For fuck's sake

All this bitching about Komova's obvious emotional breakdown after losing the AA.

Were ANY of these people ever 16 years old and had something they desperately wanted snatched away from them at the last second?

Did ANY of those people ever want to just ignore the person who had benefited from the sudden change in their circumstances?

Did ANY of these people ever go through that with a bunch of TV cameras around and photographers snapping away?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Look, you can talk about good sportsmanship until the cows come home, but sometimes gymnastics fans seem to expect sainthood or something.

These athletes, by and large, are just kids. It was Komova's first Worlds AA, most people doubted she'd be able to compete at that level at various points this year, and she lost by hundredths of a point. Of COURSE she was upset! I could totally understand her behavior, and what's more, I thought it indicated what kind of an athlete she was, what kind of a competitor. She was probably just, if not more, as pissed at herself for stepping out of that Memmel turn than she was pissed at Jordyn for having that shiny gold medal. If Jordyn had acted like that, I would have completely understood it and accepted it too, despite my lack of enthusiasm over her gymnastics.

So give her a break, people. She's only human, and hopefully she can learn from this experience and come back as not only a stronger competitor, but will be better able to handle disappointment when it comes.

Well, holy crap

Just when you think the USA has got this thing wrapped up, Alicia Sacramone goes down with an Achilles injury.

This is devestating for Team USA for a couple of reasons. In a group of so many young ones, Alicia was the leader, an almost unofficial coach, who helped support these babies psychologically in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of Worlds. Without her, there IS no natural leader on the squad.

Secondly, with Anna Li out too, USA has to go up with 5 gymnasts, while everyone else has 6. The pre-lims lineup, courtesy of Universal Sports, is as follows:


Vault: Vega, Douglas, Raisman, Wieber, Maroney.
Uneven bars: Raisman, Maroney, Vega, Wieber, Douglas.
Balance beam: Maroney, Vega, Raisman, Wieber, Douglas.
Floor exercise: Douglas, Vega, Wieber, Maroney, Raisman.

Marta is now looking pretty smart to have named Vega as an alternate, and an idiot for working her athletes to the bone in training. Everything's covered here, but pre-lims is going to be FAR more tenuous than USA would have liked. I'm not quite so worried about finals, because they're still a good team on paper when it's 3 up, 3 count, but having to stick Raisman on bars and Maroney on beam is far from ideal. I'd assume their finals lineup will look something like:

Vault: Raisman/Douglas, Wieber, Maroney
Bars: Vega, Douglas, Wieber
Beam: Vega/Douglas, Wieber, Raisman
Floor: Douglas/Maroney, Wieber, Raisman

Obviously a couple of these spots will be determined by prelims, but that's the general plan. Still not a bad team, but missing Sacramone does shrink their overall start values on vault, beam and floor.

I still think USA could win this, but it's not going to be nearly as easy or clear-cut as before. China and Romania now are looking like slightly stronger than just an outside chance. I never, EVER trust China to hit in a finals, as I've been burned many times before, but I guess there is a first time for everything, right?

Romania has been looking quite steady in training, according to reports, and while they don't have anything in the same difficulty universe on bars as China, and they have a serious vault deficit to the USA, they could really benefit from their trademark reliability in this scenario.

Russia has been such a bunch of head-casing nightmares in training that they could either challenge for the gold or end up in 8th. It completely depends on what team shows up to play on the game day. Alexandrov is probably popping heartburn meds like no other these days.

One thing is for sure- this is going to be a seriously interesting couple of days in the gymnastics world.

Worlds are coming! Random thoughts ahoy!

I love reading the training reports from The Couch Gymnast and Blythe. It just gets me even more psyched.

USA of course is looking strongest thus far. I am basically resigned to the idea that they're going to win the Team gold barring a complete meltdown, even though their work is so soulless (exceptions being McKayla's vault, Gabby's bars, and not much else). 

I haven't heard much about Team China's training, but I am excited to see how this intriguing mix of newbies and veterans copes with the pressure. You can just never count on China to hit, no matter what you see in training, but still, they have some gorgeous athletes in Tokyo.

I would love it if Ukraine's Mariya Livchikova could bring home some hardware on floor. Ukraine has had SUCH a rough go of it since 1996, it would be delightful if she could make a big impact here.

Finally, Catalina Ponor: world gold medalist at last? It could happen on beam this year. Fingers crossed!

Wish list for 2011 Worlds

Sure, Worlds won't be here for a few months, and it still remains to be seen if they will be held, as scheduled, in Tokyo, but that hasn't stopped me thinking about what I'd like to see happen this year.

1. Lauren Mitchell and Diana Chelaru MUST have new floor music. I mean, COME ON girls. I can't take it anymore. Lauren was using the same music in Rotterdam that she had in Beijing, and Chelaru's had hers for seemingly forever as well. They're both such talented floor workers but I would love to see something different from both of them, especially the current World champion on floor. 
2. Sandra Izbasa: World gold medalist. Sandra's got European gold and Olympic gold, and I'd love to see her cap off what's been a great comeback year for her with a World title. With Mustafina out of the picture and Mitchell looking less than sharp this season, Izbasa has to be considered one of the major players for the floor title, even at this early stage, especially if she can clean up her landings on her final two passes OR even upgrade- I'd love to see a double layout from her. I think her biggest challengers will be from the American team, like Wieber (who, come to think of it, also really needs new floor music) or Bross, if she can put together a routine like she did in the 2010 Worlds AA.
3. A healthy Viktoria Komova. According to International Gymnast, Komova has gone to the same clinic in Munich where Mustafina had her knee operation to get an expert opinion on her ankle. If she does have an operation on it, I think it's safe to assume that her participation in Worlds will be limited at best, but in my fantasy world, she'll be healed and ready for the All-Around.
4. A healthy Rebecca Bross. We haven't seen much of Rebecca since Rotterdam, as she's also been recovering from injuries. The USA will definitely need her steadying presence with so many young guns in the mix this year. 
5. A clean team final. This is, most likely, a pipe dream. Rotterdam was full of falls (although in my opinion, 2003 was even more insane in the falling department) and the competition's most consistent gymnast won't be in Tokyo. The Russian camp is, I'm sure, in full-on panic mode about how to work around the absence of Mustafina and the possible absence of Komova, and it remains to be seen how they'll cope. You can never really count on the Chinese to put together a clean team performance, despite their buckets of talent. The Romanians were largely clean in Rotterdam (barring Izbasa's disaster in the floor final) but Porgras's condition so far this season has been pretty shaky. This leaves the Americans out of the big four, and they too are a bit of a question mark. They had a last-minute injury in Rotterdam as well as a total meltdown from Mattie Larson, but their depth has increased quite a bit this season (except on bars). I think the US Nationals will be a very interesting competition (Sacramone back on floor! Johnson back in competition! All kinds of baby Americans with Amanars and terrible floor choreography!) and will give us quite a bit more information about the strengths and weaknesses of this team going into Worlds.