If you live for the drama, there were plenty of drama queens in Rotterdam.
Personally I like the discipline displayed, in general, by the American girls. No matter what goes wrong, you fight back tears. You respect your competitors. You respect the sport.
It’s bad sportsmanship to make a display of yourself, off the apparatus.
If underscored, you shake the hand of the victor, and congratulate.
I was shocked all week at lack of discipline shown by the Russian girls. I guarantee you that the boss, Rodienenko, hates this stuff. He’s benched gymnasts his entire career for any one of the dozen nonsense moments we’ve seen out of Nabieva.
Just when we should be celebrating that Russia is back, instead there’s a backlash. Check Couch Gymnast’s post – MORE RUSSIAN HISTRIONICS….OR JUST PLAIN RUDE?
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More controversy …
Once again, the judging of the E panel sucks.
Andy Thorton weighs in … The Floor final:
… a perfect example of the problem in women’s judging today. If we take out Afanasyeva, every other E-score of the final was between 8.883 and 9.1 – not nearly enough to reflect the true differences in the landings (Izbasa’s 0.8 penalty is in a different category) …
The judges “box” the scores to be sure they are not out of range.
Ferrari’s E score should have been several tenths higher than anyone else. But the judges are too gutless to throw a high number.
On Beam:
… of the gymnasts who hit, the E-scores ranged from 8.6 to 8.966 …
Same thing.
Andy has more. Zonderland’s stupid great Horizontal Bar routine, included.
American Gymnast – Event Finals Day 2 Filled With Controversy…
Worst of all, Tandori Chicken got interviewed by Gymnastike. A foul fowl.
22 comments ↓
I don’t mind the crying because they’ve worked hard but not shaking hands or just leaving is horrible and they should be penalized for it.
I agree. I don’t mind the tears as long as they are trying to still respect their competition. Shake hands and congratulate them. Walking OFF the floor before the EF are even over… completely lame. I however would have LOVED to have been a fly on the wall listening into those girls.
I agree. It seems like the judges are afraid to givo more than 9.2 E. But I think some deserves more! Like Alicia’s vault, she is very clean, yes she had hoop on her landings but still 9.5 would be possible.
I mind the crying. If someone has the discipline to win World and Olympic gold, she should have the discipline to not make a display of herself.
I really didn’t pay much attention to the Russian girls once they were off the apparatus.
I was in Rotterdam for MAG, and I didn’t see a moment of poor sportsmanship from any of them. Quite the opposite. I’m pretty sure I heard some on the American side in the audience yelling for Fabian. The guys seemed genuinely happy for anybody who did a great routine.
At least for the guys, it seemed pretty rare to get an E score over 9 (except on vault).
So Ono, are you okay with the girls crying when they win? Because if so, that’s a huge double standard.
They are teenagers. Most teenagers cry because of nothing all the time. *****ing up at the most important meet of the year is a worthy some crying if the girl needs to do it. The sport is tough enough and it is okay, to let go and show emotions, especially when you did bad on something you worked so hard for. Most people (about 99%) have no idea whatsoever what being an elite athlete means. No clue. Crying is okay as long as the athlete doesn’t start to feel sorry for herself (and that should be handled by the coaches not by the fans or the public).
Yeah, it’s OK with me if they win. Those displays usually don’t last for minutes.
A few tears are fine, but making a display like Kexin did is something else again. And most people who blew it worked every bit as hard as she did to get there but managed to avoid the same kind of meltdown.
But to be fair, it’s not her fault she had a camera shoved in her face capturing the whole thing.
I’ve seen guys do it, too.
It’s my opinion. That’s it. If I was in He’s place, I probably would have cried even more.
What’s your opinion on Pommel. When I was an FIG judge I would have given only about 0.2 deduction on the top finalists, perhaps 0.1 for Smith. … How do they get to 1.0 in deduction?
There are plenty of gymnasts who do not cry on the competition Floor. … Only in rare cases do I “allow” it.
As Bross said, “This isn’t High School.”
I think crying is fine if the person is not making a spectacle out of themselves. It is also one thing to cry if you messed up and are disappointed with yourself and a completely different situation to start crying as a reaction to a score or a placing by the judges. So it can be a fine line.
I firmly believe some people are “cryers” by nature, that’s how they release almost any emotion, so to expect someone to push that all down when competing is not necessarily realistic.
Personality wise, most gymnasts are likely incredibly hard on themselves and I think it is safe to say that in a lot of cases crying is the result of being disappointed in oneself, frustrated etc above anything else.
Compared to anyone from where I come from, all of those PH guys looked really good.
Smith is a little slow. Maybe he got hit for that.
Maybe they are being really picky about the angles on the circles – I could see how that could add up, but who really knows?
It would be really nice if the FIG would make this info public after the competition. But I’m not holding my breath on that one.
I will talk to some of the judges. … But don’t know anyone on the Pommel panel.
One of the things you teach children in gymnastics is to control their emotions and display composure. If a gymnast doesn’t like their performance and is hard on themselves and gets the sting of tears in her eyes because she is holding it back, waiting to let loose later, I respect that. If they cry in reaction to a judge’s score and start whimpering and making a spectacle and bawling, that is poor sportsmanship and poor discipline.
I was the biggest crier of them all. I eventually learned to hold it in until the competition is over. I cried on and beat a lot of pillows over balance breaks and blown dismounts
There is no crying in baseball.
Yea, but baseball players aren’t real athletes. Plus they play so many games that they probably don’t care either
Alicia has form issues on vault as well as landing issues. She also needs better distance and more height. Being betetr then Musty doesn’t mean she is great. She does have leg separations on vault I have seen pictures on daylife.
I’d love to see what happened if someone was all “disciplined,” “composed,” and “emotionally controlled” when they won.
I don’t think acting like a robot has anything to do with sportsmanship.
In gymnastics people will always critize critize and critize. You cry – you have no discipline. You don’t cry – you are a bot. Please be perfect all the time, smile all the time, don’t show how you feel, be a warrior, but a beautiful smiling one. You don’t matter, just your performance does and what other people think about it.
I don’t see what the big deal is. You can clearly see on the TV coverage Mustafina congratulating Mitchell as they are leaving after EF is done. She could have been doing other things, like peeing?
Yeah, Hertzen. Afanasyeva and Izbasa should NOT have left, but I don’t really see how Mustafina was in the wrong there.
True. You need permission to go to the toilet. But likely they did get the required permission.
He Kexin hardly made a scene. She was simply sitting in her chair. Yes the tears were flowing, but it is not like she was running around crying and cursing at the judges. And she did not leave the arena either. She was just sitting in her chair. It is not her fault that the cameras were in her face the whole time. Not to mention, losing for a Chinese girl might have a little bit of a different sting than losing for an American girl. They come from two completely different places and have different upbringings. I doubt Mattie Larson felt like she let her country down when she fell on floor. Her team-yes, Marta-yes. But not America. The Chinese girls have a completely different pressure on them and I do not see it as a lack of discipline if they cry after a very poor performance.
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