4 posts tagged “gymnastics”
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.
Notable for being one of the few gymnasts to do a Magana dismount (triple back salto from UB), it seems she has essentially fallen off the face of the Earth. Her official site hasn't been updated since July. I know she's been out of commission due to a foot injury (must have been on a Nastia-ankle-level to have taken her out for this long). Is she even going to attempt to compete in elite competitions in 2008? She has very little international experience and I think she has to compete senior next year given her age.
Any news? Anybody?
Excuse my squirrely ignorance, but I was under the impression that the technical name for this particular branch was artistic gymnastics. I'm not seeing it. With the exception of a notable few, there is no artistry to speak of. Our current World Champion has a floor routine of aerobic bouncy stuff that I would expect out of a five-year old hopped up on Christmas and sugar, not an elite gymnast with nearly thirteen years of gymnastics under her belt. And that's only when she's not stopping to wait for her next musical cue.
In the same competition, we have Cassy Vericel who picked out music that gives so much freedom to make a great routine with some wonderful choreography, and we get this:
Due to the ridiculous requirements of this new Code of Points that came into effect in 2005, routines are now a disjointed mess. Nothing flows the way it should anymore. So much time has to be used up to fit in all ten required skills (and difficult ones too, in order to up that A score) that one can't put in some dance to put some shine on the routine. There's a lot of posing, almost literal walking to the corners, and seconds used up waiting for the next musical cue, but no actual dance or choreography. It's not just floor, it's beam as well. It's all so disconnected.
Some gymnasts try, though. Jiang Yuyuan seems to be the favorite from the 2007 Worlds FX EFs:
Now, I say there's still some room for improvement on the artistry front because there are some moments where she pauses too long for my liking, but still, it's a lot more than what others put forth in the same competition, not to mention that she just oozes charisma and is too darned cute. Look at her face at the end of her routine and tell me you don't go, "Awww."
Peng Peng Lee is another who is putting a valiant effort to not only keep the artistry, but to do something different:
Not totally my cup of tea, but I like her music choice (Bond is always a good choice), she's making herself stand out in a good way, and she's showing great talent. I'm going to do a post solely on this little Canadian angel later since she's on my 2008-2012 quad lookout list, but I wanted to point her out. Let's just hope that when she makes her run for the Olympics in 2011-12, they've changed the CoP or they haven't beaten the originality out of her.
*Thanks to Penguin888 for the 2007 Worlds FX EF videos!*
I'm not going to make myself come across as any sort of expert or authority in the world of women's gymnastics, especially in any area other than the USA, but I'm blogging about it anyway.
To start things off, here's a picture of my "on the bubble" pick for the Olympic team, Ivana Hong:
