Thursday, August 2, 2012
Beauty Is Not Dead!
Congratulations to the beautiful silver medalist. May your temporary pain be a gift to you and the sport in the form of fueling you to far greater heights during the next four years. Let's be honest, no one was sure you could do floor like that! It was one of the top moments of the entire Olympic Games.
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Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteVika during floor was like pre-injury Vika. I was amazed.
ReplyDeleteand I was underwhelmed
ReplyDeleteSo sad for her :( she was awesome today (as always!)
ReplyDeleteFIG doesn't like beauty too bad :)
ReplyDeleteSo proud of her. But so sad she didn't get the gold medal she deserved so much.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
DeleteDid she give any indications of training for the next olympics?
ReplyDeleteIf I were her, I'd wonder what the point was. She was the best athlete today and lost.
DeleteUm, she wasn't the best athlete on vault. She landed her Amanar poorly and had to WALK off the mat several steps just to keep her balance. Vika didn't lose AA gold on floor-she lost it right out of the gates-on vault. Gabby deserved the win, she was the steadier of the two throughout. Komova outscored Douglas on bars and floor as she should = but the American was the best overall. The judges got it right.
DeleteThere's nothing beautiful about stumbling off the mat on your vault
ReplyDeleteWell put. Komova's final impression was her good work on floor (not her BEST work-I can't stand her music, it didn't fit her choreo AT ALL). I'm a big fan but I'm not blind to the fact that she had a MAJOR error on vault. Get all of those crucial tenths back and Komova likely would have won.
DeleteWow - It is amazing how people can watch the same competition and view things so differently - Nothing like putting blinders on and seeing what you want to see - Komova was outperformed in every sense of the word - The US team was more talented, mentally and physically, than she and her teammates - And as Anon 4:54 notes, I fail to see the beauty in stumbling throughout the competition - She should thank her lucky stars for what she got, and be a lot more gracious in defeat
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DeleteTHIS! I LOVE Musty, I love the Russians, I love Komova's balletic style=but they simply did not bring their A game to the Olympics. Period. Musty was lucky to medal in the AA with a fall and Komova should be grateful she still won silver with her near-disaster on her Amanar. A gymnast from other than the top four countries likely would have scored MUCH lower than Komova on that badly landed vault.
Indeed, perception is everything. You have to hit when it counts, and sadly the Russian girls did not. The five point defecit in the team final is easily seen in the mistakes, and for those that know the code, had the Russians hit, they would have won. They didn't hit though, so the US did, not really that tricky ; )
ReplyDeleteVika's vault let her down today and that was it, again, in knowing the code you know the landing deductions, and they were enough to make the difference and more between gold and silver. Vika also missed her first connection on beam.
I think it's a fucking disgrace the way some people are talking about these gymnasts, perhaps as I'm neither Russian nor American the view is a little more objective I don;t know, perhaps because I'm a judge and see the actual technical faults and their deductions. What I do know is that both these girls are amazing gymnasts have put in more than most people can comprehend to get where they did. Gabby has improved SO much over this last year, and overcame her weakest quality which was her consistency, that gave her the Olympic title. Vika has been injured for over a year, wasn't even vaulting or competing FX as near as April at euros, she's had a huge growth spurt while injured, and still managed to come back with an Amanar not seen since her junior days, as well as other upgrades.
Both of them deserve a lot more respect than they are getting from certain people, BOTH.
Oh and Aliya does too, bitch couldn't even walk just over a year ago.
Since you are a judge, I would love to hear your explaination of Vika's vault score. Out of a possible 16.5, I thought I saw way more than 1.034 in deductions. 3 huge steps to the side(.3 each)plus stepping totally off of the mats. I'm sure there must have been some form/amplitude deductions too if they found .267 in deductions on McKayla's TF vault.
DeleteI'd love to hear your input! Thanks!!
In all honestly the vault scores have been a bit all over the place, but the main thing to take is don't compare two vaults from two competitions. Different judges will judge differently on different days, and that is where the issue of subjectivity comes in. The other thing is it seems to be impossible not to take something now days, almost as if you have to find something somewhere, and McKayla's vault isn't the first time that a near flawless performance has been judged more harshly than a not so good one. So what I'm saying is they will have taken everything possible from McKayla which still wasn't very much, whereas another athlete wouldn't have received such harsh deductions. The same thing happened with Fan Ye on beam at 2003 worlds.
DeleteMcKayla's vault was stunning, the deductions will be from the leg separation as she hit the vault, and the slight angle in the hips, there was the tiniest leg separation in the twist. The leg separation on the first part of the vault I agree with, but personally for a vault of this quality I think I'd have given her the hip angle, it's being VERY picky.
Vault today the stranger result was the difference between Gabby and Aly's scores. Only 0.66 between them, Gabby's score was about right, she slightly twists off the table, doesn't pass enough through vertical there, slight form loss in post flight, and then the off center landing, hop to the side and body adjustment, her score was kind of middle range, they could have been more harsh, and could have given her perhaps an extra 0.1
. Aly though has legs apart on the vault entry, a more staggered hand placing on the vault, it does lift more yes, but her legs bend at the start of the second twist, and she didn't actually land quite all the way round either which is why the large hop sent her to the other side of the red line, she was twisting when she landed. IMO she did very well score wise on vault tonight.
Vika went onto the vault well, hands aligned so no early twist, she didn't lift as high, but the first half of the vault there wasn't a lot they would have taken. Crossed feet a 0.1, legs were bending right at the end to get the last half twist round, then the landing which was off line. The steps on landing were a 0.3 for the first one, a 0.1 for the second, then the penalty for stepping off. Her deductions were on the generous side of ok, they could have taken maybe 1.3
That's all from the angle I got it at though, which of course wasn't to the side of the vault in the arena!
Komova still needs to learn to listen to her FX music. She's great, but she'll never be my favorite until she works with her music and changes her bars composition. Mustafina is a thousand times better in my book because of those two things. I hate Douglas's floor but she absolutely makes the most of the awful music and choreography, Komova doesn't at all.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Vika's best floor routine was pre-injury with her 2010 routine. Ever since then she's gone downhill, and she was never the best in the consistency department anyway. I sincerely hope she continues after 2012 because I think she's a beautiful gymnast who needs some more competition under her belt to develop some mental strength. Grishina, too. I wish gymnasts these days lasted more than one Olympics, and she hasn't been around as a senior for the whole quad, anyway.
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