Somehow I missed this.
My favourite to win the World Gymnastics Championships 2007 was Vanessa Ferrari from Italy.
She had problems.
You won’t believe this video. During the TEAM COMPETITION, the Velcro on one of Vanessa’s hand guards tape grips began to unravel mid-routine.
Instead of jumping off the bars — she finishes the set, dropping the hand guard tape grip. Dismounting with one grip on, one grip off.
What a fighter!
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Thanks Jeremy Mosier.
This reminds me of the psychological toughness of another great World Champion, Ludmilla Tourischeva at 1975 Worlds.
That said … Vanessa and her coaches should be reprimanded for not putting athletic tape (or an elastic) over top the Velcro for the competition routine.
Perhaps she should switch to buckle-on grips rather than Velcro.
UPDATE – Kat on the Gym Chat forum has more on this incident.
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[...] The Longines Award for Amazing Saves: Vanessa Ferrari, uneven bars, team finals. Ferrari, like some of the Ukranians, sports grips that appear to be nothing more than folded bits of tape. One of them actually came off her hand about halfway through her bar routine during finals, and Ferrari, in the middle of her inverts, basically just shakes it off and keeps going. Even though she had to improvise a little bit at the very end of the routine, it was a really nice job on her part. Rick at Gymnastics Coaching has already mentioned this in his blog. To use his words, “What a fighter!” [...]
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