Yup I said it, I'm starting to like the leaps/Jump out of tumbles. At first I wasn't used to leaps out of backwards tumbles but I have gotten used to it. At first I hated them with a passion but it does make gymnastics more exciting. I like how explosive some of the leaps are. I like getting caught off guard then BAM a nice huge leap or Jump. But of course it must be well performed and not look dodgy.
I read on tumblr via uchimura-kohei that Uchimura is planning to get married. He had already planned this before the Olympics. If this is true news, then congratulations Kohei! I will be following this news. Original source.
I really like Ponor's 2004 floor routine. I think the music and choreo was perfect for her. I didn't like her 2012 floor routine because the music was honestly lame and her choreography was weak and overly sexualized that it didn't feel artistic, just cheap looking.
Now you all might think I'm a hater but I'm not. I guess I'm just a harsh critic. There's just something about her 2012 floor music and choreography that screamed amateur. But her tumbling was exceptional and I am a fan of Ponor. I loved how she stuck her DLO and dbl pike. What a pro.
In 2012 she had nothing to prove to anyone. She was already a triple Olympic gold medalists. I was very happy that she could still be competing for Romania at her age. She came back to help her team. I'm glad she won bronze with her teammates in London. She also did a good executed floor routine for 2nd place in London (I wish fans would stop saying she deserved gold, she did not deserved gold). I was disappointed that she had major mistakes in beam finals. She could have won gold but it wasn't meant to be.
I think her most famous piece of choreography has to be this:
Okay so I've seen some videos. I'm only going to quickly talk about the Chinese and Russians. I was really impressed by the Chinese and very disappointed with the Russians. I'm not really feeling the Russian juniors. The Russians still have time to peak and get in top form but I hate to say it, they are the biggest chuckers. I'm not really impressed by the Russian juniors. They could get better, they need to work on their execution ASAP! I feel like the new up and coming Russians will not be dominate in the next quad. I think most of their seniors will have to stick around for awhile. I could be totally wrong though. China on the other hand looks pretty great. They at least do skills they can handle.
I'm really liking Liu Zhilin's beam combo. Wolf + aerial cartwheel. It's a really creative combination. I don't think anyone else has done that combo before? It's worth nothing in this code but in the new code it will be eligible for the Acro + Dance connection value = 0.1.
I was not impressed by any of the Russians. Check out new 2013 senior Evgeniya Shelgunova's uneven bars. Oh the horror! She could improve so I guess I'll just have to wait and see how she does next year. This was a massive upgrade routine for Shelgunova.
Viktoria Kuzmina did an interesting bar routine for a Russian. She did an Ono pirouette, she has potential. Hopefully she can maintain the hard pirouette. She reminds me of Kurbatova. Kurbatova couldn't maintain her hard pirouettes so hopefully Kuzmina can. Kuzmina also has the exact same floor music as Kurbatova check it out:
Hopefully the Russians can improve on their beam and floor too. I just think they are rushing things. Maria Kharenkova who will be a senior in 2014 won floor EF. I'm not really feeling it:
Anna Dementyeva is slowing coming back. She recently competed in Spain at the Memorial Joaquim Blume Cup. She won AA with 56.600, full results @ IG. She looked A LOT more better than when she competed at the Mexican Cup.
Her vault is still weak. She can decently still perform well on bars. Hopefully she can bring back her full bar difficulty. Her double layout dismount is a big concern for me though. She shouldn't be doing a double layout anymore, she can't handle it. She has grown up a lot and her body cannot handle a DLO dismount. She needs to work hard on finding a new dismount or she's going to have to do "C" dismounts. The DLO will cost her a lot of execution and potential injury problems.
Her balance beam execution is still decent. She still has great lines. I think if she really wants to make it to another worlds she has to get this event consistent. She has the most potential on beam. She just needs to do a lot of repetition. Again though, her 3/1 twists dismount is scary. I wish that her coaches would be more responsible and give her skills that she can perform well. Her 3/1 twists was not close to being completed. Why not just go with a 5/2 twists? Or do the dismount with no combination. I'm scared for the health of some of the Russian gymnasts sometimes.
On floor Dementyeva was okay. I'm still hoping she can improve on this event. She brought back the two whips indirect to 3/1 full and nicely did 5/2 + layout. Her Memmel spin is gorgeous. I liked how someone in the audience gave her a loud whistle for a well done Memmel turn :). She was lacking in the choreography department though. She took out a lot of her choreography :(. I think she will have new floor music and choreography for 2013.
Videos courtesy from Sarah Daunay YouTubeYou can watch more videos of Dementyeva at her YouTube channel. Or please click to read more after the jump.
The YouTube Olympic channel has a new montage about Li Ning called The "Little Prince of Gymnastics" is born - Ning Li - Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. You can read more about this great Chinese gymnast @ http://www.olympic.org/ning-li
The Olympic YouTube channel does not allow embedding. You can watch the montage HERE.
Li Ning is one of the most popular gymnast from China. He is known as the little prince of gymnastics 体操王子/體操王子. He was the most decorated Chinese gymnast at the 1984 Olympics. It was China's first time competing at the Olympic games. He is now the owner of his own sportswear company called Li Ning. It's basically like Nike or Adidas.
It's fun to watch old gymnastic videos of popular gymnasts from the past. It's good to learn about gymnastic history. There is a Li Ning documentary on YouTube that should interest some gymnastic fans. There are English subtitles, enjoy:
Another video I watched on YouTube was his 1984 floor routine. Wow the height on his tumbles.
As you all already know the North Koreans are back and allowed to compete in major gymnastic competitions. Their federation was banned for 2 years after they were caught falsifying some of their gymnasts ages. They are currently competing at the 5th Asian Championships in Putian, China.
The difficulty of their vaults are insane. In event finals Hong did the Amanar and Cheng vault. Even though she fell on the Amanar it was decent and clean enough, she was a teeny bit short and so she had to take a fall. She did not win this event. As soon as I find results I will edit/update.
Ri Se Gwang still does his incredibly hard vault. It is named after him, a Tsuk 1/1 twist dbl tuck. I read on gymnasticscoachingthat he qualified 1st to event finals and his second vault was a piked Dragulescu.
This is my first time seeing NBC's Olympic gymnastics coverage. Uploader gabrielmcdonough has been uploading the NBC clips to youtube. They might get deleted so I suggest that people who have never seen the NBC coverage to check them out. Although they are only clips of routines it's still interesting to hear the American commentators perspective (I hate them and I feel sorry for the Americans who have to listen to them and I do realize that the woman commentator is Canadian, she's annoying.)
I'm still surprised that Maroney fell on her second vault. She was the best female vaulter at the Olympics. The whole female vault finals at the Olympics was UGLY! I have nothing against Izbasa but her vaults were not really impressive, but I'm glad she walked away with the gold medal. I truly believed she won because she never fell. I still think Paseka was lucky to have been credit a Amanar. I just wished that the vault finals could have been more clean. But I do respect that these women work very hard to achieve these vaults.
This is my all time favourite gymnastic spin, the Semenova. In the dance world it is known as the attitude spin. P.S check out the dude waving in the background, LOL!! He's famous for being in a gif now :D
Thanks to a very kind anon I was informed 5 days ago that Russia's 2013 Universiade team will be Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva and Kristina Goryunova. It's great that I have kind anon readers giving me information even though I do read other blogs for news. I read it first on Examiner but thanks to the anon for informing me. The kind anon asked me to do a D-score breakdown of Goryunova's beam and floor routines. I have finally got the chance to check out the links the anon gave me. They were all recent videos from the 2012 Moscow Championships.
I'm going to start with her floor routine because I do not know what exactly she does in her routine. I do not know what her first spin is. Although her routine is a lot like Afanasyeva's there are subtle differences that actually makes a big difference in the d-score. Goryunova's floor difficulty is too low unless she upgrades it. She could try to do a 3/1 after the whips but I have never seen her do a 3/1 twists before. Also her third pass could use some combo upgrade. I cannot give a d-score for the routine because some parts are missing, sorry anon. But here is what she does:
