Recent content by QuietColours

Sey is way more obsessed with both age and ranking than Miller or Strug were. I'm not sure if that's an effect of being a mid-80s athlete instead of 90s athletes or just her particular approach to gymnastics. Kathy Johnson was noteworthy in the 80s for her age in the US, but I've never seen...

Chapter 12 Canadian Classic Team coach was assigned by the federation; individual coaches were not permitted to attend. She would have a chance to prove herself, but she would have to do it without Lolo to coddle her 12 years old. Didn't know what to expect of herself without the guidance of a...

Sey keeps describing herself as poised, graceful, mature, with strengths in her flexibility. I've been watching her routines, and those aren't the words I would use. They aren't especially fluid or graceful, and her flexibility is perfectly fine but nothing remarkable and her toe point is lazy...

Well, you can't just leave us with a teaser like that

Chapter 10 Elite zone meet For all of 6th grade, she was excused from school early to train five hours a day; her school encouraged self-actualization and free expression. Trained, but had fun. Angie and Jen were friends, not yet competitors trying for higher ranks than each other. But Jen...

I wondered a bit about that too. I feel like it's also something I've heard people speculate about the Chinese system--that athletes destined for elite do so little competing early in their career they can have a hard time developing consistency once they start. Although it was an idea that was...

Chapter 9 1980 Olympics Angie and Jen watched the Olympic Trials. Jen was rooting for Tracee Talavera with her outrageous beam. Angie loved Julianne McNamara and her uneven bars routine Jimmy Carter declared the boycott as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Went so far...

1980-1984 Chapter 8 Self Harm She was 10 when she began to inflict pain on herself to relieve contact uneasiness. When she started to compete in earnest, she also started gnawing at the inside of her mouth, in a ritualized fashion until she had self-induced canker sores that she'd run her...

Using the machine translation Link: https://www.digisport.ro/gimnastica/scandal-urias-dupa-mondiale-denisa-golgota-am-depus-plangere-la-federatie-3888021 She alleges that (unnamed) person harassed her and tried to break her mentally, and that they also threatened her with physical beatings...

Chapter 7 Spring 1979 Qualifying for sectionals was a turning point. Alternatively dreamed of winning and bombing One month until the meet Had a full day of practice–a session with Janet after school and then a four hour workout at Cabrielles Family had moved to the better WASPy home that her...

I want to ban the word "picky" from the NBC commentator vocabulary. You mean, "According to the code of points, the deduction for X is..."

Loved Evans' routine here, so glad it medaled! Less in love with Martin's, but still happy for her and I haven't seen the rest of them yet.

Abi Martin's floor leo makes me think of draped Christmas lights at night.

Voinea is one of the only athletes, ever, I find myself rooting against. Between the chucked gymnastics and sloppy form, the attitude, feelings from her mother, her position with her Federation, her behavior during the bronze debacle... It's not all her fault (she can't help her mother; she...

I think Amanda Yap wins the "Gained the most fans" award here. I hope she updates us on how her exams go, I'm invested now.