Best Routine: McKayla Maroney, Vault
Maroney justified her placement on this team with the most flat out amazing Amanar I think anyone's ever seen. Height, flight, effortless twisting, and a perfect landing. Jawdroppingly gorgeous, where on Earth those judges found any deductions is a mystery to me.
Most Horrifying Moment: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Floor
Russia's team leader executed the best floor routine of the night...until she crashed her last pass to her head. Unable to hold back her tears as she saluted the judges, the devastation running through the Russian camp at this last, defining moment of defeat was agonizing to watch.
Most Underscored Routine: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Beam
After two very shaky Russian routines, Afanasyeva calmly and coolly executed the best beam of her life. The quality of her work stood out, not just among her nervous teammates, but among the field at large. However, the judges awarded her a sub 15 score, lower than her less fluent qualifications routine, and just where they found those deductions I'd like to know. If you want an example of everything that's wrong with this code, wrap your heads around the fact that Raisman's routine, with its lack of expression, flexibility or anything approaching the "artistic", complete with weak (for her) dismount, STILL SCORED HIGHER than Afanasyeva's work. Absolutely fucking ridiculous.
Most Impressive Comeback: Team Canada
Canada was almost entirely written off after the loss of the great Peng Peng Lee to injury, with many people predicting they wouldn't even qualify to the TF. Indeed, they just squeezed past Australia and Germany in qualifications, but they came to play at the final, especially on vault and floor. A 5th place finish is a superb result for the Canadian program, which was taking part in its first team final ever.
Most Fantastic Beam Routine: Catalina Ponor
After Romania's seriously subpar beam rotation in qualifications, including the worst routine Ponor's ever performed in her competitive career, many were wondering how she would respond to the pressure of the TF. They need not have worried. Ponor worked that beam over like no one else, getting the highest score on beam thus far this Olympics, and adding yet another memorable performance to her outstanding comeback.
Most Obvious Fact: Romanian Bars
Olympic and World gold for Romanian teams is going to be nearly impossible to achieve without serious improvements to how they train bars. The rest of the world has caught up to them on beam and floor, and if you're placing last on bars in a team final, other more well-rounded teams are going to beat you every single time. Bronze is a great achievement for this team, but I'm sure they have aspirations to bring Olympic and World team gold back to Romania, and it won't happen without better bars.
Biggest Meltdown: Tie: Team China, and Team GB on Beam
The contrast between the 2008 Chinese squad and 2012 could not have been more extreme. In 2008, they were full of spark and spunk, and they approached every routine with attack and confidence. This year, China was a shadow of their 2008 selves, looking tired, injured, and hesitant on every apparatus but bars. There were a couple standout routines- Huang Quishuang on vault, Sui Lu on beam- but floor was an absolute nightmare, as they placed 7th overall, and they counted two 13s on beam along with Lu's 15+. Deng Linlin, normally one of the calmest performers on the team, fell off beam and missed floor, Huang Quishuang headcased all over beam and floor, and Yao Jinnan was relegated to a barely made DTY and bars. I think China's in a similar position to Russia in 2008- they've got a couple individual medal contenders yet, but really this upcoming quad is going to be a rebuilding one for them.
No discussion of meltdowns is complete without mentioning Great Britain on beam. They were starting on this apparatus, something that made fans of this team especially nervous, and with good reason. When your highest score on an apparatus is 13.866, you know something's gone seriously wrong. Jennifer Pinches fell on a simple leap, Hannah Whelan nearly toppled over on her dismount, and Imogen Cairns apparently hit but barely cracked the 13s. They sorely missed Danusia Francis on this event. It all added up to a sub-40 mark, which for a top 8 team is pretty ghastly.
Most Dominantly Dull Performance: Team USA
I may take some flack for this, but I've slept on it and my feelings haven't changed. Aside from the brilliance of their vault rotation, watching Team USA stomp all over the rest of the field was pretty dull. It was a victory of mental toughness and consistent performances over artistic expression, elegance and fluency. There's not a single USA routine from that group that I feel compelled to rewatch ever again that isn't Maroney's superb vault. It was just uncharismatic gymnastics at its finest- it can win medals, but it doesn't fire the imagination.
Most Disappointing Individual Performance: Anastasia Grishina
After not making any individual finals, Grishina had just the team final to make an impact on the Olympics. While she got through her bar routine, it wasn't up to her usual high standard. However, this paled in comparison to her completely botched floor routine- I've never seen her miss that second pass, but miss it she did. She simply did not show up to the big dance like she needed to.
This is where you have to hand it to the Americans- Team Russia has more beautiful, memorable gymnastics with better execution and more artistic expression, but if you can't perform it on the day, you won't come out on top.
Maroney justified her placement on this team with the most flat out amazing Amanar I think anyone's ever seen. Height, flight, effortless twisting, and a perfect landing. Jawdroppingly gorgeous, where on Earth those judges found any deductions is a mystery to me.
Most Horrifying Moment: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Floor
Russia's team leader executed the best floor routine of the night...until she crashed her last pass to her head. Unable to hold back her tears as she saluted the judges, the devastation running through the Russian camp at this last, defining moment of defeat was agonizing to watch.
Most Underscored Routine: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Beam
After two very shaky Russian routines, Afanasyeva calmly and coolly executed the best beam of her life. The quality of her work stood out, not just among her nervous teammates, but among the field at large. However, the judges awarded her a sub 15 score, lower than her less fluent qualifications routine, and just where they found those deductions I'd like to know. If you want an example of everything that's wrong with this code, wrap your heads around the fact that Raisman's routine, with its lack of expression, flexibility or anything approaching the "artistic", complete with weak (for her) dismount, STILL SCORED HIGHER than Afanasyeva's work. Absolutely fucking ridiculous.
Most Impressive Comeback: Team Canada
Canada was almost entirely written off after the loss of the great Peng Peng Lee to injury, with many people predicting they wouldn't even qualify to the TF. Indeed, they just squeezed past Australia and Germany in qualifications, but they came to play at the final, especially on vault and floor. A 5th place finish is a superb result for the Canadian program, which was taking part in its first team final ever.
Most Fantastic Beam Routine: Catalina Ponor
After Romania's seriously subpar beam rotation in qualifications, including the worst routine Ponor's ever performed in her competitive career, many were wondering how she would respond to the pressure of the TF. They need not have worried. Ponor worked that beam over like no one else, getting the highest score on beam thus far this Olympics, and adding yet another memorable performance to her outstanding comeback.
Most Obvious Fact: Romanian Bars
Olympic and World gold for Romanian teams is going to be nearly impossible to achieve without serious improvements to how they train bars. The rest of the world has caught up to them on beam and floor, and if you're placing last on bars in a team final, other more well-rounded teams are going to beat you every single time. Bronze is a great achievement for this team, but I'm sure they have aspirations to bring Olympic and World team gold back to Romania, and it won't happen without better bars.
Biggest Meltdown: Tie: Team China, and Team GB on Beam
The contrast between the 2008 Chinese squad and 2012 could not have been more extreme. In 2008, they were full of spark and spunk, and they approached every routine with attack and confidence. This year, China was a shadow of their 2008 selves, looking tired, injured, and hesitant on every apparatus but bars. There were a couple standout routines- Huang Quishuang on vault, Sui Lu on beam- but floor was an absolute nightmare, as they placed 7th overall, and they counted two 13s on beam along with Lu's 15+. Deng Linlin, normally one of the calmest performers on the team, fell off beam and missed floor, Huang Quishuang headcased all over beam and floor, and Yao Jinnan was relegated to a barely made DTY and bars. I think China's in a similar position to Russia in 2008- they've got a couple individual medal contenders yet, but really this upcoming quad is going to be a rebuilding one for them.
No discussion of meltdowns is complete without mentioning Great Britain on beam. They were starting on this apparatus, something that made fans of this team especially nervous, and with good reason. When your highest score on an apparatus is 13.866, you know something's gone seriously wrong. Jennifer Pinches fell on a simple leap, Hannah Whelan nearly toppled over on her dismount, and Imogen Cairns apparently hit but barely cracked the 13s. They sorely missed Danusia Francis on this event. It all added up to a sub-40 mark, which for a top 8 team is pretty ghastly.
Most Dominantly Dull Performance: Team USA
I may take some flack for this, but I've slept on it and my feelings haven't changed. Aside from the brilliance of their vault rotation, watching Team USA stomp all over the rest of the field was pretty dull. It was a victory of mental toughness and consistent performances over artistic expression, elegance and fluency. There's not a single USA routine from that group that I feel compelled to rewatch ever again that isn't Maroney's superb vault. It was just uncharismatic gymnastics at its finest- it can win medals, but it doesn't fire the imagination.
Most Disappointing Individual Performance: Anastasia Grishina
After not making any individual finals, Grishina had just the team final to make an impact on the Olympics. While she got through her bar routine, it wasn't up to her usual high standard. However, this paled in comparison to her completely botched floor routine- I've never seen her miss that second pass, but miss it she did. She simply did not show up to the big dance like she needed to.
This is where you have to hand it to the Americans- Team Russia has more beautiful, memorable gymnastics with better execution and more artistic expression, but if you can't perform it on the day, you won't come out on top.
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