who is IMO the best AA gymnast ever produced by Great Britain) has shared a lot of thoughts about her experiences on her instagram - see the saved stories. https://www.instagram.com/lisamasongymnast/?hl=en
There's some coarse language there, but worth listening to. She advocates a minimum age of 18 (I doubt that would get enough support world wide though).
 
Lisa's story was sad to hear. I have constantly and repeatedly heard very similar stories from friends and students who were high-level figure skaters. They would tell terrible stories of coaching abuse, and then when I (or others) would express horror or indignation on their behalf, they would be very surprised and say, "Oh, that's not bad. It's normal; everyone does it. Even the seven-year-olds at the rink get treated like that." It was completely normalized and thought of as something they had to put up with in order to get to international competition. Some of them would even proudly talk about how they were "strong" because they dealt with these experiences regularly and didn't flinch, let alone report it to an adult.
 
It sounds as though Lisa is ready to throw a grenade under British Gymnastics! Interesting this because given it was a British official or coach that reported Maggie Haney at the Birmingham World Cup for her verbal abuse of Riley McCusker, and the fact that it was said such behaviour by a British coach would result in some form of discipline - I can't remember the wording, I had (wrongly) presumed that British Gymnastics had a tighter moral compass. Obviously I was way off the mark. :(
 
Denmark withdraws from hosting the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships: https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/news/displaynews.php?idNews=2917

(Dates were October 18-24 in Copenhagen, just over two months after the conclusion of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.)

ETA:
www.insidethegames.biz

Denmark withdraws as hosts of 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

Denmark has withdrawn as hosts of the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, the FIG has announced.
www.insidethegames.biz www.insidethegames.biz
No reason has been given for the DIF's withdrawal, which forces the worldwide body to find a new host for the 50th edition of its flagship event outside of the Olympic Games.
...
The DIF's withdrawal comes at a uncertain time for all sport worldwide amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It represents a considerable blow to the FIG, which has been put in tough position as the event had been due to open in just over 15 months' time.
...
The Artistic World Championships are held every year, except for Olympic years.
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ITV has just led it's evening news once more with the British gymnastics scandal. BG have just announced an independent investigation:

https://www.british-gymnastics.org/...ritish-gymnastics-announce-independent-review

ITV interviewed a former gymnast called Margaux Derakhshan. Her story was featured in the blog I posted upthread but you can read it in full here:

http://innermagic.co.uk/margauxs-story-a-gymnast-finally-speaks-out/

Margaux trained at Heathrow Gymnastics Club who have also come under the spotlight in tonights news. Margaux's post is also on facebook and currently visible to all as far as I know. In the comments she was essentially gaslighted by former gymnasts who are now coaches at Heathrow.
 
Coco said:
Random...but does anyone know the name of the music used for the 1985-1988 FX compulsory routine?
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André Gagnon, Mouvements: troisième.

www.youtube.com

Mouvements-Troisième

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises Mouvements-Troisième · André Gagnon Mouvements ℗ 1979 Les Éditions musicales AGM (Licence exclusive Audiogram)...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Coco said:
I have the utmost respect for Maggie, but it's almost offensive to argue that.. by default... Douglas didn't deserve her spot.

Skinner was the unlucky one, but she was probably 'banned' in Martha's eyes after her 3 fall beam at Nationals. And as others have noted, Douglas filled a relative void on UB

Nichols not doing AA in 2015 World's prelims ... I'll have to look at scores to see if that was dubious, but that was really what did her in. She was behind Douglas from that point on and if you are trying to pass someone, you need to make a much stronger case.

She was treated horribly, but not robbed.

The apparent lack of transparency in selection must make life so much harder for all of the young women who don't make the team.

I know Alicia felt robbed in 2012, as did Ashley Wagner in 2018. Being in a judged sport must be enough to make you go mental.

Does anyone remember how Douglas had to fire Kittia Carpenter to be placed on the team? That all happened the same day.
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I think for Maggie to have made the 2016 Oly team the only way she was going to do it was to knock off Aly Raisman, who people seem to be thinking was the 2nd biggest lock after Biles, which she probably was by the time of the Games. However I see people mentioning Douglas, Hernandez, Kocian, but given her skill set her literal only scenario to make the team would have been knocking off Raisman, as tough as that is. Those others would have had to be knocked off by someone else.

Douglas and Kocian are both needed for bars where Maggie is no difference maker. Hernandez is infinitely stronger than Maggie on beam, and was hands down a top 2 U.S beam worker alongside Simone, and that combined with solid bars and floor ensured her spot. Maggie was basically just a vault and floor specialist and the U.S already had a ton of strength on those events. Her only way to make it would have to have been so strongly she knocked off Raisman as 2nd best vaulter/floor worker. And to do that she would have had to have been way stronger than even 2015, majorly cleaning up her Amanar and bigtime upgrading her tumbling, since Raisman had her Amanar back and despite how messy it was it was scoring huge, and was even back to being solid on beam after being weak in 2015. Probably a near impossible task even without her injury.
 
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Coco said:
Thanks, @Choupette !!!
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You are welcome! :) I had forgotten the title, but figured it would come back to me while taking a look at the compositor's discography. It's huge, but as I suspected, I didn't search too long before it triggered my memory.

I remember my huge surprise when I found out it had been composed by someone from my province! I can only recognize an extremely limited number of pieces from Gagnon's repertoire and with this piece having been stripped of all instruments but the piano, apparently by the Soviets, there was no way in the world I would ever have suspected the compulsory music was his. It no longer sounded like a style I could identify him with. However, Gagnon has had a lot of success internationally, so it is not unexpected that his music made its way to the USSR. :)

I wonder how much that brought him in music rights (just out of curiosity, because I'm sure money wasn't a problem for him).
 
Coco said:
That's a good question. I mean, it got a lot of air time during compulsories!
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Yes, and for several years. You just got me thinking: it's most probably a coincidence, but the first world championships which would have used this music took place in 1985, in Montreal: same province as the composer.
 
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