Women's Floor EFs, aka Peggy Gets a Gold - Catty Comments

The women's floor finals featured long people & squat people, tango people & blues people, and a hella assortment of leos & egos. Let's get this party started.

HBIC went first for her 16th & final routine. She skidded out of her 2nd pass, back 2.5 - front tuck full pass, but absolutely nailed everything else with determination if not actual energy. Amazing competition for her and great floor routine. May this be Aliya's first of many World & Olympic competitions.

2008 Olympic FX champion Sandra Izbasa was next, rocking her 2008 EF white/ice blue leo, Hava Nagila, and surgical scars from her ruptured Achilles 13 months ago. Her tumbling was strong, but her score took a big hit when she went offline & landed OOB on her 2nd pass, back 1.5 through to triple full. Props to Sandra for rocking only 3 tumbling lines.


Izbasa also has beautiful, liquid arms (check out the move before the 1st pass) as long as she's still. The second her feet move, her arms get scared stiff, which really looks weird to Klezmer music. Try it sometime - put on some loud Klezmer music, then dance across a 40' area but don't bend your arms. It's like trying to out-awkward Awkward Aussie.


Next up, Ksenia Afanasyeva Commie Headcase, who promptly headcased Afanned the double layout mount. Her other elements were lovely - 2 whips through to triple full, double attitude turn, ro 1.5 front full, double L turn, before Afanning the double pike dismount. I think her performance in EFs was designed to make Mattie Larson not feel so bad.


Following that 2-fall performance was Ferrari Wine Barrel, who rocked the top E score by rocking every single landing - tucked full-in - sissone, tucked double back, ro 1.5 front full, double pike. She even rocked her least-insane leo of the competition - a sparkly, all-black crushed velvet number with rhinestones and a deep v-neck. V-necks are nice for elongation, but when you're elongating a barrel, well, yeah. But props to her - the 2006 World AA champion is still going strong and making improvements to her form & presentation, even if she's taken something off the difficulty since she used to mount with a Silivas (tucked double-double.)


After Ferrari, Raisman Sleepwalker looked positively tall & elegant. Raisman is neither tall nor elegant, but in comparison with a sparkly black velvet wine barrel, she was freakin' Giselle Bundchen. Raisman rocked the red "USSA" leo from Beijing and her tumbling. She mounted power hurdle, ro 1.5 through to double arabian - sissone with acres to spare before the line and never looked back, going back with a triple full, tucked double back, piked double back.


On top of that, Sleepwalker actually accented beats in the music and I, for the first time ever during her fx, said wow, maybe she isn't actually deaf. Sleepwalker was even slightly tango-licious after having Sacramone & Marta Romanian Thintervention work and work and work with her on the microscopic sections reserved for "artistry." For comparison, this was Sleepwalker's fx 2 months ago @ Visas.


The star of TLC-Romania's "Little People," Diana Chelaru performed her little hummingbird heart out with vintage Pozar choreography to a bouncy Hungarian Rhapsody. As her score flashed and HBIC saw that Make A Wish had tied her, she sat, then waited to hug her with an "oh HELL to the no" look on her face.


Couch Gymnast reported that the Russians left the floor with 4 routines to go, but I keep seeing Mustafina sitting around or hugging after each routine in the coverage, so I'm not sure how that all went down.


Up next was 16 18 year-old Sui Lu the divagasmic belle of Shanghai, defending her fx bronze from last year. She's a twister & emoter, but only placed 4th behind Sleepwalker. Maybe FIG just wanted to keep the neon off another podium. Or the unlined light fabric at the bottom of the neon leos...

Yeah, that was awkward. Speaking of which, next Awkward Aussie stepped up, took advantage of her position competing last & her beam score diss, and tumbled the hell out of her bluesy bass music. The moves to the music live up to her name (see after 2nd pass & corner before 3rd pass), but they do occur and hit many of the bass beats. So that's a bonus.


Awkward was actually messier than the other top finalists, but somehow between the beam diss and the fact that apparently now FX golds are given out to the gymnast who didn't get her EF props until this point (see Muppet Face's 2009 gold), she won. If He had made fx finals & tumbled clean, she probably would've won. With the new code there is less obvious placement fixing that there used to be in EF's, but everyone's kinda tired & okay with it by the end of 10 days of competition.


This bitch is bittah since in a perfect world the first Aussie world championship should've gone to floor diva Daria Joura. Here she was competing a stunning fx in 2008 Aussie Nationals. Then she injured her ankle right before Beijing prelims. Daria, this gold's for you.





But really, this gold is for Peggy. Bitch came to Australia after coaching Shannon Miller when it was nowheresville and now has them winning medals regularly and always in team finals. I would call her the Marta of Australia, but she's been in her position years longer than Marta and didn't inherit it from her husband. Lauren gave major Peggy props in her interviews.


Final fx placements: 1) Awkward Aussie 2t) HBIC & Make A Wish