ICYMI (how could you): MAG Version
The best part of the Olympics is getting to witness the entire world become enraptured with gymnastics and watching my friends gush over men and women I almost feel I know personally. Sharing gymnastics with them has been a lot of fun and it's also allowed me time to classify them into new categories: friends who like my faves vs. friends who need better taste 
.
So the Olympics are over for artistic gymnastics but theres still RG and I want to rewind and focus on the men's trampoline competition as well. I'll be back to normal wifi on Sunday, so with limited time I'll just discuss how our artistic men's team did in the individual finals.
Excuse my terrible puns
PUMMELING THE POMMELS
It's generally a tragic event for Russia so weren't we were all pleasantly surprised when David and Nikolai qualified into the EF's while the whole team burst into flames on floor? If you're a fan of pommels you couldn't have asked for a better final; only Oleg had a breakdown, so that's pretty good considering even PH specialists have lower rates of consistency than those who specialise on other events. If you can score 15 on pommels 60% of the time people are bound to call you a boss. Well, neither of our guys medalled but that doesn't mean they didn't do a terrific job of making it hard on others. David had the third highest execution but only the sixth highest difficulty so he wasn't going to medal anyways. I think it's a good confidence booster that he made the Olympic final and scored a competitive mid 15 when no one would've blamed him for playing to safer or looking a little scrappy. He took the final as seriously as if he was the world's no. 1 and that's the right mentality the entire team should have when they go to competitions. Nikolai was great as well, and had the more serious chance of a medal but he made an error on his dismount (I believe he hopped off instead of doing the dismount out of a skill?) and that cost him a bronze. He needed to be perfect because Whitlock and Smith had higher difficulty and Naddour of USA had what I thought was the best execution of them all with high difficulty) so any mistakes form Nik would take him out, and it did. At least his good performance in EF's was a minor revenge on the apparatus after it ruined his chances of an AA medal.
DENIS, MAN OF STEEL
I think of steel rings as the most stable event in MAG: few falls, few mistakes in general unless it's a dismount, and little to no headcasing amongst the teams. But truth is, while the rings might not produce the most stress, it is a very unpredictable EF; everyone has the same difficulty and they all execute really well! Denis qualified 4th into these finals and went up fourth in the starting order, after Petrounias, but before Zanetti. There's not really any upgrade Denis could've added last minute because it's SR and everyone's sort of capped at the same level. The most he could do was have a perfect routine and hope those who went after him stumbled. No one did but I still felt like this was the first SR final I've seen with significant gaps in scoring. Sometimes the difference between 8th and 1st can be less than four tenths, so it was gratifying to see judges able to discern who was especially gifted in his talent. Denis earned a bronze medal for his efforts, behind Petrounias and Zanetti, so the podium was made up of Olympic, World, and European champions. Congratulations on your bronze medal Denis, I'm excited to hear you're continuing with the sport next quad. Between the clutch veterans and the promising newbies, like Ivan and Nikita, Russia's prospects keep looking better and stronger heading into 2020.
THE GOLD'S IN THE VAULT
Vault was Russia's best rotation in quals, giving the team a much needed boost after floor and horizontal bars. Denis took silver with his signature vaults and both were AMAZING. Maybe I'm too biased but I thought he deserved gold, I just don't like Ri Se Gwang's form. Also, Gwang vaults like a loose cannon whereas Nikita and Denis seem suspended in the air. But again, I'm probably too biased. In Nikita's case, he was outdone by others but you can't fault him for anything, nothing was amiss with either of his vaults. 5th at his first Olympic final is a fine testament to his ability and I think he has a ton of upgrade potential (even though his vaults are already so difficult!). Anyways, congrats to Denis Ablyazin again on another Olympic medal.
Well I have to go guys. I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors, I'm typing fast while the wifi remains. A lot more to come when I get back in two days!
.So the Olympics are over for artistic gymnastics but theres still RG and I want to rewind and focus on the men's trampoline competition as well. I'll be back to normal wifi on Sunday, so with limited time I'll just discuss how our artistic men's team did in the individual finals.
Excuse my terrible puns
PUMMELING THE POMMELS
It's generally a tragic event for Russia so weren't we were all pleasantly surprised when David and Nikolai qualified into the EF's while the whole team burst into flames on floor? If you're a fan of pommels you couldn't have asked for a better final; only Oleg had a breakdown, so that's pretty good considering even PH specialists have lower rates of consistency than those who specialise on other events. If you can score 15 on pommels 60% of the time people are bound to call you a boss. Well, neither of our guys medalled but that doesn't mean they didn't do a terrific job of making it hard on others. David had the third highest execution but only the sixth highest difficulty so he wasn't going to medal anyways. I think it's a good confidence booster that he made the Olympic final and scored a competitive mid 15 when no one would've blamed him for playing to safer or looking a little scrappy. He took the final as seriously as if he was the world's no. 1 and that's the right mentality the entire team should have when they go to competitions. Nikolai was great as well, and had the more serious chance of a medal but he made an error on his dismount (I believe he hopped off instead of doing the dismount out of a skill?) and that cost him a bronze. He needed to be perfect because Whitlock and Smith had higher difficulty and Naddour of USA had what I thought was the best execution of them all with high difficulty) so any mistakes form Nik would take him out, and it did. At least his good performance in EF's was a minor revenge on the apparatus after it ruined his chances of an AA medal.
I think of steel rings as the most stable event in MAG: few falls, few mistakes in general unless it's a dismount, and little to no headcasing amongst the teams. But truth is, while the rings might not produce the most stress, it is a very unpredictable EF; everyone has the same difficulty and they all execute really well! Denis qualified 4th into these finals and went up fourth in the starting order, after Petrounias, but before Zanetti. There's not really any upgrade Denis could've added last minute because it's SR and everyone's sort of capped at the same level. The most he could do was have a perfect routine and hope those who went after him stumbled. No one did but I still felt like this was the first SR final I've seen with significant gaps in scoring. Sometimes the difference between 8th and 1st can be less than four tenths, so it was gratifying to see judges able to discern who was especially gifted in his talent. Denis earned a bronze medal for his efforts, behind Petrounias and Zanetti, so the podium was made up of Olympic, World, and European champions. Congratulations on your bronze medal Denis, I'm excited to hear you're continuing with the sport next quad. Between the clutch veterans and the promising newbies, like Ivan and Nikita, Russia's prospects keep looking better and stronger heading into 2020.
THE GOLD'S IN THE VAULT
Vault was Russia's best rotation in quals, giving the team a much needed boost after floor and horizontal bars. Denis took silver with his signature vaults and both were AMAZING. Maybe I'm too biased but I thought he deserved gold, I just don't like Ri Se Gwang's form. Also, Gwang vaults like a loose cannon whereas Nikita and Denis seem suspended in the air. But again, I'm probably too biased. In Nikita's case, he was outdone by others but you can't fault him for anything, nothing was amiss with either of his vaults. 5th at his first Olympic final is a fine testament to his ability and I think he has a ton of upgrade potential (even though his vaults are already so difficult!). Anyways, congrats to Denis Ablyazin again on another Olympic medal.
Well I have to go guys. I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors, I'm typing fast while the wifi remains. A lot more to come when I get back in two days!
Comments
Post a Comment