Big 4 No More?

The term Big 4 is given to the top four nations that have CONSISTENTLY dominated the podium for the past twenty years. They are: Russia, China, USA, and Romania. But today, after Romania failed to qualify for TF (in all likelihood) it seems the Big 4 might be upon an end. It takes more than one bad qualifications to permanently get rid of a Big 4 nation, but since Romania has been looking weak since last quad- and depending on super veterans to pull them through- in 10 years we'll be talking about Romanian the same way we do Ukraine if improvement doesn't come soon :/

Larissa in tears after she saw her fx score

The team has been looking depressing all year, with no amazing scores at Euros, EuroGames, or EYOF. They managed to win medals somehow, but only by the grace of others falling or stupid 1 per country rules limiting a deep EF. I feel very sad for them, and especially their leaders, Larissa Iordache and Diana Bulimar, both of whom have extraordinary talent but aren't at the competitive level necessary for Worlds because of injury. The program has long depended on those two to hide the deficiencies of the rest of the team, but it was only a matter of time before their many weaknesses were exposed. Low d-scores, even on their best events, coupled by substandard execution wreaked havoc on the team's qualifications today. Sadly, i don't think anyone but Larissa had d-scores of 6.0 anywhere. The days when they could depend on great scores on floor and beam to lift them through the UB rotation are so over; similar to Team Russia, the younger girls perform so timidly even when they go clean that the execution barely breaks an 8.0.

Is ROU suffering because of the code? Those of nostalgic leaning will blame everything, as usual, on the code of points but that is scapegoating. No CoP, even the perfect 10 system, would reward the routines we saw today from them (5 falls on UB, 1 on FX, 3 on BB). They do have a lot of money problems, and we should't just ignore that, unlike Russia, Romania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Their program gets insufficient financing even at the national level. Until last year, when they finally secured a private deal with an oil company for sponsorship, gymnasts were retiring because their country couldn't, or wouldn't, pay for them to go to the best doctors in Germany and Austria when they were injured. The local gyms had equipment twenty years old, no joke! Girls show up to Deva with rudimentary bars technique and have to be taught, as junior elites (far too late!), how to do even basic things on the apparatus. Many coaches still have to moonlight doing outside work because being a gym coach doesn't pay enough. The NT training hall is so far removed from the rest of the city population, and regular transportation, that coaches who have been asked to teach at Deva have refused. 

Pleas to the government have gone unanswered even as politicians love to use Romanian gymnastics as an official posterchild of the nation's athletic achievement. Perhaps having the country's most successful olympic sport in jeopardy is the wakeup call the politicians in power need to see. The new sponsorship deal will give the equivalent of $2 million to support the regrowth of clubs at the local level, build a new central training gym somewhere more geographically convenient, and give medical support to national team members (notice the girls have gone to Vienna more times this year for surgery and checkups than ever?). 

I am a huge Russia-fan but at this moment, I have tears for Romania because its been a long time since they've had the confidence to really battle with CHN, USA, and RUS. Avansat România!