The 2012 Pacific Rim Mini Wrap Up

So the Pacific Rim Championships ended tonight with the US women winning all of the golds they set out for (they won everything but Senior Vault, which no one tried to get). I was thrilled with the results, as unsurprising as they may have been, and look forward to seeing more from all 6 of these girls in the future.

John Cheng

The Team/All Around final was fairly unshocking, seeing as how the US had never lost this competition as far back as I can find record. Some of that is because Russia and China typically choose to send "B" or even "C" teams while the USA always sends at least a few major players. This year, while world champion Jordyn Wieber and 5 other top girls from the US came, China's only major name was Tan Sixin and Russia sent 5 international newcomers. As John Geddert mentioned in his blog earlier this week, this meet would be so much cooler if China, Russia and even Australia sent their A teams.  

Let's talk about Gabby Doulgas for a minute and her "tweaked ankle." Some people say she balked on her vault. This doesn't look like a baulk to me; it's more like she just missed the vault!

Property of Grace Chui, via Inside Gymnastics

And here was the aftermath...

Property of Gabrielle Douglas 

That doesn't look very "tweaked"; it looks legitimately injured! I hope it won't last.

All in all, the women did fantastically though. Although there were a few falls in event finals, the ladies did nicely in the end. ... And I got to see Ohashi's beam in HD. 

Other than the US, who was I impressed with? 

Peng Peng of course, who rocked the hell out of this meet earning multiple medals and a fantastic all around score.

12 year old Charlotte Sullivan of New Zealand who had an adorable floor and qualified to Balance Beam Finals, even if she struggled there. I'm excited to see this team blossom. 

Victoria Moors whose floor is mesmerizing. I'm so excited to see her in London. She should make floor finals there.

A Day in the Life of Canadian Peng Peng Lee

Peng Peng Lee is Pan American Silver medalist, a future UCLA Bruin and a member of the Canadian National Team. Although Peng Peng graduated in 2011, she’s deferring from college this year in hopes of making the Olympic Team. This provides her with a bit of an unorthodox elite training schedule.

(Property of Oakville Gymnastics Club) 

7:30 AM - I wake up get changed and go downstairs and have breakfast. Breakfast I cook myself so I normally make toast and eggs and have yogurt with granola or berries.

8 AM - I leave and go to the workout gym. Sometimes I'll drop my brother off at school before I go.  I do repetitions on the treadmill so I'll run hard for 1:30 then lightly jog for another 1:30 and I'll repeat that about 10 times. Then I do my required back exercises plus some extra conditioning. I have a specific physio that comes into the gym and she oversees my back exercises and she'll upgrade them when needed. A lot of the back exercises are to do with the core so a lot of planks and bird dogs some exercises with the medicine ball etc.

9:30 AM - After I come home and rest. I'll do some chores and errands that need to be done. Since I'm going to UCLA soon I'm doing a lot of research on what I would like to go into. I like to sing and play guitar/piano while I'm at home so I have fun doing that. I usually take the chance for the free time to get physio and make sure my body is taken care of.

(Property of Scott Heavey)

1:00 PM - I have lunch. Lunch depends on what we have at home but it's mostly proteins and veggies.

2:00 PM - I have to leave the house at around 2 to get to training at 3.

3:00 PM - Then we train. We warm-up for about 10 mins then do 20 mins of conditioning then we start our events. About 15 mins before training is done we'll do more conditioning, stretch, then say goodbye to all the coaches.

7:00 PM - I usually have a snack (protein bar) right after training since I have an hour before I eat dinner.

8:00 PM - I get home, have dinner, relax. Dinner depends on what my parent's make but it's usually chicken, rice and some kind of chinese vegetables. Then I’ll go to bed around 10:30-11 PM.

In order to make Peng Peng’s day easier for the reader to quickly understand, some of the quotes are slightly paraphrased without changing any of the meaning. 

My 5 Favorite Hairstyles of 2011

5.
Bridget Sloan's at the 2011 Pan Ams, only because for the first time since the Olympics, her hair doesn't look like a family of small animals could occupy it.




(Picture Property of USA Gymnastics)











4.

Dare Maxwell's "double side braid" from day 1 of Championships. This isn't a great picture of it, but if you find a better one, let me know.


(Picture Property of USA Gymnastics)













3.

Danusia Francis of Great Britain at the 2011 European Championships. Although the girls on Ginnaste giggled at Danusia's hair, I ADORE that she keeps her beautiful hair natural, yet pulled together.














2.

Shawn Johnson's curved side braid with bow on Day 1 of Championships. It's somehow young and mature at the same time, and I like it!















1.

Peng Peng Lee at Pan Ams and Worlds AA Final. A loose bun with adorable flowers. I hope she starts a trend; I love it. (Sorry about the awkward screenshot, Peng Peng.)

Pan American Games - Uneven Bars Finals

(Grace Chiu)

Remember when people used to win Bars with scores of 16.9? Yeah, I know it was a totally different scoring system then, but I miss it. 

(Grace Chiu)

Today's bar podium consisted of the 4 girls who competed in today's final without major mistakes. The girls from Mexico, Garcia and Cantu tied for the Bronze medal. Garcia, who has problems pirouetting in handstand, has great releases and a strong dismount which helped her earn a 13.625. Cantu, whom she tied with, competed a slightly easier routine with better form. 

Shawn, bless her heart, really wants that Weiler kip to work. She'll get there, but she's struggling right now on getting it together. She stalled and muscled through a few skills in TF and EF. In any case, she did a good enough job to earn the silver medal and only missed the gold by .025 WITH an error. Not too shabby, if you ask me. 

Caquatto is now on a gold streak which is pretty cool, if you ask me! Her 14.525 was well deserved, and to be honest, I think her 8.525 E score was a little low. It earned her the gold anyway, and Caquatto is undefeated! (Did you know that Yesterday was her first AA title as an elite, EVER?) 

Who was the biggest upset today? 

Peng Peng Lee made a major mistake for the third consecutive competition since coming to Guadalajara. What's sad is that she's totally capable of medalling and possibly even winning these competitions but she keeps making fairly major mistakes. Unfortunately, her Pan Am Experience is over and we'll hopefully see her in 2012. 

Pan American Games - Women's All Around Finals

(Photo Property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics) 

In this afternoon's All Around Final, American Bridgette Caquatto took the gold medal to continue on the umpteen year streak of Americans winning the All Around. Ana Sofia Gomez took the Silver, Kristina Vaculik the bronze. What I really enjoyed about this all around was the vast variety of strengths amongst the leaders. First Place Caquatto lead on Bars while Gomez's struggled on bars and hit beam.

(Grace Chiu)

Peng Peng Lee caused a little bit of an upset when botched her full twisting Pak Salto, smacked her foot and only got a 12.9 on bars (vs. 14.275 in Prelims). Her prelims bars score in finals would have earned her the gold by less than a tenth.

Most importantly, I LOVED the wonderful sportsmanship that the competitors showed. I adored everything from US Coach Jiani Wu congratulating Peng Peng on a strong floor routine to all 3 of the girls on the podium smiling (isn't it sad when that's an accomplishment?).

Pan American Games - Day 1

(Photo property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics)

I, like many gymnastics fans at the moment, am dealing with some very conflicting feelings. If you weren't following gymnastics this afternoon, the USA won the team title at the Pan American Games as everyone around the world understandably expected. However, what people around the world didn't expect was the USA's lead only consisted of two points, Johnson's double fall on beam, and DeZiel, who is a first year elite, leading the US on each event that she competed. While the US should certainly be commended for their first place win as well as their standings on vault and bars, I can't help but be disappointed in the fact that not 1 US Gymnast qualified for beam finals. In fact, DeZiel was the highest beam scorer and she placed 16th. Unfortunately, this means that for the first time in at least 10 years, the a US Gymnast will not win the Beam Title at a Pan Am Event. 

(Photo property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics)

To be honest, I have NO IDEA what Marta's thinking at this point. Are her feelings mixed like mine? Is she pleased with the team win? After all, she does always say that "it's all about the team". I'm at a loss. I asked the Twitterverse what they thought Marta was thinking, and the answers were all across the board. 


@Laura722: "they won by over 2 points, no big deal"


@TommyStark11: "shes thinking "THIS is our B team?!?!?!" Then she swears a bunch in Romanian"


@caseymagnesium: "I think she is currently forging a birth certificate for Katelyn Ohashi... that's what I would be doing."


@BTOgymblog: Thank god I chose the girls I did for worlds! Or WHY DID MY FEED NOT WORK?


That feed was horrendous, wasn't it? Oh well, at least it's free coverage. The point is, there's no way to know what she is really thinking, or whether today's performances will have any positive or negative effect on the girls' future assignments. 


Looking forward into Wednesday's All Around, 2 girls from the USA qualified: Brandie Jay in 5th and Bridgey Caquatto in 4th. The girls in medal position included Ana Sofia Gomez of Guatemala, a first year senior whose DTY and strong beam helped her qualify first, Peng Peng (Christine) Lee of Canada who finished 19th in World All Around final and her teammate, Kristina Vaculik, a gymnast for Stanford who may have qualified for the World AA Finals, had she hit in prelims. 


My predictions for the Podium: 
1. Bridgette Caquatto (Not just because I love USA, but today's score was in fact, her season low) 
2. Peng Peng (Christine) Lee 
3. Ana Sofia Gomez 

In my opinion, two girls have a shot at the Vault gold medal, USA's Brandie Jay and the Dominican Republic's Yamilet Peña. Peña, who qualified for the World vault event finals, only attempted a handspring tuck today, but landed a handspring double tuck (SV 7.1) in Worlds Qualification. In finals however, she took it to her back and received a zero. I'm not sure whether or not she'll go for it in finals, but if she does, and lands it, the gold isn't necessarily  hers. If she lands the vault the was she did in Worlds Prelims and gets a 15.0, she'd still fall a few tenths short of Jay's 2 vault average. If she lands it well though, I don't think there will be any argument. Regardless, Today she qualified 3rd without it. 


If I had to guess the podium:
1. Yamilet Peña Abreu (I've got a hunch!)
2. Brandie Jay
3. Elsa Garcia (of Mexico) 

The USA would have qualified all 4/5 of their gymnast to bar finals if the 2 per country rule didn't exist. Unfortunately on this event, it does. Caquatto and Johnson will compete in finals for the USA while  Peng Peng Lee of Canada qualified in 3rd with a score over 14. The next qualifier, Marisela Cantu, the next highest qualifying competitor qualified more than 6 tenths lower than Lee. For this reason I believe that the top 3 qualifiers will be the medalists. If history has shown us anything in the past, it's that when she disappoints herself and others, she goes out and she redeems herself. For this reason (and also because I know that she can get rid of that stall she had) that I think Shawn will take the Bars Title. 


Podium Prediction: 
1. Shawn Johnson 
2. Bridgette Caquatto
3. Peng Peng Lee 

While the US didn't qualify any girls to the beam final, it's still a pretty interesting field! Ana Sofia Gomez (Guatemala) is the clear favorite (watch for her beautiful Back Walkover into a Full), but Vaculik (Canada), Gil Ortiz (Columbia), Salzar & Estrada (Mexico) all had routines that could potentially medal. Canada's Peng Peng Lee and Talia Chiarelli tied for 4th place, so I'm not sure which one they'll put up in finals and to be honest, I'm not really sure what the rules say about it all. The wonderful blogger at Tsuk the Pain believes that it's the highest E score, which would send Chiarelli to the finals. 


Anyway, here are my predictions: 
1. Ana Sofia Gomez 
(Insert Lee here, if she goes up in finals! Her 4th Place finish was with a fall!)
2. Kristina Vaculik (Even her 8.675 Qualification E score seems a bit low) 
3. Jessica Gil Ortiz 

(Photo Property of Thomas Scheyer)

And finally, we come to floor. I'll be honest, I wasn't really very impressed by any of the gymnasts' floor routines today. It seemed like most of the girls either were incredibly sloppy, made fairly major mistakes or had awful choreography and music. My projected winner falls in the third category. 


Podium Predictions:
1. Mikaela Gerber (Canada) 
2. Elena Torres (Cuba) 
3. Kristina Vaculik (Canada) 

(Photo property of Grace Chiu)

These are all just guesses, of course. I'm not psychic, I honestly don't know that much about gymnasts from Cuba and the Dominican Republic and unlike Komova's mother, I haven't heard the judges talking in the lobby. What predictions do you agree with? Which ones do you think I got totally wrong? Let me know! It will be fun to find out who wins!