Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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



15 comments:

  1. Awww, Make A Wish looks like baby Andreea! How adorable!

    We need daily doses of Catty Comments. OMG, do we ever. You need your own blog, doll.

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  2. Awkward's leo looks like smoke signals are trying to escape or sperm cells are racing to the finish line...

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  3. Dump truck should have been on top of the podium with Wine Barrel next to her. I hate the judges giving scores based on whose turn it is to win like this is the Oscars or something. Australians should earn their medals, not get them as some sort of "hemisphere diversity" affirmative action.

    Lauren muscles her turn and she herself didn't think it was much of an overall performance she gave. Chelaru was a spaza and HBIC fell out of the Memmel.

    Afan stayed out of the arena--HBIC walked, but returned. Izbaza bailed from the floor also. Isbaza was overcome, but Headcase just blew off the event. Think they should stay and take their medicine like He did.

    You know Marta and Bresteyan expect more backbone in the girls. I really feel good despite the result that a Romanian Thintervention team can mentally crush the commies or the Sinos in 2012. We've got more stones and pressure testing. You know that is going to be a frigging GAUNTLET of a selection camp for that team...

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  4. Ferrari, aka, wine barrel didn't deserve to be on the podium w a dbl tuck in her routine. As far as I'm concerned, if ur throwing dbl tucks, u dont deserve to make the fx ef at worlds

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  5. [Quote]
    You know Marta and Bresteyan expect more backbone in the girls. I really feel good despite the result that a Romanian Thintervention team can mentally crush the commies or the Sinos in 2012. We've got more stones and pressure testing. You know that is going to be a frigging GAUNTLET of a selection camp for that team...[/Quote]

    Yes because Marta's selection camps have just worked sooo well. I do think she'll take Alexandrov way more seriously than she's taken coaches in the past.

    And as for Aliya the girl may be very emotional but the girl is a freaking rock competition wise. Her 15/16 was incredible. Yes there are a lot of headcases on that team but they are going to be phased out as the talented juniors like Komova come into place.

    What should be ominious is that Alexandrov can get the Russians to win with basically Mustafina carrying the team.

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  6. We're going to have Shawn and Nastia back again. And Jordan. And Paul MF Hamm.

    Musty is the real deal though. I give her props. Wish we had her on our side.

    I think the girls (especially, but men to an extent) have a tendancy to hide and/or work through injuries and sometimes do it in a team destructive way. Not Bross. Or Memmel06, they supported the team. but the injuries to Davis, Memmel and Pezzek 08, etc. just seem suspicious. Especially when the occur in a manner so that the athlete is not replaceable. I like instead how the men do subsitituons and seem to care about the team first if they know they are having an issue (Cameron versus Larson for instance). I donno.

    There is something where the bubble girls will crawl over broken glass to make the team, but then don't deliver. Somehow, we need to better check physical status, have more alternates nearby, be more willing to move people out. Something. That bugs me. The problem is that the incentives to make the team are much higher than the incentives to perform well. Not sure the answer though...

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  7. Musty's statement when she arrived back in Moscow: “You have to perform in a way that does not permit any doubts in your superiority. And the rest does not matter.” (to Sovietsky Sport reporter)

    Indeed. As a wise fan said, Mustafina brought a different air to this competition- an air that not even Shawn or Nastia brought. She walked onto the floor like she was the shit, glared haughtily at everything and every one, then when it was her time to be in the spotlight, she hit like it was nothing through 3 days of AA.

    She is not as openly flamboyant as Khorki (yet?), but she completely expected to win, she felt she was groomed for it, and well, she stood and delivered. She also very much cheers on all her team mates that were competing around her, but you get the impression this is all her support for Russia to win medals... Notice during the AA she was watching everything like a hawk but not cheering others as enthusiastically, heh.

    It shows an incredible amount of confidence and composure to be able to watch the competition as she did. No diva who came before could pull that off.

    As another wise fan asserted, Mustafina's subtle smirks, piercing glares, and body language of dissatisfaction with anything other than gold separates her "seriousness" from Bross, who is aggressive but looks like she fights to hang onto everything. Mustafina was mysterious, cute, haughty, and FIT. I approve of the purple eyeglam.

    A reporter (sportbox.ru) asked HBIC "What do you think about being called the next Khorkina?"

    HBIC: "Nothing. It’s all the same to me. Sveta was, of course, an amazing gymnast. But I have no idols and never have."

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  8. Mitchell has landing deductions on her second and last tumble and a cowboyed double arabian but the rest was pretty freaking solid. As for her movements being awkard, at least she moves in time to the musio. I swear some of these routines could be done with completely different music and you wouldn't notice.

    Australia was 6th in 1991, 6 years before Peggy arrived. They were 6th this year. Peggy had very little to do with the development of the 2000 girls, Slater McIntosh and Skinner were all comp ready by the time she arrived. Ju Ping took Australia out of nowhere, 16th in 1989 to 6th 2 years later. She was a firece commie bitch who centralised the gym system and earned the nickname 'Dragon Lady.' Most of the gymnasts and coaches were scared of her but she got results. Peggy has strengthened the program and has gotten some fantastic results but she didn't invent it.

    Gym fans love to bitch and moan about girls doing cookie cutter routines and all having the same skills. A gymnats like Lauren comes along showing some different skills and dance and she gets slammed as awakward.

    Also to the idiots who think Lauren said she didn't deserve it, she said she didn't think it was that good. She was talking about her second and last tumbles. She didn't even watch most of the other routines so she's not going to comment on whether she deserves it or not.

    What I do like is how she's picked herself up from so many near misses. 4th in the AA by 0.025 in 2009 and comes back tomedal twice in EF. Lost beam by less than 0.2 last year to someone underage. Lost to Beth's dance masterpiece last year by 0.1 and that's with the sympathy vote for crapping out on UB in prelims and the audience boost too. She loses beam this year by less than 0.2 and a silver by 0.033, the smallest margin possible.

    As for Tweddle winning it this year, she hit her tumbles in TF and only scored a 14.666. Her leaps were crap this year and she would've struggled tyo make the podium.

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  9. Evaluation of the men? If the EF lacked drama, how about what does USA need to do to be more competetive in team (should be you could milk that for some controversy.)

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  10. Would you be willing to do a gold medal comparison of vault champions: Alicia S. this year and Kayla W. in 2009? Didn't they both throw the same 2 vaults?

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  11. I can do a comparison this weekend - Kayla vs. ASac smackdown. May the best vaulter win!

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  12. IIRC from last year, Kayla does a better job in sticking landings, but Alicia's form is superior?

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  13. Anonymous at 1.37am, Lauren's big original skill is that triple spin that Terin did on beam- so someone else did it first- and it's disgusting. Her arms flail everywhere. Her routine was fine, but nothing wonderful, and that disgusting spin certainly isn't a deciding argument in an online smackdown. She should be grateful Musty was knackered, Afanasyeva and Izbasa are inconsistent and she went up last.

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  14. Anon at 1.24 I never said that skill was original to Lauren or that it was the deciding factor. As fair as I know she was the first one to do it on floor at a world championships. i hate the turn because she flails about but I would rather see a fugly triple wolf than another fugly double L or triple turn, variety is the spice of life after all. Based on the perfomances on the night she was the best. Her 14.833 was the third highest floor score of the entire competition only behind Mustafina and Bross FX from the AA. I guess Bross would have been a much less awkward floor champ... I think Afanasyeva would have been a much more compelete champ but she choked it. We have to judge on what was shown. On the night Lauren delivered.

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