If I Ran the FIG

We complain and complain and complain about the FIG, and Bruno Grandi, and we talk about what we would do if we were in charge, and I'm going to put up what I would change, if I ruled the sport of gymnastics.

First things first, get rid of the tie breakers!
If two gymnasts receive the same score, award them the same rank, especially if a medal is in question!  If two gymnasts perform the same, according to the judges, leave it alone!  The gymnasts deserve that to themselves, and so do their coaches.  They may not necessarily leave in one piece, or they may be disappointed in how they perform, but at least let the gymnasts leave with the peace of mind that they placed where they were supposed to, mathematically.  There aren't tie breakers at Worlds, so why in the Olympics?

Second, Abolish the "two-per-country" rule.
Don't you want the best competing in the finals?  Isn't depth something to be rewarded?  I believe so, and that can not happen due to the two per country rule.  Part of this is that Jo couldn't try to defend her title, but another part of this is for all of those "third best"- I use that term VERY lightly- gymnasts from a power house who got screwed over by the FIG, so this would be a rule that would be quick to go as well.

Thirdly, More large meets throughout the year.
This one is for all of the fans, especially in the US who don't go to many meets other than Worlds and the Games.  I understand why there aren't more major meets, for the mental health of the athletes, but for us US fans, it would be nice to see more than 3-4 meets a year!

Lastly, Bring back the Grandfather Clause!
This one is for Grishy, Kyla, Larisa and every other gymnast who got screwed over for experience.  That extra year gives these gymnasts confidence to compete well at the biggest meet of their lives.  They were just thrown into competition, which as I'm typing this reminds me WAY to much of the Hunger Games, so I'm just going to leave you with this.  2000 babies (for 2016), may the odds be ever in your favor:)

So that's all for now, I have so many other thoughts in my head, and if I feel like writing them down, I'll share them with you!

Tie Break Terror

It seemed as though London was the Olympics of ties.

The first time we saw the first of third tie breaks was in the AA final.  After "simplifying" the tie breakers, the FIG made it so if two gymnasts tied, they could share the medal.  It didn't happen in London.  After the competition, Aliya Mustafina of Russia and Aly Raisman of the USA were tied with a score of 59.566.  After a, in my honest opinion, STUPID tie breaker, Aliya was awarded the bronze.  What they did in this situation, was they dropped the lowest score, counting 3 events instead of four.  It's an All Around, not a "Best Three Events" competition, isn't it?

The next one was in the beam finals, after a very eventful finals.  Once again, Aly Raisman received fourth place, after the difficulty judges incorrectly gave her a start value a tenth too low.  After a inquiry was filed, and Aly was awarded the tenth, Aly was tied with Romanian gymnast Catalina Ponor, the 2004 Olympic Beam Champion.  Once again, after simplifying the tie breakers, the FIG wouldn't let them share the bronze medal.  The first thing they looked at to determine the bronze medalist was the E-score, and that was there Aly won.  If they shared the same execution, then the judges would have looked at the difficulty, and finally if they were still tied (See below), the two would've shared the medal.

The last one in the Olympics of ties was in the last event, the floor finals.  After Aliya Mustafina and Vanesa Ferrari from Italy tied with a score of 14.9, Aliya was awarded the bronze based on her E-score of 9.0, compared to Vanesa Ferrari's E-Score of 8.7.

Another lesson to learn from London, don't tie with Aliya Mustafina, she WILL win, especially if it is for bronze.

The first instance of an unfair tie break in recent gym history (2008 and beyond) was the 2008 Beijing Olympic Uneven Bars Final.  As many know, Nastia Liukin, the 2008 AA Champion, was fighting for a second gold medal with Chinese hometown favorite, He Kexin.  Both had a crazy high start value, 7.7, and they ended with the exact same E score, leaving them tied.  The FIG had set up a a crazy tie break situation should this happened.  They dropped the highest and lowest scores from the judges, and used the new E score, leaving He Kexin on top by .033 of a point.

If History Repeats It's Self Follow Up:Beam

When I first posted this post, I wasn't expecting anything, due to the un-predictable nature of the beam, people fall off all the time, even the best competitors make mistakes on beam.

However, history had a say, and this is what it predicted...
Sui Lu- Twentieth
Yao Jinnan- Fourteenth
Jordyn Wieber- Eleventh

How they actually did in London
Sui Lu-Silver
Yao Jinnan-Fifty-First
Jordyn Wieber-Twelfth

Again, when I look ahead, I'm not expecting much! Let's take a look...
Our 2015 World Beam Champion may place- Eleventh
Our 2015 World Beam Silver Medalist may place-Thirty-Third
Our 2015 World Beam Bronze Medalist may place- Twelfth
Look ahead for the last part, floor!!

If History Repeats It's Self Follow Up:Bars

Next up on our list, Bars!  This year's final was great, but were the results predicted?  Let's look at history to tell us the answer, and what our 2011 podium winners could have predicted going in!

What history told them they would place...
Viktoria Komova-Fourth
Tatiana Nabieva-Fourth
Huang Quishuang-Seventh

How they actually placed...
Viktoria Komova- Fifth
Huang Quishuang- Seventh (Prelims)
Tatiana Nabieva did not make the Russian Team

Ironically, history told bronze medalist Quishuang she would place seventh, but did not get the opportunity to improve that standing due to the "two-per-country" rule.

Looking ahead to 2016, if we add these placements to the already established averages, we can say...
The 2015 World Bars Champion may place- 5th
The 2015 World Silver Medalist may place- Around 4th*
The 2015 World Bronze Medalist may place- 7th

*We can't add to the averages due to the fact Tatiana didn't compete in London, so we don't have a place for the silver medalist.  I just posted the existing average*

If History Repeats It's Self Follow Up: Vault

The vault finals this year were pretty crazy, does it have the history to back it up? Let's take a look at how history ranked the medalists, and compare that to how they actually did!!
History placed them...
McKayla Maroney-28th
Oksana Chusovitina- 6th
Phan Thi Ha Thanh-5th

When in reality they placed...
McKayla Maroney- Silver
Oksana Chusovitina- Fourth
Phan Thi Ha Thanh- 12th (Prelims)
Now, let's see what history says to those who make the podium come 2015!

Our 2015 World Vault Champion may place 15th
Our 2015 World Vault Silver Medalist may place Fifth
Our 2015 World Vault Bronze Medalist may place Ninth
Who knows how accurate history can be, all we know is that we can't rely on history to tell us the future, the future dictates it's self. May the next 1457 days go by quickly!

If History Repeats It's Self: All Around

Just like I did with TF, I'm going to compare how history and math based averages and predictions to how they actually did in London, as well as look ahead to Rio, and how our future World AA Champion's chances look, going into Rio!
Based on history, our AA medalists from Tokyo were predicted to place like this in London....
Jordyn Wieber-Silver
Viktoria Komova-Seventh
Yao Jinnan-Eighth
Take those predictions and compare them to how they actually placed...
Jordyn Wieber-Fourth (Qualification)
Viktoria Komova-Silver
Yao Jinnan-22nd
This year's Olympics were crazy, and now lets see how that effects our future world champions in 2015!
Our World Champion will place- Bronze
Our Silver Medalist will place- Fifth
Our Bronze Medalist will place- Fifteenth
This just goes to show what can happen in a year! Here's to an awesome four years of wondering:)

If History Repeats It's Self: Follow Up TF

The first six posts I did, I used history to determine how the 2011 World medalists would do in London.  Now that we know how they did in London, I'm going to see how that will affect the future 2015 World medalists!
This one is for the team finals!!
Based on history, the averages told me that the podium from 2011 would place like this...
USA- Silver
Russia- Gold
China- Fifth
Compared to how they actually placed...
USA- Gold
Russia-Silver
China- Fourth
Now the fun part, seeing how the eventual 2015 podium will do in Rio!
I'm not going to type up the whole list again, so check out the original post here!
To do this, I'm taking averages of the places each spot on the podium did the following year.
In 2016, based on math...
The World Champion Team will place-Silver
The Silver Medal Team will place- Silver
The Bronze Medal Team will place- Fifth
Interestingly enough, Gold and Silver medalists had the same average to the tenth, 1.5, which is why they both are ranked at silver.  I guess we'll have to wait until 2016 to see how this all really works out.

Best vaulter in the World!

The vault final happened today an there were several shockers!! Let's take a look at them!

The obvious one was the de-throneing of McKayla Maroney. In these Olympics where nothing occurred the way we thought, the one thing we figured would happen was Maroney taking the title that I and many people believed she deserved. In mine, and many other people's, heart, she is still the best vaulter in the world. When you lose by .1 with a fall, there is no doubt you are the best. It stinks for her, she hasn't missed a vault since 2009, and has a 96 percent hit rate, as Bekah found out on her tumblr.

All year, I knew that if anyone had a shot to overtake Maroney, it would be Sandra Izbasa. However, I didn't think it would happen. She went out and hit solid vaults, and today she was the better vaulter. Last quad, she took the gold out of the favorite's hands as the last competitor on floor, and this year, she did the same on vault. I guess she likes the last spot or something.

Maria BeeFarm stepped off of the mats and nearly on to the camera on her amanar, which clearly should not have been credited as an amanar. Her second vault was pretty clean, but she was clearly over scored.

Sad swan song for Oksana Chusovitinia, who finished in 5th in her last Olympic final ever. I was really rooting for her, and the sport of gymnastics will surely miss her!

In good news, Pena didn't die! She didn't land it, but she didn't die!!

One gymnast did get a 0 this year and (shockingly) it wasn't Pena! Ellie Black of Canada landed head/knees firsthand injured her ankle on the first vault. She tried to do her next vault, but aborted it halfway down the runway. I am unsure how her ankle is at the moment, but she was icing it, but it didn't look good.

So that's that! You can watch it prime time tonight on NBC replay.

Top 3 AA Hopes

I am missing the AA final tomorrow while I am at work.  Annoyed is an understatement right now.  

So, while I should be asleep so I wake up, I am going to share my top 3 AA hopes for tomorrow.  Share your opinions with me, I'd love to hear them!  This is what I hope to happen, not what I think will.

1. Aly to kill it.

Aly has been a huge favorite of mine, sentimentally.  She trained at the same gym as Alicia, which earns her points in the awesome category, she lives near me(4 hours but that is relatively close!), and every since her debut out of nowhere at American Cup, near her hometown, in 2010, she has been getting better and better, and I can't help but not cheer this amazing, and unappreciated gymnast!

2. Dougie to medal.

I think the US has a really strong chance of winning 2 AA medals.  Gabby is such a strong competitor, and much like Aly, she really burst onto the scene in a large way at the American Cup.  Not to mention, she trains under my favorite coach, Chow.  I really want this medal for her, as well as Chow.  He has done wonders for her, and I'm sure Chow is happy he took this gymnast in, that late in her career.

3. Musty to show the world that injuries do not slow anyone down.

I have to admit, I wasn't the biggest Mustafina fan until yesterday.  I had respect for her as a gymnast and her accomplishments, but I never liked her as a favorite gymnast.  That was until yesterday when Musty hugged all of her team-mates, and acted as a wonderful leader, gymnast, and human.  Also, I have so much respect for her quick recovery from such a serious injury, and as an injury prone teen, I want her to show the world nothing can stop her, not even a potentially career ending injury.

Have fun watching tomorrow, I have to wait until Prime Time, but trust me, I'll find out who won:)

Olympic Team Final: List

So, the Fierce Five did it.  They won the first OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL in 17 years, with Russia taking the silver after a rough day, and Romania took the bronze.  To be honest, this list will be VERY USA-Russia centered, because I wasn't allowed to take off of work to watch it live, and resulted to watching it on NBC replay, so I'll be going off of what I see.
I'm just making a list, and I'll explain and add on to later, when I'm not deliriously tired from softball, similar to the way I did for my wish list.

1. The Fierce Five went 12 for 12
2. Russia capitalized their amazingness on bars and showed that they own that event
3. Floor REALLY killed Russia!
4. McKayla deserved the first perfect score of the new system
5. I wish Jo did AA, but I know it was for the best of the team
6. Gabby really proved to everyone why she was in the beam lineup
7. Aly proved that she is a serious contender for FX gold, as well as AA medal
8. China dropped from 1st to off the podium in 5th
9. Canada placed 5th in their first TF appearance, showing great hope for the future
10. I love Victoria Moors, and her epic underscored floor routine (This isn't really new news but I saw it last night and wanted to point that out)