8 posts tagged “ivana hong”

08trials617

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).

Juniors:

• When Rebecca Bross broke her foot and couldn't compete at Nationals, everybody predicted that Jordyn Wieber was going to run away with the competition. After preliminaries, Wieber is...well, winning. But Samantha Shapiro is not making it easy! Shapiro was actually leading the competition with her precision, grace, and poise (and that 15.75 on BB sure didn't hurt), despite Wieber's big tricks. It wasn't until nearly the end of the competition that Wieber took the lead by .1. Day 2 will definitely be interesting between these two.

• Randi Lau had a good night; solid and with good form. She looks to be on her way to making her first National Team.

Seniors:

• Shawn is leading. Big surprise. She also received the biggest gifts of the night, what with her whip-triple being not being fully rotated, her Rudi and Amanar kind of iffy, and her splits still not where they should be for the Olympic favorite. And seriously, what the hell was she wearing? That leo was pure chaos. In fabric form. Oh, and everybody who reads this has to take a large swig of the liquor of their choice if she shows up on Day 2 with any hanzi (Chinese characters) on her leotard.
  

• Jana Bieger 2008 Nationals = Natasha Kelley 2007 Nationals in terms of scoring.
  

• Chellsie Memmel is kicking some definite booty. Her sets are still watered down, but she's making her case.

• Alicia Sacramone needs to get back into a competition state of mind. She had a nice long break, but vacation's over. I agree with those who said that she didn't quite seem herself.

• WTF happened to Priess? Why'd she drop out and retire at the 11th hour?

• Shayla is also out of Nationals and is petitioning to Trials. Since Priess is out, her status is back up (it was slipping dangerously out of reach because her only ticket was UB), but being constantly broken and leaving camps and comps early is not making it better.
  

• Mattie Larson is still not consistent enough to warrant a spot on the team, but she'll be at Trials. And her gymnastics is as lovely as her AOGC clubmate Shapiro.

• Ivana Hong is a huge disappointment. The double front on FX is impressive and I definitely had my doubts about her getting it around, but her bars are abysmal and her best events are more than covered already by the O-Team locks. Plus, the DTY, the one thing that could have won TPTB over was majorly flawed. She'll get to Trials and probably the selection camp, but alternate will likely be the highest attainable position she'll get. Hopefully Day 2 is better. Her gymnastics is still pretty, though.
  

• Nastia, Nastia, Nastia. We understood the meltdown at Nats last year. You're supposed to be healthy and better this year. WTF is with the UB dismount? That shizz is just fugly. The FX isn't improving. In fact, it almost seems to be regressing. And methinks you need a new BB mount or to speed the one you have up because you're dangerously close to going overtime and you're not holding the scale long enough.

• It's starting to look more and more that ScAm was a fluke for Samantha Peszek. She was shaky, to say the least, here. Given the rumor that Janssen-Fritsen equipment (that is, what will be used in Beijing) was disguised to look like AAI equipment (that is, who USAG (and Nastia Liukin) has deals with) and that Peszek has issues with anything but AAI equipment, plus the fact that Peszek always had consistency issues, I'm not surprised. But no matter. She's on the team, barring injury or her performances on the level of FUBAR.

• Darlene Hill has quite a few injuries and is backing off in order to prevent some of them from getting worse. She scratched bars and only got a 12.75 on BB after two falls. This does not help her case, as endearing as she is.

• Bridget Sloan competed only two events, BB and UB, and put up a 15.2 and 15.75, respectively. Word on the street that she's probably on the team, barring further injury or meltdown. These scores, especially the UB, would cement her spot.
  

• While I realize China kind of backed the U.S. against the wall with their overscoring at their Internal Test Event and Nationals, I wish the U.S. was scoring more fairly and closer to what the girls would score internationally. Overscoring the stars and busting the balls ovaries of the unliked does no favors.
  

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

Here's the draw.

U.S. Nationals Draw Roster.jpg

Since USAG is not posting information yet, these are tidbits from the gymn boards (thanks to various peoples).
AA Results:

1.) Ivana Hong (YUSH!)
2.) Ashley Priess
3.) Chellsie Memmel
4.) Mattie Larson

Darling (not a typo, actually her name) Hill is supposedly injured, but there is no confirmation yet. A-Sac made her three events her bitches, including a 16+ on BB.

Gymn.ca had this to say about the Canadian reps:

Emma Willis of Bluewater Gymnastics club was the top Canadian all-around gymnast at this week’s friendly international competition in Houston, Texas. Willis scored 55.95 after hitting all for events to rank 8th in a field of gymnasts representing the United States, Canada, Germany, Columbia, Italy, and Venezuela. Also competing in the all-around for Canada were Sydney Sawa (10th) and Catherine Dion (13th). Aisha Gerber competed two events only (vault and floor) while Alyssa Brown competed all events but floor. Competition was to conclude today with apparatus finals, with each Canadian planning to compete on two events. This friendly competition was held at the conclusion of a week long training camp.

Nothing about EFs yet and those are what will really tell us anything. This blogger wishes to know about Ivana Hong's upgrades and especially her bar routine, especially since she recently said that she's taken out her signature German giant to reverse hecht because she was getting killed for that.

• World/Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva is reportedly marrying outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Um...yeah.
• NBC aired the Pacific Rim Championships:
• Dasha got a fluff!
• Elfi tried to imitate Dasha's accent. No, Elfi. Just...no.
• Britt Greeley of Australia shows promise, but the house music FX needs to go and the UB set needs some cleaning.
  
• Many of the Canadians were shown, including my favorite junior, Peng Peng Lee (her UB routine was shown and they replayed her gut-busting Bhardwaj several times in slo-mo)
• Samantha Shapiro won over many fans and looked like an overjoyed wriggling puppy. She was so cute!
• Rebecca Bross, the PRC AA champ, was shown only once on UB. Rebecca Clark wasn't shown at all.
• Darlene Hill got plenty of airtime, but was accompanied by the Head Trauma Trio's constant schmaltzy commentary about how her grandmother (and guardian) had passed away the month prior. Condolences to Darlene, fist shaking to Al, Elfi, and Tim. Was it really necessary to mention her mother's drug addiction?
• None of the Japanese gymnasts were shown, much to my chagrin. Not even Erika Lynn Danko and one would figure NBC would love to comment on a half-American half-Japanese gymnast.
• Nastia got a bit too much of a pass by the commentators on her FX. I like her and all, but FX isn't her event and you know if another gymnast performed like Nastia on FX, they'd be downright nasty.
• Not shown in the NBC broadcast, but Myzdrikova of Russia did a rarely-seen combo of triple twist-back tuck.
  
• The 2008 European Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, France came and went:
• Romania is a drama-llama, what with Stelliana Nistor doing AA in qualifications (there was no AA competition) and Romania winning the team title, Russia taking silver and France the bronze.
• Sandra Izbasa unveiled one of her best FX routines (and I did find out her music!) and won the FX title.
• Anna Pavlova showed the world that she is back with probably one of the most artistic FX routines in this quad (including a double layout!) and showed an Amanar vault (of which she flopped, but she has time to fix it up and make it pretty).
• Isabelle Severino had to say goodbye in one of the worst ways possible: torn Achilles' tendon.
• Beth Tweddle did indeed compete and unveiled an impressive new skill on the uneven bars. And she got braces!
• Vanessa Ferrari came, competed, and left...with nary a medal to her name. Everybody wonders what this could mean for her Beijing AA medal prospects. Her FX music makes me want to stick something sharp in my ears.
  
• Cottbus came and went:
• He Kexin (CHN) got an impressive 16.85 on UB. The UB EFs in Beijing will be the EFs to watch, what with Tweddle, He, Liukin, and Semoynova all gunning for the top spots and one of them will be left off. It'll be exciting and I for one, cannot wait, even if I know fuck all about UB.
• Chusovitina won vault.
• Marta did not send any of the USA girls. Not even any of the bubble girls like Hong or Sloan (who had to miss out on her chance with the Italy meet due to tweaking her knee).
• Izbasa won FX again.
• Daiane Dos Santos competed a very watered down FX and ended up last.
• Sanne Wevers (NED) did a double turn with leg at horizontal on BB flawlessly when most can barely do a single turn without a wobble or fall (see: Li Shanshan 2007 Worlds BB EFs).
• Jade Barbosa only performed a DTY and LO Pod on VT, not her Amanar and Cheng. Took 2nd, though.
• Yang Yilin supposedly broke her foot colliding with another gymnast. There really is not much other information out there about her injury.
• A US Olympic Media Summit was recently held. GettyImages has portraits of the athletes. Ivana Hong looks seriously buff. Since her foot was injured for so long, maybe the Fongs worked heavily on arm conditioning? *crosses fingers and hopes her bars have vastly improved*
• Speaking of Ivana Hong, her mother has told the New York Times about her escape from Vietnam.

I think that's it, word-wise. How about some videos?

Inside Gymnastics has a little blurb on what Ivana Hong is up to in the off-season. As I've previously posted, she's become a favorite with fans not because she a little powerhouse trickster, but has grace, beautiful lines, flexibility that many a gymnast would envy, and doesn't forget those little details that make the tricks look good. But as I've previously posted, she does have plenty of in-built deductions, notably her lack of amplitude on her UB set. From the  sounds of this article and the one from the recent free online version of International Gymnast, the Fongs are addressing those problems.

I'm intrigued by the double front on FX. Ivana doesn't seem like a gymnast who would have enough power to do such a skill, but then again, how many of us thought that she didn't seem like she would have enough power to do a DTY the way she does? I definitely think she can do the double front full, though.

Some have wondered if she'll be among the many upgrading to an Amanar. I would love for this to happen, just for her to boost her chances of making the Olympic team. She has a great DTY due to amazing technique and could possibly squeeze in another half twist in there. BUT, Ivana does not have a good track record with being healthy. Word has it that she spent the last camp in a boot and couldn't run. She tries an Amanar, she's likely blow out a knee.

Whatever. Her gymnastics is pretty.

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:

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: