Once again, FIG rules reward a Handspring Double Front vault where the competitor’s feet only barely touched the mat before her butt. 😦
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Yamilet is a great athlete. An excellent vaulter. It’s hard to blame her coach for taking advantage of this loophole in the rules.
Nellie Kim was in Toronto. Again handing a medal to an athlete who fell badly in the Final. She and her WTC committee must disagree with the majority of coaching experts who feel this ranking is unfair. This is the second Code under her watch where this marginal performance has been over rewarded. 😦
Lauren Hopkins:
Here’s the problem with vault…the entire difficulty comes from one single skill. Who cares if you chuck it and fall? You can still get a medal at many competitions above gymnasts who all hit.
But throw a skill you can’t do on bars or beam or floor and the risk doesn’t outweigh the cost. For an E-rated skill, you’re only getting 0.5 for your difficulty on that single element, 0.6 for F, 0.7 for G, and so on so a point for a fall actually matters there because none of these elements are worth over a point. But for vault, what’s the big deal about a full point off when your entire skill is worth 7 points?!
Gymternet – Pan Am Games Vault and Bars Finals
This is a case where the FIG Executive and/or Medical Commission should schedule a meeting with WTC.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 