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Entry tags:	perfection is possible

March Gym News Round Up
Since the beginning of the month when I indicated that I had MOAR THOUGHTS on the American Cup, I have failed to bring them to you. In that time various other things of note have taken place in the gymnastics world. SO instead of just more thoughts about SCAM and how Shawn'll be fine and Nastia > everyone acts like she is, you get UH...sundry other stuff too. Some serious, some less so!

Neatly sectioned off for your convenience. THIS IS ETERNAL. AND CONTAINS LOTS OF VIDEO.


The injury that had pretty much all of gymnastics fandom (lol fandom) going OH NOES :(((( not too long ago was poor Courtney Kupets tearing her Achilles tendon. Kupets was the 2002 World uneven bars champion, the 2003 and 2004 US National all-around champion, and a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 where she also took home a bronze on the uneven bars. She retired after the Olympics and for the last two years has, frankly, been dominating NCAA competition. She's the NCAA national all around champion two years running, has won the national title on every event except floor (where she's medalled), and is the leader and shining star of the Georgia Gym Dogs, who've been the reigning NCAA national champion team for the last three years. The Achilles tendon tear has ended Courtney's season when she was on her way to trying for yet another national championship AND to help her team earn their fourth consecutive championship as well.

BUT the reasons, beyond general empathy, this is extra sad (and also why many who are primarily fans of elite gymnastics and not college gym are exceptionally torn up about it) are two:

1) In 2003 right before team finals at Worlds, Courtney sustained the EXACT SAME Achilles tendon tear on her OTHER ankle and had to be immediately flown home for emergency surgery and then had to go through months of rehab. Now, it has a relatively happy ending since she came back in rare form and pretty easily earned her spot on the Olympic team the following year. But seriously! (Her older sister, and Georgia teammate, also tore HER Achilles tendon last year, ending her NCAA career!)

2) Despite the fact that Courtney seemed fairly burned out on elite gymnastics (helped along by all of the foolishness with SECRET INJURIES and suchnot at Athens in 2004) when she retired there was endless speculation last year that she would be making a bid for this year's Olympic team. This speculation was assisted by the fact that Courtney kept adding far more difficulty than she would ever need in NCAA (who still use the perfect 10 scoring system BTW) to her routines. Now, Courtney eventually came out and said that she had been playing with the idea of returning to elite, but had decided to concentrate on NCAA for the time being because she didn't want to split her attention and thus risk shortchanging her team. STILL everyone's general assumption that Kupets would not only still make a go for the Olympic team, but would also almost undoubtedly make said team persisted. Partly because the NCAA season ends months before Nats and Olympic Trials so she would have still had time without jumping through the hoops early in the year. Partly because Courtney's strength on uneven bars fills a HUGE HOLE in the US team's lineup that Martha Karolyi would have to be crazy not to cork it up with Kupets.

Which essentially leaves the US team in that WTF ARE THEY GOING TO DO ON BARS (OUTSIDE OF DEPEND ON NASTIA'S MAMMOTH SCORE TO KEEP THEM AFLOAT) position still and even more firmly than before.

Terin Humphrey, another member of the 2004 Olympic team and the winner of the Olympic silver medal on uneven bars, deserves a mention here as well. She was dealing with back issues and only competing on and off all this season for the University of Alabama and recently announced that she will be ending her career due to said injuries. No one expected her to make an Olympic run this year, but it's still sad!

In a recent article about the sad downfall of once-great Romanian gymnastics, it was indicated that Steliana Nistor (Romania, hobvs) has back problems that will prevent her from competing vault this year. Which eliminates her from the Olympic all around. If you're not keeping track, Nistor was the world all around silver medalist last year. As much as I (and everyone else) criticizes Nistor's gymnastics for her horrendous form and what might be the most hideous DTY I've ever seen chucked AND go WTF at her wild overscoring at Worlds last year, this makes me sad. I will not miss seeing her gymnastics, but it cannot be denied that she would have been all-around medal contender. OF COURSE, the Romanians are somewhat known for being DRAMALLAMAS so some feel that they are exaggerating and Nistor will surely be competing all around in Beijing.




SO, after endless time to rewatch all of the American Cup routines and meditate on my feelings I have extra thoughts on each of the four American girls!

BUT FIRST. HERE IS SOMETHING STUCK IN MY CRAW.

In the weeks following SCAM as I wandered around the internet, I became more and more irritated with people constantly spouting things that are inaccurate and display a pretty basic lack of understanding of HOW SHIT WORKS. Most of these things were in regard to Nastia's floor. To start off: no, Shawn was not robbed wtf. EVERYONE (AMERICAN) WAS OVERSCORED. It's SCAM. It's called...SCAM for a reason! No, Nastia is not going to get a 15.6 internationally on floor anywhere but in a fantasy dreamland. But that same fantasy dreamland is the only place where Shawn's going to be pushing a 15.9 on floor too.

That said, I know that it has essentially been two years of Nastia being inconsistent and/or low scoring on floor. Part of me understands the inclination to write her off on that event. But the other part of me wonders at people's short memories and apparent inability to consider special factors contributing to performances, particularly in a sport where so often a HUGE PERCENTAGE of results are dependent on those special factors.

Nastia is a world silver medalist on floor, guys. Yes, it was under the old code, but still. More importantly, she struggled in 2006 on floor (though certainly wasn't a lost cause or anything) as they constantly changed her routine in the throes of getting used to the new code. Many people's consistency seemed to suffer that year. (Indeed, consistency, in general, seems to suffer under the new code.) Then...she injured her ankle and didn't compete or train floor again for A YEAR. Then, on her busted ankle, she flitted around at Worlds averaging a 14.625 (i.e. essentially dead even with Shayla Worley who actually did floor in team finals) with a watered down routine. Though a 15.6 is, as aforementioned, completely ridiculous she gained a full half a point just in start value between worlds and the Am Cup. Not to mention that, even WITH the low landing on the double front and the OOB, that was the most secure floor routine she's done in...a long, long time.

Another thing I kept seeing be talked down about was the difficulty of Nastia's floor routine. Okay, look, I understand that twisting just INHERENTLY doesn't look as impressive as big double saltos. Whatever, I got no beef with that largely aesthetic preference. The problem arises when people take this completely fair aesthetic preference and turn it into a completely inaccurate evaluation of difficulty.

So, in the interest of sharing knowledge, some TRUFAX about Nastia's floor routine and its relative level of difficulty.

1) Nastia's floor A-score is 6.2. This was a single tenth lower than Shawn's (remember, reigning world floor champion) upgraded routine. (Two tenths if you count the random bump in score Shawn was given after the fact.) This is equal to or GREATER than half of the floor finalists field at worlds last year. Half of the remainder only bettered it by one tenth. The final two floor finalists bettered it by two and three tenths respectively. Which is to say there is a very, very, very tiny spread on floor amongst the most difficult routines. Very, very tiny. A spread in which Nastia's routine is pretty squarely placed.

2) Nastia manages equivalent difficulty with the best floor workers in the world through smart routine construction taking advantage of her proficiency with two difficult technical skills: front tumbling and combination tumbling. There are two things I saw constantly in the travels that inspired this rant: people complaining that Nastia doesn't do any kind of double back salto in her routine and people complaining that "all" she does is combination tumbling which is a "cheap" and "easy" way to rack up difficulty.

2A) If combination tumbling was easy everyone would do it instead of loading their routines with five lines, four of which are single skill passes like the ubiquitous freaking double pike final pass and the random double twist side passes.

2B) For various biomechanical reasons, front tumbling is harder than back tumbling. The EGRs for floor specify that the routine must contain a double salto. NOT a double back salto, but a double salto. Nastia performs a double front. That is an E skill. It is of the same difficulty as a double arabian and a piked full-in. No one accuses those skills of somehow magically not counting on the difficulty meter.

3) Nastia's first tumbling line is SICK. No, really. It is. Trust me. And an interesting technicality for you: it is "harder" than Shawn's first tumbling line. See, this is how it works:

Shawn (or Sam Peszek or Vanessa Ferrari or Cheng Fei, however you like it) = back handspring + tucked double double (G) = .7

Nastia = front handspring + front layout full (C) + Tarasevich [or front layout double full] (D) = .3 + .4 = .7 + .2 Connection Value = .9

Now, I am in no way saying OMG NASTIA SHOULD BE THE THIRD FLOOR SPOT FOR THE US or anything like that. I am neither stupid or crazy. She has around half a point of built in deductions (crossed ankles, massive cowboy on the double front) and, more importantly, she needs to compete floor SMART to keep her ankle healthy. But I am saying that this whole business where people act like Nastia is so horrendously under par on floor and is an all-arounder solely on the strength of her exceptional ability on beam and bars is quite a lot of sensationalist exaggeration.




Now. Onto actual further SCAM thoughts.

Shawn. Shawn Shawn Shawn. All I could think upon reviewing her routines was, "Yeah, pretty much same as always." I would be beyond shocked if the fall on the Amanar was anything but a fluke so it's really not worth mentioning. I continue to QUITE IRONICALLY enjoy Shawn's gymnastics best on her worst event (bars) because while not dazzling, she is clean and neat and doesn't offend me in any way. I was less impressed with her whip-triple on floor than I thought I would be. Probably because it was low and under-rotated. BUT I will assume that while not exactly a...fluke, it is a rectifiable problem. Shawn's beam makes me cranky. With the exception of the actually improved layout (though she still has the leg separations on the FFs) somehow all of her skills got even lower, flingier, and/or were performed with less amplitude?! Whyyyyy.

Nastia. I still want to see her hit that insane bars set. I feel that should go without saying. I've already discussed her floor at length above so it should also go without saying that I enjoy it and want to see her get it completely down in the months to come (like not under-rotating that Tarasevich, for one). Her vault has actually improved noticeably, which I assume is probably due to healed up ankle and also training that DTY. I still feel, however, that her beam is clearly a work-in-progress. Now that she's gotten rid of the dreaded back pike, she needs to add back the second layout to her series since she did it for years with great conviction (:13). She'd still get a tenth in connection value even with the repeated element and four element series are just cool. I would say she should get her triple back for the dismount, BUT only if she can actually get it around. She was starting to in 2006 (mostly), so maybe.

Shayla. I am slightly less worried about Shayla now than I was immediately after the American Cup. Though not THAT much less. On the side of Less Worry, there's the fact that we still don't have anyone else to swing bars and she reportedly hit her routine at a recent national training camp. On the side of More Worry, I still am not sure what's going on with her injury-wise and it's starting to look like she's not going to be competing again until Nationals in June. Ostensibly, by choice. Hmm.

Sam. Overall she definitely made something of a case for herself, but it remains to be seen whether she can actually be consistent. Also, I think she would better served cleaning up the little flaws in her DTY (or even working on that Amanar she was rumored to be trying) than she would screwing around with upgrades on bars. That said, after much consideration I have decided that I like her new floor routine. It is obvious who her role model is among the older girls. The Essence of Sacramone is pretty much oozing off that music and choreography.




Right after the American Cup (and, I believe, actually originally included in the schedules of the AmCup team) was the Jesolo Grand Prix in Italy. This was a "friendly" meet between the US, Italy, Spain, and Poland (there was also a Romanian junior team). There were junior and senior teams. Both Nastia and Shayla sat this one out and the team was at one point going to include Alicia and Bridget Sloan, but Alicia rolled her ankle and did not go and in training at the meet Bridget tweaked her knee. So the senior American team ended up being Shawn, Sam, Jana Bieger starting her comeback tour, and new seniors: Olivia Courtney and Chelsea Davis. On the junior side (the US has a LOT of strong juniors right now) were standout Samantha Shapiro and the top two juniors right now the preternaturally talented pair of Rebecca Bross and Jordyn Wieber (WHO IS TWELVE), joined by Rebecca Clark and Morgan Smith.

I tell you all these names because THEY WILL COME UP AGAIN.

At any rate, the marquee event so to speak was Shawn vs. Vanessa Ferrari (Italy), controversial 2006 world all around champion and 2007 world all around bronze medalist. But that wasn't much of a contest. Vanessa actually competed injured at worlds last year because they wanted to ensure that Italy would qualify a full team to the Olympics. And she still appears to be...coming back. Very slowly. Earlier this year the first footage of her in competition showed her competing watered down routines badly.

From what I've seen, she did a little better this time, but still wasn't anywhere near at full difficulty. Of course, of most note TO ME was her floor exercise which is lolariously to music from THE FIFTH ELEMENT.

The above video isn't actually from the Jesolo meet, but I couldn't find any good footage from that. The most ironic thing being that I actually like this routine significantly better than her old one.

And since I am often kinda harsh about Vanessa Ferrari allow me to show you one of the exactly TWO things I like about her gymnastics: her beam mount. (From 2007 European Championships)


So, at any rate, Shawn ended up beating Vanessa by more than a point and a half. THOUGH, Shawn herself had some minor issues. For one, she quite inexplicably didn't vault the Amanar. I cannot imagine why considering she needs to get that as solid as she can before August. It's not even like she needed to worry about sitting it down and losing to Ferrari given that it still probably would have scored as well as a decent DTY and Ferrari was only vaulting a Yurkchenko full (not to mention still not having her double double back in her fx). I cannot really make sense of this decision!

The bigger problem, however, occurred on floor for Shawn!

In addition to going out on the double double (SIGH) she got slammed on her A-score for way under-rotating the whip-triple (:18).

Sam also had an unfortunate time as she had a beam fall. Plus, for whatever reason, she didn't do her double double on floor (replaced it with a piked full-in).

And I offer this as evidence for my claim in the previous section:

She only scored a 14.850 for this DTY. No dice, Sammy!

And now selected other routines!

A high, but sloppy double twisting Yurchenko from Olivia Courtney which scored a 15 even.


And Ms. Courtney on floor.

Passes are: back 1 1/2 + front 1 1/2 (Rudi), full-in, double arabian, and double pike. Difficulty: 5.9. Final score: 14.25 with an out of bounds. I imagine that would be because her leaps and jumps are...not good. But that might have been one of the prettiest double arabians I've ever seen. The full-in was lovely too.


Sam on bars.

She has her A-score up to a 6.1 and got a 15.050. Which breaking 15 internationally is nice and all, I guess. I just...I AM SORRY SAM PESZEK'S CAMP. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS WHOLE UNEVEN BARS THING. Sure the US has a hole there, but just breaking 15 (barely!) is not really going to be what they're looking for to fill it?!


A very nice 1 1/2 from Jana Bieger that scored only .05 lower than Sam's DTY.

The problem here being, a Yurchenko 1 1/2 is not getting anyone on the US Olympic team and Jana used to do a DTY.


Jana's beam.

Not great. Particularly since well...

Let's go back. Baaaaaaack. To 2005.

And see the difference between this and previous is a new code that devalued a bunch of stuff and some injuries. Sigh. Also, man I love that dismount.


Samantha Shapiro on beam and floor. Warning: she has a crazy fall on her first floor pass! JUST TO SAVE YOU THOSE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE.


Lovely gymnast. TERRIBLE MEET.


Rebecca Bross on floor.

Passes: full-in, front full + Tarasevich, 1 1/2 + Rudi, 2 1/2 + Barani (front layout with 1/2 twist). A-score: 6.3. Final score: 15.150. Not only did she beat Shawn on floor here, but she also did so at last year's Pan American Games when they both hit. Oh Bross. Woe betide the Olympic age cutoff. Rebecca Bross hails from WOGA, the same gym as Nastia and is, like Nastia, also coached by Nastia's dad Valeri. Which is hilariously obvious looking at this floor routine considering it and Nastia's new floor have the same sort of routine construction: E salto, huge combo pass, 1 1/2 + Rudi, 2 1/2 dismount, and eliminating the need for a lame side pass with leaps.

And Bross having a bad day on beam.

But with a 6.8 A-score she still broke 15 and took second in the all-around behind Jordyn Wieber. Her wonderful dismount, btw, is much like another WOGAite, 2004 Olympic all-around champion, Carly Patterson.


Jordyn Wieber on beam.

I just have to stare in amazement at her standing full (:38). She stands that up better than so many seniors.

Jordyn's floor.

Passes: full-in, 1 1/2 + front full, 2 1/2 + punch front layout, double twist, double pike. She won't be a senior until 2012.




While they were breaking my heart by not going to the American Cup (though, understandable decision on their parts), my two favourite Australian gymnasts Dasha Joura and Lauren Mitchell were at the annual Friendship Cup in Pennsylvania. They pretty easily dominated the competition even though they both only vaulted Yurchenko fulls. Dasha took the all-around, vault, and bars. She fell on floor and got knocked down to second on that and took second on beam as well. Lauren took first on beam and floor, second in the all-around, and third on vault and bars.

Lauren's routines including a GORGEOUS piked double arabian (an F skill!) at 1:40. The rest of her passes are: tucked double arabian, a 2 1/2 + front layout, double twist, and a double pike.


Dasha's routines. Apparently she dislocated her finger right before vault :(

Floor passes are: full-in, front full + front 1 1/2 (Rudi), 2 1/2 + Barani, double twist, double pike.

In other Daria Joura news, she has a COLUMN here that she has been writing weekly for Perth Now. <3




In other journalistic (vaguely!) news there is...THIS:

(click for full-sized)

Shawn, Nastia, Chellsie Memmel, and Alicia Sacramone in Vogue as photographed by Annie Leibowitz.

Poor Chellsie has been completely OVERSHADOWED. And Shawn, that little grin is not the right MOOOOD for the picture. Tyra would disapprove. The others are working the FIERCE LOOKS pretty well though.

Of course, everyone knows Nastia likes to practice at meets alla time:



The attached article was pretty dumb! (Shawn is apparently like a "miniature wrestler" and Nastia is a "willowy sylph" and watching their training is like CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.) But then what could really be expected?




In other media news, here is a Nastia profile from AT&T's Blue Room site where they also run the neverending Behind the Team series of shorts about USA gymnastics and the Olympic hopefuls.

This is especially notable to me for a few reasons, but mostly that you can see her training her DTY in this video (into a pit, but still!) AND there's a bit where she talks about how she doesn't sit around thinking OH YEAH IT WOULD BE MY DREAM COME TROO TO GET A BRONZE MEDAL.

I love that because it is wonderfully candid. She is a world champion gymnast and has spent most of her life working towards this goal, OF COURSE she wants gold. As well she should.

It also features Nastia eating sushi. Because every profile about Nastia ever must feature her eating sushi.



AND that is about it for this post. I have a few more PLANNED currently.

One is going to be about the rest of the US girls who are vying for an Olympic berth but haven't done much this year and the other will be about the Pacific Alliance Championships.

I was going to include PAC in this post, but it took me too long to actually get around to FINISHING this eternal post so it was sort of...today. However, NBC will not deign to AIR the competition until the 13th of April. SO, you know. Whatevs.

PAC has a three junior, three senior format and the US team was Nastia, Jana Bieger, and Darlene Hill (a national team b-lister) for the seniors. And was SUPPOSED to be Rebecca Bross, Samantha Shapiro, and Jordyn Wieber for the juniors. But little miss phenom Jordyn Wieber rolled her ankle, so she was replaced with Rebecca Clark who hails from the same gym as Ivana Hong! Olivia Courtney was the alternate. It is also notable that Shapiro, Wieber, and Courtney (the fourth was the lovely Mattie Larson who is injured currently) were part of the Junior Pan Ams team that went 1-2-3 in the all-around and swept up a bunch more medals last year.

So yeah. That soon.

ETA: AND I am dumb so totally forgot another bit of NEWS. The Code of Points will be TWEAKED for 2009 such that now only the 8 highest difficulty elements will be counted instead of 10. WELL, that's something! Which is better than nothing. Now they need to make it so that vaults get DOWNGRADED if you fall on them and that you lose difficulty value for elements that you fall on in other routines. I guarantee you people would chuck shit less if a fall wouldn't mean that they just break even.

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