Recent content by phoenix7

Also, they had a nice festive atmosphere, happy crowd, little bit of a retirement do, Gina cracking a smile at one point on the sidelines ... were they going to throw all that away by giving another Russian gymnast gold over Khorkina? Have you ever watched the reaction to Zamo's win in Sydney?

I always like Produnova (and I love the audible whoop from the crowd at the end of her third tumbling pass here). I'd have given it silver over Khorkina very happily, but I can see arguments for Gogean's gold still. Neither has great dance here, and Gogean shows more flexibility and better...

You're right. I suppose audiences took their clapping duties more seriously in the days before they needed one hand for a smartphone at all times.

What deductions do you think she'd have got?

I was quite struck by the New York Times story @Passion posted a couple of pages back about Simone's choreographer. I realize these accounts won't always give the full picture. But the choreographer seemed to be thinking in terms of drama and theatricality, Simone telling her story, rather than...

So floor artistry was decisive for team bronze - Brazil was .2 ahead of Great Britain, with a floor artistry advantage of about .7 as well as event final gold and bronze. That seems reasonable in all cases, but the differences in scores are greater than I'd thought.

I imagine a bunch of judges in wigs and gowns sitting around in an alpine chalet munching toblerones and shaking their heads over the code of points while cuckoo clocks warble in the distance. In reality I think we are just waiting for them to reply to Chiles's two submissions and Voinea's one...

Rarely cracked a smile with it, though!

I don't even think it needed clarification - your original summary seemed perfectly clear to me (and was obviously a summary). Thanks for posting all this.

Bad behaviour from the judges in 1985 - even Ludmilla Tourischeva joining in (just before Oksana Omelianchik's last pass - 1:34 on)

She has seemed to have stamina issues for a while - often breathing very heavily by the time she's halfway through a floor routine. I think this is why she ends up seeming to choose between difficulty and artistry. She would have done much better in the days when you could pause before every...

My takeaways: Scandinavia had a great competition. That Northern European Championship that always looks so random could be much more competitive over the next few years. But a shame Ireland didn't compete, on that note. Wales had a great competition. Ruby Evans thinks she's not a dancer, but...

It's certainly well covered in their online news sources.

Was she expecting the bonus, do we know? Is there a list of what the WTC counts in each direction?

Yes, I remember that now too. I think that's the one I was looking for - and that was Antwerp. Continental European thing, maybe