Oklahoma, what the fuck is this?

#theres a lot to unpack here

I bet Kim ZB has been holding on to these crazy routines for a long time, just waiting for Marta to retire, since she liked “mature” international ready music for members of the national team.

For some reason this is reminding me of when Marta and Asac were teaching Aly how to bust her wrists because they thought it would make her look more artistic after she unexpectedly qualified to floor finals despite low difficulty at 2010 Worlds

What?!

marta over here busting out the lucille

“What we do know about the rest of the uniforms is that Under Armour has kept all seven uniforms strictly to USA colors.”

“They want to feel country pride, but also they want it to feel like a prom dress, so we have diamonds for sparkle. In Olympics past they have worn trend colors, but we are keeping everything contained in red, white and blue.”

me: *being lowered into the ground bc simone’s floor has me deceased it was too good*

me:

I am amazed by how some people, including some former Romanian gymnasts, are reacting to Maria Olaru’s book. I’m just so disappointed

What did they say?

There are a lot of people saying that no matter what she shouldn’t have written that book because it’s a huge blow to Romanian gymnastics.

Nicolae Vieru, former RFG President, basically admitted that abuse was common and a lot of coaches did things a lot worse than what Olaru is telling in her book, so what she’s talking about are minor things that he isn’t interested in. He also says she wrote the book for fame and she should have just been pleased by becoming a Olympic Champion.

The Minister of Sports, former multiple Olympic medalist, said live on a tv show that she doesn’t believe Maria is telling the truth and even if she, herself, was beaten or trampled by her coaches during training she wouldn’t admit it because those people made her a champion and she respects them for that. According to her, dirty laundery must not be displayed in public, but should be kept in the family and also she doesn’t think Bellu is capable of hitting a gymnast. A shit storm followed, with the media holding her responsible for what she said. After that she made another statement saying she doesn’t support violence in sports, but then went on to say she also doesn’t agree with blaming coaches that achieved great results either.

Despite this sort-of-an-apology-but-not-quite, in my opnion the damage was done anyway. Think of the implications of having the Minister of Sports saying those things on tv. What message does it send to young athletes?

Most retired gymnasts stuck with B&B. Corina Ungureanu, Andreea Raducan and Monica Rosu were determined to thank them and deny any suspicion of abuse. Raducan said that she hopes this book brings peace to Maria, but wonders if the price to pay isn’t too big (meaning that gymnastics had to suffer just so Maria finds peace). Gina Gogean said she’s sad to see the gymnastics world she loved so much taking hits from everyone and she herself was never subjected to bad treatments during her career. Catalina told the media she was never abused or else she wouldn’t have returned for the 100th time and said she won’t read Olaru’s book because she doesn’t need the negative vibes. Sandra also thanked B&B for what they did for her. Nadia said she wouldn’t dare to punch a sport or point fingers at anyone because she had to work hard. Daniela Silivas said she may have gotten a slap or two, and maybe she deserved it, but now as a coach she sees things differently (idk what she meant by that) and also she doesn’t want to speak because she’s friends with B&B.

It’s not the gymnasts I am that worried about, they have the right to tell their side of the story, just like Olaru did. I also think Catalina is telling the truth and she, and, generally nowadays, girls are no longer physically abused during training, but Olaru is speaking about her experience in the 90s. It’s the general attitude that bothers me. A lot of people, including regular people, blame her for sharing her experience and I don’t understand why. Throughout the book she also praises her coaches and talks about the good times too. It doesn’t look like a book meant to blame people, just a collection of her memories. Maybe this could help others who are going through the same struggle, and I don’t mean just gymnasts but any athlete, why such an effort to put her down.

(x) (x) (x) (x)

Somewhere Aurelia Dobre and Alexandra Marinescu are probably like, “what did we tell you?” Sigh.

you know what infuriates me the most

it’s that when a less successful gymnast like marinescu speaks out, the reaction is “you’re just bitter and pointing fingers at the coaches for your own failures!”

and when a more successful gymnast like olaru speaks out, the reaction is “you’re just ungrateful and pointing fingers at the coaches who gave you all your success!”

like what’s the exact number of medals that you have to have, but not more, before you’re allowed to discuss your own experience

Whats dumb four year fan moment did you have when you first became a gymfan?

Here’s one of mine: I thought the secret classic was a meet held at camp and was a “secret” because the results weren’t released. Turns out it’s in a stadium and Secret Deodorant is the sponsor.  

I bought into the whole “Russian diva” crap that NBC was shoving down our throats about Aliya and the rest of the Russian team😢

I thought it must be insanely difficult to calculate beam/floor difficulty because I thought choreography was broken down into elements that earned points too!

I thought leaps and turns were just part of the choreography and weren’t worth anything

HAHA I was confused by the “Secret” Classic too! I thought it was a secret competition where tickets were only given to selected lucky people lmao what

I genuinely could not tell McKayla and Aly apart for a while. I have no idea why.

And the first time I ever heard of the Secret Classic, I was scrolling through USAG’s YouTube. I saw a playlist called “Secret Classic Podium Training,” but I totally missed the “Classic” part and just read it as “Secret Podium Training.” I was like I WANT TO WATCH THE SECRET PODIUM TRAINING.

Oh! Not really a dumb moment, but a funny thing I used to do - before I had the Olympic order memorized, I used to have a desktop sticky note that read “Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor” so I knew what order to watch EFs in.

at first i didnt know that to be in vault finals you needed two vaults from different families and wondered why aly or jo or gabo didnt just do an amanar and DTY to make london VT EFs lmaooooo

^ and i third the secret classic lmao i thought it was held at an undisclosed location around midnight so no one would know until later FUCK 

When I was 6 or 7 I thought there was beam music.

lol i did too and wondered why it sometimes started and stopped in the middle and also why their choreography didn’t really match

i also didn’t realize that all around and event finals were completely different competitions and was confused how someone could do well in all the EFs but have lost AA to someone who did not do as well

surprise bitch i’m so incredibly ancient that this was during barcelona

Really impressed with Boczogo’s control here!

And her absolutely casual perfectly-stuck dismount:

what even i have been watching gymnastics obsessively for twenty years and i have never seen a dismount like this

"am i...am i done? i’m done okay”

Draft COP 2017-2020

Just had a brief look at the new COP and strangely enough I actually really like it!. You can read it here

Some of the major changes include

VAULT

- Massive cuts in D-Scores for all the top vaults!!!

-Produnova has gone from 7 to 6.4, Amanar from 6.3 to 5.8, Cheng from 6.4 to 6 

-IF gymnasts lands her Prod on her feet and bottom simultaneously, vault will be downgraded to a normal Handspring Front tuck (worth only 4)

-Interestingly, a Rudi will now be worth just as much as an Amanar!!

-Furthermore, a lot of other vaults have suddenly become viable in a TF and AA situation! A front handspring 1/1 is now worth just as much as a DTY, and a Tsuk 1.5 only 0.2 less

-Since the gap in difficulty value between the vaults has narrowed considerably, I think this might lead to more diversity in the vaults we see (esp. in TF and AA)

-Also, the cuts in d-values are, to me at least, a pretty obvious attempt to curb the American’s vault advantage during team finals lol

UNEVEN BARS

-Pretty sure Nastia was in charge of these changes cause the layout Gienger and Double Front ½ dismount have both been bumped up to an E value!

-Contrary to earlier reports, the “Chinese” E-pirouettes are still an E rating

-Piked Jaeger now worth E, and Stretched now F!

-Kips after normal shaposhes now count as an empty swing

BEAM

-FIG seems to be really pushing for more creative mounts by making them more worthwhile to include (though I’m not sure if this will change anything)

-3 flying flairs now rated D, as is the spilt leap mount

-Round off at end of beam - flic flac with ½ turn to walkover (so basically an Onodi onto the beam as a mount) now worth an F! So is the Aerial walkover onto the beam!

-Round off LOSO onto the beam (the one Kui Yuanyuan and Zhang Nan did) now worth an E

-Tuck 1/1 jumps now worth C (the one basically every Chinese did during the 2001-2004 quad), and Split and Wolf 1/1 jumps now worth D

-The 1/1 split leap now worth E 

-TOUR JETE ON BEAM NOW WORTH D!!!! 

-Really hoping this means we will see more variety in dance skills as opposed to yet another sheep jump

-Speaking about sheep jumps they are now only worth C. RIP Front Walkover to Sheep Jump 2013-2016

-1.5 Y/L/attitute turns upgraded to D. So Yao’s awkward over-rotated Y turn might actually contribute to her D-score now

-Wolf turns are…. still the same value

-Li Li’s back spin upgraded to D!

-Oh and it looks like they actually got rid of the Grigoras and made it the same as a normal free aerial round off from two feet (worth E)

-Interestingly, the jump forward with ½ twist to bwd tuck/pike (the one Biles does) has been upgraded to F 

-They’ve added some funky new dismounts which I have trouble visualising 

-And the stretched gainer salto is now only worth C, and thus, does not fulfil the program requirements

-the D+A mixed bonus has been replaced with a D+B, but many jumps like the split jump have been upgraded to B. The sissone however has not.

-Series bonus now awarded to dance and mixed series of B+B+C value or higher!

-There also now deductions for “insufficient complexity or creativity in the movements” and “lack of work in releve”! They define a complex/creative movement as one “that requires training time, coordination and previous preparation” - so I guess no more pointless arm waving?

FLOOR

-No major changes except that no demi-plie on support leg for the turn+turn bonus (meaning this will no longer get a 0.1 bonus)

I thought they removed the D-dismount compositional requirement and downgraded vaults to keep d-scores comparable across events?

You are right and I completely overlooked that part. Compositional requirements are now only 2.0, and there is no D-dismount rule anymore

okay but when will wolf turns be banned from the earth

new trailer for Douglas Family Gold

You know I’m gonna live blog the shit of this (as long as it’s available for streaming)

“i was already in a relationship, and his name was jim

...nastics”