Since no one seems to care about my baseball teams demise but me lets talk about the return of Victoria Komova at the 2015 Baku European Games.
Finals Results
Team
All Around
Vault
Uneven Bars
Balance Beam
Floor
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Qualifications
All Around
Vault
Uneven Bars
Balance Beam
Floor Exercise
** Highlight of the first 2 days of competition is easily Seda Tutkhalyan on beam. Her floor was pretty impressive too. Great form but only a 5.7 start value.
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Full Results
Day 1 Qualifications: Team Results
Day 1 Individual Results
Viktoria Komova
(Vault) 5.800 14.566 (9.066)
(Uneven Bars) 6.600 14.866 (8.266)
Aliya Mustafina
(Vault) 5.800 15.133 (9.333)
(Uneven Bars)6.500 15.200 (8.700)
Komova hit her foot on the bar which is why her UB score was so low but overall I thought for her first time back she did a great job. It’s something like 5 tenths when you hit your foot on the bar (Gymbot????) and she has those yucky Russian Giants the judges never seem to see but we will see which Komova we get on beam tomorrow.
There is a 1 gymnast per Country rule for event finals. Anyone know if that is the same for the AA?
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Womens’s start lists Day 1.
I also believe you can watch it here . All this info came from I just couldn’t bring myself to type the name:)
I believe this starts tomorrow morning in the AM or middle of the night US time but I am not sure. ALL Baku results will end up here.
Subdivision 1:
433 HOCKENHULL Georgina GBR
432 FELLOWS Charlie GBR
434 SIMM Kelly GBR *
482 FEDOROVA Yana UKR
483 KYSLA Angelina UKR
484 SANKOVA Krystyna UKR
Subdivision 2:
473 MUSTAFINA Aliya RUS
472 KOMOVA Victoria RUS
474 TUTKHALYAN Seda RUS
425 WANG Linnea DEN
423 HULGAARD Mette DEN
424 LAURITSEN Michelle DEN
416 DEREK Ana CRO
418 POSCIC Ana CRO
417 MADIR Dina CRO
411 LIFENKA Sviatlana BLR
410 KOSHALEVA Aliaksandra BLR
412 YAKUBAVA Natallia BLR
Subdivision 3:
404 INSHINA Yuliya AZE
405 NEKRASOVA Marina AZE *
406 PRAVDINA Kristina AZE
443 DIVEKY Luca HUN *
442 BOCZOGO Dorina HUN
444 MAKRA Noemi HUN
439 CHRISTOFILAKI Myropi GRE
441 XOULOGI Ioanna GRE
440 MILLOUSI Vasiliki GRE
458 ZITINEVICIUTE Vaida LTU
468 PITREZ de CARVALHO Mariana POR
Subdivision 4:
478 DIACCI Jessica SUI
479 STEINGRUBER Giulia SUI *
477 BARLOGGIO Caterina SUI
436 GRIESSER Leah GER
437 SCHEDER Sophie GER
438 SEITZ Elisabeth GER
451 FELDON Tzuf ISR
Subdivision 5:
435 DZIDZIGURI Nato GEO
476 RAJCIC Aleksandra SRB
419 SAVVIDOU Stelutsa CYP
470 JURCA Laura ROU
471 ZARZU Silvia ROU
469 IRIDON Andreea ROU (stay on beam and bars kiddo)
426 CARMONA URBANO Ainhoa ESP
427 COLOM MARTIN Claudia ESP
428 PEREZ CAMPOS Ana ESP
459 TOP Lisa NED
460 van GERNER Celine NED
461 WEVERS Lieke NED
Subdivision 6:
452 CAMPANA Giorgia ITA
454 UGRIN Tea ITA
453 LEOLINI Alessia ITA *
481 YILMAZ Tutya TUR *
480 MOKOSOVA Barbora SVK
465 JANIK Gabriela POL
466 JURKOWSKA-KOWALSKA Katarzyna POL
467 PLICHTA Paula POL
415 ZLATKOVA Albena BUL
413 MILEVA Ralitsa BUL
414 RASHKOVA Valentina BUL
Subdivision 7:
409 VERSCHUEREN Lisa BEL
408 VANDENHOLE Cindy BEL
407 MYS Gaelle BEL
420 CENKOVA Veronika CZE
422 KANYAI Anna Maria CZE
421 FIALOVA Petra CZE
449 HERMANNSDOTTIR Thelma ISL
448 BELANYI Dominiqua ISL
450 ROBERTSDOTTIR Norma ISL
429 BREVET Marine FRA
430 KUHM Anne FRA
431 PIKUL Valentine FRA
Subdivision 8:
462 BERG Solveig NOR
464 SKREGELID Martine NOR
463 BRAATEN Sofie NOR
446 MAWHINNEY Nicole IRL
445 DONNELLY Tara IRL
447 OREILLY Ellis IRL
403 STABINGER Jessica AUT
402 MANNERSDORFER Marlies AUT
401 MADER Jasmin AUT
455 CIRCENE Alina LAT
456 GRISANE Valerija LAT
457 JEROFEJEVA Diana LAT
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Gymtruthteller's Blog 
June 14, 2015 at 7:29 AM |
okay so the sox gave up what nine runs to the jays in one inning. M y condolences
June 14, 2015 at 8:06 AM |
That wasn’t even close to being heartfelt. Try again. Maybe you should try something like, your team f****** sucks. Just give up and wait foot football season
June 14, 2015 at 1:32 PM |
no it was heartfelt. I have just given up on all major professional sports. it was a heartbreaking loss. like marta and the grinch my heart is too small
June 14, 2015 at 1:48 PM |
It will be interesting to see how Komova does at the European games. It will also be interesting to see how Mustafina does as well now that she has a new personal coach. GTT I agree with you about Iridon I want her to stay on UB/BB as well! If she could get more consistent she could really help Romania on bars.
June 14, 2015 at 11:05 PM |
AR fedorova channel on youtube has Komova and Mustafina’s day 1 events.
June 15, 2015 at 2:33 AM |
Not many big names on that roster. Maybe a no name will be a breakout star…gymnastics needs shaken up a bit right now.
June 15, 2015 at 3:40 AM |
Hi! Finally something I can comment on…Here in Spain gymnastics isn’t a very popular sport, so I get a lot of info just reading GTT’s posts and its comments. About European games, Mustafina looked very good and got herself into the lead of the individual final (with just two apparatus done: vault and uneven bars) and into uneven bars’ final (ahead of Komova and the European games have a one per country rule, so just Musty in uneven bar’s final). Komova seemed very shaky…had unusual errors in bars (including hitting her feet in the lowest bar, just like in London) and her vault wasn’t the best, but I was starting to loose hope of seeing her again, so I’m just happy that she seems in the good road to recovery. If she doesn’t get hurt again, she has enough time to be at her best in Rio. Seda had a good performance too…
I am more worried about Romania…They finished in 10th place after two apparatuses. 10th! Behind countries like Hungary! Uneven Bars was a dissaster and just Iridon hit (and hit with a note below 14), with two scores at 10 points. I think Romania has a serious problem. With Bulimar out of comission, if Catalina and Sandra are not ready for the worlds and something happens to Iordache, they are screwed.
June 15, 2015 at 4:26 AM |
Andreea hit with a 13 makes me sad
She keeps lowering her start value so she can hit. I think Romania should think about getting US gymnasts to switch Countries.
June 15, 2015 at 4:41 AM
There was an interview out there a while ago about Roxana Popa saying that she has never stopped thinking about competing for Romania…They could benefit for that, I am sure. But those scores and the bad performance they had in the European championships (they won gold in beam just because everybody else seemed to fall at that final, they wouldn’t had even that otherwise) bode bad for Romania in the next world championships.
June 15, 2015 at 4:49 AM
Maybe they can convince Anastasia Grishina to go Romanian…I don’t think she has a good future in Russia’s gymnastics, although Kramarenko showed us that nothing is impossible in that Federation.
June 15, 2015 at 4:39 AM |
Yeah Romania–looked sad. I hope they do better by World’s.
I know Ponor is training back in Deva but I didn’t think Sandra was back in Deva. I also heard that Larissa’s ankle is still hurting and prevents her from full-time training. Oh.
June 15, 2015 at 4:47 AM
What I know is that Sandra was training again in hopes to make a comeback for Rio. She said so in an interview for the Romanian newspaper ProSport (http://www.prosport.ro/alte-sporturi/gimnastica/oficial-sandra-izbasa-a-inceput-antrenamentele-gimnasta-se-intoarce-cu-gandul-de-a-ajuta-echipa-la-rio-2016-13953881), but I don’t know more than that. I don’t know if she will be ready for the worlds and she doesn’t seem as forthcoming as Catalina is, uploading her training in the social networks and all that. Catalina looks good despite the time she has been out. Romania surely needs her.
Larissa’s participation was announced for the European Games of Baku and pulled out a couple of weeks ago mentioning that ankle pain, but there hasn’t been any more news that I know of. But without her, Romania has a BIG problem.
June 15, 2015 at 5:10 AM |
Thanks for the link. I think I read that interview and I’m pretty sure I saw another one with Sandra somewhere. I just get the vibe that Cata is a lot more confident about her comeback. It also feels that Catalina truly wants to comeback, whereas Sandra is doing it case she doesn’t want to end her career with those floor falls (at Olympics and 2013 Worlds). I would be happy to see of them back.
I am pretty sure I saw an interview somewhere that said that Larissa was checked out by a French doctor and they cannot find a reason why she is having ankle pain but she is still in pain.
I would love to see Popa competing for Romania. At the least, she’ll finally get the scores she deserves. I feel that she’s always get extra burned by judges–competing for Romania she’d probably get some benefit of the doubt. Plus her bars are pretty good so Romania can def us her lol.but it’s prob unlikely that Spain would let her go and I doubt she wants to take that much time off competing, although I guess she’s recovering from ACL injury so maybe this is the time
So if Cata and Sandra are back on a 5 person team (or 6 for Worlds), who the hell are the 3 bar workers. Let’s hope Larissa is one of them. Sigh.
June 15, 2015 at 5:26 AM |
I don’t think that Roxana had a serious offer. For what I heard, I thought it was just wishful thinking for her part. But I don’t think the Spanish federation would put a lot of fight if she really wanted to compete for Romania. We know that we are not a competitive country in gymnastics right now and that she could really shine in team Romania, so they probably would let her go if she wanted. We couldn’t even qualify for the last two Olympics (and I seriously doubt we can qualify for Rio), so if she wanted I am sure that they would let her change, but I don’t think she will do it.
In any case, Romania should pray so Larissa doesn’t get seriously hurt. She is the only one who can do a decent set of bars right now. Jurca and Iridon lack of difficulty and have a serious problem with consistency (although this can change with time and experience) so if Larissa gets injuried, I don’t think they have a chance to get close to the medals.
June 15, 2015 at 7:10 AM
I had no idea Romania was in such rough shape. I suspected that they were but didn’t know it was this bad. 10th is pretty scary, especially at a meet like this one. It’s great that Sandra and Ponor are thinking of coming back/working on it, but Romania can’t rely on them forever. Is there any junior talent coming up? Wonder what is going on that is making their team become so weak…they were always one of my favorites.
June 15, 2015 at 7:14 AM
Not sure these are Romania’s best gymnasts but they really need a bar worker if they are taking Ponor and Izbasa to the Olympics. In fact they need 2 bar workers.
I am hoping these 3 gymnasts are better on the beam and floor events tomorrow then they are on bars.
June 15, 2015 at 7:41 AM
They have finished 10th with just uneven bars and vault, because in the European Games they have decided that would do the qualification in two different days, two apparatus per day (something that is pretty silly, in my opinion), so I think they would scalate some positions with beam and floor. But if we take into account that they are trying to compete with EE.UU. (Simone would eat any of them alive), Russia and China, having scores in uneven bars easily surpassed by countries like Hungary and Switzerland is a scary perspective. They need bar workers bad. If Catalina’s and Sandra’s comebacks are legit, they have vault, beam and floor covered with Iordache. In fact, Romania gave a huge leapt of quality in the European championships in 2011-2012 when Cata and Sandra returned, beating Russia, but Cata can’t do bars. Sandra could if neccesary, but that leaves them with two bars workers (Iordache and Sandra) plus Jurca or Iridon, who have scores in the mid 13’s if they hit everything. The problem is that one or two scores in the mid 13’s leave them with two points behind any other team even before they do anything and without any other event that can compensate for that (Russia and EE.UU. can achieve their scores in beam and floor easily and surpass them, while China can compensate for any shortcomings with their usually high bars and beam scores), so they have a serious disadvantage. Other problem that I see is that they don’t have any depht; if one of their bar workers get injuried, they will have to pull someone with even lower scores and if Iordache gets injuried, they are screwed, because none of their other atletes can get even close to the AA medals (just Sandra, who was 5th in London, but we don’t know if she is going to do all the apparatus if she does come back). Take the world championships, for example. In the AA, Jurca and Bulimar were 7th and 10th, taking into account that the other teams didn’t take their best gymnasts. Bulimar is injuried, but Jurca was going to replace Iordache, who was going to go, but her ankle bothered her and they decided to pull her off. With their best gymnast (with Iordache and Bulimar injuried, she is their best gymnast while Cata and Sandra are in the comeback road), they only achieved 7th place. In worlds, we would have to add to that 7th place two gymnasts from United States, two from China, probably another one from Russia and several from other countries as well, like Jessica Lopez or Ellie Black. That would mean that with a score of 54.865, she would have finished around 16th place. That, for Romania, is horrible (for us Spain would have been pretty good, actually). If Iordache injuries herself and Sandra and/or Cata don’t have a succesful comeback, Romania have a serious problem in my opinion.
Sorry for the long paragraph. I don’t know anyone in “real” world who likes gymnastics (here is the kind of sport in which worlds and european are televised at 2 am and don’t appear in the papers even when our gymnasts exceed expectations, like Zapata) so I am taking advantage, sorry. Here in Spain are 03:05 in the morning and I am using you to run away from some dull paperwork that I have to hand over on Tuesday for my Doctorate. 🙂
June 15, 2015 at 10:16 AM |
Just want to say that I was pleasantly surprised by Mustafina’s vault. She didn’t have the awful helicopter legs till the last half rotation. Maybe Starkin is helping her improve her twisting form?
June 15, 2015 at 10:33 AM |
melanie that was the first thing i noticed is that helicopter legs are gone. She could be tighter in the air, but its nowhere near the hot mess it was
June 15, 2015 at 10:38 AM |
I hate to disagree (who am I kidding I never hate to disagree:) It was pretty bad in the pre-flight even a little on to the vault and the bent knee’s were horrible. Not to mention legs weren’t even close to being together.
June 15, 2015 at 12:23 PM
I think Mustafina’s form on Vault was slightly improved but her block off the table actually seemed stronger to me. I wonder if she is possibly working on an Amanar and has been working on her block for it. There was a video awhile back of her working on twisting for on the trampoline. Maybe her new coach is attempting to fix her twisting form. I thought Komova did well for hee first competition back.
June 16, 2015 at 12:11 AM
mustafina is able to drop in her dty like she has an amanar in the works. While i agree she could have squeezed her legs better and not had slightly bent knees, she did not have the crossed legs at all. Im excited to see floor
June 17, 2015 at 2:38 AM
I thought she fell apart at the end with those bent knees. It just looks bad. How was her score that high – did they even deduct for bad form? Good landing, but it was off to the side of the stripe.
June 15, 2015 at 9:01 PM |
“The Skating Lesson” – Jenny Kirk and Dave Leese – interviewed Shannon Miller. I haven’t watched it, but though it might be of interest to some people here. It’s an hour+ long.
http://www.theskatinglesson.com/tsl-interviews-shannon-miller/
June 16, 2015 at 3:53 AM |
Thanks:-)
June 18, 2015 at 7:30 PM |
this is a good intervies. the only negative thing Shannon says about death camps is that she got a zero on the rope climb because she refused it because her wrist was perpetually broken
June 19, 2015 at 5:27 AM
What does it matter how you climb a rope? Hey lets make the girl with the broken wrist climb one, that makes sense.
June 19, 2015 at 5:41 AM
Well Oroszko (spelling?) tore his Archilles again.
June 19, 2015 at 9:43 AM
she said she and steve refused and it made no sense to her because she knew she wasnt going to have to climb rope at the olympics, she also basically says she should have only done a yurchenko full at trials because she would only have been used for beem and bars. and as backup on floor. they also ask her about being athlete rep in 1999. thats an interesting critique when something jayme dantzscher says about her is brought up
June 19, 2015 at 10:52 AM
What did Dantzscher say about her?
June 20, 2015 at 10:23 AM
that she was quiet and serious. apparently shannon responded that they were very rambunctuous and didnt seem to care much at 1999 worlds, and that she was amazed by how they didnt train and nap while there, they went shopping and ran around. and how when she was competing she had no energy for that. I think now they structure off time for some shopping (after competition) to avoid the girls running amok. Shannon makes it sound as if they ran amok in 1999. far different from her experience competing.
June 20, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Thanks. Sometime I will have time to listen to it
June 15, 2015 at 10:47 PM |
End of European Games’ team final. Russia got gold, Germany, silver and Holland, bronze. Romania ends in 7th place,
Komova is out of the individual finals. Aliya will compete in the AA, as well as the uneven bars and floor finals, and Seda will compete in beam and vault finals.
June 15, 2015 at 10:53 PM |
I posted a link to scores–prob went to moderation.
7th is def better than 10th but that’s not good, given that Iridon actually stayed on bars and beam.
I am in love with Seda. She is my new favorite. Thank the lord, she finally stayed on beam. Actually every Russian hitting beam is miraculous–could make things more interesting.
But why the hell Aliya still doesn’t have a backwards salto combo on beam?
June 15, 2015 at 11:01 PM
I couldn’t see the exercises; I was at the uni at that time. But I liked Seda a lot too. I can see a competitive world team with Aliya, Seda, Komova, Karenkhova y Afan, plus Spiridonova/Shegulnova. I would love to see Grishina again, but I don’t have very much hope. Maybe she would have a better chance at Rio if she goes the “Pavlova” way.
June 16, 2015 at 12:12 AM |
valentina will decide who takes which spot in which final based on “injuries” ….. wouldnt surprise me to see komova up on beam
June 16, 2015 at 12:16 AM
I don’t know, it’s a minor meeting after all and I think they also want to “test” Seda. I remember Aliya’s comeback in the 2012 European championships when she didn’t qualify for any individual finals and none of the juniors were pulled off for her. In any case, we will see. If Valentina wants to improve Komova’s confidence, I think it would be easier for her to win on uneven bars, so maybe she will take Musty’s spot, but I don’t think they want Seda to pull out. She needs all the experience she can get before worlds.
June 16, 2015 at 2:27 AM |
I know Komova didn’t make any individual EFs, but I am impressed for her first meet back after so much downtime. Her floor looked good, with lots of room for improvement on landings. But I am very pleased that she’s even been able to upgrade her tumbling (did NOT see that DLO coming!). I’m trying to rein in the hopefulness that she’ll make it to Rio given her amazing ability to contract crazy illnesses and have recurring injuries.
June 16, 2015 at 12:01 PM |
komova is just too tall for those arched giants. her knees are almost hitting the low bar.
June 17, 2015 at 2:09 AM |
If you want to see the whole competition, the Spanish Public television has uploaded all its retransmision into its webpage. If you don’t mind that the comments are in Spanish, I can give you the links.
June 21, 2015 at 12:18 AM |
I’d like to see the links! I’ve been away from Internet all week and didn’t get to see the live coverage. 😦
June 17, 2015 at 6:52 AM |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0muWZ1Axhw what Mckayla Maroney is doing. And she says Like way too much
June 17, 2015 at 8:20 AM |
I’m three minutes in and want to shoot myself. I feel like I am literally losing brain cells here. And, she has waaaay too much makeup on and is obviously going for a “look at me, I’M SO SEXY” look. Long hair hanging in her cleavage and not much of a top on.
I’m stopping. So what is she doing? I couldn’t get past her three wishes answer where the top two wishes were the same and she never got around to making a third one.
June 17, 2015 at 8:45 AM |
Do you notice her cleavage is the exact center of the frame? I listened to the whole thing, and she said “when Im training the hardest thing is sacrificing six or eight hours of my life” Not now that Im back training, but when I am training. She is not training. She talks about a lot of inane crap. She has full on extensions and botox. Its kind of hilarious. She talks about breaking her leg and thinking she got shot, and she talks about Obama, and some car wreck her mom got in when she was pregnant with Taryn, and she talks about all kinds of stuff, none of which is gymnastics related. She shows a lot of surgery pics. Its kind of weird. Like my 15 yo is on social media. He is just bizarre and what he puts out there its like…. ummm okay why does everyone need to know that ?
June 17, 2015 at 9:04 AM
It’s actually very scary and truly, for me, an eye opener on how kids perceive themselves these days. The world revolves around them. I can’t let my daughter become like this – I just can’t. I can’t help but think that all this social media is destroying society as a whole.
The video actually made me dislike her, and before I liked her (I was a fan). Now I’m just…not impressed. (hardy har)
And yeah – sacrificing 6-8 hours of your life? That’s what happens when you get a job too, honey. Of course she’s too above the field to get a job. She wants to go full-blown into acting/singing. Gag.
June 17, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Social media is killing our youth. It’s turning them all in to a bunch of Kim Kardashian’s.
June 17, 2015 at 9:59 AM
Who knows what they will have invented by the time your daughter is a teenager.lol
June 19, 2015 at 7:39 AM
Omg the YouTube videos. What is she actually doing? Sitting home all day? If I was her mom I would be like, ok we need to make a life plan here…stuff like this gives me fits!! I dread when my kid is a teen and we have to navigate this social media crap.
June 17, 2015 at 9:34 AM |
So this is totally unrelated.
I’m watching an old meet–1999 American cup. Jason Gatson is vaulting and then they show Jaycie Phelps in the audience. Tim refers to her as Jason’s girlfriend. I didn’t follow gymnastics as closely back then so I didn’t know they dated. I googled it and supposedly they were engaged too but they never got married right? She has a diff hyphenated name now. Anyone know what happened there? Yes, I want the gossip lol
June 17, 2015 at 9:49 AM |
Wait so she married Brett Mclure who was on the 2004 team with Jason. Now I really want to know more lol
June 17, 2015 at 9:53 AM |
I know Jaycie was marrried to Brett Mclure
June 17, 2015 at 10:04 AM
I didn’t even know who Brett was.
Thanks to Google.
So she dated and was engaged to Jason and then married his 2004 Olympic teammate Brett lol
I’m sure I’m missing something haha. This is when I need Tim to fill in the details lol
June 17, 2015 at 11:36 AM
I don’t remember who she dated first vs marrying.
June 18, 2015 at 3:08 AM |
chellsie Memmel went out with joey the gymnast….
June 17, 2015 at 11:48 AM |
So what is it that USA is doing so right and other countries are doing so wrong?? They need some of what USA are having. I just had a quick squiz back at gymnastics gone by… sigh I miss those times.
June 17, 2015 at 12:01 PM |
The US has more gymnasts in gymnastics. Other Countries do not. We have more money and gym is a rich kids sport
June 18, 2015 at 5:52 AM |
Here in Spain we send to the internationial competitions what we have got. We don’t have many gymnasts, as it isn’t a very popular sport here. So sometimes one of our girls is a true diamond, like Elena Gomez or Patricia Moreno or even Roxana Popa and she shines, but the rest of time, we are a country of below half of the table. I assume that other countries where gymnastics isn’t a popular sports, so there aren’t many girls who participate in it or simply don’t have enough money to invest in such an expensive program would never be able to compete with the likes of EE.UU or Russia.
June 18, 2015 at 5:57 AM |
Just catch Russia on beam on Spanish TV and I had to say that I love Seda. Her beam was very good, even if she has room to improve. But above all I loved her attitude. She looked at the beam before beginning like she was telling it “I am so gonna own you, you fu***!” It was great!
June 18, 2015 at 6:04 AM |
I so agree. I absolutely love Seda and I was glad to see that she finally hit beam.
I heard that Valentina is a little iffy on Seda and doesn’t seem to like her much (at least partly because Seda and Paseka have the same coach and we know all the crap she has said about Paseka) but I hope Valentina manages to keep politics aside and helps Seda improve. To me, she actually has some real potential. Ugh, fingers crossed.
June 18, 2015 at 6:16 AM
I surely hope she doesn’t screw Seda over. But Valentina can change her opinion if she sees the gymnast she badmouthed hit. We all remember how she practically defenestrated Mustafina after her injury and now Russia can’t live without her. Seda had done very well in Baku, so I hope that will count. I think that Seda (finger crossed for no injuries) can be the third Russia AA for the Worlds, with Komova (double finger cross…God knows Komova needs all the luck in the world in the injury/illnesses/health problems in general department) and Musty. Spiridonova showed at worlds that she isn’t an AA gymnast and Seda has better scores than Kharenkova, specially on vault and floor. With Alla out of commission, Seda would be the logical choice for a third AA gymnast. Because I don’t think that we will see Grishina at worlds or at Rio.
June 20, 2015 at 8:09 AM
Holy crap Rocio…great usage of the word “defenestrated.” I’m not sure if you are a native English speaker or not, but in any event your English speaking/writing abilities are much better than mine (and I am a born and raised English speaker). I just thought you should know. LOL 🙂
It’s great to read your comments by the way! Welcome!
June 18, 2015 at 6:16 AM |
baseball question.. so how the panda doin’
June 18, 2015 at 7:40 AM |
He’s doing fine. He’s playing in a real division now and dealing with 5 teams all capable of winning the world series if we didn’t have to play each otehr 19 times a year. Thanks for asking:)
June 18, 2015 at 6:18 AM |
Musty new floor’s music is Frank Sinatra’s “My way”. How meaningful…
June 19, 2015 at 7:32 AM |
I thought there might be meaning in that, too! But the Russians change their music so much who knows if it does.
June 18, 2015 at 11:26 AM |
Seda reminds me of a young Aly Raisman. I think she definitely has potential to clean up her form and add difficulty on all events especially beam and floor. I think Komova did a good job of fighting to stay on beam she didn’t let the wobbles get to her and she didn’t give up.
June 18, 2015 at 9:20 PM |
Laura Jurca replaces Andrea Iridon in Baku’s AA final. Just because the “team staff” wanted to. 😦
June 19, 2015 at 5:26 AM |
I love Andreea but a 4.0 start value vault is not getting her near a podium but typical Romania pulling their BS
June 18, 2015 at 9:48 PM |
Mustafina wins Baku’s AA. Giulia Steingruber gets silver and Lieke Wevers (whose floor exercise is gorgeous). Laura Jurca ends in 9th position.
June 19, 2015 at 7:36 AM |
USAG Facebook just reposted that Orozco re-tore his Achilles. I feel bad…he has had a rough year, first his mom and now a big injury.
June 19, 2015 at 11:20 PM |
My heart broke for him 😦
June 20, 2015 at 5:23 AM
he has more time to come back than alicia did. Men only have 2 leg events
June 20, 2015 at 6:07 AM
Heartless me is glad the over scoring he gets won’t be screwing other gymnasts out of chances to compete at world’s this year. The mother dying is sad but the over scoring he gets in the US that he doesn’t get at world’s and his arrogant attitude means he won’t be missed by me. I like Wittenberg and Leyva better as gymnasts.
June 20, 2015 at 7:14 AM
Sadly, I have to agree with GTT. I would never wish an injury on any athlete, but I got tired of Orozco and his choke-every-single-major-competition style a long time ago. I also have a tendency to hate sob stories, which they definitely tried to drum up on Orozco before London.
June 20, 2015 at 8:23 AM
I hate sob stories as well. The death of his mother is tragic and nothing a kid of his age should have to deal with but it’s irrelevant when it comes to his gymnastics.
June 20, 2015 at 3:19 PM
Totally agree with John. I don’t mind the kid personally (and feel terrible about the mom situation), but we need people who can actually compete when it matters. My patience for Leyva has wained greatly as well for the same reason. We need people who won’t choke. Plus…Leyva’s TV whore step dad makes me crazy. I would be okay if they both went away.
I like Sam even though he totally plays for the camera, but if he can’t get his crap togeher either he can go to. I like Jake and Donnell a ton too. I see a lot of potential with those two.
June 21, 2015 at 12:34 AM |
Hopefully now gymnast like Paul Ruggeri will get a chance at Worlds this year. Still sad about his mother however.
June 21, 2015 at 6:38 AM
no they will probably give the spot to joho, who will have an amazing pg champs
June 21, 2015 at 6:45 AM
Joho?
June 21, 2015 at 12:04 PM
John Horton 🙂 I don’t think he’ll be competitive at PG Champs this year or probably next year either. His best years are behind him, he’s too beat up and he’s just not good enough anymore. He’s good at rising to the occasion, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough to make a difference anymore.
June 21, 2015 at 11:28 PM
joho is gtt fave… hes gonna rise to the occasion and make the team despite not competing winter cup or mr hollie vise alex naddour and his #naddourable wedding
June 22, 2015 at 12:45 AM
It literally took me a day to figure out who joho is.lol Horton I’d a screamer but I don’t he him a all. I am just glad when his mouth isn’t on my T V. He is not alone because as adorable as Sam is his screaming makes me want to kill someone
June 22, 2015 at 5:29 PM
I don’t think Horton is on national team anymore and he skipped the qualifier – can he still go to P&Gs? He looks to be in shape, given his run on American Ninja Warrior.
I’m pulling for Paul Ruggeri too – unfortunately Paul’s problem is that he’s a second tier Jake Dalton on a deep team. I can see the same thing happening to him, where he’s a medalist at nationals on multiple events but doesn’t make the team because of the wacky points system and because our top AAers are already good on his events best events Sam and Donnell.
June 19, 2015 at 7:58 AM |
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UVxI6qDGigA heres another interview from kids choice awards 2015
June 21, 2015 at 12:37 PM |
Omg, I just tried to listen to this short clip and I couldn’t even get through it….”I’m doing lots of gymnastics and I’m interested in music and kind of putting it together” she is clearly not in the gym much (if at all) and I thought she wanted to do acting, not music lol
June 21, 2015 at 8:59 PM
yeah its intolerable
June 22, 2015 at 4:57 AM
ugh. That’s all.
June 21, 2015 at 7:54 AM |
Am so pee’d with myself. Only just discovered BAKU was covered here with 2 dedicated channels. Discovered in time for apparatus finals. Damnit!!!!
June 22, 2015 at 12:04 AM |
https://instagram.com/p/4Ii7rAwXGR/?taken-by=simonebiles simone biles 2024 olympic diving gold medalist team usa
June 22, 2015 at 12:43 AM |
Someone needs to reel this kid in before she kills herself.lol
June 22, 2015 at 1:34 AM
she could only help usa womens diving. they should have the diving team train at the karolyi ranch also. that way they could pick who would be better for what
June 22, 2015 at 1:35 AM
can you imagine her on springboard?
June 22, 2015 at 9:16 AM |
Looks like Skinner is back to her antics: working on her difficulty instead of execution. Ugh. Marta–please leave her at home!
June 22, 2015 at 5:12 PM |
I couldn’t get the video to work, so I tracked it down on jordynslefteyebrow tumbler. Long story short, it’s video of her tucked DD with a split leap at the end, then the same pass with an immediate back tuck after the DD (instead of the leap). I guess she is looking for a few extra tenths of connection bonus on floor. There is also a clip of her full in on beam at the end. Upgrades…yes. But nothing magical.
Also, I might be the lone/odd duck here…but part of me is rooting for Skinner. Her form is shit, and sometimes I want to slam her face into the beam/vault table/mat (take your pick), but I think she fills a hole right now. If we are looking for total world domination, we should go with her. Her chances of vault and floor metals are extremely high. No one else (that are two event gymnasts) can match her EF metal potential.
Of the AA gymnasts: Simone is amazing and will probably be in the BB, FX, and VT finals. Ross has the potential to be in BB and UB Finals. Aly has the potential for BB and FX. Key has ??? (I honestly don’t know enough about her to know). Assuming those are your 4 AA gymnasts, who else has the most metal potential for that 5th spot? I think that 5 spot for worlds should go to Skinner at the moment…because she could potentially take home 2 EF metals. I maybe completely off my rocker, but that’s how I feel. If she crashes and burns between now and then, then obviously not. But if she continues to make small improvements (even if they aren’t perfect), I think she should go. What’s the point of taking another girl who has zero chances of metaling in EFs? I think Maggie is super sweet and I like her a ton, but really what is the point of taking her? Unless she replaces another AA girl (like Key or Ross), I see no point in have her on the team. With the scores that the U.S. are posting, there isn’t a need for a 5th AA person on the team. We need a specialist with EF metal potential.
June 22, 2015 at 6:06 PM
I think the second pass is full-in to tuck back (E+A, 0.2 tenths CV) a la Vanessa Ferrari or Catalina Ponor.
I agree on Skinner, I think she is smart. Given what we’ve seen of the US team, she is forced to upgrade all of her events if she wants a shot at Rio. Raisman and Key were posting 15s on floor at Jesolo and every American with intact knee ligaments can perform the amanar. She may now be overlooked on her medal worthy events, despite having as Marta will pick gymnasts based on contribution to the team and/or her favorites.
Luckily for Skinner, worlds this year is still a six member team. Biles, Ross, Raisman and Key have four of the spots for sure. If the Pan Ams squad has indeed been banished from Worlds selection, that leaves Skinner, Baumann, Douglas and Nichols to contend for the last two spots.
You could also throw the bars gymnasts into the mix, but I think both Kocian and Locklear are still out from injury/surgery, while Brenna Dowell only seems to be overlooked.
June 22, 2015 at 7:10 PM
marta likes medalsI think worlds is ross key biles raisman skinner nichols and heres why. vault final biles skinner, floor final raisman bilsa skinner, beam ross biles raisman, bars key ross, biles. aa biles key raisman She almost guarantees two spots in every ef with those six. Maggie has an amanar as does aly as do biles and skinner and probably key. maggie can back up all four as can aly and ross and skinner if need be. Im guessing travelling alt is someone like baumann or kocian. They dont even really need a travelling alt.
June 22, 2015 at 9:56 PM
Unfortunately I have to agree–that doesn’t make me like Skinner more though.
We need one more person to do vault. Many people have an Amanar but Marta might as well take someone who has a team vault and can qualify EF. It’s an extra medal, why not? This is why I was hoping Maroney will figure her stuff out but it’s not looking likely. I honestly feel that if Maroney was back on vault/floor, she’d have an easier time making this team than Ross. Kind of unfortunate but Marta likes her vaulters. Too bad Alicia can’t come back lol
But I think you are right, for Worlds I think Biles/Aly/Key and prob Skinner are locks. I would take Ross and whoever for the 6th spot. It prob doesn’t matter who that 6th person is–they prob won’t do much in team finals. I guess if Nia figures her consistency problem, she could be a good fit but prob unlikely haha. If Gabby looks semi ok, it prob will be her because why not–Its Marta lol
I think Norah, Laurie, Reagan and I’m sure some random junior (maybe Desiderio or Sydney Sharp) will fight it out during 2016 for that last spot. I just can’t believe I’m saying this–but Skinner could very well end up on the Olympics team and maybe get an EF vault medal (and Asac doesn’t have a vault medal). Ugh.
June 23, 2015 at 1:27 AM
Holy hell. I totally forgot that the team size was 6 people for worlds not 5. LOL. With all of this talk about reducing team size in 2020…I apparently can’t keep anything straight. 🙂
So yes, I would throw Maggie in the mix as the 5th AA person. But Skinner would still be on my team as the 6th person for the same reasons.
And you are totally right Gymbot…that second pass was a full-in to a back tuck (not a DD). Good eye. I shouldn’t try and commentate passes at 3am. LOL.
June 22, 2015 at 4:57 PM |
Yes, clipping the bars is 5 tenths. The giant swings should be 0.1 to 0.3 each, if the judges see her bent knees they and take something, it doesn’t seem to be 0.3.
June 22, 2015 at 8:51 PM |
Gotta tell you, GTT, I never would have predicted Porcello’s struggles this season. He was such a solid pitcher in Detroit.
I’m to the point where I cannot stand McKayla Maroney any longer.
June 23, 2015 at 4:00 AM |
Want Porcello back? OMG he has been horrible. Stupid Cherrington signed him to a 20 million 4 year deal before he ever pitched in this type of enviroment.
It was stupid. Maybe he will be better next year and I will give him some time but as of now he’s my new least favorite player.
Playing in the AL East is a lot tougher then people realize.
June 23, 2015 at 9:21 AM
I know! But I’ll pass on taking Porcello back. I’ll keep Iglesias and Cespedes. 🙂
June 23, 2015 at 9:42 AM
At this point we will give you him at cost. You know yiu want him and you can keep Cespedes and Iglesias too. It’s a great deal. Come on:)
June 22, 2015 at 11:27 PM |
So supposedly Aly is in the upcoming issue of ESPN “Body Issue…”
Although from what I heard, it’s just her in her usual leo’s.
http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2015/06/22/natalie-coughlin-aly-raisman-espn-body-issue-magazine-olympics/
June 24, 2015 at 4:00 PM |
I hope it’s just the leos….can’t imagine Marta will take to kindly to this…”image” and all….
June 25, 2015 at 1:50 AM
Oh gawd remember when ASac did it on the beam in that ugly non-split thing she did…I just remember thinking that was probably the WORST pose she could have selected from any of her events. I never understood why she had it when she didn’t even do the splits at 180.
June 26, 2015 at 6:30 PM
I think I would be like Asac’s shoot. You can see the preview video.
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/13128922/bryce-harper-washington-nationals-kevin-love-cleveland-cavaliers-24-espn-magazine-body-issue
June 27, 2015 at 12:26 AM
I’m interested to see what Aly’s would look like. But Asac’s looked very classy so good for Aly! People keep saying its against her image but honestly, she is been working with Watham hospital to promote healthy bodies for girls from the beginning so this actually makes sense.
GNN wrote some shaming article about it. Stupid.
http://gymnasticsnewsnetwork.com/gymnast-aly-raisman-to-be-in-espn-magazines-body-issue/
June 27, 2015 at 1:59 PM
I thought it is just an argument between liberals and conservatives.