Favorite Routines of the Quad: Beam

Anastasia Grishina 2013 Europeans AA

Remember when Grishy was looking like a star of the quad? Those were the days. The jaw-dropping moment of this is the lovely Onodi+illusion. This is just a gorgeous and lovely steady routine.

Norah Flatley 2014 Pac Rims EF

Norah Flatley on beam is just an otherworldly experience. She just looks so unhurried. She had two beautiful acro series, and her arabesque is such a beautiful touch.

Eythora Thorsdottir Hamburg 2014

A very weak dismount because she was coming back from injury, but this was a lovely elegant routine with so many unique combinations. Eythora just shows so much of the originality missing from beam recently in this routine. I just eat up her dance+acro combinations.

Kyla Ross 2015 P&Gs Day 2

Kyla Ross angry beam is basically all you need in life.

Pauline Schaefer 2015 DM EF

Pauline is such a gorgeous beam worker, and I love her original choreography. She has her lovely original mount and incredible original acro skill in this routine. I also love her dismount- it's been abused this quad, but when performed like this, it's magical. There's nothing out of place in this routine, and I just love it.

Maile O'Keefe 2016 P&Gs Day 1

Beam extraordinaire Maile O'Keefe. She's got the legendary Dudnik acro series and a layout series just to top things off. Her work is just so off-the-charts and steady. She will hopefully be a great addition to the arsenal in 2018.

Flavia Saraiva 2016 Anadia EF

Flavia is just so delightful. Beam is my favorite event of hers, especially when she hits like this. This routine is full to bursting- she's got her double LOSO series, her roundoff+layout, and the beautiful forward series. And add to that her charming choreography from her lovely 2014-2015 floor, and it's just a completely wonderful routine.

Ragan Smith 2016 Secret Classic

The errors in the dismount were sad, but it was super exciting to see after waiting with baited breath so long. But otherwise, it was about as perfect as she can get. I love her standing full and amazing stretched layout.

Sanne Wevers 2016 Nationals

The most uniquely difficult and smooth as butter routine in existence. I could watch Sanne work beam forever.

Favorite Routines of the Quad: Bars

Aliya Mustafina, 2013 Worlds AA

Gotta love the Seitz and the Mustafina dismount. That's one of those things you've just gotta love about Aliya, how she'll just pull out a randomly different routine every now and then to keep you on your toes. And as always, the classic Aliya swing.

Roxana Popa, 2014 Blume Memorial

Oh, how I miss pre-hey-your-ACL-is-torn-by-the-way Roxana. Her bars work especially was super exciting, and all the connections in this routine just make it so dynamic. There's just so much flight and movement between the bars in this routine! And the inbar Geinger in its pure form.

Rebecca Tunney, 2014 Europeans EF

Long live the Church+Bhardwaj! There's just so much flight and not a second of wasted time in her routine.

Lisa Katharina Hill, 2014 Stuttgart World Cup

Another routine with a Bhardwaj- unique transition work is a pretty sure-fire way to get on this list! I also love her long combination into the Gienger combining pirouettes, transitions, and different kinds of circling elements. There's just so much variety in this routine!

Brenna Dowell, 2014 P&Gs, Day 1

There is just so much in this routine! I'm a fan of everything but the kitchen sink bars routines, and I love how much variety and excitement she is able to pack in. All of the combinations are just amazing, and the Tweddle+Ezhova especially!

Amelia Hundley, 2015 Pan Ams EF

I just really love the way Meals works bars. I find there to be something Aliya-esque in her swing. She never seems to be fighting with the apparatus, and it almost seems as if time has slowed slightly while she performs.

Shang Chunsgong, 2015 Worlds TF

You've just gotta love a good ol' release fest. And it's especially nice with Shang's gorgeous eponymous skill. I also like that she's got some good ol' pretty Chinese one-armed pirouettes going. I was never a pirouette fest fan, but I do wish they hadn't disappeared so much. Shang's issue on bars is her swing can sometimes be a bit labored, but that wasn't a problem here.

Fan Yilin, 2015 Worlds EF

Such a difficult routine and so well done. Lots of movement between the bars, pirouettes, and a great inbar Gienger! Definitely my favorite of the reigning world champions.

Becky Downie, 2016 Europeans EF

So many fabulous releases and combinations! And with Becky's beautiful presentation to top it off. This is a monster of a routine. The Chow+Shang is so breathtaking, but then, so is everything else in this routine.

Jessica Lopez, 2016 Sao Paulo World Cup EF

So many inbar Giengers this quad! One thing I love about JLo's bars is how she works and turns through inverted grip. And her lovely open Jaeger! I also love her double front, there's just something so compact about it.

Ruby Harrold, 2015 Worlds EF

And my favorite UB routine to end! Both a Maloney+Bhardwaj and a Van Leeuwen+Zuchold. The Zuchold is just the ultimate of cool transitions (which, in case you can't tell by now, I'm a sucker for). Not pristine, but just plain cool.

Favorite Routines of the Quad: Vault

Dipa Karmakar, 2014 Commonwealth Games, Event Final Vault 2

Yes, this vault is rather terrifying, and possesses none of the qualities of a vault you would usually find in a list like this of mine. But like I said in my favorite vaults post, I was more in the moment when watching this vault than in pretty much any other piece of gymnastics in history, so it will always be in my heart.

Ellie Black, 2014 Commonwealth Games, Event Final Vault 2

She just appears to be floating in this vault, especially in the landing.

Bailie Key, 2014 Pac Rims, Team/AA Final

Just beautiful form throughout, and such a light, upright, stuck landing. Too bad she had to get injured, 2014 Bailie was just such a wonderful gymnast.

Hong Un Jong, 2014 Worlds, Event Final Vault 1

When she competed through 2013, her vaults were so helicopter-ish, but since 2014 she has just been the floatiest of floaty vaulters (okay, maybe not the most ultimately floaty vaulter, but very floaty nonetheless). Her Amanar went from a storm center to effortless.

Simone Biles, 2015 P&Gs Day 1, Vault 1

Why this scored lower than day 2, we'll never know. But regardless, about as perfect as any gymnastics has ever been.

Rebeca Andrade, 2016 Olympics

Just look at that wonderful Amanar.

Giulia Steingruber, 2016 European Championships, Qualifications Vault 1

Such an utterly effortless Rudi. She just flies on this vault.

Zsofia Kovacs, 2016 European Championships, Qualifications Vault 1

Also known as the DTY so leisurely I couldn't tell she twisted twice.

Final Olympic Wrap-Up!! Finally!!!

Life has been quite hectic, but I'm finally getting around to getting all my last Olympic thoughts together! In a little less than a month, things should calm down for a bit, so I'm hoping to get more done then.

The Good

• SANNE
• Simone putting everything together in a major international AA for the first time since 2013
• The MAG team and AA finals
• Laurie Hernandez, that pure child, on beam
• The Dutch royal family celebrating after the beam final
• Simone Biles has a vault title
• A relatively injury-free competition on the WAG side
• Bars. What a wonderful crop of top routines we've had.
• A Dutch Olympic beam champion
• Ellie Downie coming back after her scary fall on floor pretty much whole and fine
• Aly's redemption from four years ago
• Lieke supporting Sanne in the beam final
• Oleg Verniaiev is an Olympic champion!!!!
• Max Whitlock's amazing success
• A non-Big Four medalist in all WAG EFs!!
• The Russians- on both sides- pulling out all the consistency they got
• A beam champion with a unique routine that INCLUDES A RISKY MOUNT!!
• Wang Yan suddenly becoming a rock (shoutout to Seda for doing the same in QF and TF)
• Giulia Steingruber is an OLYMPIC MEDALIST!
• SANNE WEVERS IS OLYMPIC BEAM CHAMPION I CAN DIE HAPPY!!!!

The Bad

• The sea of potential bronze medalists in the WAG AA all trying to give the medal to someone else and then the only one who had a hit day getting screwed over by the judges
• So many scary vaults in the EF
• So many injuries in the MAG AA
• What even was some of that scoring?
• Only two gymnasts hit their routines without major error in the EF THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MORE CONSISTENT GROUP

The Ugly

• THAT injury
• The whole Ukraine TF fiasco
• Epke's HB EF fall

Better, Worse, or the Same Compared to London (the competition that converted me to a real fan):

Team: Better. The US might have been infinitely more untouchable, but I'll take the four-way battle between Russia, China, GB, and Japan for silver and bronze, even if the medals ended up going to the other two Big Four countries, over the two-way each battles for gold (which was pretty well decided after two rotations) and bronze from London.

All Around: Worse. Gold and silver clinched before the beginning of the competition, and the depressing implosion of the potential bronze medalists. This should have been an epic knock-down drag-out for bronze. Alas.

Vault: Better. For the first time since the new scoring system, we have an Olympic vault podium without a fall! And Giulia medalled, making it instantly 10X better.

Bars: The Same. The gymnasts who had major errors were way more influential in this one than in London, and there was a lot of similarity in Daria, Aliya, and Maddie's routines, but the overall quality of bars has just risen so much this quad. And the Germans, Songsong, and JLo all have exciting routines, and a surprise medalist!

Beam: The Same. There's probably a bit of my Sanne stan coming through in that rating. There were the same number of gymnasts who actually hit their routines properly in both finals, and though there were larger errors among the rest (and on the podium), the winning routine was far more original. And Sanne won, I can't actually care about anything else.

Floor: The Same. Again, gold and silver were pretty much already decided, and Giulia had her issues, taking the third-best out of contention. But the overall field was of the same quality as London, and the routines were overall more engaging. And a great field of gymnasts from all over!

Best Finals: MAG TF, WAG TF, and MAG AA. All had super deep fields with the battles for medals going right down to the wire!

My Favorite Non-gym Olympic Moment: It would have been unarguably my favorite if SANNE WEVERS hadn't become Olympic beam champion. The Fijian rugby team singing a hymn and praying together after their victory and kneeling to receive their medals. I NEVER cry at sports- I din't cry at either of Sanne's major beam medals- and this brought tears to my eyes.

More Olympic posting! On the controversial finishes...

Qualifications: Now, I'd be lying if said the witch-hunt response of the gymternet regarding bars in general at the Olympics didn't make me somewhat less sympathetic here. But honestly, it really did seem to be a bump as the subdivisions progressed. Sub 1 was super harsh, subs 2 and 3 were both scoring at the top of range but were fairly consistent with each other, sub 4 got a boost again, and then honestly there wasn't really anything in sub 5 that could stand out to me enough for me to have an opinion with the marathon day. Honestly, with the way their routines went that day, the Chinese bars workers weren't in the very top echelon, and there are a lot of gymnasts in that second echelon on bars. Looking at results other than the Chinese and the Americans on bars, Hong Un Jong's vaults were scored low compared to the rest of the scoring that day in sub 1, Tutya Yilmaz and Nina Derwael both would likely have made their potential EFs had they been in a later sub, Becky Downie got within a tenth of Fan Yilin when she hit her feet on the bar in sub 3, and Jessica Lopez has a couple noticeable form breaks in her routine that weren't reflected in her score in sub 4 as well. So while the scoring was all over the place, it didn't really seem to be targeted the way so many were claiming. To put together my thoughts regarding bars in qualifications, I decided to have some fun and score the routines of the gymnasts who made the final and the alternates using Aliya's score as the metric. Of course, the disclaimer that I'm just a couch fan trying out applying the code. Also, to make it more similar to an actual judging experience, I watched Aliya's routine once to get my standard, and then only watched each routine once.
1. Aliya Mustafina: 15.833-6.8/9.033
2. Maddie Kocian: 15.666-6.7/8.966
3. Daria Spiridonova: 15.6-6.5/9.1
3. Gabby Douglas: 15.6-6.5/9.1
5. Nina Derwael: 15.566-6.6/8.966
5. Elisabeth Seitz: 15.566-6.6/8.966
7. Fan Yilin: 15.566-6.9/8.666
8. Sophie Scheder: 15.5-6.6/8.9
9. Shang Chunsong: 15.5-6.7/8.8
10. Becky Downie: 15.266-6.8/8.466
11. Jessica Lopez: 15.066-6.4/8.666

Men's AA: So, to preface this, Oleg is my favorite MAG gymnast and I stan him shamelessly. But, to try to put on my objective pants... this is way too close to call. This would have been a perfect situation for a tie (y'know, if the IOC didn't randomly decide that ONLY GYMNASTICS needs to have Olympic tiebreakers...) But, if I am forced to make a call and not play 2015 Worlds UB judge, I do think Oleg had the slightly better day. 8.3 does seem just a bit low for that HB routine.

Women's AA: Shang was robbed. When discussing the AA bronze, Shang's BB score is usually pointed to as the issue, but personally, I don't think that was actually a problem. BB scoring for the most part that day was pretty tight all around (pun... maybe slightly intended) with the exception of Simone, which affected literally nothing, and Aliya (at least, of the gymnasts who had any influence at all on anything medal-wise). So for me, the problem- speaking in terms of how judging went that day, at least- was Aliya's BB score. Shang's FX score was a little low, too. *But the FTY!!* But Shang's 1.5 overall D score advantage! The salient point is the E scores, which weren't consistent, in my opinion.

UB: Not really all that controversial, but about 2 people disagreed and the still-salty fans from quals decided to make a huge deal out of it. Agree. Maddie had a couple little errors at the end of her routine she hadn't had in the previous rounds.

BB: In the world of "everything goes the way I want it to!!!", Simone wouldn't have the bronze. There would also have been more than two gymnasts in the final who hit their routines without major error (maybe if Shang had been in the final....) But yeah, in terms of what I want to see, I'd give the bronze to Flava Flav. In the world of "the judges are directed by the FIG how to score and can't take more than .8 if the gymnasts doesn't actually fall", I do think Simone probably had the more COP-friendly routine. I will complain about what this says about the COP. Or, at least, I would if SANNE WEVERS hadn't BECOME OLYMPIC BEAM CHAMPION IN THIS FINAL, making me completely unconcerned about anything else.

MostepanovaFan-style Rankings After the Olympics

So, the Olympics ended, and then school started, so it's been a pretty hectic few weeks. So... I'm just getting to Olympic blogging! Because for some reason I didn't really want to post during the Olympics. There will be more, even though it may be very late!

If you've never seen a MostepanovaFan video on YouTube, you should. They're super fun and informative, but it looks as though she's stopped making them, so I'm filling in on this blog. She has a whole bunch of videos listing the most successful individual gymnasts. The ranking system is thus: individual World and Olympic medals only, by total then color, Olympic medals get precedence in ties.

Top Ten Most Successful Russian Gymnasts
10. Daria Spiridonova: 1 gold, 1 bronze

9. Ksenia Afanasyeva: 1 gold, 1 silver

8. Elena Produnova: 3 bronze

7. Ludmilla Ezhova: 1 silver, 2 bronze

6. Maria Paseka: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze

5. Dina Kochetkova: 2 gold, 2 bronze

4. Viktoria Komova: 2 gold, 2 silver

3. Elena Zamolodchikova: 4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze

2. Aliya Mustafina: 4 gold, 3 silver, 8 bronze
1. Svetlana Khorkina: 11 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze
Maria Paseka and Aliya were both able to move up on the list after Rio. Spiridonova put herself on the list and Afan and Vika have moved up this quad. Pretty good results for gymnasts who have to work under the Rods.

Top Ten Most Successful American Gymnasts
10. Mary Lou Retton: 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze
9. Chellsie Memmel: 2 gold, 2 silver
8. Kim Zmeskal: 3 gold, 1 bronze
7. Rebecca Bross: 2 silver, 3 bronze
6. Aly Raismin: 1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze

5. Shawn Johnson: 3 gold, 2 silver
4. Alicia Sacramone: 2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze
3. Nastia Liukin: 4 gold, 6 silver, 1 bronze
2. Shannon Miller: 6 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze
1. Simone Biles: 11 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze
Simone placing herself firmly at the top, no surprise. Aly has also placed herself on the list, and Kyla was able to outrank Dominique Dawes, who was on this list before this quad, as well. Not too shabby.

Top Ten Most Successful Gymnasts of All Time
10. Nellie Kim: 6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze
9. Daniela Silivas: 9 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze
8. Aliya Mustafina: 4 gold, 3 silver, 8 bronze
7. Lavinia Milosivici: 5 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze
6. Gina Gogean: 6 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze
5. Ludmilla Tourischeva: 6 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze
4. Vera Caslavska: 10 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze
3. Simone Biles: 11 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze
2. Svetlana Khorkina; 11 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze
1. Larissa Latynina: 12 gold, 8 silver, 4 bronze
I was not at all surprised the Simone took a commanding place on the list. What did surprise me was that she was able to snag THIRD. Simone and Aliya are the only gymnasts since the new scoring system who have been able to take a place on this list. Legends.

Top Ten Most Successful Gymnasts of the 2013-2016 Quad
10. Aly Raisman: 2 silver
9. Daria Spiridonova: 1 gold, 1 bronze
8. Huang Huidan: 1 gold, 1 silver
7. Maria Paseka: 1 gold, 1 silver
6. Sanne Wevers: 1 gold, 1 silver
5. Hong Un Jong: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
4. Larisa Iordache: 2 silver, 2 bronze
3. Kyla Ross: 3 silver, 1 bronze
2. Aliya Mustafina: 2 gold, 5 bronze
1. Simone Biles: 11 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze
Simone and Aliya also leading the medal tally for the quad. It makes me so happy that Sanne Wevers is sixth!! Also, two non-Big Four gymnasts on the list. Well done!

Opening Ceremonies day!!!! What I'm most looking forward to in Rio

Just a random assortment of the gymnastics stuff I'm super excited about in the Olympics that are STARTING TODAY!!! (There might be a lot of caps locking and exclamation points and screaming and emotional expression in this.) I'll be going in competition order, starting in qualification and ending with the floor final (which I WON'T GET TO WATCH LIVE!!!!)

My Favorites from the Mixed Groups: Being Ana Sofia Gomez Porras, Queen Chuso, Zsofia Kovacs, Marcia Videaux, and Courtney McGrogor, mostly. I am still just quite depressed that the ever-lovely Farah Ann Abdul Hadi didn't qualify. Tokyo 2020? But these ladies are all quite lovely.

The Battle for Floor Final: Which, again, I can't watch live. Ah. There's a pretty solid top tier of routines that doesn't make an upset look too likely, but the number of routines that could make this final! There's the Americans, the Japanese, the Brits, the Chinese, the Italians, Giulia Steingruber, Catalina Ponor.... This is a freakishly awesome crop of potential finalists.

Who will stay on bars?: Because so many of the top bars workers are also headcases. Prayer circle for Becky Downie and Elisabeth Seitz's bars?

The Race for Team Bronze: I am SO EXCITED for this battle!! I want an upset SO BADLY. Great Britain, Brazil, and Germany all have it, Japan could have a horse in the race with their good vault lineup and awesome back end on floor if they hit... This is going to be so great!

Rebeca Andrade BRINGING IT!!!!: Have you seen her Amanar? HAVE YOU? My ultimate fantasy AA podium is any podium with Rebeca on it- could she make it possible? She is doing AA in qualification? Anyway, the Brazilians are coming for your medals!

Will Hong do the TTY?: SHE IS ACTUALLY PULLING IT OUT IN TRAINING!!!! IS SHE GOING TO GO FOR IT?? THE T-T-Y!!!!!!

What about the Prods?: Dipa and Chuso just casually keeping everything interesting

The Wide-Open Bars Podium: We could 100% end up with a final where legitimately ANYONE COULD MAKE THE PODIUM. Aliya's just casually busting out a 6.8? Just a sea of potential medalists.

THE BEAM FINAL: I already mentioned in my fantasy podiums that I AM WAY TOO EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN THIS FINAL!! It's the final I'm the most emotionally invested in. The lead-up looked like there would be five main contenders and I want them ALL to medal, but now Shang's sick and not hitting anything and two of the Americans are super off and Catalina's got a 6.8?? and UGHHH!!!

Just All The Fun Floor Routines: The second tier of floor routines has so many fun ones!! Claudia and the Italians and the Japanese and AAAHHHHH!!

I apologize for the copious amounts of caps lock an incoherence in this post. I am very excited about these things.