My 11 Favorite Routines of 2011

11. Ana Sofia Gomez on Beam at the Pan American Champs Event Finals

10. Nica Hults on Beam at the US Classics 

9. Aliya Mustafina on Bars at The American Cup

8. Diana Bulimar on Floor at World Championship Qualifications

7. Kyla Ross on Beam on Day 1 of Visa Championships

6. Aly Raisman on Floor at World Championships Event Finals

5. Viktoria Komova on Bars at World Championships Qualifications 

4. Katelyn Ohashi on Beam on Day 1 of Visa Championships

3. McKayla Maroney on Vault at World Championship Team Finals

2. Jordyn Wieber on Beam on Day 2 of Visa Championships

1. Sui Lu on Beam at World Championship Team Finals

Pan American Games - Beam Finals

(Grace Chiu)

Can someone explain to me what world the judges were living in? In my opinion, 3 girls got up and hit routines with tiny tiny errors, 2 had a little bit larger errors and 3 girls fell off the beam.  In what world does a girl who fell get to medal over girls who hit beautiful routines?

The scoring system is what it is, so let's just disregard D scores for the time being. WHERE were the nearly two points of deductions in Gomez and Vaculik's routines? I legitimately thought that they'd both score in the high 8s, maybe even in the low 9s. They both scored in the low 8s. I don't see it.

(Property of GymCan, Grace Chiu) 

Karla Salazar, had a good routine, with minor errors and (gasp) actual choreography. She somehow scored in the 7s. While Daniele Hypolito fell and scored about .5 less than Salazar's E Score.  Jessica Gil Ortiz fell of the beam and got a 6.5 E Score.

It's not that I don't like Hypolito (I do, I promise!), that I have a problem with the code, or that I think that the judges were cheating one particular country. I just feel like the judges were all over the place. Vaculik bobbled ONCE, if I remember correctly, and it was small! How does that deserve an 8.125? I'm not a judge, and don't claim to be, but something seems out of whack here.

In any case, congratulations to all three of the medalists, and to all of the competitors who gave us beautiful routines today.

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!