Year: 2011

… Instead of after a selection camp at the Karolyi Ranch, the Olympic team will be named at the end of the 2012 Olympic Trials, Karolyi said, the same evening as competition at the Trials concludes. Trials will take place in San Jose, Calif. June 28-July 1, 2012.

“I’m a little nervous about that, to be very honest, but that was the decision, and I hope we will be able to handle it,” Karolyi said. “I always like to select the team two days before we leave the country, and this will be different. …

The reason for naming the team at Olympic Trials has more to do with getting the Olympic roster in under the International Olympic Committee’s deadline for having set rosters, said Steve Penny, President of USA Gymnastics. …

read more on Gymnastics Examiner

Marta is leaving Tokyo quite happy. Watch a video interview on Gymnastike.

… have I mentioned how much I love this guy? 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Perfect toe point. Wonderful line. … (I’ve promised to stop complaining about him.)

OK. Most experts don’t agree with this decision. Here’s the slightly more detailed scores.

full results (PDF)

Zou Kai won because the judges awarded him the highest start score 7.70.

Zhang from China had the second highest start score 7.60. And finished second.

Other guys have more exciting routines — but lower starts. Since Men’s judges will only give Uchimura 9.033, and yet give Zou Kai 8.741, difficulty decides the medals.

If you feel there should be a greater difference between those execution scores, take it up with the guys that put those number to paper:

HUANG Liping (CHN) – Horizontal Bar Supervisor

Execution Judges:
DOBROVOLSKYI Edvard (UKR)
POP Augustin (ROU)
KELEMEN Zoltan (HUN)
MITEV Dimitar (BUL)
ROCHA Joao (POR)

… Look. Horizontal Bar rules are screwed up. They need revised from the ground up. The best guys in the world do either boring routines, repetitive routines or routines with 4 similar skills. The FIG rules are to blame.

Routines were “better” in 2004 than they are today.

When are Stoica and his committee going to do something about it?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A last minute replacement for Komova, Ksenia was stunned that she won. Perhaps she’d heard about some of the Russian press insisting there’s a conspiracy against her nation.

Brigid loved the final competition for women in Tokyo – Best. Floor. Final. Ever.

One of the biggest criticisms of the all around competition was the lack of clean performances. Today we saw eight of them. They varied in difficulty, finesse and style, but it was the most competitive event of the women’s competition. It was suspenseful, delightful and surprising. And for that I am grateful.

full results (PDF)

SV: 6.40, Execution: 9.233, Score: 15.633

I was thrilled this routine — without any double salto between the bars — won the meet. This will usher in a trend in routine construction, I hope.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I congratulated Danell personally. And congratulated one of the E judges even more enthusiastically. (That judge had Danell 1st.)

There’s not much separating many amazing routines.

full results (PDF)

SV: 6.60, Execution: 9.266, Score: 15.866

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

full results (PDF)

Couch Gymnast report on the final – The Beamer: Ode To Sui Lu

The most insane final.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

full results (PDF)

He had the highest start value by 0.4. … Won by 0.2.

That first vault — Handspring front layout triple twist — will be named for him.

(via Vídeos de gimnasia)

FIG on Facebook:

Thank you for hosting the world championship in Tokyo. Without all of your support, none of this would have happened. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hardy Fink reflected back on history for comparisons with Kohei. Bilizerchev had a more dramatic start to his career. Li Ning was as dominant, but for a shorter period of time.

I’d say Uchimura is the greatest male gymnast of all time. Khorkina the greatest female.

It’s Easy to be an Execution judge:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

“Name” gymnast perfect routine = 9.1 maximum
… miss 2 handstands, deduct 0.2
… miss landing, deduct 0.1
… Final E score = 8.80

See the actual score. (PDF)

There’s no need for the Execution judge to actually read the Code of Points. 🙂

The Execution scores are “boxed” so closely together, it’s easy to predict the E score without actually judging. A sad state of affairs.

(via Full Twist)

Read what Valentina Rodionenko had to say about the judges in the AA competition, when the decision didn’t go their way.

It’s official. Lauren Mitchell is in the Floor final later today, defending her title from 2010. Diana Bulimar from Romania has withdrawn.

She (and all the Australians) take maximum advantage of the oddity that evolved when FIG decided to disallow women to step back out of tumbling passes — a leap, jump or random flutter kick out after landing.

Click PLAY or watch her routine on YouTube.

Lauren does those jumps as correctly as anyone else.

Jumps to disguise lack of control on landings have been used by male gymnasts for decades, but the trend is quite new for girls. It’s smart to use the rules to maximize your score. Especially if you gain bonus for connection.

Personally I don’t mind the jumps. But the old “lunge backwards” was better. Requiring a two foot “stick” would look good — but result in more landing injuries. And we have too many of those now.

Many disagree. Leave a comment if you are one of them.

… One of the saddest stories of the 2011 World Championships is that of the former World Rings champion from Netherlands:

• Yuri van Gelder was centre of a drug scandal last Worlds in Rotterdam

• he was recently “cleared” to qualify for Olympics

• his routine was good enough to finish on the podium, qualifying him directly (I believe) to London where he could very well win an Olympic medal

Click PLAY or watch his Finals Ring routine on YouTube.

• for some reason he took out his “safe” double layout, replacing it with a piked double front (FALL) … Olympic dream ended.

• and, for some reason, … he decided to wear a Dutch orange outfit for finals, including orange socks. The first orange socks in Worlds history, I would imagine.