I know that there are many blog posts out there about horrible leotards, but with the Olympics fast approaching I thought I would take a look back at some of the sheer horrors and try to work out what we can expect to see this summer.
Although there are many atrocities out there, I have limited myself for this post to looking at team leotards. After looking through so many, I find it hard to believe that somebody decided to dress their entire team in some of these strange leotards. It also seems to make it worse when you see a whole group of them together!
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games In my mind, there were two team leotards at the Beijing Olympics that were rather strange. The first one was the French team leotard:
The shininess is bad in itself, but there is also the strange blue collar round the neck. I found it difficult to find a good photo of this leotard (no pun intended) but it just did not seem to do justice to any of the girls.
The other weird leo of 2008 was Brazil's team leotard:
It really did not seem to make any sense whatsoever and the pattern is just so random.
Athens 2004 Russia:
Although this is a relatively plain leotard I have never been a big fan of solid blocks of colour with a high neck. The white stripes an half sleeves seem to make it look really out of proportion.
France:
Yet another interesting leotard for the French team. They really seem to like the shiny material and although I prefer this one to the 2008 leotard there is something about it that just seems wrong. I think it might be partly to do with the rather strange collar again.
Spain:
I am finding it very hard to find anything nice to say about this leotard. Firstly is the fact that it is a sleeveless leotard. I know that some countries choose to compete in these, but for a team final at the Olympics I really believe it should be a long sleeved competition leotard. Also, it just seems really busy and the colours are very odd. It is one of those leotards that is likely to distract you from what could be a good routine.
World Championships It is not just the Olympic Games that sees the teams coming out dressed strangely. Over the years there have been many leotards that have just begged the question "why?"
In 2011 we saw this leotard from Japan:
Again, it was hard to find a decent picture of this leotard and it is yet another one that just seems to have too much going on. Although the colours are quite simple, the swirls make it almost nauseating.
2011 was also the year that the Australian team competed in this leotard:
Why? Why would anyone choose to put bright orange and bright pink together in the same leotard? And why would Australia choose these colours which bear no relation to the country they are representing?
The 2010 world championships saw yet another strange leotard from Japan:
There is the same simple colour scheme again, but this time with a very strange pattern. I am not quite sure if there is any thought or logic behind the design but I for one cannot work it out if there is.
The team finals in 2007 saw this leotard from Russia:
It has got the same bold colours and high neck that we saw in the 2004 Olympics that seems to make even the most elegant of gymnasts seem short and stocky.
There was also this quite inexplicable leotard from France:
I have never been a particularly big fan of mesh on leotards and in this case I feel I am justified. There is no need to send your team of gymnasts to compete in a leotard that looks as if it is slashed almost to the waist. A little bit of mesh can be fine but it has to be tasteful.
Looking back to 2006, we were treated to this leotard from the Ukrainian team:
Not only do we have an excess of mesh again, there is also the strange white icicle around the neck. i personally found this leotard very distracting.
2006 also gave us this Romanian leotard:
I probably would not have minded this leotard quite as much if it was not for the blue stripes that come down from the shoulder and link to the bottom of the leotard. I felt that it reminded me of someone wearing braces or lederhosen. Not really the look you want for your team of gymnasts!
But I have saved the best (or worst should I say) for last - 2006 saw the Spanish team competing in this leotard:
This leotard is wrong on so many levels I am not quite sure where to start. I am fairly sure that the Spanish girls gave some lovely performances in the 2006 team final, but I honestly could not tell you about any of them as I was so distracted by the neon colours. It is hard to say if I would have liked the leotard more if it was in different colours or if I would have liked the colours more they were on a different leotard, but I think not. I really do believe that this is one of the worst leotards I have ever seen in competition!
There are of course many more weird and wonderful leotards out there to be looked at. Some of the gymnasts' individual choices are equally inexplicable but I will leave those for another day.
So what about 2012? Already there is some speculation about what the gymnasts will be wearing and indeed some team leotards have already been revealed. Although there will be plenty of lovely leotards out there as always, I must admit to being slightly worried about what some of the teams will be wearing. Out of the twelve teams who have qualified, six of them have already shown us some dubious leotards in the past: Australia (2011), Brazil (2008), France (2008, 2007, 2004), Japan (2011, 2010), Romania (2006) and Russia (2007, 2004). I can only hope that they have learnt their lesson and none of the other six let us down!
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Team Tuesday
The 2012 Russian Olympic Team
It has been a long time since Russia won Gold as a team at the Olympic Games. In fact you have to go as far back as 1992 when the Unified Team took Gold in Barcelona. They have achieved two Silvers and a Bronze since then, but failed to medal at all in 2008 in Beijing. So what are the hopes and expectations for the team as they head into London 2012?
Russia have improved their team results since 2008, taking Gold at the 2010 World Championships and Silver in 2011. They have always been successful in Europe and have medalled at every European Championships team event for over fifteen years. They took Gold at the 2011 European Championships but were disappointed to come second to Romania earlier this year. But with the team that they are taking to London I believe they are strongly in medal contention at this year's Olympics.
Aliya Mustafina Aliya is one of the gymnasts that I am most looking forward to seeing in London. Her style and poise make all of her routines wonderful to watch as well as including spectacular difficulty. In 2010 she became World Champion winning the all around competition by scoring over 1.300 more than 2nd place Jiang Yuyan. She looked set to continue dominating the field at the 2011 European Championships, qualifying comfortably in 1st place, but tore her ACL on the first event in the all around final. There were doubts about her being able to recover in time for the Olympics but she has proved her strength and determination by returning to international competition earlier this year. She seemed to struggle somewhat in qualification at the 2012 European Championships but went on to perform brilliantly in the team final, especially on vault and bars. Time seems to be the main factor for Aliya - has she had long enough since her injury to get herself back to full difficulty and full confidence? I certainly hope so, she is a beautiful gymnast to watch and I would love to see her do well in London.
Viktoria Komova After a very successful junior career, Viktoria turned senior in 2011. Unfortunately she started her senior career with an ankle injury which she had sustained towards the end of 2010. She did not compete at the 2011 European Championships due to the injury, and eventually underwent surgery in May 2011 and started full training again in the July. Her first major international competition as a senior was the 2011 World Championships. She qualified 1st all around and was clearly upset with her Silver medal finish in the all around final, finishing just 0.033 behind Jordyn Wieber. She qualified to three of the four event finals, taking Gold on the bars. Although she performed well at the World Championships, personally I thought she looked somewhat tired throughout. It was clear that there was more to come from her but I feel that time had been against her when recovering from her injury. By the 2012 European Championships Viktoria was looking much healthier. She performed only on bars and beam and made the apparatus finals on both these events, finishing 6th on beam and taking the Gold medal on bars. I feel sure we will be seeing great things from her this summer.
Ksenia Afanasyeva At the age of 20, this will be Ksenia's second Olympic Games having competed in Beijing in 2008. Although she qualified in 6th place to the 2008 all around final she was unable to compete as two of her team mates had placed higher than her. In 2009 she competed at the European Championships where she took the Silver medal in the all around competition. Unfortunately, injury prevented her from competing at the 2009 World Championships. In the 2010 World Championships Ksenia helped the team to take the Gold medal, posting the highest floor score of the whole team competition, but failed to medal in the floor final, finishing 8th. In the 2011 World Championships she qualified to the all around final where she finished 7th. Only a second reserve for the floor final, she nevertheless competed due to two withdrawals and managed to take the Gold medal. She is capable of some beautiful work and I really hope that she performs consistently in London.
Anastasia Grishina Anastasia is a first year senior, and made her international senior debut at the 2012 European Championships. She was the only member of the Russian team to perform on all four pieces of apparatus. She performed cleanly both in qualification and the team final, helping the team to take 2nd place behind Romania. Although there was no all around final, the scores she posted in the team final gave her the highest all around score. She qualified to three of the four event finals, finishing 5th on vault, 4th on beam and 2nd on bars. This young gymnast has a lot of potential and I am sure she will do well in the Olympics.
Maria Paseka Maria turned senior in 2011 and has the least senior international experience of all the girls in the team. She is known for her vaulting and in fact this was the only apparatus she performed on at the 2012 European Championships. This has been her only major senior international competition so far. She has upgraded her vault since then and is now training the extremely difficult Amanar vault which will help the team score greatly in London.
The team I feel that the Russian team can go two ways in the London 2012 Olympics. If every team member is fully fit and performs consistently they are definite medal contenders. However, injuries and inconsistencies do seem to be plaguing the Russians at the moment and it could be possible that they finish much lower down the rankings than they would hope for. I would love to see them all performing cleanly as it will make for an excellent competition - and they are all capable of some exceptional routines.
Monday, 16 July 2012
Magic Moments Monday
Wieber Fever
There are many moments over the past few years that that have stood out for me when watching Jordyn Wieber, but perhaps the most magic of all was when she first became National Champion in 2011.
The 2011 Visa National Championships was the first American competition that I watched in its entirety. Having not seen much American gymnastics at that time, there were very few names that I recognised: Shawn Johnson, Rebecca Bross, Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel were the only gymnasts taking part that I knew of. At the beginning of the programme, one of the commentators announced that first year senior Jordyn Wieber was the favourite to take the title. I remember being somewhat sceptical that a first year senior would be able to beat such well-established all around gymnasts such as Rebecca Bross who was the defending National Champion and World Championships Bronze medallist.
Jordyn started her competition on Day 1 on the beam. Although it was easy to see that the skills were there, she was clearly nervous and wobbles crept into this difficult routine. The next event for Jordyn was of course floor. I watched her floor routine and instantly fell in love with this amazing gymnast. Not only was the routine incredibly difficult, but she performed and sold the routine so well. I did, and still do, absolutely adore this routine. It allows her personality to come shining through and she always looks like she is thoroughly enjoying herself. After this performance, I could not wait to see her vault. I was not disappointed. Jordyn was one of only two girls to perform the Amanar vault at the 2011 Visa Championships and she performed it brilliantly. Her score after the vault took her from 4th place all around to 1st with only bars left to go. Her bars routine was certainly not perfect and I was on the edge of my seat as I watched her struggle through the early part of the routine. She had gone into the last rotation with a 2 point lead and I breathed a sigh of relief as she landed the very tricky double twisting double back dismount. The form errors cost her, but it was still enough to finish Day 1 with a lead of 1.850 over 2nd place Aly Raisman.
With almost a 2 point lead going into Day 2 of the National Championships, I was desperately hoping that Jordyn would be able to live up to the expectations and take the title of National Champion. She was starting on floor, and after enjoying her routine so much on Day 1 I was worried that it would not live up to my expectations when I saw it again. Fortunately I was proved wrong - not only did it live up to my expectations, it exceeded them. The music, the choreography and Jordyn's personality and smiles all came together to make another fantastic routine. Then it was on to vault and yet another brilliant Amanar. Still in 1st place with only two pieces to go, they were the two pieces she had struggled on the most on Day 1. I was so nervous for her as she started her bars routine, but I need not have been. She gave an incredible performance with none of the faltering she had shown on Day 1. Now there was only one piece left to go: beam. By this point Jordyn had already practically sealed the victory and could probably have won even with a fall, but she went out and performed one of the most solid beam routines I have ever seen. The nerves of Day 1 had vanished and here was a champion at work. She finished her competition in the most amazing way.
On Day 2 Jordyn not only increased her score on every apparatus from Day 1, she scored 15.000 or over for every routine. She won the 2011 Visa National Championships by a staggering 6.150 over second place McKayla Maroney and all in her first year as a senior. She also took medals on all three of the apparatus she was eligible for, winning Gold on bars and floor and bronze on beam.
Jordyn went on later that year to become the all around World Champion at the 2011 World Championships. She also posted the highest team score on all four pieces of apparatus to help the team win Gold and took a Bronze medal in the apparatus finals on beam. In 2012 she successfully defended her National title to become the 2012 National Champion then weeks later was (unsurprisingly) selected to the USA Olympic Team.
Jordyn has achieved an incredible amount over the last two years but to me, the 2011 Visa Championships, where I saw her compete for the first time, will always be special. I have absolutely no doubt that she will go on to even greater things and I would like to wish her every luck for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Sunday, 15 July 2012
Sunday Surprise
Making an entrance - Rebecca Tunney
First of all let me be clear - I am not surprised that Rebecca Tunney has done well this year. What has surprised me is just how well she has done.
As a junior, Rebecca was no stranger to success. In 2010 she represented Great Britain at the European Championships where she helped the team to a 5th place finish. Later that year, she placed 2nd all around at the National Championships and took the Gold on bars. In 2011, she went one better taking the Junior all around title at the National Championships. She then went on to represent England at the Commonwealth Youth Games where she helped the team to win the Gold medal and finished 6th all around. She also did well in the event finals there, finishing 5th on bars, 3rd on floor and taking Gold on vault.
Rebecca turned senior this year and made her debut at a senior competition at the London 2012 Test Event. She seemed a little nervy in qualification especially on beam, where she scored only 12.800. She did however make it to the bars final where she took 6th place, a great achievement for her first senior competition. Her nerves seemed to continue at the American Cup a couple of months later. Again it seemed to be beam that caused her the most trouble, falling three times and placing 8th overall. But what these competitions had done was give Rebecca some much needed experience as a senior gymnast. The American Cup in particular was a huge event. She was competing against some of the top gymnasts in the world, in a huge arena and was the only British girl taking part. I can only imagine how overwhelming that would have been for anyone, let alone a 15 year old.
As the year has progressed Rebecca has gone from strength to strength. Although it was evident from her early competitions that she had a great deal of talent, she has simply excelled herself in recent months. At the 2012 European Championships, Rebecca was part of the team that took 4th place. She also qualified to the floor final where she finished 5th.
After the European Championships, everything was focused on the Olympic Games. With three competitions coming up which would act as the Olympic Trials there was everything to play for. The first of these trials was the British Teams Championships at which she helped Liverpool (perhaps unsurprisingly) win the Team Championship. She also finished 1st all around, 1st on bars and 2nd on vault and floor. This 1st place finish was the start of an amazing winning streak. The second Olympic Trial was a friendly competition between GBR-ESP-FIN, where Rebecca once again finished 1st all around.
The third and final Olympic Trial was the British Championships, where Rebecca had a fantastic competition and successfully turned her previous year's Junior British Champion title to that of Senior British Champion. She also took the Silver medal on bars behind Beth Tweddle and came 4th on floor and 5th on beam.
With such amazing all around performances it was no surprise to anyone by this point that Rebecca was named to the 2012 Olympic Team. At 15 years old, she is the youngest British Olympian at the 2012 Games. I really cannot wait to see Rebecca competing in London. Her confidence is showing through more and more in her routines and her bright, sparky personality is really starting to shine through. It will be great to see her perform alongside her teammates in front of a home crowd. I have absolutely no doubt that Rebecca will continue to excel and wish her every luck in London and beyond.
Saturday, 14 July 2012
So Close Saturday
Daniele Hypolito
At the age of 27, Daniele Hypolito of Brazil is about to take part in her 4th Olympic Games. Having been a star of Brazilian gymnastics for over ten years, Daniele is still going strong. She took her first National title as a junior in 1996 and her most recent one only last year at the 2011 Brazilian National Championships, ahead of a field of much younger gymnasts.
Daniele has been a regular member of the Brazilian National Team since 1999 when she attended her first World Championships. Although she only finished 27th in the all around competition she did help the team to qualify a full team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She then proceeded to compete in her first Olympic Games where she finished 20th in the all around final.
2001 was a big year for Daniele. She took part in the 2001 World Championships where she placed 4th in the all around competition. At this time, it was the highest ever all around finish for a Brazilian gymnast. She then went on to win Brazil's first ever medal by taking the Silver in the floor final.
In 2003, Daniele was injured during the all around competition at the 2003 World Championships, though she had helped the team yet again to qualify a full team for the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens. She competed well in Athens, her second Olympics, helping the team to a 9th place result and finishing 12th in the all around competition. In the following years she continued competing well, earning herself a 9th place all around finish in the 2005 World Championships and helping the team to a highest ever 5th place at the 2007 World Championships. In 2008 Daniele took part in her third Olympic Games, already becoming one of only a handful of female gymnasts to achieve this.
After a couple of relatively quiet years, Daniele started to improve to become yet again a star of the team rather than being in the background. She once again became the Brazilian National Champion in both 2010 and 2011, and placed 18th all around in the 2010 World Championships and 13th In the 2011 World Championships. She took part in the London 2012 Test Event at the beginning of the year where she helped the team qualify for the Olympic Games. Individually, she placed 8th all around and qualified for both the vault and floor finals where she came 4th and 8th respectively.
So what can we expect from Daniele in what will be her 4th Olympic Games? With such a wealth of experience and training it would be wonderful to see a good result from this amazing gymnast who, despite all her achievements over the years, has only one major world medal from 2001. Her recent achievements at the National Championships suggest that we may be in for some good performances from the 27 year old.
But Daniele has already let it be known that she will not be content with a mere four Olympic Games. With the 2016 Olympics being held in Rio, she has said that she would love to compete once more and retire in front of a home crowd. I would like to wish Daniele good luck in London and on her journey to Rio and wish her every success.
Friday, 13 July 2012
Friday Favourites
Olympic Hopeful Aliya Mustafina
Aliya Mustafina is currently one of my favourite gymnasts. She combines incredible difficulty with style, grace and elegance and she is delightful to watch. With no real weak piece of apparatus, she will be hoping to contend for not just one but many medals at the London 2012 Olympics.
After a very successful junior career Aliya Mustafina turned senior in 2010 and continued with her winning ways. In her first major international competition, the 2010 European Championships, she not only helped the team to the Gold medal but qualified to three of the four apparatus finals, taking the Silver medal on bars and beam. Later that year she was the top qualifier all around at the 2010 World Championships, a score she subsequently improved on to become the 2010 World Champion. Not only that, she qualified for all four event finals becoming the first woman to do so since Svetlana Khorkina in 1997. She came away from the championships with an amazing five medals: two Gold (team, all around) and three Silver (vault, bars, floor).
In 2011 Aliya attended the 2011 European Championships where she was expected to dominate. Indeed in qualification she posted the highest all around score (almost 3 whole marks above her second place teammate Anna Dementyeva) and qualified to all four event finals. However this was not to be Aliya's year. On her first piece of apparatus in the all around final she injured her knee landing the Amanar vault. It was later revealed that she had torn her ACL in her left knee meaning not only was she not able to compete in the rest of the European Championships but she would also miss the 2011 World Championships. Ironically, the score she posted for her vault (15.375) was the joint highest score of the whole all around final.
By early 2012 Aliya proved that she was winning the battle against her injury by beginning to compete internationally again and she was part of the team that took Silver at the 2012 European Championships. She performed poorly in qualification and did not make any of the event finals, however she posted the highest score for her team on two of the three apparatus she competed on, scoring an impressive 15.166 on vault and a massive 15.833 on bars.
I really hope that Aliya will be back on top form by the Olympic Games. She is an amazing gymnast and such a joy to watch on all four pieces of apparatus. She is one of those special gymnasts who has an amazing artistic quality that sets her apart from so many others. Although I love watching her on all four apparatus, her floor exercise is simply beautiful and I particularly loved her floor routine at the 2010 World Championships. It really was a fantastic performance combining all of the qualities needed for an excellent floor routine. I simply cannot wait to see her performances at the Olympic Games. Good luck Aliya.
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Thursday's Thoughts
My thoughts about Men's Artistic Gymnastics
As many of you may have realised by now, I do not follow the men's gymnastics anywhere near as closely as the women's. I pretty much only watch parts of the major competitions (like the Olympics and sometimes the World Championships) and some event finals - you know, where you have to sit through the pommel horse final in between women's vault and bars! I know the names of the main contenders and for the main part I know enough to tell what makes a good routine. Some parts of the men's gymnastics I love, other parts not so much - and some just confuse me completely. So here are my views on men's artistic gymnastics:
Floor This is one of the easier pieces of apparatus for fans of women's gymnastics to understand. There's no music and much less dancing than in the women's floor, but the tumbling is powerful and spectacular. Strength elements must be included between the tumbling passes to make up the floor routine. I do generally enjoy watching men's floor, and a well performed, high difficulty routine can be quite spectacular to watch.
Pommel Horse Right. This is the piece of apparatus that I just do not understand. At all. From what I can tell, the gymnasts move up and down the horse on their hands either circling around the horse or with flared legs. They work on the horse itself, on one handle and on both handles. And they try not to fall off. I always try to understand what the commentators are saying when they talk about Magyars, spindles and triple Russians but I can never quite tell the difference between the moves. What I do know is that I always watch routines on this apparatus very nervously as it always seems to me to look as if they are about to fall off!
Still Rings Although I do understand what the gymnasts are trying to achieve on this apparatus, it is one that has never held much appeal to me. This piece of apparatus requires sheer strength and each move has to link one strength element to another. The gymnast has to show movement between each position while trying to keep the rings as still as possible. Although I have on occasion been really impressed with certain routines on the rings, as a whole I don't particularly enjoy watching this event, perhaps because it seems the least artistic of the disciplines.
Vault Like the floor exercise, this apparatus is very similar to the women's, but often much more spectacular. This is the event in men's gymnastics that I enjoy watching the most. It is amazing to see some of the vaults that the men can achieve, ever increasing in difficulty and often performed with amazing accuracy to make it look almost easy! Double front somersaults, sometimes with a half turn, have become almost commonplace in men's gymnastics these days and they are truly amazing to watch.
Parallel Bars I think that a good parallel bars routine is really interesting to watch as it combines moves and somersaults with great amounts of swing but also moves of great steadiness, strength and coordination. I do sometimes find that parallel bars routines have a 'sameness' about them, with many gymnasts performing the same types of skill. To me, a standout routine is one where the gymnast is innovative and makes his routine seem different from the rest.
High Bar This is perhaps the most spectacular of all the men's disciplines. With fast swings and breathtaking releases, high bar routines are always a crowd pleaser. These dramatic routines are always impressive and the gymnasts seem to soar through the air on their releases before catching the bar and continuing the swing. With these impressive releases and amazing dismounts it is no wonder that the high bar is such a popular apparatus to watch.
Who to watch out for Japan's Kohei Uchimura is going into the 2012 Olympic Games as the three time World Champion. He is dubbed as one of the best male gymnasts of all time and to watch him it is easy to see why. He is not only brilliant but consistent on all six pieces of apparatus and makes all of his routines look effortless. He is the hot favourite to take the all around Gold in London. Philipp Boy of Germany is never far behind and will be chasing for a medal. Also hoping for Olympic all around glory will be Daniel Purvis (GBR), John Orozco and Danell Leyva (USA). On individual apparatus look out for GB's Louis Smith on the Pommel Horse, and Epke Zonderland (NED) and Fabian Hambuchen (GER) on the high bar as they are bound to have routines to impress. You can never count out the Chinese men though; they have a winning streak as a team and will be hoping for team and individual medals.
I am getting more and more excited by the prospect of the men's competition this summer, and hopefully I will be slightly more knowledgeable by the end of it! Good luck boys!
