Happy 20th Birthday Viktoria Komova

One of my favourite bar routine from her, London 2012 team finals.

 

Top Beam E-Scores From London 2012 Team Finals

These are some of my favourite beam routines from London. These beam routines all had execution scores over 9.0. I enjoyed the commentary for Afan's beam routine. I especially like the slow motion replays of her skills. She is precise on her leaps and I like how aggressive she does the split leap 1/1. Hopefully Afan can get back to this level of consistency on beam. Her E-score 9.033:
Catalina Ponor got the highest E-score of 9.116. Last year I said this was one of my favourite beam routine of the 09-12 quad. I like how she is aggressive and she truly connects everything. Her dbl pike dismount is really nice. We rarely see well performed dbl pikes like that:

Then there is Kyla Ross. Many people consider her boring and I can see why but I really enjoy her routines. She is so clean and precise. I mean how can a switch ring + back tuck be boring? Too bad she doesn't do it anymore, plus the bonus is only one tenth. She is also very consistent which is always a good thing. I wished she had made EF on beam over Raisman. Too bad that Ross got pushed out of EF because of the 2 per country rule. Her E-score 9.033:

The United States of Amanar

: D I have to admit the Americans were amazing at London's team finals! When they came out and nailed all their Amanar vaults I just knew it would be their gold medal. They were aggressive and confident. They rocked it that night.

All Canadian London Olympic Team Final Routines

Today is Canada Day so I thought I'll post these routines up. This Canadian team made history when they were the first Canadian team to finish in an impressive 5th place. I was so happy to see our team do so good. They had no major errors. They began their rotation on floor and ended on beam. Their combined total was 170.804.

Videos are from gabrielmcdonough 

NBC Olympic Gymnastic Coverage (video clips)

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.

Montage - You Don't Know Me but Here I Am

Here's a montage made by GymnasticInTheHeart 

These gymnasts deserves recognition too.

2012 Team Russia Forever

Montage made by SuperGymmie

Just Because

Deng Linlin's Olympic gold beam finals gif. That's FF (B) + BHS (B) + Layout (E) + Korbut (B), 0.3 connection value. Huge difficulty.

(Source: monigymnastics.tumblr)

Ksenia Afanasyeva's beam combo. Onodi (D) + Side-Somi (D), 0.1 connection value. It took her awhile to perfect that combo. She had always had trouble making the connection but finally mastered it.

 (Source: monigymnastics.tumblr)

He Kexin's Uneven bars. I can never get tired of the Li Ya (Jaeger mixed grip) to Jaeger. That's E + D for 0.2 connection value. Not to mention that she does it after two very difficult pirouette skills. Healy (E) + Ling (E) + Li Ya (E) + Jaeger (D) for 0.6 connection value! I'm probably the only one who likes the E + E pirouettes, they are beautiful and very very difficult to master. Some people are celebrating that it might be removed in the new code but I'll miss it. Sometimes it can make a gymnast look very elegant on bars.

 (Source: monigymnastics.tumblr)

Afanasyeva's '12 Olympic Floor Final Routine

Not a bad routine except for the out of bounds. In fact on the BBC slow motion feed she didn't even go out of bounds on the double layout. The BBC commentators even noted that she might have not been out of bounds on the double layout, she got deducted for it though. Regardless, it was not a medal worthy performance with the 1/1 twist being completely out of bounds. In a recent interview about her gymnastic future career she stated that if everyone went perfect in the Olympic floor finals she could have only place as high as second place. This clearly means that she thinks no one could of touched Raisman if Raisman went perfect. It's going to be hard for a lot of gymnasts to beat Raisman in the new quad. Raisman will benefit a lot from the new floor rules.

NBC Olympic Commentators are Dicks

Saw this video via: jovialgymfan.tumblr 

I haven't seen the full NBC coverage of gymnastics yet but from viewing short gymnastics video clips I can say that they butchered the scoring system.

I see that they do this, Max difficulty: 16.500 - Deductions: 1.500 = 15.000. Ok technically it gives you the correct score but who came up with this idea? I really hate NBC!

The correct way is Difficulty 6.5 + Execution 8.5 = 15.000. Every country did it this way and this is the FIG way in the rule book. All Americans must be very confuse at the scoring system, thanks to NBC. They just make gymnastics more confusing.

Поздравляем России

Поздравляем Ксения Афанасьева, Анастасия Гришина, Виктория Комова, Алия Мустафина и Мария Пасека

Congratulations to Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anastasia Grishina, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina and Maria Paseka 2nd place team. One of the most artistic team at the Olympic games. Thank you for showing us that artistry still exists in gymnastics. Also congratulations to all the coaches and choreographers of the Russian team for making a wonderful team. It was fun watching the Russian team. There were some disappointments but on the bright side, everyone got a medal. Please keep up the tradition of elegance & artistry. You know what they say, ...second the best!

(Source: hope-strongerthanfear)

(Source: starkofwinterfell)

Gymnastics Olympic Event Finals Day 3

I'm really excited about this finals. The gentlemen will compete on parallel bars and high bar. The ladies will be on beam and floor exercise. The event finals will begin live at 9:00 AM EDT. Good luck to all the ladies and gentlemen. Start list: CLICK HERE  

The competition will start in about 6min I'm watching it live here: BBC

EDIT 1:

FULL RESULTS
1) Feng Zhe (CHN) Very high difficulty 7.0. Good clean stuff.
2) Marcel Nguyen (GER) Good difficulty 6.8 and difficult Tsuk dismount.
3) Hamilton Sabot (FRA) Good 6.7 difficulty and very clean routine.

EDIT 2: FULL RESULTS

This was a weird competition. Too many mistakes. Thank you China for being awesome. Afanasyeva showed GOOD SPORTS-MANSHIP. Ponor wining third is a travesty. I was rooting for Raisman to take 3rd. What a shame! Ponor was too wobbly and had many many execution faults. This will be one of the most controversial event finals. Congrats to the daredevil Deng Linlin, you rock. I thought Sui should have won but hey China 1-2, cheer up Sui.

1) Deng Linlin (CHN)
2) Sui Lu (CHN)
3) Catalina Ponor (ROM)
3) Aly Raisman (USA)

Edit 3: Raisman in 3rd Catalina in 4th. WTF this final was crazy. What is wrong with the judges! Get it right the first time!

EDIT 4: Oh god Sui Lu is such a DIVA!

EDIT 5: What an AMAZING high bar final! One of the best in history. Zonderland finally gets a well deserved gold medal. Hambuechen really stepped it up I'm happy for his silver. Zou in 3rd.

1) Epke Zonderland 2) Fabian Hambuechen 3) Zou Kai FINAL RESULTS

EDIT 6:

1)ALY RAISMAN. She is so powerful and such a phenomenal tumbler. Powerful gymnastics is just as beautiful as artistic and elegant gymnastics. Raisman may not be elegant but her attitude and determination is beautiful. She is a class act. She has such a difficult routine it's crazy. She finally gets a well deserved GOLD! It's really easy to like Raisman as a person. She seems like such a nice girl. Congratulation Aly Raisman :)

2) Ponor did a wonderful job. She had two stuck landing on DLO and dbl Pike. She really fought out there for a medal. I may not like her routine but she deserved this silver. She's freaking 24! Cool.

3) ALIYA MUSTAFINA! I somehow knew she could do it. She is a born champion. She just knows how to compete. I'm happy she got this. We at least got to see grace and elegance on medal. Mustafina is boss and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in the next quad.

6) Afanasyeva. Once a headcase, always a headcase. I knew it was coming. She majorly went out of bounds on her third pass. She stuck her triple full from connections though :D. It wasn't meant to be Afan. She's still a wonderful gymnast.

8) Izbasa - I was rooting for her to take gold if Afan couldn't do it. She failed on her last pass. Everything else was going good though. It was really unexpected. Hey she has a vault gold LOL and she still has her 2008 floor gold.

FULL RESULTS

Afanasyeva For 2012 FX Gold Part 2

Imagine if Afanasyeva wore the famous yellow and black jumpsuit by Bruce Lee in the floor finals? I would die of joy if she did. It would be a perfect leo for her. I'm not saying she will wear something like that but it would be a cool idea. Afan has one of the most unique floor routine this entire quad. Not everyone will get it but I think a lot of younger people will. I won't be completely devastated if she doesn't win or medal.
The fact that she made it to another Olympics and deservingly qualified to her best events is mind blowing. I've never thought she could be so consistent and solid on beam. I knew she was beautiful to watch on beam but to hit her beam routines consistently is somewhat rare for her (the Russians never use her on beam in team finals until now). And let's talk about the double layout. It's huge and in your face. Let's not forget about the synchronized swimming choreo too, a lot fans loves that part.
She's my pick for floor gold. I don't have high expectations because I don't want to have any heartbreak meltdown. She will go up first in the finals. This means she will have to do her best and give the judges a first good impression. LET'S GOLD KSENIA AFANASYEVA!

Gymnastics Olympic Event Finals Day 2

This event will feature men's rings and vault. The women's will be the uneven bars. Good luck to all the competitors. I'm watching the BBC live coverage.

Rings: 1) Zanetti 2) Chen 3) Morandi - I'm obviously disappointed for Chen but silver at the Olympics is still awesome. Zanetti did a great job, it was a beautiful style with some very nice difficult strength moves. Congrats Zanetti. Morandi takes a well deserved bronze. RINGS RESULTS

Uneven Bars: 1) MUSTAFINA!!!!!!!!!! 2) He, 3) Tweddle - ALIYA MUSTAFINA DID IT! She finally gets a gold medal for a beautiful routine. She is the boss. I'm very happy with the results. He Kexin proves that she is still one of the best bars worker in the world. I'm very happy for He Kexin :). Beth tweddle had little trouble with her dbl dbl dismount and had to take a huge hop back. Tweddle still did good and should be proud with the bronze. I'm happy for her. This bars finals was one of the best finals. Every single women hit their routine except for Douglas. Great stuff. BAR RESULTS

Vault: 1) YANG HAK SEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2) Ablyazin 3) Radivilov
Yang's 3/1 FHS could have been landed better but the massive difficulty is insane. 3/1 twists and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN form. His second vault was even more beautiful 3/1 Tsuk with beautiful stuck landing. This makes me incredibly happy. Congrats to all the medalists. VAULT RESULTS

Just Because...

Good luck Chen Yibing and Yang Hak Seon.

Good Luck Beth Tweddle!

This whole Olympics has been crazy!!!!!!!! I'm still rooting for Tweddle. It would be a dick move if I just stopped rooting for her. I can't help it. It's so easy to root for her.
Bars final will be very interesting to watch. So many talented ladies. I love Komova and Mustafina on bars. I feel like such a shitty Russian fan because I'd rather Tweddle win, oh well. Now if Tweddle doesn't make it I'll be rooting for the Russians. In fact I want this Tweddle/Mustafina/Komova.
I just hope the bars finals will be a clean competition, please hit ladies.

Gymnastics Olympic Event Finals Day 1, Part 2

The competition will start in about 5 minutes. I'll be watching here live: BBC

EDIT 1: HELL YEAH, Zou Kai! He was on today on floors. Uchimura had tooo many twists but at least they were CLEAN, I'm happy he won silver. No more event finals for Uchimura. Russia's Ablyazin had a pretty sick routine, congrats to him. Floor Results

Women's vault finals was a DIRTY competition. I felt so sorry for the majority of the ladies. Especially for Maroney. What a sad day. I thought she had it. Honestly, I thought she had still won even with the fall but it wasn't meant to be. I'm happy that Izbasa won but I hate to be a downer but she was pretty scrappy and her vaults weren't really pretty. She didn't fall so she deserved her win. I really want to see her step it up in floor finals though. I would be more happy for her on floor if she wins. OK so Maria Paseka's Amanar was not fully rotated and she had huge landing problems but got third, oh well that's the COP. Vault Results

In Pommel Horse finals Smith and Berki tied but Berki won with the better execution. Berki was truly the cleaner gymnast. He floats much better than a heavy and a bit laboured Smith. Congrats to all the medalists.

PH Results

Gymnastics Olympic Event Finals Day 1, Part 1

This competition will start tomorrow at 9:00 AM EDT time. It will feature the men's floor exercise and pommel horse. The women will only have their vault finals.  Each event will only have 8 competitors. The best 8 gymnasts went through a grueling process to qualify to an event. They will vie for a gold medal as a specialists. I love the event finals. 

Floor: can go in anyway. I would love for Kohei Uchimura to do his double triple tuck, yes double triple tuck or known as the Ri jong Song. It's a crazy skill worth 7 tenths. I'm not expecting him to do well if he goes all out. He has already won his most important gold medal (AA) and that's all that counts IMHO.

There is Zou Kai from China. He's not liked much by fans but he will be one of the strongest competitors. He is really good on floor.

Koczi of Romania has good difficulty but way toooooo much twisting combos with even worse form than Zou IMO. He got a pretty good score in prelims.

There is also the stylish Gonzalez and fan girl favourite Dalton. Uchimura and Zou will go up 1-2 first, so they will both have to be almost perfect and impress the judges.
_______________________

Vault: I'm all about Maroney. She must win the vault title. She has IMO the best Amanar in the world. She will have some competition IMO from Izbasa, Paseka and Chusovitina. Yamilet Pena Abreu is also another fierce competitor. She can do a tucked double front vault (Produnova) but she usually falls on it and sometimes doesn't get credit. It will be interesting to see if she can land the Produnova in finals. Also shout out to Black and Rogers from Canada for making the finals.
_______________________

Pommel Horse: It will definitely be all about Smith VS Berki. I really don't care about this event. Wouldn't it be cool if Tommasone won? Allez allezTommasone, sorry I couldn't resist.

Start List for tomorrow:  CLICK HERE
I'll be watching live coverage here: BBC

Women's Olympic All-Around Finals

I'll be watching BBC coverage. Competition starts live in about 18min at 11:30 AM EDT. I'm not heavily invested in this competition. I'll be cheering for Komova and Douglas. Mustafina is a sentimental favourite so I'll be watching out for her too. Oh and then there is Iordache. I'm hoping she can stay up there too. She hasn't had the best Olympic experience so far. As for Deng and Huang I have no hope, I just want them to hit. If they both hit, they're already winners in my book. Good luck to all the ladies and pleaseeeeeee make it a clean competition.

EDIT 1: GABBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well deserved GOLD! This is amazing. You are the best. You are 1# Olympic AA Gold. So happy right now.

So disappointed for Komova. Just wasn't enough. She should be happy because of the silver. What I liked about her tonight was that she fought for her floor. Even she knew it wasn't enough. The judges made the right decisions.

Aliya freakin' Mustafina is BOSS! She still got 3rd with a fall. I am happy for her.

Tonight there was inspiration and history in the making.

Results: CLICK HERE

I'm going to watch the live medal ceremony. It's on right now  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2zwy

EDIT 2: Yeah, Huang and Deng hit, lol. Good job girls.

Just Because

Good luck Gabby!