My Jesolo wrap up

Before I start my completely un-professional review of this competition am I the only one that thinks the US sending it’s A team to this Jesolo meet is completely ridiculous? Is there really a need to put Simone Biles up against Canada and Italy’s B team ? Does it some how make Marta feel special because she can beat up on the less fortunate by 17 points? I am sorry it just irks me. Simone should have stayed home from this meet. So should have Kyla actually because the last thing the US needs is either of these gymnasts getting injured for a meet that means jack shit to anyone else in the world but Marta. Aly and Gabrielle needed to prove themselves. Bailie Key needed a first competition as a senior especially after she tanked 2 camps in a row and the Juniors are juniors so let them compete as much as possible but there was not a single reason in the world to send Simone to this meet.

Okay so back to the actual competition.

Senior Results

Team
All Around
Event Finals

The Results speak for themselves. AA winner Simone Biles is super human and she out classed every single competitor on every single event at this meet. She had the best 4 routines on all 4 events in the Team/AA competition. She really doesn’t make sense. I know she is power on power but she just doesn’t miss. SUPER HUMAN!

Bailie Key has a pretty good Senior debut finishing 2nd. Kind of interesting she finished second in the AA but didn’t make a single event finals. (she was added in to bars finals when Simone was pulled)She is going to have to clean up some bars and beam if she wants a shot at competing with Supergirl Simone but she has a year to do it so we will see what happens. She’s growing on me:) I missed her vault but was impressed with her floor. She is turning into quite the dancer now that Kim Zmeskal has stopped trying to remind the world that she was a former AA champion by giving everyone a crapon copy of her ugly ass floor routine (and yes I meant to write crapon instead of carbon)

Aly Raisman, what a comeback. She finished 3rd in the AA after Kyla’s crash (more on that later) but was very impressive overall. She needs to work on her flexibility again like she did in 2012 but she’s got most of the skills to compete with every but Simone already. Overall I felt Aly was underscored the entire meet. Not on her vault because her form is just tragic on that event but her bars were great for her (nearly a leg separation) and on beam her leaps were lacking but not nearly as bad as the judges made it seem. They seemed to ignore the connection issues with certain other gymnasts but not with Aly. Aly’s tumbling is back but I don’t really like the floor music. Will be very interesting to see what she brings next year.

Kyla Ross finished 10th after her usual routines until…. Her DTY really flies off that vaulting table. It was huge and IMO underscored compared to what everyone else showed for similar scores. She hit her upgrades on bars and hit beam and then came floor. I don’t know if anyone else noticed but there was a lot of bouncy landings going on in that corner of the floor and it claimed Kyla as it’s biggest victim. After her Arabian double front she went flying attempting to throw her stag leap. It looked like she was close to hitting her head too. Glad she was okay. It could have been a lot worse.

Maggie Nichols looked pretty good overall too. I felt she was nit picked to death by the judges compared to others. She’s lost some weight and it has really helped her lines but she does some weird thing with her knee’s especially on beam. I don’t know.

Okay so what you all have been waiting for my impression of Gabrielle. I thought she looked pretty good especially considering how messy she was in podium training. Her DTY wasn’t bad. She had to downgrade the bar routine from what she showed in Podium because she wasn’t hitting it but she was fairly deducted so I had no problem with her score. Same on floor (5.5 start value) but on beam even though she hit I found her routine lacking anything of quality but the one big skill. Her missed connections were credited but that issue belongs with the dumbass judges who refuse to do their job but only for gymnasts they like. Overall she needs a lot more difficulty if she wants a chance to compete for a medal in the AA and to compete with Simone she needs a lot more than that. It was a good start. She stayed on all 4 events which is something to be proud of.

I have not seen the Event Finals yet.

So what did you think???

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Event Finals

Junior Results
Team
All Around
Event Finals

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Jesolo Team and All Around

For me. Ignore:)

Live Video

It happens sometime tomorrow and Gymnastike bought the rights to coverage so get up and watch of wait for the illegal videos to show up on blogs and message boards:)

The video above is only for the Seniors. Juniors will not be shown by Italy.

Advice from Mckayla Maroney. Jeselo and Doha Prelims

it's a nice day to not care what anybody thinks about you

— McKayla Maroney (@McKaylaMaroney) March 25, 2015

Sound advice mckayla that I personally follow every day of every year. The only person you really have to please is yourself.

Junior Jeselo Prelim Results

Jeselo Team prelim results
AA qualifications

Doha Prelim results

Nice to see Bulimer is over her injury but these scores and start values are low (with the exception of a few) Some of these E scores are scary

Anyone else find it kind of hilarious that Daniel Lleyva goes over seas to compete well but falls apart in the US? He has 8 tenths start value on anyone else and yet only 3 tenths more deductions.

And just because she’s my home girl

So who has the Gold? (Jeselo)

Gymnastike has training videos but only if you have the moola to waste.

Jeselo live video

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Figure Skating Worlds schedule
Results

Here’s the schedule of events in Shanghai (all times Eastern):

Tuesday: Short dance (9:30 p.m.)
Wednesday: Pairs short program (6:15 a.m.)
Wednesday: Women’s short program (10:30 p.m.)
Thursday: Pairs free skate (7 a.m.)
Thursday: Free dance (10:30 p.m.)
Friday: Men’s short program (4:30 a.m.)
Friday: Women’s free skate (10:30 p.m.)
Saturday: Men’s free skate (5:45 a.m.)

I want this new game

DISCLAIMER

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ESPN is still writing those fine articles I see. Ten extra points to anyone that actually watches the Mckayla Maroney video.

Utah Gymnastics makes the morning news

This is why I like Ashley Wagner There isn’t a pretentious bone in her body. She is what she is.

I know your lying because your lips are moving

The blog title has no connection with the blog what so ever but while you were sleeping has gotten old so you get what you get:)

Lisa Mason finished 4th in the AA at the English Championships. This is her floor routine. Not bad for an old lady. Full in, triple twist, ACTUAL choreography. I doubt the start value was high based on the score but I enjoyed the music and routine.

Marian Dragulescu is back in the drug pool. This is way more exciting that Ponor coming back.

Shannon Miller is pedaling a book. The interview is interesting. Shannon tells you about her rival and what role the TV played in it and of course talks about her kids and the book. I do find it hilarious that the radio guy can tell the difference between today’s gymnastics and what we had back in the day. Very observant. She also talks about Bela.

Ashley Wagner wants to take over the world.lol Awww isn’t she endearing 🙂

Rewriting Russian gymnastics has an article transcribed originally from prosport.

What do you think of the article? The comments section is getting heated. For me personally no Simone is not artistic but she is very good at presenting herself especially on floor and while her form isn’t perfect ( toe point need improvement and slight leg form sometimes) she is light years ahead of any power gymnast we’ve ever had represent the sport (for the US) except maybe Shawn Johnson.

I think the real issue with Russian gymnastics fans is they seem to think because their dancing is beautiful to watch it somehow means their skill level doesn’t have to live up to their artistry. If we are being fair Simone is closer to an artist than any of them are to being a power gymnast. She is more balanced then any so called power gymnast we have had over the years.

A difference a year makes: Maria Bondareva

Starting a new semi annual blog here at GTT and I am calling it, A difference a year makes. In these blogs I will be picking out gymnasts with tonz of up side that I hope somehow get it all together by next years Olympics even though it will be a huge up hill battle against time. Hey Jaycie Phelps finished 24th ish at JR Nationals in 1993. Miracle’s can happen:)

This was my favorite floor routine at Russian nationals. Sure she’s too tiny to tumble and has a 4.5 start value but even with those limitations she still made finals at Russian Nationals. She is also beautifully inconsistent on beam and has a 6.1 start value on bars where apparently she also has consistency issues but with her pretty form and pretty execution I have some faith that little Maria will all of a sudden get it together and reward my faith in her, next year when it matters.

There are videos of Maria from 2012-2014 on youtube but none from 2015 but the video above ( at least not that I can find) but she has the same beauty to her bars and beam routine that she has on floor. Unfortunately she also has the same inconsistencies.

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Notice I didn’t use the word potential above ( I hate the word potential. It basically means didn’t live up to the hype) but Melanie and I have gotten into a bit of a discussion in the comments section about Nia Dennis. Melanie seems to think being a junior is where you are supposed to be inconsistent and I kind of agree with that but Melanie also thinks Nia has potential on floor and vault and IMO Nia is an inconsistent gymnast with skills too hard for her which is why she is always messing something up.

What do you think? Melanie also thinks there is a conspiracy to why Nia is all of a sudden being left out of the loop where as I think it’s based on the fact all Nia does is fall.

I am trying to write a blog at least every other day so come back if you can. I have been very lazy with the blog lately so while I am on a run I will try and keep it up. If you have any blog idea’s let me know.

Russian Nationals Results

ALL Around Results
Event Finals Results
Videos Someone needs to buy Alysssia Spaan a few drinks at the next gym meet she attends.

Maria Kharenkova won the AA over Alla Sosnitskaya and Seda Tutkhalyan who finished second and third with Aliya not competing due to a back injury.

Tatiana Nabieva the entertaining crazy member of the Russian team competed 3 events but might as well have stayed home. She scored a 13.033 on vault (5.8), 13.067 on bars (5.1) and a 10.733 on beam (4.6)

Viktoria Komova also competed bars and beam scoring a 14.700 on bars (6.1) and a 15.000 on beam (5.8) in the prelims and in the Event Finals she finished 5th on bars with a 13.600 (6.1) and 5th on beam with a 13.633 (5.9)

Highlights

I am not really a big Afan fan but there is something about this music that makes me like this routine more than I should.

Not in love with the choreography and her twisting form is a mess but with a start value between 6.3 – 6.5 depending on who you believe in the comment section if she cleans this up she has potential to compete with Simone Biles on floor (mostly because Simone has huge bounces out of most of her floor landings.) If the judges deduct for those and Kesnia cleans up we might have a battle on our hands at worlds.

My favorite part of the routine is her signature double turn into another double turn. I also like the choreography she does at 27 seconds in but it is ruined when she does the double Memmel turn out of it. I think it would look a lot better if she danced out of it.

Daria Spiridonova has a brand new 6.7 Uneven Bar routine also with a lot of potential. She was my fave UB worker at last years worlds (who wasn’t Chinese) and I remember thinking her prelim routine was underscored. She needs to fix the handstands by Worlds but with Yao Yinnan out for the year she has a great shot at Gold.

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Overall I would say this competition is up there with US Nationals when it comes to ridiculous scoring. The questionable connections of Maria Kharenkova on beam and Viktoria Komova’s beam scores in both competitions being a prime example of home cooking

Even with the low start values on floor I found almost all of the floor routines at this competition a hella lot more enjoyable to watch then anything we saw at Nationals last year. Russia doesn’t have the start values on floor needed to win world medals (with the exception of a few) but they sure can express the hell out of Floor routine.

2015 American Cup (Saturday March 7th) Results

Simone won by 4 points. Easily a well deserved victory. I just can’t understand the beam and floor scores especially floor but Simone was clearly the class of the field. Her Amanar was beautiful (slight leg separation on the pre-flight and slight crossed legs) She deserved her win so no need to nit pick.

Mykayala got her act together and came in second.She downgraded her vault from a Cheng to a DTY (Missed the Chang in podium) and floor but it looked much better than the other day in podium training.

Full Results
Article

Elizabeth Price article

Jordyn officially retired today. I think that deserves it’s own blog after the American Cup.

American Cup Podium Training (Thursday March 5th)

USA-Gymnastics info

The Simone Biles invitational.

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Sat through all of podium training on a phone while in bed. Living the life except now my eyes are paying for it.

Simone is not human. She sailed through vault (with vaults up in the rafters) hit bars (near perfect for her routine and a messy second routine. Had to repeat her dismount per order of coach Marta which was close to the bar all 3 times) Started with a shaky beam but then went up and hit 3 routines missing only her leap, leap back pike ( she never hit the connection) then she just tumbled her way through Floor. The girl is not human

As for Mykayla she had a rough training. Rough is an under statement. She fell on her Chang. Fell on bars. Fell off beam ( though her only really issue with the fall on the full which she hit 2 other times) and she fell on her floor mount and didn’t finish the routine (flat to her face) she later did another routine without the tumbling. She basically looked tired and didn’t have enough power for anything today.

The only other thing we really saw was Jessica Lopez attempting to do a front ariel to a sheep jump which was the ugliest attempt at a sheep jump I have ever seen.

The stadium the Cowboys play in is way too big for a gymnastics meet. Everything is so far back from the fans it’s unfair to even charge them for tickets because they are barely in the same stadium.