10 posts tagged “beijing”
Spoilers, if you weren't a numbnut and stayed up all hours of the night, scrambling over the Internet trying to catch live feeds on CCTV-5 and elsewhere trying to watch live. BTW, NBC, you fail. Instead of wasting the energy shutting down the few decent live feeds there were, maybe you should have realized that amongst the casual fans you want the ratings from, there are a grand many hardcore fans that are counted in those ratings. So you had a couple of options: 1.) show qualifications live or 2.) have a live feed like you did for podium training. Quit being greedy bitches and actually appeal to the fans. I can guarantee it would work better for you in the long run; in any case, I'm sure there would be less profanity-laden e-mails in your inbox.
Anyway.
My thoughts, in bullet form (I would be more coherent, but I just found out that Issac Hayes died and now I'm all discombobulated again):
- He Kexin falling on UB was a little unexpected and her nearly missing out on qualifying for UB finals could have been one of the biggest upsets of this Olympics.
- Deng Linlin almost booted Jiang Yuyuan's AA spot. Also surprising.
- Alicia Sacramone missed out on qualifying for FX EFs. Devastating, but when one thinks about it, the writing was on the wall all year. Her floor has been regressing since Stuttgart and I will go out on a limb and say that's where she peaked. I love A-Sac, mostly because she's not your robotic sound bite gymnast in interviews ("It's such an honor!" "I just want to go out and hit my routines!" and so on), but she hasn't really hit a floor routine all year.
- In that vein, Nastia Liukin ended qualifying for FX finals, as well as the expected BB and UB EFs! WTF, yo?
- Chellsie Memmel did not qualify for UB EFs. She fell on her Tkatchev, thus taking her out of contention. That pisses me off. She is only doing one event, much to her fans' chagrin, and she fails to hit that one event so she could at least go for an individual title. Wasn't UB her specialty or something?
- Sam Peszek kind of confirmed my suspicions that she would become the dead weight of the US team, despite her being one of the guarantees (I will never understand how she got into that golden position). Not only has she regressed (her FX has downgraded and she's barely hitting that and Sloan has surpassed Sam on vault), but she sustained an ankle injury and did not compete on FX or VT, that is, THE EVENTS SHE WAS PUT ON THE TEAM FOR. And it's now past the point of no return, so we can't put in Lothrop, who would probably be the best alternate for this position, given that she's pretty good on VT and FX.
- Sloan, however, is rocking the casbah. Her UB was off, but hot damn did she bring in the scores on every other event, even BB, and everybody was saying that would be her lowest score. Go Bridget!
- Shawn, unsurprisingly, hit every set. Her nerves from podium training have seemingly dissipated and she went out there like she owned the joint. But, her flexibility skills have also regressed, and that's really saying something in her case because her splits and leaps were rudimentary at best in the first place. It seemed like they were improving last year, but looking at the pictures from TQs, she's is really cheating the hell out of them:
There are a couple more, but you get the point.
- Japan made Team Finals!!!!! すごい！ おめでとうございます！ 私は、日本がうれしい！ (Yeah, my Japanese is a little rusty, but the main point is I'm so happy for them!). Koko Tsurumi qualified for AA, however Mayu Kuroda did not qualify for UB finals, which is a shame because she's rather good on them, even if she doesn't have a 7.0+ A score.
- Australia also made TFs, but not without an implosion from their stars, Dasha Joura and Lauren Mitchell. Dasha failed to qualify for the AA or any EFs, and we're all heartbroken along with her. Apparently, she crunched her ankle (hot damn, what is with this Olympics and ankle injuries???) in training and continued to compete on it for the sake of her country. Somebody predicted that not only did she not qualify for any individual rounds, but this Olympics would probably be the last we see of Joura. I really hope not. Are we going to lose everybody with a modicum of originality in this sport?
- Great Britain failed to make TFs (Japan just squeaked by them). Beth Tweddle, however, proved she's hardcore by saving her awesome combo after hitting her feet on the low bar. That was crazy.
- Romania was looking rough. I'm going to go out on another limb and say that the two consecutive Olympic team champions will find themselves not on the podium at all. Russia could easily surpass them. Romania is barely a team; it's Nistor, Izbasa, and friends. Though frankly, it's difficult to watch both Russia and Romania while they're rebuilding. There was no infrastructure left in place after everybody and their mom retired so now they have to start from square one.
Holy God, these Opening Ceremonies are full of sweet sweet Zhang Yimou awesomness.
That is all.
Does need some Gong Li though.
Everything I said about the Chinese leotards, I take back.
The U.S. leos are so much worse. Did they let Shawn and Nastia design the leotards and foist them on the other girls? Sweet Jesus. And the names for them: "Hott?"
It's like the 2004 Athens leo, except worse. Anybody else slightly disturbed by the deep mesh in the middle, like an attempt at cleavage?
*sigh* I give up.
Got all the way to Beijing, only to sustain yet another injury. Alicia Sacramone is also still struggling with her leg injury.
Goes to show how the marathon of competitions before the Olympics is NOT a good idea, USAG. What good does it do if our girls show up to the granddaddy of all competitions broken and exhausted? Are you trying to make China's win a cakewalk?
Did Vox eat my Nationals Day One post? I swear I made one. Oh well.
Anyway. The Trials have come and gone and to nobody's surprise, Shawn and Nastia locked up the two guaranteed spots. If you were surprised, either you only just started watching gymnastics or I need to start drawing you pictures with crayons.
The 12 girls going on to the selection camp are:
Shawn Johnson
Nastia Liukin
Alicia Sacramone
Samantha Peszek
Bridget Sloan
Ivana Hong
Jana Bieger
Shayla Worley
Mattie Larson
Corrie Lothrop
Chelsea Davis
Chellsie Memmel
The only actual surprise on that list is Lothrop (who is coached by USAG staple Kelli Hill). Lothrop apparently agrees because she was in tears once hearing her name called. Just getting to Trials was a major accomplishment for her. I think she's awesome and wish her a lot of luck.
Chellsie Memmel pretty much sealed her spot on the O-Team, leaving one spot left (aside from the four locks of Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone, and Peszek). Bieger seems to be everybody's current #6 despite not even being on their short list for so long and Sloan, who was the lock up until Trials, is now out. God, we go through these girls like they're fads or something.
Mattie Larson made her case for an alternate position. Larson's FX was the favorite of both evenings and her DTY, while could use some improvement on the landing, is usable. There's the added bonus in that Larson isn't putting a lot of pressure on herself to make this particular team because she knows most of the spots are all but sown up and she has every intent on going for London 2012. Whatever you all are doing to those AOGC girls, please keep it up. Shapiro and Larson are just such a treat. They're what gymnastics should be.
Ivana, Ivana, Ivana. She's pretty much out at this point. An alternate position would be her highest attainable position. Nationals didn't go so well and Trials wasn't much better, culminating in a botched BB dismount that revealed her headcasey side. A damn shame because she's in the same category as Larson: what gymnastics should be. Her double front is a thing of beauty.
Shayla Worley is broken and others have surpassed her on UB, the event that she would have been taken for. I would say that she would be alternate. Too much of a liability to put her on the team.
I don't know much about Chelsea Davis or her gymnastics, except that she is coached by former Golden Girl/World Champion/Karolyi favorite Kim Zmeskal. It's almost nepotism with Davis getting to the camp (I'm only half serious).
My opinion: Too busy. Too much going on. The first one I do like more than the red/gold/blue one. And I like the cheongsam design of it, too. But at least it's something different from the egg and tomato ones they've been wearing for so long.
Linky-poos: 1 and 2
Full roster with accompanying article here.
Exciting prospects:
- the return of Ashley Priess, aka, America's Olympic Uneven Bars Hope
- Randi Lau, the Hawaiian wunderkind who trained at WOGA but did not qualify for Nats last year and is now back in Hawaii
- The world can finally see these rumored upgrades from Ivana Hong that her camp has been so tight-lipped about
- Shawn Johnson's new floor routine ('bout bloody time)
- The official American Amazing Race to Beijing begins and everybody is on tenterhooks hoping that nobody (especially the locks) gets injured
UPDATE:
Here's the draw.
So apparently China held an internal test event recently. News to you? To me, too. Wenshuli from one of the gym boards graciously provided information. The girls were divided into two teams: blue/white & red/yellow.
Jiang Yuyuan (my favorite of the Chinese; she's so cute!) does indeed have an Amanar (15.7). But her overall AA score wasn't where it needs to be if she's going to contend for an AA medal.
Cheng Fei won FX and VT, of course. Was there any doubt?
He Kexin broke 17 on UB.
Li Shanshan has a 7.3 BB A score, but was wobbly. The Olympic BB gold would be hers to lose, but she's so inconsistent. Not to mention that her inconsistency could lose her spot on the O-Team.
Deng Linlin (also adorable) won the AA with a DTY and a 7.0 BB A score.
Xiao Sha also had a 7.0 on BB and won the event.
Sui Lu (?) has a 6.4 on FX and 7.1 on BB. I have no idea who she is.
Yang Yilin's foot is still injured, so she only competed UB. Did well, placing second.
Pang Panpan was 4th AA. She has a FTY, but a 7.1 UB A score.
Not much about Zhou Zhuoru. Zhang Nan is fit, but without much difficulty (this does not bode well for my hopes). Same could be said about He Ning.
Pictures:
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000664.htm
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000652.htm
It's looking more and more like it'll be China's gold to lose.
One of these ladies will not be on the podium. This is a final I am so looking forward to.
*Note: I tried to find the latest videos of each girl, not necessarily the best. Obviously, Liukin, Semenova, and Tweddle are the top three in the world, having medaled at World Championships, and He is certainly showing herself to be a force to be reckoned with.*
Aren't you all lucky? When it's days or even weeks between posts, it's only been a couple of hours! I'm feeling posty today.
It is now 2008, which means in a short eight months, it will be time for another Summer Olympiad. I figure it'll be good for my own education to do posts on the hopefuls. At least maybe I'll get through Team USA.
First up is Ivana Hong. I think she has a lot of talent. She certainly is the most artistic out of the American women, aside from Nastia, not to mention great form, execution, and technique. Check out her double-twisting Yurchenko:
Amazingly clean and you wouldn't expect such a tiny thing to be able to vault like that. Especially when you look at her flaws on uneven bars:
Her floor and beam were just as clean and had better flow than most and Ivana at least tries to incorporate some dance into her floor routine:
Aside from the turn with the free leg at horizontal (seems like most gymnasts have issues with that; they should devalue it to discourage its use if nobody is going to do it properly), her routine is lovely. I do wish she would up the difficulty. I hope that's what's happening over this time in the off-season.
And just to round it out, here's her beam:
That's Day One of 2007 Nationals. Not too sure how she ended up 4th in the AA when Nastia had a splatfest that day and got 3rd. Day Two didn't turn out so well for Ivana (only hit 2 out of 4) and got hammered even worse by the judges. But she was picked for the World team, but injured her foot and wasn't able to compete in team finals. Some say that she should have been the alternate rather than Bridget Sloan and as a Sloan advocate, I can see that as well. But I'm rooting for Hong first and foremost and I really want her to up her difficulty, better her uneven bars, and gain an Olympic berth. I really think she's at a good learning curve here.
