Gymnastic news #22 - Tokyo or bust

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pollyanna said:
ITA, except I’m not being facetious.
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I think that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I will go back and rewatch old gymnastics events, but I stay away from that one in particular. Just a horrible thing to witness. Knowing those girls had to train their whole lives and endure the abuse and sacrifices we have learned are unfortunately inherent in the sport to go through that travesty.
 
The only thing I liked about Sydney was Liu Xuan winning beam.

Was it Dong Fangxiao or Yang Yun (or both) who was underage at the time?
 
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Loves_Shizuka said:
The only thing I liked about Sydney was Liu Xuan winning beam.

Was it Dong Fangxiao or Yang Yun (or both) who was underage at the time?
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I think it was actually both but only Dong Fangxiao has been officially cited as being underaged. I loved both their FXs at those Olympics. I also remember Dong Fangxiao's dance leaps and jumps were super high and there was never any doubt she made the full rotations/completed them. I remember when the 2001-2004 code came into effect and every gymnast was having trouble making those jumps around and were scoring like 9.400 at best (but averaging like 8.800-9.300) on FX at 2001 Worlds, there was one competition that season (University Games) where I saw that Fangxiao's FX score hit 9.612 whereas the other medalists hit 9.350 and 9.187 and rest scored in the 9.000 to all the way down to 8.400. By Athens, hitting past 9.700 on FX was like hitting a 10.000. It seemed if she stayed healthy her ability to leap and jump would have helped her a lot. I also remember the Rybecki gymnasts at the time being noted for being able to hit their leaps all the way around.
 
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I'm halfway through the latest Gymcastic podcast which is a requested commision and based on the 2000 WAG TF. Interesting listening! The AA was the biggest embarrassment for the FIG until Athens Men's AA. Really not my favourite time in gymnastics and it wasn't until 2007 that I really got back into the sport. However when I think of Sydney I think of Raducan's robbery - give her the damn medal already - and I think that Ekaterina Lobazniuk should have won beam, even if she did take a little nap before the standing arabian ;) but politically I guess there was NO way they were going to let Russia win all four event finals.
 
Except for one or two moments, Athens should be categorized as Melba Toast. Sydney was a convoluted mess. It was a relief when they finally concluded - and I love the Olys, but...
 
The code during the Athens cycle made no sense to me especially when a FX from Cheng Fei would never beat Ponor despite Ponor’s hideous form and more basic tumbling.
 
VGThuy said:
The code during the Athens cycle made no sense to me especially when a FX from Cheng Fei would never beat Ponor despite Ponor’s hideous form and more basic tumbling.
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Well Cheng Fei didn't hit her routine in event finals. So it is hard to say for sure. I think it would be possible if she hit her routine perfectly. The 10 era was all about deductions and getting a 10 start value.

I think Fei and Dos Santos are the two who could have beaten Ponor for the floor gold if they hit but neither did. Dos Santos did at the 2003 worlds already, so I see no reason why she couldn't again in Athens.
 
canbelto said:
Another good thing about Sydney was Zamo's floor.

www.youtube.com

Yelena Zamolodchikova - 2000 Olympics EF - Floor Exercise

Yelena Zamolodchikova - 2000 Olympics EF - Floor Exercise
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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I actually think Zamo was an Americano style Russian. Lots of difficulty, not the best form or toe point, loose in the knees and foot alignment, quick, jerky movement style, but tons of energy. And that floor routine was very US in music and choreo.

Wish they’d have invalidated AA and gone with the qualifying AA scores. Khorkina, Raducan, Amanar would be about right. They’d never do it, but that’s how I think of Sydney.

Later, Yang Yun admitted she was 14, but they never found sufficient evidence. They did find evidence on Dong Fangxiao.
 
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sonsofanarchy said:
Well Cheng Fei didn't hit her routine in event finals. So it is hard to say for sure. I think it would be possible if she hit her routine perfectly. The 10 era was all about deductions and getting a 10 start value.

I think Fei and Dos Santos are the two who could have beaten Ponor for the floor gold if they hit but neither did. Dos Santos did at the 2003 worlds already, so I see no reason why she couldn't again in Athens.
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I’m going by the way they were scored all competition. Cheng Fei was maxing out at mid-to-high 9.60 as was Dos Santos. The judges salivated over Ponor and were giving her 9.7+s. Not all deductions were given equally nor was the code adequate in recognizing tumbling difficulty and rewarding form. I’ll just leave at that.

Rob said:
I actually think Zamo was an Americano style Russian. Lots of difficulty, not the best form or toe point, loose in the knees and foot alignment, quick, jerky movement style, but tons of energy. And that floor routine was very US in music and choreo.

Wish they’d have invalidated AA and gone with the qualifying AA scores. Khorkina, Raducan, Amanar would be about right. They’d never do it, but that’s how I think of Sydney.

Later, Yang Yun admitted she was 14, but they never found sufficient evidence. They did find evidence on Dong Fangxiao.
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Zamo’s FX was supposed to have her being a spy I think (as was Karpenko’s unintentionally depressing music I also think) but it seemed like a more coherent and accessible version of Gutsu’s traffic cop FX. I’m glad she won because I don’t think Khorkina should have been the floor Olympic champ with that tumbling and posing, but man was Zamo’s twisting form fug.
 
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Cătălina stole the show and managed to overshadow the AA with her haul of gold medals. Yes, the judges loved her, and she could basically do no wrong @ Athens. People were joking she should have just competed in the AA or tried for the sweep, at least. The judges were pretty accomodating, so it would not have been too far-fetched.
 
Ponor could probably outscore Patterson on each of vault, beam, floor, so if she could somehow muster a 9.4 bars routine or something (Patterson had a 9.575) yes she could have won the AA. Not sure how realistic that is for her though.
 
I love watching anything that ties Ponor and Nastia even indirectly interacting since you can tell both are just gigantic bee-tches of the biggest kind.
 
I usually think ice dance divas from yesteryear are the divas of all divas, but I wonder what would happen if we put them face-to-face with the likes of Boginskaya and Khorkina and other gymnastics divas. I will say catching up on Boginskaya's recent interviews and social media and such...she seems like such a supportive sweetheart. She's also so eloquent and smart too.
 
Boginskaya is a diva who does have her diva moments and obvious poor sportsmanship at times (eg her comments about Kim winning 91 AA only since it was in the U.S which I 100% agree on but still was bigtime diva moment), but is also a class act overall. Rare and refreshing. Khorkina is just the opposite. Khorkina makes Pasha Gritschuk or Barbara Fusar Poli look like a sweetheart.
 
canbelto said:
My favorite Gym Diva is Aliya. I could look at her eyeshadow all day. She;s just so badass.
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Oh, no, kidding! Aliya was in charge of that show, for sure. She could lead her coach around by the nose all day long and did. As a matter of fact, it appeared that she once came very close to making him cry. I'm completely serious about that. She had pushed him out of the way, and he just gave her a wounded puppy look. It was something to behold, shocking and sad, but Aliya and her coach went back and forth like that.

Yes, perfect eyeshadow and not one hair out of place, ever. Diva extraordinaire! :drama:

Girl would kick ass and take names. Aliya made Svetlana look like Pollyanna.
 
Yes I think Aliya is friendly with her competitors. Like Larissa Iordache. Divas do not need to be mean. They simply rule. I remember in the lead up to Rio, Aliya was quoted as saying it would be very difficult to beat Simone in the AA because her D score is so huge. Not that it would be difficult to beat her because the Olympics are in the America’s.
 
Things are a little different now though - the era in which Slutskaya competed was more openly highly politicized and nationalistic. I don't think her comments were in good taste, but I don't think it's totally fair to elide that difference and how it might have affected her thoughts. The way American commentators talked about Russian competitors in the 90s and early 00s at times was really something else.
 
Rob said:
Yes I think Aliya is friendly with her competitors. Like Larissa Iordache. Divas do not need to be mean. They simply rule. I remember in the lead up to Rio, Aliya was quoted as saying it would be very difficult to beat Simone in the AA because her D score is so huge. Not that it would be difficult to beat her because the Olympics are in the America’s.
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Khorkina would not be dumb enough to say because it was in the America's for Biles. She is fine saying something like for Patterson who isn't even that great a gymnast anyway and she knows she can get many people on board with. She would instead say since she takes so many steroids based on her other comments, as she is looking to cheapen Biles's abilities through that method.
 
Khorkina is vile and the "She's my hero for ignoring political correctness and speaking bluntly!" comments on the English translation of her interview are possibly even more disgusting.
 
This video popped up in my YouTube notifications... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZu...=&feature=push-sd&attr_tag=aAuZ8Tm1m9T_gGiq:6 It's just clips of Chellsie, Simone, Becky Downie and Flavia doing various skills. What strikes me as such a positive is how strong and powerful these women look! I've been watching old gymnastics events and it's scary to look back on how undernourished so many of the gymnasts looked in prior decades.

I'm finally reading Aly Raisman's book (Fierce). I'm only about half way done, but there were some things she mentioned that were cringe inducing - ie. the pizza party in Italy following the World Championships where someone from USAG saw her take a slice of pizza, and told here they better not ever see her trying to eat pizza again! :yikes: :scream: :lynch: At least it sounds like Brestyan as well as Aly's parents promoted healthy eating (fuel your body with good nutrition) and sleep.

I wish I could remember which event I was watching (during the Boginskaya days) and the commentators made such cringe worthy and downright frightening comments about athlete's size and weight. :mad: It's hard to watch some of the older stuff.
 
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