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October 20th, 2009 | beam, Gymnastics, Olympics
Who is the top gymnast in the world today?
Rebecca Bross.
She’s got the highest AA start value for difficulty. And it’s only going to get higher over the coming years.
Click PLAY or watch her Beam from AA Finals on YouTube.
No, Rebecca is not my favourite gymnast. But this code of points favours girls who are tough and consistent. Gymnasts like Shawn Johnson and Rebecca Bross.
Rebecca’s got a smart coach in Valeri.
She’s the girl to beat.
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9 comments ↓
Getting your Kanye West act ready for Holloween?
Unfortunately Becca is not consistent. She has had a fall or two at every meet this year. She is strong though!
She is only young though! She will improve with experience. Love the way Sloan in the background can’t watch the performance!!
She reminds me a lot of Carly Patterson in all the good and bad ways. She’s tough, she’s strong, she has crazy difficulty. But she lacks personality–and I do mean what she does on the mat, and not off of it. She has all the right movements right down to the handflicks that we call artistry in Nastia’s routines, but they seem so wooden on Rebecca, it loses the flair.
One of Bross’s consistency problems seems to come from getting a little hyper and going too fast. When she slows down, she is a rock. I think that will come with age. Hopefully some more artistry will develop with it.
I think she has a bit more versatility than Shawn, in particular she appears a bit more naturally flexible, but I dislike the “bull in a china shop” flow of her routines. Even if one is not graceful one can still be precise in the dance/pose/transition movements between skills. Hopefully that will come. Plus her aggressive approach doesn’t necessarily make what she’s doing look easy, and isn’t that the point? And maybe she could work on kipping with straight arms, but then again maybe that soft elbow action is defined as being “aggressive”.
I think we still need to consider that with gymnasts like Porgras and Bross is that not only are they young, they’ve also been out for a long time with major injuries and haven’t had the competitions. Bross had only TWO full AA competitions (Nationals) in front of a big crowd since coming back from injury. Porgras hasn’t even comepted on a podium this year prior to worlds.
They’ll both be back next year and ready to contend for more individual (and team) glory.
I honestly do not understand this line of thought. How is Becca the top gymnast in the world when she hasn’t won a competition? Likewise, how is she the gymnast to beat when she hasn’t won a competition? Yes, she has crazy-mad difficulty, but her presentation is painful to watch, and she has no consistency. If she doesn’t hit, it doesn’t matter how difficult her routines are. And she’s never been consistent, even back in her pre-injury days. This is not new behavior that can be blamed on the injury. Plus, the injury is long enough ago now that it’s not a legitimate excuse for falling consistently on a skill we know she can do – no one is blaming Ivana’s inconsistency on her broken foot, no one blamed Nastia’s problems on her injury, why does Becca and Becca alone get the benefit of the doubt? Further, injury or no injury, in gymnastics, results from two years ago aren’t valid predictors of current success unless they can be backed up, and she just hasn’t been backing them up. Yes, she has crazy potential, but so did Krystal Uzelac. Let’s get a reality check. Until she proves she can win (now, not two years ago), she is not the gymnast to beat/the best gymnast in the world. There’s more to being the best than having the most difficulty, or there would be no point in competitions.
I agree that she is inexperienced and coming off injury is tough. I think she was in better overall form prior to her injuries and Valeri has a history of letting his gymnasts come along slowly so I think the world did not see the best of Bross. She still lacks a lot of polish and I foresee this being something she gains over the next three years.
Pogras – oh my – I can’t wait to see what happens if SHE gains more polish and experience!
Well, for Nastia, people did blame her problems on her injury. That and they felt she was being paced to peak at the Olympics.
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