Women's AA Finals

[CoachMeg]

In fairness, Laurie was indeed cheering. Gabby, politely clapping. When Aly finished floor, prime time showed Laurie and Maddie on their feet cheering. Gabby never got up. This is not Gabby hate. But an observation. She does seem not as enthusiastic and not as supportive as her teammates.

You say politely clapping, I say cheering. She might not have been as energetic as Laurie...but look at the personality difference. Laurie is described as the "human emoji", while Gabby is far more reserved in her emotions, and is often described as being very introverted. So I think they cheered in ways that fit them. I'm energetic and would totally be on my feet...but my sister is extremely shy and introverted and would feel embarrassed/awkward to show that much emotion, even in an arena like that.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I tried to be objective, I really did, but at one point I felt like I was watching a level 9 meet with gymnasts who should have been level 8. I often wonder if the US hadn't become so good, if they would have made this rule? I remember decades of Russia, Belarus, Romania, (the Soviet Bloc) dominating the podium in gymnastics, and they swept the medals. And there wasn't any rule like this--the best got to compete against the best.

Some good routines I saw: the Chinese gymnast on beam, the Brazilian gymnast on floor, Aliyah on bars, Aly's beam, Simone and Aly on floor, the Chinese gymnast on bars. I didn't see any vaults.

To be clear, I do not mean that I think they were doing level 9 skills, I was just coming up with a metaphor that I thought was understandable.

 

[duyetanh]

To be clear, I do not mean that I think they were doing level 9 skills, I was just coming up with a metaphor that I thought was understandable.

I am actually glad you clarified. Thank you. Because I haven't got to see all the athletes yet (just watched some delayed live stream) and it made me wonder.

 

[bookworm]

Awesome censorship chalk bucket.

Did I miss something?

 

[gymisforeveryone]

My heart went out to Shang Chunsong when she was weeping her tears after she missed the bronze medal And the poor Seda Tutkhalyan when she fell after her beam dismount! The routine was otherwise so good. I just hate seeing any gymnast fall and getting back on track after a fall must be extremely hard. They still hold it together amazingly well during the rest of the competition. Their mental toughness is unbelievable. After all most of them are still teens!

I love Mustafina! I'm really happy for her. Of course I love the American women too and they did fantastic.

I think the 2 per country rule is good. Or maybe it could be 3 per country, I don't know. The USA is dominating this sport for sure, yes. But for me (and I guess that for many others too) Olympics is about seeing athletes from all over the world and giving every country a chance is great and goes well with the spirit of the Olympics in general. I come from a tiny country with 5 million people and it's obvious that finding Olympic hopefuls from such a small pool is not the same as with super big countries like China or US or Russia. This year we had a male gymnasts in the trials for the first time in like ten or twenty years and that was awesome! We also have a rhythmic gymnast in Rio! People are very excited and there has been tons of articles on the media about those two gymnasts.

One other sport that I enjoy watching is cross country skiing. Finland has won several Olympic medals and World championships in the past as individuals and also as teams. The greatest competition has always been between Finland, Sweden and Norway and they have been pretty much equal in the past. But now Norway is dominating the competition and it's almost ridiculous how they might have the top 6 or 7 places in every given competition, both in Women and Men. It's not exciting anymore. The sport is losing it's spectators in every country and even the people in Norway say they would love to see more competition rather than the competition just being between their own country. Yes they are the best of the best but the medals and titles are losing their glory when they are just competing against their team mates.

Just my opinion, I get that other people might think differently and that's totally fine for me

 

[wandrewsjr]

Amazing, dominating performance by Simone and Aly tonight! Truly spectacular! Mustafina's resilience continues to amaze me! How can anyone who loves gymnastics talk about anything else tonight!

And...chalk bucket has two more threads dedicated to analyzing and criticizing Gabby's demeanor and facial expressions. Sigh...

 

[MILgymFAM]

Wow- I heard the commentator say that Simone's winning margin was greater than it was in the last 8 Olympics (1980-2012) combined! Whoa!

 

[Sari]

I like the 2 per country rule. A lot of countries, Germany included, simply lack the funding and widespread high-quality training facilities in order to produce a group of Olympians comparable to the US women. Gymnasts either don't have access to these facilities or they have to move and go to a boarding-school with a gym attached to it (home-schooling is very rare in my country specifically, and shunned). The talent pool is much smaller, too, and there isn't much you can do to change that. That's why you see more gymnasts going to multiple Games from those smaller countries (seriously, these were Hambüchen's 4th Games, could you even imagine that happening in the US?).
As much as I love the US gymnasts, I wouldn't enjoy watching the competitions as much if they made up most of the competitors.
Rant over, haha. That being said, yay Simone and Aly! I didn't get to watch these finals but I followed a live feed and I'm happy it all went well

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I like the 2 per country rule. A lot of countries, Germany included, simply lack the funding and widespread high-quality training facilities in order to produce a group of Olympians comparable to the US women. Gymnasts either don't have access to these facilities or they have to move and go to a boarding-school with a gym attached to it (home-schooling is very rare in my country specifically, and shunned). The talent pool is much smaller, too, and there isn't much you can do to change that. That's why you see more gymnasts going to multiple Games from those smaller countries (seriously, these were Hambüchen's 4th Games, could you even imagine that happening in the US?).
As much as I love the US gymnasts, I wouldn't enjoy watching the competitions as much if they made up most of the competitors.
Rant over, haha. That being said, yay Simone and Aly! I didn't get to watch these finals but I followed a live feed and I'm happy it all went well

This is a good description of the situation in here also. But getting those gymnasts to the Olympics (even if they don't qualify to the finals) is a huge boost for the smaller countries' gymnastics organizations and can help to get more money for the sport from the government etc. So for that reason also it's important to have more than a few countries in the games.

I was really happy to see the German gymnasts do so well! I really enjoyed watching Elizabeth Seitz on bars! Even Germany is a huge country compared to Finland. We have 6 full spring floors in this country, I mean the whole country! I'm pretty sure that an average size city in the US has more. I guess we'll not see a female gymnast in the Olympics in the next five to ten years from Finland either. It's extremely difficult to keep the promising 13 or 14 year olds in the sport long enough to progress to the Olympic level. Everyone attend public school and fitting in the hours required to get to the competitive level is extremely difficult and you have to live in Helsinki area or in Tampere area (which are the biggest cities in here). Even if some gymnasts stay in the sport until their early to mid twenties like our top female gymnast did it's very hard to study in the University at the same time when getting sponsors to fund the training is not easy. Most gymnasts worry about their future after retiring from the sport and don't want to end up not getting a career in working life later so quitting gymnastics and applying to University is the only option most of them see.

 

[Sari]

This is a good description of the situation in here also. But getting those gymnasts to the Olympics (even if they don't qualify to the finals) is a huge boost for the smaller countries' gymnastics organizations and can help to get more money for the sport from the government etc. So for that reason also it's important to have more than a few countries in the games.

I was really happy to see the German gymnasts do so well! I really enjoyed watching Elizabeth Seitz on bars! Even Germany is a huge country compared to Finland. We have 6 full spring floors in this country, I mean the whole country! I'm pretty sure that an average size city in the US has more. I guess we'll not see a female gymnast in the Olympics in the next five to ten years from Finland either. It's extremely difficult to keep the promising 13 or 14 year olds in the sport long enough to progress to the Olympic level. Everyone attend public school and fitting in the hours required to get to the competitive level is extremely difficult and you have to live in Helsinki area or in Tampere area (which are the biggest cities in here). Even if some gymnasts stay in the sport until their early to mid twenties like our top female gymnast did it's very hard to study in the University at the same time when getting sponsors to fund the training is not easy. Most gymnasts worry about their future after retiring from the sport and don't want to end up not getting a career in working life later so quitting gymnastics and applying to University is the only option most of them see.

I was surprised at how well they did (I really don't follow German gymnastics beyond the county level).
Yes to everything you said! I had a really promising 5-year-old in my group three years ago. She's now 8 and still at that run-down club with no chance of ever going any further than that, mostly because she lives in the wrong area. At one of the Olympic competitions I watched (I think it was women's team finals), our commentator was saying that one of our gymnasts (Tabea Alt if I remember correctly) moved away to boarding-school on her own at age 11 for training. That's just wrong. Children should not have to be making the decision between sport and family. But that's the consequence of the system we have here...

 

[Ali'sMom]

Awesome censorship chalk bucket.

Did you have a post removed?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Geography plays a big role here too, if you don't live near a large city you don't have much chance

 

[Bess]

Geography plays a big role here too, if you don't live near a large city you don't have much chance

I think Geography plays a big role in most countries. Yes the US is pretty dominant right now but unless you live in one of the 10 states or so with elite level coaching....We have depth because of the huge country but that is not to say all the girl's have equal opportunities. Alas, such is life

 

[profmom]

You didn't miss much in the vault department....in the Olympic AA final, the first 3 gymnasts (Andrade of Brazil, then Aly and Simone) competed Amanars....and that vault was never seen again....there were DTYs... and there were even some Yurchenko fulls in the Olympic AA final...

If you are referring to Shang Chunsong, I think your disdain is quite seriously misplaced.

 

[bogwoppit]

Awesome censorship chalk bucket.

It is not censorship. We have many young members who idolize the team. So much speculation about one young woman is not helpful in the discussion of actual gymnastics.

Discuss the thread topic, that is all. You want to talk about one gymnast off the podium then start a new thread and have at it.

 

[bogwoppit]

Did I miss something?

I deleted threads that were off topic. People who want to talk about another topic can start their own thread.

 

[bookworm]

If you are referring to Shang Chunsong, I think your disdain is quite seriously misplaced.

My point was that in an Olympic AA final, there were still "only" Yurchenko fulls being competed...referencing the prior poster who said some of the competitors didn't wow her/him with huge skills....and while Shang's YF is nice, it's lower start value probably contributed to her finishing off the podium...no disdain, just an observation from watching all the vaults competed.

 

[wnl256]

Wow- I heard the commentator say that Simone's winning margin was greater than it was in the last 8 Olympics (1980-2012) combined! Whoa!

Although an interesting stat, it is very misleading. From 1980 through 2004 they used the 10 point scoring system, and winning margins were much smaller. It really doesn't make any sense to make comparisons that mix the two scoring systems.

 

[wnl256]

Wow- I heard the commentator say that Simone's winning margin was greater than it was in the last 8 Olympics (1980-2012) combined! Whoa!

And just because I can't resist, I had to go check this factoid. It is indeed correct. The sum of the "winning margins" from 1980 through 2012 is 1.438. Simone won by 2.1.

By any measure, Simone's win was decisive and could be described as a "blow out". 2.1 is just huge, even with the D/E scoring.

The last "blow out" in this event was 1976 when Nadia Comaneci beat Nellie Kim by 0.7. This was under the old 10-point scoring system that had a compulsory and optional preliminary competition, and those scores were also factored in to the final score. The highest possible score under that system was 80. Nadia won with a 79.375. After that, from 1980 to 2004, victory margins were usually less than a tenth of a point (always less than 0.2), sometimes as low as 0.025 or 0.012. The Olympics switched to the D/E scores in 2008 and victory margins got larger: 0.6 in 2008 (Nastia vs. Shawn) and 0.259 in 2012 (Gabby vs. Viktoria).

 

[sce]

You say politely clapping, I say cheering. She might not have been as energetic as Laurie...but look at the personality difference. Laurie is described as the "human emoji", while Gabby is far more reserved in her emotions, and is often described as being very introverted. So I think they cheered in ways that fit them. I'm energetic and would totally be on my feet...but my sister is extremely shy and introverted and would feel embarrassed/awkward to show that much emotion, even in an arena like that.

Why is everyone so hard on Gabby.? If you every move was being scrutinized would it effect your demeanor? Also, it looked like the camera caught her eating at one point. So she seemed to be doing her best to clap and also not make a mess as she was also chewing. Honestly, people are all just different, I am a huge gymnastics fan but if a camera watched me, I would mostly sitting and clapping. Doesn't mean I am not supporting the athletes I love.