Artistic Gymnastics

[Conotocarious]

Just now, greyhorse said:

I love how all the women congratulate and root for each other.  Suni looked genuinely happy for Nemour.  Suni and her smile are adorable.  

If it were me, I'd be rooting for every single competitor of mine to fall...

Ngl….me too.

[Is Everyone Gone]

Swimming has become the old gymnastics. So much icy body language after races between the podium.

[WhitneyWhit]

I love the red leo on Suni, it adds to her stone cold assassin competition look. She’s here to win medals and neutralize any and all threats, and for your safety, don’t ask her any questions. 

[Jaded]

Going back to the 92 Olympics for a sec. I was pretty young so only remember bits and pieces. Kim Zmeskal was a favorite of mine which I kind of regret. Apparently she went on to coach like Bella and his wife. Then the things she said and did when USA Gymnastics was imploding from the floodgates having finally been opened in regards to the abuse. Her ex-husband was a real piece of work too. 

I've always remembered Svetlana Boginskaya from the 92 Olympics too because I thought she was really pretty. She always came across like she was probably nice and shy.

I meant to add something about Vahagn Davtyan. He's really cute....🙃

Edited August 4 by Jaded

[Is Everyone Gone]

14 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I've always remembered Svetlana Boginskaya from the 92 Olympics too because I thought she was really pretty. She always came across like she was probably nice and shy.

I meant to add something about Vahagn Davtyan. He's really cute....🙃

Svetlana Boguinskaya is on IG and a ton of fun to follow. She is a very positive person and seems to have a lot of close bonds with former gymnasts. So many years later, she still seems like the big den mother. Love her!

Plus, EPIC bitchface.

[WhitneyWhit]

Bogi was wonderful but my favorite 90s gymnast will always and forever be Lilia Podkopayeva, AKA, Lilipod. I revisit her 96 Olympic floor routine often. 

[twoods]

Yulo with another gold! So happy for him. 
 

 

[Is Everyone Gone]

Can we give Qiu Qiyuan some major props? She fell on this routine in AA and hit the bar with her foot in team finals. For her to deliver such a great routine after those disasters must have taken so much mental fortitude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9oKx_Y2Wqc

 

[ombelico]

2 hours ago, CherryMalotte said:

On a shallow note, I'm not liking the red leotard that Suni and Simone have worn.  Is there a mild leopard print to it as well as the sparkles?  Must clean glasses.

Yes, the mesh on the upper chest and arms seems to have a stars/leopard print. Definitely a case of where GK should have heeded Coco Chanel's advice to "remove one item" and just left the mesh as plain red. Then it would have been stunning.

[Conotocarious]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

Going back to the 92 Olympics for a sec. I was pretty young so only remember bits and pieces. Kim Zmeskal was a favorite of mine which I kind of regret. Apparently she went on to coach like Bella and his wife. Then the things she said and did when USA Gymnastics was imploding from the floodgates having finally been opened in regards to the abuse. Her ex-husband was a real piece of work too. 

I've always remembered Svetlana Boginskaya from the 92 Olympics too because I thought she was really pretty. She always came across like she was probably nice and shy.

I meant to add something about Vahagn Davtyan. He's really cute....🙃

Kim Zmeskal is no longer married? How did I miss this?

[Notabug]

8 minutes ago, Conotocarious said:

Kim Zmeskal is no longer married? How did I miss this?

Chris Burdette and Kim divorced about 4-5 years ago and she is now sole owner of their gymnastics business.  He's kept a low profile and supposedly was a stay at home dad to their 3 kids and seemed to have primary custody of them.

[Daisy]

2 hours ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Swimming has become the old gymnastics. So much icy body language after races between the podium.

honestly. I really don't take much out of this. they just swam 100m after a 9day programme for a lot of them. what could be considered iciness - could just be exhaustion, processing what happened, if they lost, trying not to have a major temper tantrum on national television. 

usually after the medals the swimmers take selfies etc, and who knows what we see after the cameras are put away. 

I'll have to be honest, I don't know how "Rah rah rah!! hug hug hug" i'd be if i were like an Olympic athlete.  maybe it would depend on the event? or if i'm like super close etc to people. but again for me - my big thing is if i lost, i'd be doing everything in my power not to lose it in front of the world, and sometimes that takes more energy then remembering to hug or clap someone on the back for winning. 

[Chaser]

Swimmers also have to bring their bodies down after swims. They aren’t going to stand around waiting for everyone to get out of the pool to hug. They normally just acknowledge the lanes next to them.

[scarynikki12]

3 hours ago, WhitneyWhit said:

One thing that stands out when watching past competitions (especially the 90s) js how much the (mostly male) coaches made everything about them. The athletes were secondary. They were always mic’d up, running around, screaming. It made me think of Dominique Moceanu saying of Bela Karolyi in 1996 that instead of actually coaching, he was just yelling nonsense for tv soundbites. 

Exactly. I love how gymnastics watchers may have some familiarity with the coaches but are not being forced to see them as the main characters. The coaches used to act like they were getting the medals (I wouldn't put it past the Karolyis to at least consider taking medals for themselves and l bet the only reason they didn't is because even the most up their ass reporter would raise an eye at such a move).

With regard to Shannon in particular I think Steve Nunno was so desperate to see her win the all-around he lost sight of what was best for her. Shannon was a precision gymnast but that means you look at what she's actually capable of and train her to excel. Nunno looked at the skills in fashion and then had Shannon overtrain them to the point of injury. There were external things that contributed, yes, like the Yurchenko Arabian getting downgraded halfway through the quad (which should have been against the Code of Points), and the American judges refusing to score her routines realistically with regard to mistakes, but a lot of Shannon's struggles came from Nunno acting like he would be the one going home with the Gold. 

I always come back to Shannon's beam as a good demonstration of how her training should have been. Peggy looked at what she could do well, including difficult elements like the full in dismount, and then put together a routine that reflected Shannon the gymnast and allowed her to be competitive for medals. And even her beam was overtrained which lead to some struggles. The closest Nunno came to putting together a routine like what Peggy did on beam was Shannon's bars and, even then, her 96 routine seemed to highlight his poor decision making. I think her 93 and 94 bars routine (just watched) reflected Shannon's capabilities much better than what we got in 96. I'll be gracious and theorize Nunno maybe changed it up to reflect Shannon's regular injuries (though who's fault is that STEVE? WHOSE?) but her 96 bars were pretty cookie cutter and she kept underrotating her dismount. In stark contrast her compulsory bars were gorgeous and are still far more enjoyable to watch. And the compulsories were the definition of cookie cutter which tells you how uninteresting her 96 bars were.

At the end of the day Nunno failed to realize the best way for Shannon to win the all-around was to be the trendsetter not just copy whatever the rest of the world was doing. So we got the cookie cutter bars with the underrotated dismount, the severely underrotated double layout on floor into a bad landing, and an inconsistent 1.5 Yurchenko on vault. If he'd approached her training as her being the trendsetter (and not overtraining which is key) we may have seen her 93/94 bars done in the Olympics with a good double layout dismount. We may have seen a cleverly choreographed floor that reflected her capabilities without the last minute panic insertion of the double layout she could not do (her 95 floor would have earned her good scores in 96). Shannon also needed different music because she was not a Soviet gymnast with years of ballet training like Nunno pretended and tended to do really well when she was having fun (see galas and her routines on tour after 96). I think she'd have killed floor with an upbeat song designed to make the listener smile. If Shannon hadn't been overtrained THEN she may have been able to master the Yurchenko 1.5 on vault. She did the full perfectly, the Arabian very well, and she was far more consistent with Yurchenkos than any other type so it's not a stretch to imagine a world where she simply combined the things she did do well and thrive. Instead she was overtrained and inconsistent to the point she seemed afraid to do the vault at all.

Shannon was an amazing gymnast in spite of Nunno and I love how he just vanished after she left. 

[CeeBeeGee]

13 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

And Gutsu's gigantic step forward on that one floor pass she couldn't land cleanly should never have prevented her from scoring anywhere near a 9.925, so if we're going to dock Shannon, we need to dock Gutsu accordingly.

I've never really bought into the narrative that because Gutsu's difficulty was so high, it was acceptable she won.  She may have had more difficulty, but some of her routines were pretty unsightly (her beam routine, in particular); moreover, and more importantly, everyone's routines were scored out of a 10.0, so Gutsu's mistakes shouldn't have been penalized less because her routines were harder (which is what it felt like was happening that day).

And, of course, she should never have been allowed to compete in the AA to begin with since she didn't qualify for it.

Yep to all of this. And that choreography! That dreadful herky jerky choreography--she looked like one of those box puppets that when you press the button, they collapse. (I did like her difficulty though. That split leg layout with pretty awesome.) And as you say, she never should've been in the AA to begin with. Not her fault of course but still.

 

5 hours ago, greyhorse said:

I love how all the women congratulate and root for each other.  Suni looked genuinely happy for Nemour.  Suni and her smile are adorable.

It's wonderful to see.

 

5 hours ago, WhitneyWhit said:

I love the red leo on Suni, it adds to her stone cold assassin competition look. She’s here to win medals and neutralize any and all threats, and for your safety, don’t ask her any questions. 

She could tell you but then she'd have to kill you.

 

4 hours ago, WhitneyWhit said:

Bogi was wonderful but my favorite 90s gymnast will always and forever be Lilia Podkopayeva, AKA, Lilipod. I revisit her 96 Olympic floor routine often. 

And on the beam! She literally danced the length of the beam.

Thrilled at the bars podium Three extremely deserving medalists. MAN, did France sh*t the bed with Kaylia. If you listen carefully, you can hear the whispers youuuuuu could've hadddddd those barrrrrsssss scoressss.......

[shoregirl]

1 hour ago, CeeBeeGee said:

 

Thrilled at the bars podium Three extremely deserving medalists. MAN, did France sh*t the bed with Kaylia. If you listen carefully, you can hear the whispers youuuuuu could've hadddddd those barrrrrsssss scoressss.......

Kaylia should be a honorary member of team FAAFO

Her bars routine was gorgeous 

[Is Everyone Gone]

Another creepy thing about 1992: Vitaly Scherbo who won 6 golds is also a garbage  person who raped Tatiana Gutsu. It’s awful that Tatiana had to be around her rapist.

[CeeBeeGee]

45 minutes ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Another creepy thing about 1992: Vitaly Scherbo who won 6 golds is also a garbage  person who raped Tatiana Gutsu. It’s awful that Tatiana had to be around her rapist.

During Me Too Tatiana posted about this online and was promptly shamed by Russian media. Eff them all.

Yeah, Vitaly is a rapist POS. Which is one reason I was so happy when Simone eventually eclipsed his medals count.

[Conotocarious]

1 hour ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Another creepy thing about 1992: Vitaly Scherbo who won 6 golds is also a garbage  person who raped Tatiana Gutsu. It’s awful that Tatiana had to be around her rapist.

I was just about to google this because I knew I read about this and I couldn’t remember if it was Scherbo or not. 

[yowsah1]

On 8/3/2024 at 8:27 PM, Conotocarious said:

On a whim I decided to watch the 1992 Olympic gymnastics last night and it’s almost like watching a black and white film it seems so far away. It actually depressed me to watch it…

I dug up the news story about Kim Kelly that NBC ran in prime time during the women's competition.  Elfi Schlagel at the end shocked the nation by basically telling it like it was.  And that USGA official that was quoted defending the decision... my God, he looked like he came out of Central Casting for "slimy, shifty, untrustworthy villain"!
 

 

Edited August 5 by yowsah1

[CrazyInAlabama]

Tomorrow morning, 4:45 am central on Peacock and E!, last two womens event finals, balance beam and Floor ex.  It doesn't look like they're rerunning until the primetime NBC show. 

[yowsah1]

11 hours ago, Minneapple said:

Kaylia Nemour with the beautiful bars routine to win gold is a major fuck you to the French gymnastics federation that tried to screw her over.

Yay for Suni! She looks so happy. After everything she went through with kidney disease, she deserves all the nice things. And she still has a chance at one more medal on beam! 

I have to imagine that there are some French gymnastics officials being asked some very hard questions right about now.

Edited August 5 by yowsah1

[NUguy514]

1 hour ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Another creepy thing about 1992: Vitaly Scherbo who won 6 golds is also a garbage  person who raped Tatiana Gutsu. It’s awful that Tatiana had to be around her rapist.

I almost put that in one of my earlier posts, but it just...it's just so beyond enraging and upsetting.

The bars final was fantastic.  I was rooting SO HARD for Kaylia, and I was so thrilled to see Qiyuan bounce back so well!  Suni really was competing for bronze if those two hit, and I'm thrilled for her, too!  Perfect podium!

The rings medalists were pretty perfect.

And Carlos wins another gold!!!  LOVE him!!  He really earned both his golds, and I thought Davtyan earned that silver completely.  Actually, I was confused by the broadcasters for the world feed saying he wasn't going to medal before his second score came up; I was like, "Did you not see how well he executed that vault??"

(Similarly, after Rebeca's first vault yesterday, they were talking about what she needed to outscore Simone, and it was literally impossible for Rebeca to do so with an Amanar: with the 15.100 on her Cheng, she could only average a 15.250 because the Amanar's maximum score is a 15.400, which they both should've realized with the posted start value of 5.4.  This kind of math is not that hard!)

Aaaaaaanyway, I don't know that I agreed with Hepworth's bronze, but those four guys who finished 3-6 were within a half-tenth, so it was kind of a jump ball.

One more day of gymnastics!!

[blueray]

I felt bad for the British girl, sorry I don't remember her name. Her fall looked like it hurt :(.

[Conotocarious]

2 minutes ago, blueray said:

I felt bad for the British girl, sorry I don't remember her name. Her fall looked like it hurt :(.

Becky Downie. Such a bummer for her, she’s actually like 32 years old.

[Is Everyone Gone]

I found this. Holy shit. Creepy. 

 

[ChiCricket]

On 8/3/2024 at 12:17 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

 I'll tell you, going to high school gymnastics meets, when previously all you've ever seen is the gymnastics that gets shown on TV, will make you realize how impossible even the smallest stuff they do is.

So true! But even knowing that..this meme is me. 😁 

 

Edited August 5 by ChiCricket

[Girl in a Cardigan]

Awesome podium for parallel bars! Kovtun set a high standard at the beginning and wound up with silver! Congrats to Zou who blew everyone out of the water with a 16.2! And Oka grabs the bronze in the last routine of the final!

[Conotocarious]

Omg tom Brady and his daughter are there. 
 

NGL I will be glad when this is done. Now I can move on to sport climbing where I won’t be so emotionally invested in an athlete the way I am with Simone. 

[Conotocarious]

NOOOO SUNI NO

I am so happy to see Suni handle this in stride with a smile and a “that’s ok”. She had an AWESOME Olympics and beam sucks.

[MaryMitch]

What, did someone spread butter on the beam? So many falls! 🥲

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

So, woke up before gymnastics started.   Then had almost an hour before women's beam started.      To cap it all off, they just showed the wrong gymnast's name and country.   

Is it asking too much for the broadcast to have the name and country of the athlete on camera the whole time?    And do the commentators ever shut up?   Unfortunately the answer seems to be no to everything.    

Edited August 5 by CrazyInAlabama

[Conotocarious]

I hate beam. I’ve never seen her fall on that literally ever

[Conotocarious]

WOW WOW

 

andrade no medal either????

[Girl in a Cardigan]

Beam final is gonna beam final!

So excited for Alice D'Amato! After her fourth place finish in the AA, she gets the gold here, mostly for staying on when everyone else faltered (also she was VERY good when she was on!).

Zhou getting the silver after falling first is wild, but that's beam! And congrats to Manlia Esposito for grabbing the bronze.

Disappointed for Suni and Simone (especially hearing that Simone got a .3 deduction for not saluting properly to finish the routine), but that's the beam final. Suni's had an amazing Olympics and Simone's still got the floor final to go.

Wild that Rebecca didn't make the podium because her set was delightful, but it seems her DOD was .4 down from qualifying, so that'll get you every time.

[Conotocarious]

That salute penalty is super BS but it doesn’t ultimately matter. I hated this final, so many falls. Suni’s looked like it hurt too.

[Chaser]

Simone wasn’t going to give that beam any respect.

 

[Conotocarious]

Mens high bar is kind of a splat fest too. This is a strange event finals day. Maybe everyone is just tired, this is a long competition.

[Girl in a Cardigan]

Even with all of the falls, I kinda love this high bar podium:

GOLD – Oka
SILVER – Barajas
BRONZE – Tang and Zhang

So excited for Colombia to earn its first gymnastics medal ever! And as Spencer says, "Tang and Zhang tying for bronze with falls is what this high bar final deserves."

[Chaser]

M Floor/Vault, High Bar and W Bars, Beam… All first times for those countries. That is amazing.

 

[Conotocarious]

I forget why are there 9 in floor finals?

[Chaser]

53 minutes ago, Conotocarious said:

Mens high bar is kind of a splat fest too. This is a strange event finals day. Maybe everyone is just tired, this is a long competition.

Shawn Johnson and her husband did a video reacting to her gold medal winning beam routine and he was like “wow! How excited were you!” and she like “I was exhausted and I just wanted to be done”.

[Girl in a Cardigan]

12 minutes ago, Conotocarious said:

I forget why are there 9 in floor finals?

Kishi and Barbosu tied for 8th on both E-score (first tie break) and D-score (second tie-break) in qualifying. So they're both in.

[Chaser]

It looks like Simone just started passes in the wrong place. Not an overpowering issuing this time. 

[Conotocarious]

Simone knew it. You can’t do two OOB. One sure, not two.

[Chaser]

And she didn’t just step out of bounds, she basically landed out of bounds. Both feet. 

Really curious at this podium. I’m hoping Andrade stays on top. Pulling for Jordan to make that podium. 

Oh not sure if that’s enough. Some wonky landings. 

[Girl in a Cardigan]

And just like we all predicted, it's Gold for Andrade, Silver for Simone, and Bronze for Barbosu! Wow, what a final!

[Chaser]

No it’s Bronze for Jordan!!!! Wow!!!

[Girl in a Cardigan]

1 minute ago, Girl in a Cardigan said:

And just like we all predicted, it's Gold for Andrade, Silver for Simone, and Bronze for Barbosu! Wow, what a final!

LOL, just kidding! Jordan Chiles's inquiry was accept and SHE'S the Bronze medalist! OMG! THIS FINAL WAS WILD!!

[absnow54]

Bummer. I wanted Simone to conclude her Olympics on a high, but I’m also really excited for Rebecca. She deserves the be a gold medalist.