A big theme of gymnastics bloggers is the decline of Artistry in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics since the introduction of an open ended code.
Much less commented upon is the same trend in Men’s Gymnastics, especially Men’s Floor.
A good example is our current Olympic Floor Champion, Zou Kai. I agree with Andy Thornton who compares Kai against the artistry of past champions Artemev, Bilozerchev, Korolev, and Scherbo on his American Gymnast blog.
… Obviously Zou Kai’s tumbling is phenomenal, but I wanted to point out not only how great the Russians above were to watch, but also how TERRIBLE this presentation is from Zou Kai. He mopes around with no regard for how he looks in between his passes, and his jumps in the corner clearly scream, “I feel stupid and I’m only doing these because I have to.” Notice the lack of precision and unsteadiness in his transitions. …
Click PLAY or watch his routine in the Olympic Floor Final on YouTube.
Yes, I know Zou Kai deserved to win that day. But it’s a shame that gymnasts are rewarded now for a doing a maximum of difficulty while taking the minimum risk of deduction in non-tumbling elements.
I was even more disappointed with Zou Kai’s win at the Olympics on Horizontal Bar, by the way.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 