Not a post title you expected to read here.
Blythe Lawrence:
U.S. women on bars. In a word, awesome. The standout routine to me was Chelsea Davis’s. She stuck her full twisting double back both times I saw it. She’s peaking, right here, right now. Her Tkatchev should be on the list of great Tkatchevs that get bantered about from time to time on message boards. She could make event finals on bars, given everything else we’ve seen here.
But the whole U.S. team looked great on bars. There were a few little tiny things, but mostly overbalanced handstands here and there. Forget podium training — on this event at least, they’re very settled. …
more jots from today’s training gyms and podium on Gymnastics Examiner
Click PLAY or watch some U.S. Bars training on Gymnastike.
http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf
Not surprisingly, the American girls are getting it together and HITTING routines.
Their selection process may be more rigourous than China and Russia in 2010. The U.S. system rewards girls who are tough and durable, if not necessarily beautiful.
That works under this code.
UPDATE: Brigid tells me that Chelsea had a bad fall on Floor. It looked serious. … But happily she’s back on her feet. Hopefully just a scare.
Note: Young Russian David Belyavskiy apparently showed double full-in, pike-out on Floor. We haven’t seen that nutty skill for a long, long time.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 