These Russian updates from training, you guys

Paseka nailing an Amanar! Grishina with a double double! Komova doing a triple full to back tuck on floor!

It really ain't over until the fat lady sings. Stay healthy, stay focused, and stay hungry, Mother Russia.

London 2012: Bars

In 2008, the bars final was marred, first by a confusing and obscure tie-breaking rule, then in two medalists who won more than they deserved, if you asked me. (Yang Yilin was robbed BLIND of that gold medal).

This year, we have the opportunity to have a top-notch final full of outstanding gymnasts who've pushed this particular event in new and exciting ways, despite the Code's best efforts to squeeze the artistic out of artistic gymnastics.

My favorite routine on bars this quad came from Aliya Mustafina at this year's Euros:

Even without her Mustafina dismount, which adds a bit more difficulty and which she has since competed successfully at the Russian Cup, this routine has still got it all- beautiful handstands, great swing, innovative skills and a stuck dismount. It's exciting, original and well-executed- what else could you ask for in an Olympic gold medal routine? Aliya is who I'm rooting for on bars- not just everyone would take a torn ACL and turn it into an opportunity to push themselves even further on the one event they can still work.

Her biggest competition will probably come from her countrywoman, Viktoria Komova:

For my money, this is an outstanding routine in terms of execution, but the composition isn't as exciting or original as Aliya's, which is why I'm giving her the edge. However, Vika is more than capable of taking the gold if she nails her double double dismount and maintains her consistency on this event.

The hometown favorite is of course Beth Tweddle, in her 3rd and probably last Olympics. Beth is another athlete that's been pushing the boundaries of what's possible on bars, and I love how she's kept going and pushing herself even as she's gotten a bit older and battled back from injuries. It would be such a thrill to see her win a medal in front of a home crowd, especially since she's been such a driving force in building up British gymnastics.

Let there be Romanian upgrades

As reported by The Couch Gymnast and others, the Romanian team has been working hard on some serious vaulting.

Sandra Izbasa is seen training a Cheng, and Larisa training an Amanar in this video:

I mean, awesome right? There are a few universal rules of gymnastics, and one of them is to never count Romania out in an Olympic year. Never, ever.

Ever.

PS Larisa Iordache should be the one to bet on in the AA, guys. Watch your back Jordyn.

Team Russia

Whereas Teams USA, Romania, and China are all looking pretty set for London (with China announcing an almost complete WAG team today) the last member of the big 4, Russia, is still delightfully uncertain.

The Russian Cup event did little to illuminate who will eventually make it to the big dance, and the 8 member training squad got most attention for excluding Anna Dementyeva and Anna Pavlova. However, I wasn't shocked by either of these. Demy, God bless her, has gorgeous toepoint and delightful presence, but hasn't been healthy since last year's Euros. She's also not exactly known for her consistency. The Russian Federation has been done with Pavlova since Beijing 2008, and unless she pulled out an Amanar vault or a high scoring floor, she was never going to going to make it to the next stage.

Yulia Inshina has got the alternate slot locked down after a solid but unspectacular AA performance- she's a steady performer but doesn't quite have the difficulty to make her an Olympic team contender.

This leaves us with Mustafina, Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova, Sidorova, Paseka and Nabieva to choose a team from. I was rather surprised Sidorova even made it to the training squad- she was the hottest of hot messes on every event at the Cup, but she is known as a beam/floor gymnast, and with Afanasyeva still recovering from an ankle injury, I suspect the coaches wanted to have a backup in case GOD FORBID Ksenia isn't healthy in time for London.

Grishina only competed bars since she has some kind of leg injury, which had better not be serious if the Russians have any medal aspirations whatsoever, as she is desperately needed on floor and beam. Paseka unveiled an Amanar with serious consistency issues (with Russia, is there any other kind?)- if she can get it nailed down in the next month, however, she's going to London. Nabieva looks in shape, but isn't needed on bars and has the same horrific execution as ever on vault.

However, it's not all doom and gloom for Russia. There is no one performing bars right now like Komova and Mustafina- Mustafina in particular is hitting her full difficulty set, complete with Mustafina dismount, and making it look like an absolute cakewalk. Komova is not hitting her double double dismount with as much consistency, but that stupid half turn before it is looking better than it did at Worlds. In a perfect world, they will go 1-2 in the Olympic EF.

Mustafina is looking stronger on beam and floor than she did at Euros, and Komova hit a Patterson dismount in EF. It would be a mistake to count either of these girls out of taking an AA medal home, including the gold, especially if they get their Amanars back (which you just know they will).

My prediction for Team Russia, assuming injuries don't get in the way:

V: Komova, Mustafina, Paseka
UB: Grishina, Mustafina, Komova
BB: Grishina, Komova, Afanayseva/Mustafina
F: Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova/Mustafina

Alternate: Inshina

My personal gym highlights and lowlights: Part four- floor

I saved floor for last, because I knew it was going to be a pretty epic list of routines. I don't know if I can pick a favorite piece of apparatus, but I think there are more routines on floor that I absolutely LOVE than on any other piece. Conversely, of course, since I have fairly high expectations for what makes a great routine, there are a lot of routines that drive me NUTS on floor, due to crappy choreography, lack of originality, bad music, etc. etc. etc.

Carly Patterson, 2004 Olympic TF

There was not a single American floor routine at Athens that I liked. Cheesy choreo (remember Kupets?), lame music (Carly in particular), uninspired dance...it was a hot mess. Carly's, however, I find particularly egregious, since she was the AA champion that year. The T-rex arms at 1:15 and 1:51 just make me want to shriek.

My personal gym highlights and lowlights: Part two- the vault

Vaulting has sparked a lot of debate in recent years among WAG fans and observers, mostly due of course to the Amanar- who has one? Who's getting one? Should it really have such a high value in the COP? After the recent injury to Aliya Mustafina, the debate has shifted somewhat to questions like is it worth the risk? Are coaches pushing their gymnasts to learn it too soon?

Whatever your thoughts on the Amanar, there's no denying that when it's performed well, it can be breathtaking to watch, which leads me into my personal vaulting highlights:

Cheng Fei, 2005 Worlds EF: W.O.W.

Just like the Australian commentator, the first time I saw this vault I think my mouth literally hung open in shock at how great it was. Cheng Fei was arguably never better in a major competition than she was during this EF, where she just about nailed this Amanar and the "Cheng".

My personal gym highlights and lowlights: Part one- the beam

One of the oldest, most oft-repeated chestnuts about gymnastics is also one of the truest- beam is the great leveler. Every twitch of your nerves is visible, every split-second of self-doubt can manifest itself into one of those wobbles that make the audience catch their breath and Elfi say "ooh, a little balance check there". It's perhaps this heightened sense of nervous energy, within the gymnast and the viewer, that makes great beam routines so exhilarating, and bad ones so painful to watch. Here are some of my personal stand-out beam routines- for a variety of reasons:

Chellsie Memmel, Olympic Trials day 2, 2008: So close and yet so far

I've always been a Chellsie fan. You can't help but feel for her terrible injury timing around the Olympics, especially her ankle injury in 2008 JUST she was looking so sharp after recovering from yet ANOTHER injury. This beam routine has it all- great pace, great variety of skills, incredible difficulty, and a stuck dismount. It's a memorable routine not just for its stand-alone excellence, but because of the "what might have been" feeling I get every time I revisit it.