Pac Rim Meet Report

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Pickle's Mom

For those of you Chalk Bucketers who went to Pac Rims Days 1 or 2, what did you think?

Pickle had the time of her life. We had amazing seats, in the first row just at the end of the beam. In the TV broadcast, you can just make out her rapt little face during the dismounts.

We went to both sessions. I was surprised at the lesser quality of the gymnasts from some of the smaller countries. Any Level 8 at Pickle’s gym could easily have beaten most of the athletes from Colombia or Chinese Taipei.

However, I was also blown away by the talent from other countries that I didn’t know much about, especially Canada. Christine Lee is one to watch in London. She was just beautiful yesterday.

And Team USA was amazing. So strong and confident seeming. It was disappointing to see Gabrielle Douglass have that mishap on beam and sit out floor. Her bars were great. Although her mishap on vault almost made me have a heart attack.

Nothing was as upsetting though as seeing Australia’s Georgia Simpson taken away on a stretcher. All our girls were crying (I had tears in my eyes too). I looked it up, and it appears she needed surgery on her foot. However, the way she hit her head, she’s lucky that she’s able to walk at all.

Not that many events like this come to Seattle. I feel so lucky that Pickle got to see this one. What did other people think?
 
We were there last night and are going tomorrow night as well. We had great seats also, but in front of the bars. When Gabby did her releases on bars I gasped! I could not believe how high she gets! Very impressive. I was blown away with the USA girls. Really solid! Katelyn was gorgeous on beam, Jordyn was solid all around! We had so much fun seeing all the teams! I felt like I was doing some serious celeb spotting seeing Marta and Valeri!

When the girl from Australia hurt her ankle it was shocking indeed! I never pick up on anything and I knew instantly when it happened that no one's foot should ever turn in that direction!

My DD had a great time (as did I). It was so cool when we entered the arena because it looked just like the meets I have been watching on tv my whole life! We were so close, sat right behind the men's USA team, and were very close to Carly Patterson.

Highlights for us:
Gabby's bars
Katelyn's beam
Jordyn's power and calmness. Her tumbling was really nice.
The way the girls entered and walked out like "gymnasts". It was funny to see that they still do this at this level! My DD loved that. Just like she does as a L4!
My DD especially loved all the bling on everyone's leos.
Jordyn Wieber!!! Yes, we all have Wieber Fever for sure!

The most impressive thing that we noticed was just how SOLID and confident these girls seemed. Gabby had some difficulties on beam, but i wonder if any of it was caused by her ankle after the vault mishap? They seemed calm, sure and dominant! Can't wait to see what unfolds in the next few months.
 
Great report.

Dunno said that Georgia Simpson had a dislocation. She has had surgery and is recovering well. He recovery will be long.

As for the Canucks, aren't they lovely. Best team we have had in years and Peng Peng (Christine) Lee is just stunning. Victoria Moors on floor would easily make event finals.
 
I was SOOO disappointed that they didn't show Victoria Moors' floor! And what a sin about Georgia Simpson.
 
We went friday night and will take off in a few minutes for this afternoon's session. I have to say that Georgia's ankle really shook me up. It was very traumatic. The fellows handled it much better than I did, she is always telling me I am going to have to toughen up to be a gym mom.

I loved to see the look in my daughter's eye. She took in every little bit like a little sponge. When they did awards and lowered the flags she was wide eyed and smiling from ear to ear.

We had a great time.

I too was a little surprised by the lesser quality of some of the gymnasts there. It seemed that there were kids out there throwing skills that were scary. I was actually surprised that more accidents didn't happen.

I didn't get to see the canadians. I look forward to seeing some of them tonight in the event finals. The US was so poised and confident. Such a treat to see them live and in person.

I also think it was great for the fellows to see that it was just a gymnastics meet. They all had to stand around and wait and salute the judges and do their routines and move from apparatus to apparatus just like they do. Girls have good days and bad days and fall off the beam and miss their landings and get excited when they stick it. It took some of the mystery and allusiveness away from the whole thing only ever watching it on tv.

Overall, a great experience.
 
Just finished the Junior event finals. It was nice to see some gymnasts from the countries we didn't get to see on Friday. I really enjoyed Maria Kharenkova. She has a floor tumbling pass that is so cool.

Maria Kharenkova 2012 Moscow Championships Floor Exercise - YouTube (:25)

We also fell in love with Charlotte Sullivan from New Zealand over the weekend. She is so adorable. Was sad to see her fall off the beam. It was really sweet to see all her teammates in the stands cheering for her.
 
I have so much to say about today, but I'm exhausted after the drive home in the freak snow/ice/hail/thunder storm.

But I did want to post for the Canucks about Lee. This was Peng Peng's night. She competed floor and beam and took second on both. While she may not have had the most difficulty or the most technical accuracy, she was definitely the most fun to watch. The crowd just loved her. And this was a crowd that went in with Weiber fever (Jordyn did have a beautiful first-place floor routine as well).

Sadly, another girl was carried out of the gym. Diana Elkina (Russia) was injured during warm ups on bars. The weird thing was, the fall didn't look that bad when it happened. I mean, with Georgia Simpson we all knew immediately that she would not be walking out on her own steam, but this time I was really surprised. She fell off the high bar and landed on her feet and then her bottom. Perhaps it aggravated a pre-existing injury.

Junior's belonged to Katelyn Ohashi. It was fun to be able to root for the hometown girl.

My favorite part of the weekend was right before medals for Juniors. The Chinese gymnasts were taking photos of themselves with the Americans. It almost seemed like they were a little star struck. And, once again, seeing the girls sitting on the floor waiting for the medal ceremony was just like when our girls do it at their meet. Of course, we don't have the Governor of Washington state handing out the medals.

Oh, and there is much to be said about leotard fashion, but I'm simply too tired to type it.
 
We were at all the sessions and had a fantastic time. We had fantastic seats also. We were at the beginning of the vault runway, in the front row. I'll try to add in our report w/out reiterating what has already been posted.

We noticed Friday, especially during the evening session, that this just doesn't translate to TV. We try to follow the US Gymnasts and watch them on TV or online as much as possible. We're impressed with what we see, especially because we know just how hard this stuff really is, even though the gymnasts make it look so easy. In person, everything is just so much more impressive. I really noticed on the vaults, especially with the US girls with the harder vault (the Amanar?). You just get a better sense of how huge the vault is when you see it in person.

The girls also enjoyed the men's event on Saturday, although we know much less about men's gymnastics, most especially the details on form and difficulty for some events. Everyone in our section LOVED how great the Japanese team members were as spectators. They were a constant presence in the stand, cheering on their teammates.

Also on Saturday and Sunday, the girls were more determined to get autographs from the athletes. They ended up with quite a few from a variety of countries. Some of their favorites were Katelyn Ohashi, Sean Melton and the boy from New Zealand, Reegan Edwards (At 11 yrs old, DD and her friend are starting to be boy crazy). They also got pictures with some of their favorite boys/young men. They though Maria and Ekaterina (I think), from Russia, were the sweetest. Those 2 girls seemed so excited to be asked for their autographs.

The event finals on Sunday were a lot of fun. We liked having fewer gymnasts competing at the same time. It was so much easier to try to see everyone. We were disappointed, though by all the falls on the women's events. There's definitely some potential talent, but it seemed like most of the girls weren't at their best.

All in all, it was a great weekend. It's too bad we can't get more events like this in our region. We'll keep our fingers crossed for another big event, like this, in the future. We would do it again in a heartbeat!
 
Oh, and there is much to be said about leotard fashion, but I'm simply too tired to type it.

As pretty as some of the leotards were, the one thing that I couldn't help noticing (and I watched on TV/YouTube, we weren't able to make it to the meet) is that the leotard companies need to start making leotards that are a little bigger in the rear. It was hard not to notice that there wasn't enough coverage back there for many of the girls.
 

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