10 Weekly Tidbits - 3/17-3/23

Pac Rim Event Finals

Property of Jennifer Buchanan

Pac Rims concluded last Saturday with the American Women earning every gold with the exception of Senior Vault, which no one attempted to earn. (Do any of those girls even have a second Vault?) Arguably, the biggest disappointment of the meet was Victoria Moors of Canada, who many expected to contend for floor gold, who struggled on her final two passes. You can check out USAG Coverage of both Junior and Senior Event Finals on Youtube. 

Spanny tells us "How (she) Learned to Dougie"

Spanny Tampson posted a remarkable tribute this week to Gabrielle Douglas. If you haven't read it yet, you should certainly check it out.

Property of Ryan Schulz

Kamerin Moore to Nebraska, Kiana Winston to Alabama 
The Recruiting Class of 2014 lost two high profile recruits after both Kamerin Moore of Twistars and Kiana Winston of Texas Dreams committed to Division I schools. McKenzie Wofford of 2014 also previously committed to Oklahoma, and Chanen Raygoza to Georgia, but many 2014 recruits remain uncommitted.

Casey Jo Magee Continues to Upgrade

Casey Jo Magee, who Marta seemed to count out for quite a while has been making major upgrades and has the Facebook Videos to prove it. Most impressively, she's got a roundoff-full-beat jump combo on beam. CJM, who looks as fit as ever, could legitimately factor in to this Olympic Picture.

Aliya Mustafina takes Russian Championship
Not shockingly, with Komova out due to an ankle injury and the reigning champion Dementyeva home sick with tonsillitis, Mustafina took the All Around Gold Medal at the Russian Championships. Long time veteran Afansnasyeva and first year senior Grishina earned silver and bronze respectively. Kristina Goryunova, who is unable to compete in London due to testing positive for illegal substances earlier this quad, topped the beam rankings with a 14.933.

Dare Maxwell Returns to Dynamo

Property of Gym Examiner

After Sara Maxwell posted videos of her daughter Dare at Level 10 Oklahoma States, I asked around and discovered that Dare returned home about two weeks ago to train at Dynamo. I've been reassured that although she'll compete Level 10 this season, she will compete both Level 10 and Elite Bars and Beam next year. She's already been working on upgrades on those two events. No word on the reason for Dare's move.

Double Front brings fundraiser to a close

Kristal Bolden of Double Front gained a press pass to this years European Championship and is still looking to raise a little bit of money to get there. If you can help at all and enjoy top notch blog coverage, please help support her!

Cottubus Qualifiers

The Cottubus Cup is underway and qualifications have concluded. Big names on the women's side include Brittany Rogers and Dominique Pegg of Canada who are both returning from injury, He Kexin and Elisabeth Seitz on Bars and Diana Chelaru who qualified to three event finals. 

Ellie Black of Canada is a BAMF

I got a link on Twitter showing "Canadian Olympic Hopeful" Ellie Black's superb combo on beam. She's fairly good on Vault, Beam and Floor and could possibly factor into that picture. But with at least 12 Canadian girls with a legitimate shot, anything could happen.

NCAA Regionals

Property of UGA Gymnastics

Women's NCAA Conference Meets begin this weekend. Keep you eyes peeled on Twitter to see all of the fun  unfold and check out College Gym Fans for links to results and live coverage.

Terrible Tuesdays - Things I Hate About the Code

I don't miss the 10.0 scoring system... Okay, maybe I miss it a little bit, but for the most part, I like the D + E way to judge. However, there's no doubt that there are parts of the code that are causing the quality of gymnastics to decline.

Here are 3 things that I hate about the current code:

1. Vault scores are entirely too high. 

The highest score at the World Championships on Vault was a 16.033 (Maroney) while the highest floor score was only 15.133 (Afan). Thats a .9 difference! With vault and bars consistently scoring higher than beam and floor, the system really isn't fair to people like Aly Raisman whose strengths are on the lower scoring events. (Someone on the International Gymnast Forum pointed out Raisman in particular, but I can't remember who.)

 If I were rewriting the code, I might add an extra composition requirement on floor and maybe beam (adding .5 to most SVs) or I would devalue all of the Vault start values by .5.

2. A Hop up onto the beam is considered a "mount". 

There are forty five unique beam mounts in the current Code of Points. According to this report by FIG, 68% of gymnasts at 2010 Worlds used an A Mount. Yet, A skills only account for 17% of the mounts in the code. I'm not even against A Mounts, as long as they display something worthwhile. I personally think that a simple leap onto the beam is such a cop out. You're setting the stage for your whole routine! You think you'd want to do something that would impress people, rather than bore them to death.

Ideally, I wouldn't get rid of "A" Mounts, but I would eliminate mounts that don't require much skill, like the leap and hop.

3. People can cheat the Frontwards/Sidewards Requirement on floor. 

Come on, you're an Elite Athlete. You do FOUR tumbling passes and for some reason, you can fit a front layout into one of them? I HATE when gymnasts add an aerial or a side somi to fulfill the composition requirement on floor that says that each gymnast needs a backwards and a frontwards/sidewards element.

I would require that the backwards and frontwards/sidewards element be part of a tumbling pass and connected to other elements.



Those are my 3 biggest pet peeves with the code... for today. What do you dislike about the code?

The 11 Most Awkward Gymnastics Moments of 2011

11. You know that moment when you all show up to prom and you’re wearing the same dress as 3 other girls?

(All Photos Property of USA Gymnastics)

10. Worley Misses the High Bar (@thesplitleap)

Shayla Worley was supposed to be the star of Georgia. Unfortunately, no gymnast since Kristie Phillips failed to meet expectations so severely. This one takes the cake though, as Worley fails to mount the high bar. Last time I was in a gym, even Icould do that.

9. Peña’s Pan Ams Mishaps

After Peña struggled on her Handspring Double Front Vault at Worlds, most people in the gymnastics community thought one of two things: Either her struggles were a fluke or she’ll water down her vault. Nope. In both AA & EF Peña kept on falling/kind of landing and looks surprised when she does. I think she’s the only one who’s surprised at this point. Everyone is waiting for her to get severely injured; I hope she waters down before she does.

8.  Anna accepts Alicia’s Medal

This is only number 8 because Anna handled it so well. When Alicia Sacramone tore her Achilles, Marta oddly didn’t call her in as a bar worker. She DID however, call her in to accept Alicia’s Medal on the podium. If it would have been me, I’d have punched a bitch. Too bad Anna Li seems like the nicest, most gracious person on earth.

7. Wieber wins SCAM and Afan wins Floor at Worlds (Omelianchik100)

While both Wieber and Afansayeva had great performances in their respective competitions, something’s just plain uncomfortable about a gymnast winning a competition that she didn’t qualify for in the first place. No rules were broken, but the whole situation is a little awkward.

6. Nastia’s Inside Gymnastics Interview

While I'm sure that Nastia meant well, telling the press that she gave the girls a “pep talk” that brought the “spark back in their eyes” was really uncomfortable, even if it was true. Many fans also argued that it was INCREDIBLY bad timing for her to officially announce her comeback just after the US Team competed amazingly. 

5. Al Fong claims that his gymnasts will make the Olympic Team

(Property of GAGE Gymnastics)

And just when I started to think Al Fong was mellowing out… In an interview after Championships, Gymnastike asked him how he thought his gymnasts would fit into the picture of 2012. A NORMAL coach might said, “We’re gearing up for 2012 and I’m hoping that my gymnasts can do well next year.” But Al Fong is no normal coach. He said: “Two of my athletes are Olympic Eligible, and we intent to make the Olympic Team.” That’s just something you don’t say in the USA. John Geddert hasn’t said it, so Al Fong who has two good (but not great) Juniors should probably keep his mouth shut.

4. Announcer calls Aja-Monet Sims “Hallie Mossett” at Classics

(Property of Gym-Style)

This moment was incredibly awkward because everybody KNEW how awkward it was at the time. As Aja-Monet Sims prepared to salute the judges on uneven bars, (she has a really great Weiler-Comaneci combo, by the way) the announcer called Aja Monet Sims, Hallie Mossett. Aja looked awkwardly at the judges in a “Am I supposed to be here?” way, and then the judges looked back realizing how awkward the mistake was. (These were 2/3 African American Girls in the Senior Division.) The judges waited for a second before giving her the green flag, but the announcer never corrected himself.

3. Chinese wear the 2012 Champion Shirts at Worlds

(Property of Brigid McCarthy, The Couch Gymnast)

(Photo Property of SI)

2. NBC’s coverage of Bross’s injury (@Tsukthepain)

As if severe injuries aren’t traumatic enough for everyone involved, after Bross dislocated her kneecap, unsure of what to do, NBC played nearly 3 minutes of reaction shots. From Nastia covering her face, Chellsie shaking her head and Carly Patterson saying, “It hurts me”, this was possibly the most uncomfortable 3 minutes of television I’ve ever seen. Maybe this raw coverage of Bross crying will help wake us up to the dangers of the sport? It was still awkward and uncomfortable.

1. Komova thinks that she won, Mom freaks
I loved the 2011 Worlds AA Competition. It’s been a while since we saw such a close competition where we knew it could go either way. However, if the whole .033 difference was awkward enough, Komova was a REALLY sore loser about it. There are cultural differences, but in my opinion, no Silver medal winner was this unsportsmanlike since Khorkina in 2004. I understand that being 16 is hard, and that missing gold by only .033 is even harder. But, Mama Komova didn’t have to call foul with the judges. The situation seemed really awkward for everybody! 

You all gave me great ideas! Thank you! Keep sharing your story ideas in the future! 

World Championships Wrap Up

So here it is! The blog I've been talking about for 2 years now. I'm just going to go ahead and jump in here.

The World Championships: USA was obviously the big winner, with China & Russia right behind.  
The team competition went as everyone expected after seeing how well the newcomers did in Prelims. The big surprise to everyone was Komova's fall (I wasn't surprised, seeing as she looks like she's dying), and the fact that Vega was as fierce as she was. 

The All Around, of course, caused ALL kinds of drama. Here's what I don't get. Everyone on every blog and twitter wanted a really close competition that came down to the last event. Apparently things got too close for comfort because now about 50% of Fans are just endlessly bitching about it. This is the premise of the sport. A bunch of gymnasts get up and perform their routines and then the judges decide which one had the best execution & difficulty based on the code. Isn't that exactly what happened? Yeah, it was by .033 but isn't that the point? Isn't it exciting to see someone win by such a small margin rather than the 6 Points Wieber won by at Championships? 
Anyway, Raisman needs to be acknowledged for her AA Performance. Now, I've never been a big Raisman fan (She sat in front of me at 2009 Classics and made fun of Olivia Courtney), but I'm over it. She made a MAJOR mistake and still placed fourth in the World. She also really stepped it up in TF, becoming the leader when A-Sac was injured. Aly Raisman is now officially Fierce in my book. 

Vault finals were so much fun to watch. Up and comers, chucked Double Fronts and Phan from Vietnam falling in the medals! Oksana & McKayla medaled, which was great. 


There weren't any huge surprises on bars, other than the list of qualifiers. Only one girl qualified from China and she wasn't He Kexin. I was super sad for Douglas, who hit every routine at Worlds EXCEPT for her EF Bars Routine. She was totally capable of medaling but she smacked her legs on the bar, so no medal for her. I wasn't shocked with the bar medals of Komova, Nabieva & Qiushuang. 


Sui Lu is the most wonderful beam worker on earth. Hands down. I was so utterly impressed with her routine; I almost cried. No, I'm not kidding. Komova fell, but this time, I wasn't anticipating it. She looked fairly solid through the rest of her routine. Sui, Yao & Wieber medalled. What kind of world is this where the Russians go 1-2 on Bars and the Chinese go 1-2 on Beam? Weird. 

And then, we come to the hot mess of floor. What the HELL was that? There were 3 replacements, 2 of which were made the day of. Bulimar, Ferrari & Komova all didn't compete. Now, I know that the rules say that a country can replace an athlete for no reason for EF, but I'm still not a fan of this. Would I feel different if Afan wouldn't have won? Probably. But still, how are you going to replace this poor girl you've been running down all competition on the very last event? I do not approve. (Unfortunately, It's not up to me.) Also, am I the only one that HATES Lauren Mitchell's floor? All this hype with a 6.4 and "It's gonna be amazing!" and THAT'S what we get? Ew. I felt like I was watching a lemur flip around on speed. I'm really glad she didn't medal. Finally, HOORAY FOR ALY! I was getting scared for her there. Getting 4th place in the All Around, on Beam and on 2010 Worlds would suck if you never ended up getting a medal. Hello Pavlova. 

Overall, I'm excited for the next year to unfold and to see Bross & Mustafina healthy again and I can't wait for Ross, Grishina and others to be Seniors.