At 1:20am AEST tonight Australia's greatest gymnast, Lauren Mitchell, goes for a maiden artistic gymnastics gold in the floor final. She will compete in the 02 arena, home of her first world championship medal, the country's first in a gymnastics world championship apparatus final.
She goes into the event with world gold and silver under her belt, World Cup prestige, Commonwealth Games acclaim and the hopes of a nation. Lauren is only the second Australian woman to compete at Olympic floor final, after the elegant Lisa Skinner in Sydney 2000.
The final start list is here.
Peggy Liddick has shared her thoughts prior to the competition here.
If Channel 9 is bothering you as much as it's bothering me, follow a live feed of the BBC coverage right here. Click on the pink triangle.
Gymnastics Examiner should be doing quick hits at her blog here.
Get in the mood for what could be a medal-winning routine with her previous podium-finish performances:
World Cup gold, 2012
All-Around top floor score, 2011
World Championship gold, 2010
Commonwealth Games gold, 2010
Otherwise.... follow me at twitter.com/ozgymblog to join in the fun! Cheer loud and proud for Loz!
LOZZIE LOZZIE LOZZIE! OI OI OI!
47 comments:
Thanks so much mez for all of ur updates and links etc!!!
According to that start list lauren is up 5th - pretty good place to go....after the americans, so she will probably have an idea of what score she will need. Lets just hope she hits!!!
Thanks for the live feed link Mez! I haven't been watching event finals but a few people on Facebook have mentioned that event finals have been running early so it may be a bit earlier, worth tuning in, a bit earlier to make sure u don't miss it.
channel 9, just announced that the floor final would be on from 1.30am
She's a champion, our Lauren. I wish her only the very, very best.
thanks for the link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go you good thing!!!!!!!!
The support here for Lauren symbolic of gymnastics in Australia and the detrimental energy of this blog.
Other countries competing in EF's would not the time to read all messages of support.
Kinda thinking the red engine is not so fast.
Lauren will rock this final and may shall the pessimists stay under their rocks forever.
To our 2012 team of "girls" I see so many well executed skills than not..blink and it could have been the toss of a coin.
Come home,hold your heads high and progress as you were.
Best wishes Lauren xx
ok BBC3 rather than BBC1 which I initially linked is apparently showing gym.
Go here: http://kaban.tv/rossiya-2-online, click on triangle button
Thanks for the link... only wish we could have seen Lauren at her best!
Amazing to have reached floor finals!
Well done Lauren. You have done Australia proud. Just wish she could have picked up one more tenth somewhere but I guess it wasn't meant to be. So near but yet so far. You are a star Lauren and whatever you choose to do now you have inspired many to aspire to great heights! I wish you well in the future :)
Lauren stood up her tumbles and out-scored the 2008 olympic champion, the 2011 world floor champion and 2011 world AA champion!
For someone carrying an ab injury that's pretty flipping awesome!
oh yes the ever perpetual positive Megs..your blog personifies this to a T!
New quad, new coach, new CEO (in place), new Blog (Olivia, Josh & Co with registered users) - let's leave the "hot gossip only" behind and have a junior friendly and senior intellectual space prevail.
There are few happy with the representation of our sport here from Pac Rim onwards. As per the Olympics, the only "embarrassment" is here.
Sorry?
There are people writing here on crack.
I've no idea what they're trying to say.
Good on you Lauren for giving such a stellar
Performance with a nagging injury
Congratulations Lauren!! Amazing performance. Especially considering her injury. She did Australia proud
Well done Lauren! Although I do wonder how she feels. Is she happy with 5th, or slightly disappointed that she couldn't get that extra 0.1, knowing that she was certainly capable of it?
Woohoo Lauren. What a legend!
Lauren Mitchell gracious as she misses Olympic medal by narrowest of margins - WAtoday article
http://www.watoday.com.au/olympics/news-london-2012/mitchell-gracious-as-she-misses-medal-by-narrowest-of-margins-20120808-23sxz.html
0.066 from a medal! So close! But what a champion.
She certainly could have picked up an extra 0.1 in a few places. But she deserves a big congratulations for doing an amazing routine, and 5th is an awesome achievement. Let's hope she continues for a few more years as she is still only just 21!
Yea, I would love to see her compete for a few more years, even up to Rio. Hopefully she looks to Tweddle, Ponor, Izbasa, Chusovitina etc to show her that 25 is no longer old.
All the articles I am reading suggest she is pretty happy with 5th. From what i can tell she feels she did the best she could, but 4 other girls were simply better!
Yeah, i wonder if she will try hanging on to Rio.
I think it would be smart for GA to encourage Lauren to stay around for a couple more years. She is a big name in Australia now, and they could really use her to get some big crowds in and get some more media coverage for the sport. Have some duals meets with countries like China, Japan, Great Britain and promote them well. It is a great opportunity for gymnastics in this country.
Having a gymnast who is finally a household name is something that GA have been waiting for decades for. Let's hope they use it wisely to really get gymnastics on the media radar and also to boost participation.
There is no way Lauren's body could hold up for another 4 years
Poor thing has been through so much and done the country proud!
Many other gymnasts have had a similar number of injuries too and kept going until their late 20's (not to mention Chusovitina). There is nothing stopping Lauren going for another 4 years, the only factor will be if she wants to keep going.
I hope she keeps going. 21 is waaay too young to retire.
Her body will be fine. Her injuries are not long term problems and won't stop her from continuing.
I think she will continue for at least another year or 2. Not sure about Rio, but she is still young and hopefully will be a great asset for the Aussie team for a couple of years.
I hope she hangs around for Rio. We need her! We'll be lucky to get a team bronze with GB and Canada doing so well these days.
Team bronze? We will be lucky to qualify
just hope they young girls keep upgrading
what is everyone's hopes for next quad?
my top hopes :
1. Daria Joura continues
2. Chloe Sims continues
3. Both these girls make another worlds
4. We show our first amanar
5. We develop some great bar sets
6. Something is finally done about NSW
7. We see the MLC elite girls properly resettled
"Something is finally done about NSW". This is the question of someone who has been following gymnastics for a bit over a year (me). I understand that something is different about the way elite gymnastics in NSW is run, but I am not sure what. How does it differ from other states? Is there less funding? Are the training programs structured differently? Is it just that women's gymnastics is not supported by NSWIS - something that mystifies me, and I would like to understand why they don't. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? What is different between NSW (the most populist state, and therefore you would think having a larger pool from which to produce top athletes) and the other states?
Someone posted this on one of the other threads and it gives a good description of the situation in NSW (and also the other HPC's). It is a bit of a read, but if you are interested it is worth the read. Note that it is 5 years old, but nothing has changed in NSW since it was published:
http://www.gymnastics.org.au/site/gymnastics/national/downloads/gymsports/wag/pdf/ASC_WAG_Review.pdf
excuse the weirdo attempting to "interview" them but a glimpse of the girls in London.
http://youtu.be/GBC1mjhTr7o
Thank you to Anon at 12:19pm. Fascinating reading, and I do appreciate you providing the link.
Thanks for the link Erin :-)
I wish Dasha and Chloe had been on this year's team, along with Lauren and Ashleigh. Not sure who the fifth should have been.
It's not like our team made the finals, and Dasha and Chloe would have brought some interest and fun to the team. I would keep Ashleigh because I like her gymnastics and I can live with the occasional mistake from her.
Yes, that would have been the ideal team. It would have brought a bit more hype to the Australian Team.
The fifth would have to have been able to do UB BB FX and even then we would have been putting up 3 UB routines in quals. Sadly Dasha was never going to make this team while Lauren was on it because of bars. Chloe would have been a welcome addition though. Still what is done is done and apparently she wasn't the best according to the selection process, although I can't help thinking they could have given a bit more weight to nationals results given that is an actual competition with an audience.
I would have like to see mez, Georgia rose, zoe, Amelia or Angela on the team
fit and healthy, they have good difficulty and are lovely to watch.
Georgia Simpson would have been absolutely awesome! Can't wait to see her competing again.
Does anyone know if any of the current seniors intend to continue? I suspect a couple of the Olympians are done whether through retirement or their bodies just struggling to keep up with the training, so there will be more opportunities opening up for the youngies.
I really hope MAM + Emily Little continue. I feel they could be stars in the next 4 years. Aus really needs Lauren to continue, even if she doesn't do all apparatus. I also think we will need more the seniors to stay around a bit longer than in the past due to the loss of the AIS program which will mean less juniors coming through the ranks in the next few years.
It is such a shame Georgia.S was injured. her turn in the spotlight will come. Can't wait to see her back up there. Love her artistry and elegance.
The Aussie team did the best they could on the day and we should feel proud of them. Not many achieve Olympic level.
I don't think the loss of the AIS will have much of an impact on numbers. They didn't have that many and most continued anyway at other (possibly better) programs. I also think it would be great if Lauren stayed around, however if she didn't we have enough depth now to cover. Particularly as 2013 worlds is not a team event IIRC.
The lack of AIS will have an impact on the next generation as less gymnasts will be coming through.
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