Gabby Douglas Comeback Thread (New goal: LA 2028)

[flappergirl]

I wonder if she was abnormally gifted and gymnastics came relatively easily and when it became way harder, it just didn’t seem worth it. Or maybe her situation or interests changed. I’d love to read an in-depth interview. She seemed like a interesting person to me.

 

[flappergirl]

Pls I absolutely loved her gymnastics

 

[RichardL]

Scoring potential is a tricky metric. Lots of gymnasts do more difficulty than they can handle, or at least they did in older COPs, so there was always “potential” for scores that just were never going to actually materialize. Komova never looked comfortable with the Amanar, so there was no surprise that she had some difficulty on it during the AA final, which cost her the gold medal. Douglas on the other hand had an extremely reliable one that year. But I agree, Komova had a higher scoring potential than Douglas on paper.

 

[Yarotska]

I wonder if she was abnormally gifted and gymnastics came relatively easily and when it became way harder, it just didn’t seem worth it. Or maybe her situation or interests changed. I’d love to read an in-depth interview. She seemed like a interesting person to me.

I think it was one of those cases where gymnastics LOOKED easy for her because of her talent but she had technical issues beyond the surface that just killed her body and made it harder for her to actually do gymnastics.

For example her high back handsprings and the questionable addition of a double layout to her floor routine as a senior. Like, for Mustafina it kind of made sense of her long BHS reducing pressure but even she ditched hers. By the time Komova finished growing she was literally whipping into every pass. They were putting her ankles and back THROUGH IT.

You can see the difference even between 2015 and 2018





But for many of the stans it wasn’t really about how bad the DLO was, it was “Komova’s UPGRADING to an F pass OMG she’s really going for it!”

They encourage the nonsense because they’ve only been told by the commentators that harder skills = better gymnastics = higher scores but people have been getting better since then.

 

[Doug1233]

Komova never looked comfortable with the Amanar

True. But she did it, in London, and achieved a score that would have beaten Douglas in the AA, right?

I can’t remember if anyone did an analysis of “top scores” across London?

I assume Mustafina would have still beaten Aly for bronze as she had the fall on beam right?

IMO, Komova was a better gymnast; but if you were picking a team final line up, you’d probably trust Gabby more on VT UB and FX than you would Komova.

Although, to be fair, the fix was absolutely in for Komova from certain judges. Look at the individual judges scores. A range from 8.8 to 9.4 for Komova’s vault was absolutely not ok. I don’t know how anyone can look at the same vault and have such a wide range (especially at the top end). That’s DOUBLE the deductions (0.6 off to 1.2 off).

One judge (E5 - Maria RATYNSKA-BURY from Poland) even had a higher E for Komova than Gabby. Should have had her Brevet immediately pulled. That’s just blatant bias.

This disgusting judging is why we absolutely need individual judges scores to be made public. I can’t believe Gymcastic and other media with actual clout don’t lobby more for this.

 

[Yarotska]

The whole “reference judges had Komova as the winner” should’ve never been an argument when one them gave Komova a 9.2 on vault and the reference judges gave her a higher score on beam than the actual judges. It was literally grasping at straws to put Komova on top from the fans AND the judges.

 

[Doug1233]

True, but at least the reference judges here separated the vaults (albeit one was 3 tenths - too low; and one was 7 tenths - too high!)

Putting Komova ahead of Gabby on vault is literally just wilful blindness!

 

[Doug1233]

A bit off topic - but the fact they’ve now put the R Panel on the regular panel, but are STILL using the “middle 3” scores, is just absolutely infuriating.

 

[lovegymnasts]

The impression i got was that when skills that had been easy for her in her child body didn’t work in her adult body, she just…gave up.

This exactly!

 

[tempest]

She even said(I think after Worlds 2015) that she was happy because she wasn’t doing the hard skills she had in 2012.and could be successful Was the only event she actually added something Bars?

 

[irichluck21]

In her last comeback, Gabby had a lot of family drama, distractions from the TV show, commercials and other opportunities, and a toxic coaching situation.

Hopefully now she can focus on her gymnastics and enjoy herself again.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I don’t know how fair it is to say Komova would “give up.” I think that’s part of it, but she had two surgeries on her ankle in the 18 months prior to the Games, reaggravated a broken toe in July right before the competition, and had only resumed floor and vault training as of May. Maybe sometimes it’s too painful to fight for skills–I’m not a gymnast so I wouldn’t know from experience

 

[Yarotska]

I remember pointing out to my friend how wildly different Gabby and Vika’s entries into the 3/1 and double arabian were since there were shots from the same angle. Gabby was really flying across the floor. Vika not so much.

 

[blake]

Her tumbling seemed to go up and down as opposed to traveling horizontally to get momentum. I guess the technique worked when she was tiny, but after maturing, it became detrimental and probably contributed to the back injuries like you said.

 

[Yarotska]

Gabby and Musty are two of my favorites to watch tumbling because of how easy they make it look.



I’m still sad Mustafina didn’t decide to recover and coast on to another Olympics. She could launch some tumbling in any condition. But she already had so much success and carried the team on her back for years and years.

 

[Doug1233]

I’m still sad Mustafina didn’t decide to recover and coast on to another Olympics

Would she have even made the team? They were more than covered on bars. And I don’t think she had a better vault or floor than Urazova. And they (for some reason) liked Akaimova’s rudi.

 

[RedBirdie]

One judge (E5 - Maria RATYNSKA-BURY from Poland) even had a higher E for Komova than Gabby. Should have had her Brevet immediately pulled. That’s just blatant bias.

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This disgusting judging is why we absolutely need individual judges scores to be made public. I can’t believe Gymcastic and other media with actual clout don’t lobby more for this.

Judge E5 has some interesting scoring overall. She also had a higher score score for Raisman. Meanwhile, he score for Gabby was the lowest of any judge.

 

[Doug1233]

And judge ER1 basically just gave them all the same score.

Of all 7, I probably agreed with E2 the most.

Interestingly, Omelianchik is E1.

 

[Yarotska]

Mustafina could work miracles when she was feeling her competitive oats. She retired due to lack of motivation. I think she would’ve made it happen had she truly in her heart of hearts wanted to make one last push.

 

[tsarinajen]

Agreed 1000 percent! I think her motivation also had to do with Alisa, her daughter, and missing her too.

Doug, I think by 2020 and later 2021 for Russia, it was really did you want to let Akhaimova vault or Gerasimova do beam for one of the others, my guess Melnikova.