Competition kicks off approx. 1:30am AEST. Check out the start list here. Emily and Ashleigh will rotate together, starting on floor.
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Wow wow wow, what a tense final! A lot of unexpected performances across the field, and like everyone else I was biting my fingernails in the final rotation!
Em and Ash improved their preliminary rankings, finishing15th and 20th respectively, so despite errors can count themselves among the top 20 gymnasts in the world. A brief wrap-up is here.
Videos from inside the arena are going up here. Bless you, Fulltwist!
photo via Reuters
Our last artistic gymnastics representation will be Lauren Mitchell in the women's floor final. Not to count out that we also have Janine Murray strutting her stuff in rhythmic and bouncin' Blake Gaudry in trampoline!
50 comments:
Good luck Emily and Ashleigh! Hoping you can both go 4 for 4 tonight and leave nothing undone. No regrets this time! Proud of you both for making AA finals.
Yes, I just want them to get through four routines the way we know they can. I don't care where they place - as long as they hit all four routines. Go Ash and Georgia. You can do this!
Sorry, I meant to type Emily. I'm a dunderhead.
My fingers, toes and eyes are all crossed!
I wish both Emily and Ashleigh the very best tonight.
I am so very happy for you both :-)
Go Aussies.
Thank you for your great blog. I have previously had no interest in gymnastics but have found the events at these games thrilling!
Emily finished 15th,hit all four apparatus and Ashleigh finished 20th with a fall on vault.
Beautiful pink & black versions of the qualification leotards. Both looked good.
I love the photo :-)
Emily you are a star. 15th in the world for AA. Amazing
Mez you might want to correct your post - we still have two other representatives to go in the Gymnastics - Blake in the tramp and Jenine in the Rhythmic.
Ah yes. Completely forgot, even after shouting out Blake this morning on twitter!
Thanks! Happy to correct!
anyone know where we can download full coverage of the prelims AA team finals etc?
OMG Gaby Douglas amazing gymnast,
the Americans bodies are like weight lifters. big muscular lower body, unlike our gymnast they tend to look for the slender thin bodies??
Australia has slender bodies like Georgia Rose Brown
America has more muscular gymnasts too like Shawn Johnson, Jordyn Wieber, etc
Our gymnasts are older too, more time for their bodies to grow
There you go, maybe the australians should review what body type they are looking for. i believe the thin small slender body is a thing of the past. gymnast need stonger bodies to be able to cope with the impact of increasing skill difficulty.
Young girls get more selected on their body type than skill because its the type of body that works best for gymnastics.
I think it should be on skill, flexibility, strength and determination
Channel 9's coverage sucks!!
What coverage???? I stayed up until 1am in the hope they'd swap to the gym! Nothing! Very infuriating!
yes i should, they have it all wrong unfortunatly.
Anon: 3:49pm
Do bother watching its embarrassing.
The live rotations commenced at 1:30 am ( on Foxtel)
Channel 9 put together a good wrap up this morning at 9am. It included interviews with Emily and Ash and then with Douglas.
Congratulations to Emily and Ash! Well done for your fabulous efforts. We're proud of you!
I certainly think the more muscular bodies are better for power and that is the way gymnastics is leaning. I would much rather watch a muscular fit looking gymnast than a skinny anorexic looking gymnast that looks like she could break at any moment. I think we should be leaning to that type of body. Just my thoughts.
I wouldn't call showing a couple of vaults, a couple of bar routines, 1 beam routine and 1 tumbling run each from 3 different floor routines a good wrap up. It's better than nothing sure, but 10 mins worth is hardly doing our sport any justice.
Might have to change my allegiance to beach volleyball or table tennis. Have seen more coverage of those than the gymnastics. And don't even get me started on the swimming!!
Viktoria Komova is a stick!
The swimming is non stop !!
Talking about body types, there was an interesting interview a few months ago with one of the coaches from MLC who went over to WOGA in the USA to study their style of coaching. He mentioned that Aussie elite programs tend to take everybody they think could make it, with a whole mix of body types, while WOGA tends to restrict themselves to the skinny lean types (e.g. Vise, Liukin, Ohashi) OR the strong powerhouse ones (e.g. Patterson, Bross). Sounds like a no-win from the Aussie perspective- take everybody and hope that the ones who manage to stick it out to the end also fit the body types that are most likely to be able to handle the rigors of the sport and even thrive in it, or take the ones with those ideal body types and hope you have enough athletes who also have the combination of mental fortitude, commitment and luck to get there in the end.
On the other hand, there are many other American programs that don't do any selection based on body types. It is just the ones who do well that advance. America has a wide range of body types. If you think about the likes of Liukin, Johnson, Sacramone, Memmel, Raisman, Douglas - they all have quite different body types, but they are all able to play to their strengths and do well.
Limiting your program to certain body types is just a bad idea and may mean that you miss out on a top gymnast.
I'm so glad I got foxtel. I haven't watched a single second of swimming, and have seen all of the gymnastics :)
Thin? Australian gymnasts? Not on this team. Only Lauren and Larrissa looked fit and muscular, the others are all "bigger", but not muscular, hence the inability to do more difficult skills. Weight is not an issue, or body type, but level of fitness is.
I love Gabby Douglas but adore Viktoria Komova even more. She absolutely epitomises gymnastics in every way, and but for her faulter on vault she would have walked away with the win.
She's elegant, expressive, powerful and graceful all at the same time, with extensions to die for. We don't see that in Gabby's gymnastics and for that reason alone, I would have loved to have seen her take the gold. Nevertheless the best 2 gymnasts were up there though imo, and I have to feel for Ali Raisman missing out on the bronze even though her score was identical to Mustafina's. What a ridiculous rule!
I think it is actually the IOC that mandates that medals can't be shared. Hence the need to have a tie break process.
I reference a sentence from an article in today's Herald Sun regarding an online bully and Aussie swimmer Emily Seebohm, in which the paper published the name of the bully.
"In what has been dubbed the "Twitter Games", our Olympians have been subjected to vile remarks. "
Take care when posting comments which are of a personal nature and unsupported by facts, that the intent of your opinion is not meanness. You may risk being accused of being a bully.
Yes, it is not that difficult to track your IP numbers and identify the source of the comments, good or bad. Quite easy, in fact, it's been done. Yes, even you, the arm chair expert in Geelong. (Yes, we know who you are!)
BEWARE: Big brother is watching!!!
Is it just me or does it seem to be taking forEVER for the floor final to roll around?!
Its taking forever! So long that I have analysed all of the opponents!
Anon 8:08pm
I don't see anything offencive that is been said on this blog that directly attacks a gymnasts. This is a public blog forum and the public has a right to their appinion, nobody is tweeting the althetes directly. Now pull your head in.
4.15 pm. Back to school!
Anon 2:58pm...
You've been using the wait time productively! So what have you come up with in your analysis?? Where do you place Lauren?
:)
I'm too scared I will be disappointed by the result!! It's ok if she hits and places....wherever... the judges think is appropriate....but really, after the diappointment of the team and then ashleigh's fall on vault (when is the last time she did that in a competition?? I can't recall ever).....I'm just going to find out the result after the actual competition....Ill be happy if lauren hits and the disappointment won't be as big is she doesn't.
I've been having some lively discussions with some sports-loving friends about the slow migration of sports away from the AIS in Canberra. Being a large country with a small population, it doesn't really made sense to spread the talented medical and coaching staff so thinly across the country. I'm all for having one central gymnastics program, with feeder programs from all States.
Well done Emily and Ash, pity that that leotard is so freaking horrible!
I agree it is taking ages! Thou I hope the "break" has allowed Lauren time to fix any issues. Must be hard to keep training while the rest of the team has finished.
Of course I'd loooove Lauren to get a medal (wouldn't we all!) but more than anything I just want her to nail her routine.
Can't help but feel missing a TF and AA before an apparatus final is a blessing in disguise for Lauren. Additional time to acclimatise, and also watch how the winds of floor scoring have been blowing.
Once she gets over that opening tumble I know things will be ok. I read great things about her performance from the public on twitter during prelims, hope the good vibe keeps going during the final!
I hope the leo Emily and Ashleigh wore in the AA final will not get another outing. If that's what the team were going to wear if they made the final, I'm almost glad they didn't qualify for the final.
Given that she has an injury, it may have been beneficial to have the extra days rest. Let's hope she can nail it!
lol! one of the reasons i was soo disappointed they didn't make the team final was because i wouldn't get to see what Leo they would have worn! I didn't mind the AA one, because i quite like the design, just the bright pink, i wasn't a fan off, purple might have looked a bit better. Interesting to see what Lauren wears for the FX final! Whatver it is, has to be better than the USA Leo,s which i haven't been a fan of these Olympics.
Yeah, what is the obsession with pink leos these past couple of years?? So over it!
yay its not just who hates that pink i don't mined pink but baby pink yukkk
Much as green and gold can be difficult to work with, I would much prefer to see them n that than, hot pink!
Good luck tonight Lauren! Go out there and kick some serious butt!! Wishing you a hit routine, and that you have a great time performing it.
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