REWIND : Week One 23/09 : 1998 Goodwill Games

[RAFIKI]

Thanks for the D score analysis, makes more sense now.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Luminita Miscenco.

Moceanu's dad tried to have her murdered.

Out of every possible answer to be given why she didn't keep coaching Moceanu, this would not have popped into mind. I need a book and full docu-series on this.

 

[Sasha]

@RAFIKI Zeena McLaughlin iirc in 1999 was doing her final year of high school. 2000 Olympic Trials age 19 she was looking good, but not as good form as in 98 imo. Australian team had a lot of depth for home Olympics. Zeena was olympic reserve with Katarina Frketic. Sadly Zeena missed both Atlanta and Sydney Olympics when her club mates made the teams (Jo Hughes, Lisa Moro; Brooke Walker, Trudy McIntosh, Min Cleland).

Zeena’s early beam routines were interesting with 1 arm handstand planche, Yang Bo jumps and arabesque.

Her AA gold performance in 98 Commonwealth Games was a highlight - she stuck every dismount and both vaults!

Thanks for the info. I really like Zeena back in the day, it's a shame she wasn't able to maintain momentum for Sydney.

@Hatsumomo, Moceanu talks a bit about the attempted hit in her autobiography. It's less than you want, but it's something!

 

[Big_rock_show]

I hadn't ever seen this competition, so it was fun to experience it 25 years later.
My takeaways:

• This felt like peak Moceanu to me. She definitely deserved to come in 1st.
• This solidified my dislike for Produnova's gymnastics. Sure, she's powerful, but she's always looked pretty sloppy to me, especially in the feet and the legs. This competition was no exception.
• On the same thread of ugly gymnastics, it hurts to watch some of the Romanian routines. I know they weren't at their peaks, but it was soooo sloppy. And boring.
• I wish we could have seen more gymnastics, especially something from Sapunar.
• Meng Fei! What an adorable gymnast. Her routines may not have been the most difficult ever, but they were beautiful to watch.
• As much as I dislike Khorkina, I have to admit that her gymnastics is easy and pleasing to watch. She makes it look so easy and has a patience in the air that I really appreciate.
• The fluff on how gymnasts are selected in Deva makes me sad. It's such a young age for children to be separated from their parents for the sake of a sport they may never succeed at...or even for a sport they WILL succeed at.

 

[RichardL]

I hadn't ever seen this competition, so it was fun to experience it 25 years later.
My takeaways:

• This felt like peak Moceanu to me. She definitely deserved to come in 1st.
• This solidified my dislike for Produnova's gymnastics. Sure, she's powerful, but she's always looked pretty sloppy to me, especially in the feet and the legs. This competition was no exception.
• On the same thread of ugly gymnastics, it hurts to watch some of the Romanian routines. I know they weren't at their peaks, but it was soooo sloppy. And boring.
• I wish we could have seen more gymnastics, especially something from Sapunar.
• Meng Fei! What an adorable gymnast. Her routines may not have been the most difficult ever, but they were beautiful to watch.
• As much as I dislike Khorkina, I have to admit that her gymnastics is easy and pleasing to watch. She makes it look so easy and has a patience in the air that I really appreciate.
• The fluff on how gymnasts are selected in Deva makes me sad. It's such a young age for children to be separated from their parents for the sake of a sport they may never succeed at...or even for a sport they WILL succeed at.

The longer broadcast linked above shows all of Sapunar's routines, I believe.

 

[navyblue]

Moceanu's comeback really made this a bigger event than it would normally be, for me this was the defining international gymnastics event from that quad prior to the olympics.

I love Produnova but it's curious to me that despite completing one of the hardest vaults ever, it's interesting to me that she wasn't a particularly strong vaulter outside of that anomaly. I'm surprised given her front handspring proficiency that she was never attempting something else like a rudi

 

[irichluck21]

Produnova was a horrible back twister, IIRC she HATED going backwards and feared back hand springs. I actually like Produnova's Phelps technique, aside from the hideous form. She had no business doing Yurchenkos.

 

[MaryClare]

Yeah, whether it was floor or vault, produnova just wasn’t great at backwards tumbling. It seems like they could have made smarter choices with her skill selection. But Leonid Arkaev was her personal coach for almost all of her senior career. And whilst he was a technical genius, he was definitely not a COP man

 

[irichluck21]

Her Sydney floor was prime example RO-Arabian double front-punch front, front layout-double front, and Tarasevich-punch front.

 

[Denn]

It was more the issue of setting for a double back flip, not the back handspring, because she did them before her double arabian.


And it really was the set that wish the issue. Her bars dismount was a fantastic full-twisting double, so she could flip backwards just fine once she got in the air, LOL. Check out the set on this double pike. What are her hips doing??

 

[Denn]

Produnova's vaulting: The table and the current rules would have favored her big time. The double front would have been a fairly consistent, HUGE score on the table.

She would have worked out a better second vault on the table as well. Her issue was that her Yurchenko reach-back was not consistent. The table would have been MUCH more forgiving for her, allowing for some variability in where she hit the surface, and maximizing that power she had. Contrast these:




AND Her sideways entry vaults would have worked MUCH better on the table, too! She would done Kasamatsus and based on the below, she could have gotten at least the double.

 

[Matilda23]

I prefer the old short rest pauses in the corners before the tumbling lines. Spinning or standing on one foot or bending knee before tumbling doesn’t add anything in my eyes.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I prefer the old short rest pauses in the corners before the tumbling lines. Spinning or standing on one foot or bending knee before tumbling doesn’t add anything in my eyes.

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday! Rewatching this plus 04 Euros has made me realise how much I miss when they used to stand around huffing and hand waving in the corner. A good dawdle was an important part of the sport. We should have a thread, actually.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday! Rewatching this plus 04 Euros has made me realise how much I miss when they used to stand around huffing and hand waving in the corner. A good dawdle was an important part of the sport. We should have a thread, actually.

I fully support this, given that Nabieva is bound to come up.

 

[rlayt]

I want a montage of wedgie picking.