Category: Uncategorized

I am.

Even more so after some investigation was done by bloggers at Gimnastas and Full Twist.

Click through to watch the VIDEO and get in on the discussion – Should Mustafina & Nabieva’s Vaults have been downgraded?

Two questions:

1) Why were the D values devalued? … not stretched enough, we all assume

2) What was the 0.1 penalty?

When I have both answers, I’ll post it on this site. With video.

Shout out to one of the great ones.

Anastasia Umeh, a Canadian transplant down under, choreographer of World Champion Lauren Mitchell‘s Floor routine. And many others.

Stacy on Facebook:

I have been crying for hours! Well done Lauren…couldn’t have happened to a nicer girl. Congratulations to the WAIS program…and the AUS National Team

Click PLAY or watch the World Champion’s routine on YouTube.

Pretty. Unique finish. More than anything else, I appreciate that she doesn’t walk back into the corners.

History: Competition home page (results). FIG. USAG. Full Twist. WAG videos. Gymnastike. Photos.

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?

_____

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.

See how the Ahoy area in Rotterdam fills before the all-round finals on Friday.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(Video: Frans Hoek)

The best summing-up of Day 2 Event Finals at Worlds is (once again) on Full Twist.

Chinese coaches getting “grilled” – WHERE are the girls event medals? (Via Ollie Williams.)

Universal Sports to refund for World Championships live feed glitch. The black screen of death. Respect Universal for that. Sooner or later they’ll get the technology working for 95%+ of paying customers.

It’s been a couple of hours since the competition finished. Of course the routines are appearing online.

Click PLAY or watch Ana’s GOLD on YouTube.

Who is DrMtzLizama from Mexico?

… Gracias.

More Beam final routines on Full Twist.

The Aussies are over the moon with their first World Gymnastics Champion, Lauren Mitchell.

Couch Gymnast – ATTA GIRL!!!

… Others are still drying their tears.

Tomorrow we must all return to the real world, living to fight another day.

Oh, no.

What a shame.

The biggest story in the Netherlands … didn’t happen. Local boy made good only came 2nd when the final competitor, long Zhang from China, nudged him off the top of the podium.

1 ZHANG Chenglong CHN 16.166
2 ZONDERLAND Epke NED 16.033
3 HAMBUECHEN F. GER 15.966
4 BOY Philipp GER 15.833
5 LEYVA Danell USA 15.666
6 BROOKS C. USA 15.383
7 FENG Zhe CHN 15.166
8 UEMATSU Koji JPN 14.000

Zhang is terrific. But I felt Boy, who finished 4th, had the most impressive routine, if not the highest scoring.

UEMATSU was the second most impressive, perhaps. But he fell.

I’ve got to post ALL these routines. A thrilling finale to Worlds.

Gymnastics Examiner – Quick Hits

The wild Dutchman becomes one of the most popular guys in Netherlands, and not only for his 6 pack.

He HIT some crazy routine, even more difficult than I expected. Medal for sure. VIDEO to come soon.

IG: 

Zonderland NED just hit the most amazing routine under the pressure that I think I have ever seen!!! 7.3/16.033 I don’t think anyone can outdo that, and if they do we better have the police help get the judges out of the arena.

… Leyva hit a great routine too, for 2nd place so far. His Dad jumped really high, this time.

Hambuchen, later in the line up, plays it safe. Did not try to connect releases, though it looked like he could have.