The Agony of Defeat

24 hours later, I'm still reeling. Judging by some of the comments and number of views I've had since yesterday, many of you are too.

I'm not going to break down the Women's All Around Competition in terms of routines just yet. To be honest, it's still too depressing. What I want to talk about is the portrayal, interpretations and reactions in the American media and public to this Russian team, and their emotional reactions to these last two competitive defeats.

Let's get a couple things out the way first. I'm an American. I have no Russian heritage, but I have traveled to Russia and met many wonderful people there. I also much prefer the Russian style and school of gymnastics to the American school, with a couple of exceptions- I am a major fan of Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes, and have also been impressed with Sarah Finnegan, McKayla Maroney, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin on individual apparatus in more recent years.

NBC is the one stop shop in terms of Olympic TV broadcasting for the vast majority of Americans. More dedicated fans may stream the infinitely superior BBC coverage, but for most people, they get their coverage from NBC.

And this is the kind of "news" NBC sees fit to print after the AA.

News from Tim Daggett

On tonight's NBC coverage, he said that Russia was just "a little bit better" on bars than the USA.

#thisiswhywehateyouNBC

#pleasejoinusonPlanetReality

Notes on Qualifications, or HOLY WHAT?

Man, and I thought the men's qualifications were off the chain. Let's break down the surprises and shocks of WAG qualifications:

1.) NO JORDYN WIEBER. 

Honestly, did anyone see this coming? If so, please tell me next week's lottery numbers and where I can best go panning for gold.

After handling the pressure of being the defending AA champion in an Olympic year quite easily at Olympic Trials, US Championships, etc. Wieber qualified as the third American gymnast, blowing a crater into the race for AA gold. After being largely overshadowed all season as an all-arounder, Aly Raisman placed second in qualifications to beat Wieber out of a spot. She even beat Gabby Douglas for the top American position in quals! I mean, you can't make this up!

And not to say I told you so, but I KNEW Jordyn's beam composition was going to come back to haunt her. She was only credited with a 6.0 in qualifications after being given a 6.4 at USA Nationals for connections that she simply was not making. This is why I will never understand the generous national scoring in the USA- it creates a false reality and set of expectations around a gymnast. Much like Kyla Ross's ridiculously low floor difficulty, her beam set was an ongoing problem that could have been fixed, but wasn't.

2.) Deng Linlin = China's Second All-Arounder

Again, who thought this was going to happen? Not only is Yao Jinnan out of the AA thanks to painful troubles on vault and beam (how this poor athlete is going to get through the TF, I've no idea. Call Juang Yuyuan, China!), but Linlin beat her more heralded teammate, Huang Quishuang, as China's top qualifier. She had apparently been struggling with a sore back in training, so good on you Linlin!

3.) Event Finals Shockers

My predictions for floor are pretty much out the window, as Larisa Iordache botched her third pass to score in the high 13's (13's! For a Romanian on floor!). Not to be outdone, Sui Lu botched two passes and didn't qualify. Meanwhile, Afanasyeva watered down her routine and still placed 4th, and Raisman received what I'd describe as the world's most generous D score to place first in quals. Plus, Mustafina made it over Grishina! Yeah, sure, why not?

Beam was similarly nuts. Ponor had a shaky routine for her and just squeaked in, Iordache won't be there, but Didi Bulimar who Romania probably should have put up on floor, and may be in TF, is going to be there, after a very solid routine. Douglas, of all people, is going to be there as the second American and placed third! Afanasyeva is going to be there! The entire lineup comes from the top 4 teams, something I actually did get right.

I have one thing to say about bars- Grishina got a lower score than Raisman. In what fucked up universe is that a thing? Tweddle knocked it out of the park, as did the Chinese and Mustafina/Komova. Everyone else should just be happy to be there.

The biggest and best thing about vault finals would have to be Maria Paseka doing two good vaults and putting herself in bronze medal position, putting a Russian in every event final. 

4.) Russia keeps it close

Grishina's miss on bars was their biggest issue all day- Mustafina can do better on beam, and Komova kept up her streak of being subpar on floor, but they kept it close. Very close. Despite what NBC and the American media have been telling you, if Russia can handle their business, this is not going to be an easy, no-brainer win for the USA.

5.) Romania melts down

After the horrendous performance of the Chinese on floor, 3rd place in qualifications was Romania's to lose, and lose it they did. With their bars, misses on floor from Iordache and Ponor and a sub-par beam rotation are just not going to cut it at ALL. If you're going to suck on one event, you best get your shit together for the ones you are good at. Considering how weak the Chinese looked, the failure of Romania to capitalize on their errors is pretty shocking.

Visas wrap-up

I apologize for being a day late and a dollar short on this recap- after a crazy week at work I'm more than ready to sit back and ponder the infinite mysteries of Martha Karolyi's brain!

Once the dust settled at Visas, the landscape of the American Olympic picture looked...well, largely the same.However, there were of course some dramatic moments, some commentating and broadcasting nonsense, and some off-camera insanity- here's what I learned from Visas, and what to watch for heading to the Olympic Trials:

1.) The more things change, the more they stay the same. From what I've seen around the gymternet, the common consensus of a Wieber/Raisman/Douglas/Maroney/Ross team stood the test of Visas. These five should be considered the frontrunners for tickets to London, and barring injuries more serious than Maroney's unfortunate concussion and broken nose, I would expect these five to be Martha's picks.

Wieber did defend her title, but it wasn't by much. Had Douglas not fallen off beam, she would be sitting in the silver medal position heading to Trials. On Day 2, Jordyn had a much stronger vault and a less shaky beam (although I thought the judges were way too generous on her connection bonuses on either side of her full twisting tuck). She put in another solid bars and floor set as well, giving her another 8 for 8 competition heading into Trials. However, she is in the somewhat unenviable "Shawn Johnson" slot- an undefeated senior season and reigning World Champion heading to an Olympic competition, and we all know how that turned out for her.

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 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.