dangerous Prudnova Vaults

Most catastrophic injuries in gymnastics result from variations of multiple front somersaults.

There’s no more dangerous skill being competed at World Championships Antwerp 2013 than the Handspring double front for WAG.

Click PLAY or watch Yamilet Peña on YouTube. Podium training.

Here it was in competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

1st Vault : 14.900 = D score : 7.0, E score : 7,90)

2nd Vault : 14.466 = D score : 5.80, E score : 8.666).

Average : 14.683

Yamilet Peña qualified to the Vault Final.

Fadwa Muhammad also competed that Vault in Antwerp. Body position at contact with landing mat was similar, but she did not roll out. (I don’t see that video on YouTube.) She also might have made the Vault final, except that her 2nd vault was too low a start value.

But here’s Fadwa’s (worse) Prudnova from African Championships 2012.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Terrifying. Yet she went on to win the Gold medal on Vault.

I’ve heard she ~~went to the hospital~~ after that Vault. Can anyone who was at the competition verify if that is true?

It’s not. Turns out you can’t believe what you read on the internet. 🙂

What kind of message is FIG sending?

😦

Almost everyone I speak with feels that kind of lack of control should not be rewarded with a trip to Finals. Yet the actual deduction for “falling” on it results in only 0.5 deduction, when averaged over two Vaults.

FIG WTC could ban the Vault. I’d hate to see that. We know that it’s possible for a woman to do it very well.

But any kind of dangerous landing must be penalized more.

Another solution would be to double the deductions on Vault.

Of course that would go for WAG and MAG.

The Men are plenty dangerous on Vault too, in 2013.

If dangerous landings were more severely penalized, super clean vaulters like Ryohei Kato would benefit. Crash and burn gamblers would be dissuaded from chucking their hardest Vault.

Click PLAY or watch Ryohei Kato on YouTube.