2023 Worlds WAG Qualifications Subs 1-3 (Sunday 10/01) ITA, NED, USA, TAI, GBR, KOR, RSA, apparatus specialists

[QuietColours]

There’s also a certain amount of respect for the athlete who shows up, wins their one gold, and peaces out (Kayla Williams, Guan Chenchen).

I do think this is a lot of it, but it does seem even more specific for Gadirova.

 

[brg09]

I wasn’t pissed and I wasnt following gymnastics as studiously then as I am now, but I found that kind of strange, honestly. It seemed that Carly didn’t really even like gymnastics very much and once she got her big title was just… out. The whole segue to a “singing career” was a bit weird, too.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Yeah, there were times I thought that, too, but despite those thoughts, I still bought her album and even enjoyed it. I can’t even really imagine Carly’s floor or bars with the open code.

 

[irichluck21]

There is also the Marta factor involved as well.

Not many wanted to deal with her for longer than need be.

Plus there was the man who shall not be named who was involved.

 

[RichardL]

Back at the American Cup to end them all, Jess was still considered the lesser Gadirova. Jennifer was extremely impressive there and seemed poised to make a huge splash in Tokyo that summer. I’m still sometimes shocked that Jess has had such a great senior career after being overshadowed by Jenn in those formative years of establishing their reputations.

And yes, I’m breaking my rule and using their first names because they share a last name. But I still find it weird to be using first names to talk about athletes who I’ve never met, and will resume regular programming now.

 

[navyblue]

I think both Jones and Biles had two -0.3 pirouettes today

45 degrees where?

Not finding anything worse than 30 degrees in Simone’s routine either, but sensitive to this blasphemous scoring cuz Shilese needs to be scoring 8.7+ when she sticks a dismount and I’m mad about it!

 

[irichluck21]

Not finding anything worse than 30 degrees in Simone’s routine either, but sensitive to this blasphemous scoring cuz Shilese needs to be scoring 8.7+ when she sticks a dismount and I’m mad about it!

I had Simone at 8.6 and Shi at 8.7

I’m also at 2 glasses of Malbec so a bit wine influenced LOL.

 

[navyblue]

So even with that I just need the code to find a way to create proper distinction between Simone and Shilese, the latter showing virtuosity in her swing, amplitude on release moves, and toe point… Simone’s got big leg separations, clubbed feet, comparatively closed shoulder angles – and a routine that brilliantly maximizes her score – but just not happy with the lack of distinction that I think is obvious to any observer.

 

[tempest]

Simone’s feet have really bothered me lately

 

[brg09]

To be fair there’s really only so much you can do about that, right? Like Becca Bross and her knees.

 

[navyblue]

Did Leanne clip her foot on the low bar early in her routine? It looked like she did on the feed. I thought her E score seemed a bit low. What is the deduction if she did?

Yes she did. And without that deduction her routine score was absolutely too low. So I’m sure the judges saw it. If you put the video in slo-mo you can actually see the low bar pinging from her swipe.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I stand corrected! I thought maybe Jones’ toe 1/2 was a -0.3 but I’m probably wrong on that too

 

[lovegymnasts]

 

[tempest]

It’s interesting that the YDP in MAG and WAG is named after an Olympic FX champ. I think the both YDT and YDP is named after Melissanidis(I’m 99% sure of that)

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Simone’s feet were MUCH better when Aimee was her coach. Aimee mentioned in an interview after 2013 worlds that Simone needed to work on her ankle flexibility and her landing control, which is exactly what she did. As soon as she got to the Landis, they undid all of the refining Aimee did with her in favor of huge difficulty and mismanagement.

 

[Laura722]

Yes, she did. She even tried going back to the gym to get in competitive shape again but it was too painful on her back.

 

[Beamer]

I remember WOGA back problems.

Love,
Hollie Vise

 

[MRR]

I feel like Shilese is losing a lot in the last seconds of the routine. The toe-half could be justified at 0.1 but she swings out of HS quickly so looks like a 0.3, and she dismounts very close to the bar.

 

[tsarinajen]

I appreciate this might be the only Amanar in the meet… but is she usually this short.

 

[navyblue]

On the Gadirova topic, I think that yeah it’s a lot of nationalistic Americans mad at her taking some presumptive American floor medals. And now even some AA challenge – which I do love to see.

I’m psyched that she’s upgraded her vault to a Cheng and her opening floor pass to a Moors that is a lot neater than her Silivas was.

I’m even a fan of her floor choreo and prefer her energized punchy style to the weird manic ballet mashup that Listunova is using to (theoretically, since we havent really seen her in international meets) win artistry points. I do hope judges are noting how she’s cheating her Gogean to the point that it probably shouldnt really be recognized as that skill at all, but… in a world where Simone has downgraded her tumbling a bit, does mildly compelling choreo and has some big landing errors, I think it’s appropriate that Jess should be a legitimate challenge to her floor supremacy!

But her bars E scores have been a tad lenient to me, and beam is where I’m really confused. Or maybe just in disagreement with the incentive structures at play here. I get that her movement is “fluid”… but it’s no surprise that all these “fluid” routines are often packed with some permutation of switch leap to split jump to back handspring to straddle jump to korbut where the single hardest acro skill is maybe is maybe a front layout stepout – it just aint that inspiring to me, and flashing a cheeky little grin while you do your requisite “sideways” choreography does not change that fact.

I like seeing beam with standing fulls and arabians and two footed layouts and Yang Bos. Or at least beam with interesting acrobatic choreo or mixed sequences a la Wevers. Or if we’re throwing it back, Shannon Miller or Pavlova doing novel skill combos. And that type of gymnastics means that yeah, you might need to pause and collect yourself for a moment. I’m not that put off by that, personally! And I dont think, to name names, that Jess and Shilese should be scoring the same on beam as a result of this so called artistry, because Shilese is giving us a better routine across the board imo.