A Star Is Born : An EYOF Summary

Here's my synopsis of the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival which occurred last week. Firstly, let me extend my congratulations to all members of Team Russia for winning the gold in the MAG and WAG team finals. EYOF is a gateway to larger multidisciplinary events- not least of which is the Olympics- and some individuals really impressed me by how well they handled the overall atmosphere and pressure of this high profile meet.

Golden

The results of the 2017 EYOF gymnastics competition can be found here, but much of the excitement vanished for me when they neglected to show a livestream. Because I have not seen much gymnastics- until the event finals- I've not felt driven to write about it. Our sport's exclusion from live coverage is puzzling because it was a high ticket seller, or so I heard. What I have below are just some jotted down thoughts as I watched the scores come in and some reactions to the videos taken by fans during the EF's. One last thing I should mention is that I'm cautious about hyping juniors or predicting their future capabilities (bcuz it's obvious heartbreak)... but at the same time it's impossible not be optimistic when the scores are sooooo good. I realize a great deal of foresight is required if you're to survive this fandom but I gotta live in the moment and treat myself to celebration when there's a worthy cause for it. Russian successes in artistic gymnastics are not accidental and the latest victory is special because this team never broke concentration when striving for the gold.

(The rest of my thoughts concern WAG since I can't get excited about MAG without some videos).

Team Final

Rightfully, they came into this meet as the favorites for gold but that doesn't mean everyone thought so, nor could they afford to fall (they did that anyways) and remain in the lead. They ended up winning by more than a point but Italy was as much to blame for that as anything else. At the Jesolo tournament, the Russian juniors took bronze behind Italy and USA but this time they had less splats and better arranged, improved routines to keep them steadily ahead in Gyor. That and the fact that two scores counted, not three. Surprisingly nice work was done on floor from Zubova and Klimenko and only Zubs took a fall on beam. It's hard to opine without actual footage but the scores indicate our girls are competent with acrobatics on floor, and even beam. Bars was Russia's worst apparatus, a surprising contradiction only if you consider Zubova and Saifulina good bar workers. Vault was standard but boosted by Valeria's contribution. This was a team gold captained by, and CARRIED by Klimenko, very reminiscent of Aliya dragging her stumbling teammates to gold in 2010. Without the weight of Ksenia's superb AA performance we couldn't have fended off Italy's more well rounded team. The Italian juniors are packing more difficulty so while they return home to work on execution and consistency, we must prioritize turning more of our juniors into top tier All Arounders. As it is, each of them has a reason to return home with confidence after EYOF and that should abet them in upgrading smartly.

Valeria Saifulina

Valeria did what was asked of her: scored as best she could on beam (13.2) and vault (14.0) to make it count in the team final, and won the vault final. I've heard her vaulting has improved since Jesolo but even then I found her promising. With a coveted dty in her arsenal, she has plenty of time to develop on a second apparatus (which could eventually make her vital to team assignments). I'd like for her to be a vt/fx specialist but her growth spurt exposed her weak tumbling technique, and following the typical trajectory, she won't get back to her prior level (which was never super impressive). Bars is not out of the question, though; Rodionova, Tutkhalyan, and Paseka are proof Valeria might have a chance there. She's something of a wild card because she's got no second vault to be a true vault specialist, and yet she's in the minority of girls on her team with a good dty- and she's quasi dependable elsewhere. In my opinion, she's the type of gymnast coaches need to invest in, in case her stronger teammates burn out. Congrats to Valeria for two gold medals at this competition.

Ksenia Klimenko

Thirteen year old rising junior, Ksenia Klimenko, led Russia to a team gold medal and followed up with three more golds in the all-around, on beam, and on floor, making EYOF undoubtedly the best performance of her career. The difference between her qualifications and her final AA result was a mere tenth, she was that consistent! She also performed wonderfully during each day of competition, hitting 11/11 routines. I'm familiar with Zhenya's work so I don't necessarily need to see videos to visualize how her 14.050 beam looked (although it's cruel to see Russians putting up 14's on beam without proof it happened. Why do we always have videos of them bombing lol?) She is stunning to watch on beam, bars, and floor with a style and grace reminiscent of Anastasia Grishina, if lacking in some of the finer points of polish and expression. In the bars final, we were treated to spectacular routines from Elisa Iorio (ITA) and Ksenia, with both girls nailing their difficult bars sets and earning high execution for their lovely swing, high releases, and killer handstands. They went 1-2 in that final and I felt Iorio deserved the gold. It's frustrating that I cannot salivate over videos that cover the length of this meet but, in any case, the scores don't lie and what Zhenya showed us in Gyor is a composure and confidence that belies her youth. She's been on the radar for years and her scores always hinted at bigger things to come but it's nice to see it actually happening in no less a moment than the Olympic accredited Games for promising youth.

Floor final: 13.266

                                                                       Beam final: 13.866

Bars final: 14.066

Varvara Zubova

Rounding out the team is Varvara Zubova who won a bronze medal in the all-around. I've reserved most of my mixed feelings for Zubs because, frankly, I'm not drinking the kool aid from this one. She made costly mistakes in the team final, and fell once each day in either quals or the TF. Yes, she managed to surprise the hell out of me with a full twisting double layout off bars, but I would've preferred she medalled in her supposed areas of strength since we won't be looking to her for a UB role in the long run. She never qualified to the beam final but she struck back with a vengeance in the AA and tied for the highest beam score with Klimenko's 14.050. Thankfully, someone took a video and it's super blurry with a dream like quality: am I dreaming, is that really Zubova finally handling all three of her flight series? In an international competition? My god, her form even looks unoffensive through this filter! Effective immediately, all videos of Zubs on beam should be delivered in this quality. She did make the floor final, another area of strength, but she ended in last place despite nothing being disastrous. She was actually incredibly accurate with her landings out of leaps and tumbling passes and her choreography and music were entertaining. Her low e-score, maybe a tad harsh, is not without justification. She under rotated her double tuck and had a low chest position and a big step forward, her twisting form is leggy (and I'm not even up close watching her) and her 1.5y is one of those unpretty 160° y-turns. So with Zubs, I can't decide if I should just be happy she managed to win some medals or if it's even worth it to get angry that she could be achieving more. At the base of my dilemma is my belief that Zubova's gymnastics is the second coming of Evgenia Shelgunova and will not be suitable for a senior elite career, so that's why I can't fathom whether I should invest my emotions (good or bad) in her results or be indifferent. But I am pleased that she finally performed an awesome beam routine internationally and that it helped to overcome her errors elsewhere in the AA. And I like her floor routine, it's clever and it suits her.

Beam AA: 14.050

Bars final: 13.300

Floor final: 12.566

Sergei Naidin

I couldn't keep up with MAG without a livestream or videos but I was on Twitter for the PH final thus I realized Sergei Naidin now holds two European titles on pommels. But why is his D-score 4.8 while Jamie Lewis (GBR) has a 5.7? I thought Sergei's routine was more competitive than that? A fall from Lewis sealed his fate but Sergei had the best execution by a long shot; the closest competitor was still five tenths behind. In addition to his gold on pommels and in the team final, Sergei snagged gold on the parallel bars and bronze in the rings final.

The future is brighter than I expected among our junior men. 

Our girls medalled on every apparatus. Woot woot!