The Miracle of Low Expectations

I'm gonna cut to the chase because I'm sure by now you've already seen the scores and watched the routines to know how our girls did in qualifications. Today was not as fruitful as podium training anticipated it would be...at least for Team Russia.  I gotta say, I've learned to control my emotions during competition because for the most part I remained very calm despite my heart being in turmoil. After all the disappointments this team has suffered, and I on their behalf, the miracle of low expectations is that I'm now capable of detachment and looking ahead to the next day. With Russia, you can't be sure that what starts out bad will end bad and vice versa. Let's get into it because there's not even 24 hours between quals and finals so one by one here are my thoughts on each girl:

Chin Up, Beautiful

Elena Eremina didn't have the day she wanted but if there were any positive takeaways from quals, she was most of them. Going off her social media I can tell Elena looks forward to competitions, that she actually seems to relish the thrill and the nerves. And ya know what? Yeah she fell, but it wasn't from suffering under nerves or lack of confidence. That mistake on her acro series would throw any Olympic beam champion if it happened to them so there should be no worries about her capacity to perform under pressure. She's hit most of her beam routines this year but still, a mistake can happen, and unfortunately it came at Euros and deprived her of a final. The judges gave her a 12.166 despite the fall and an almost fall (on the mount) so they clearly want her to be AA champion lol. On floor I was pleasantly surprised by her score because I watched Fragapane earlier and she got a 13.766 for a superb routine (in terms of landings anyways) featuring a chusovitina, dbl arabian, dbl layout, and dbl pike. Elena scored a tenth less for a three pass routine that opened with a full-in and ended with a double tuck. Great on Elena but I'd be reevaluating my priorities if I was Claudia. Lena's dty looks better than her 1.5 and I guess the explanation is that she's insecure about a blind landing. I'm happy about this upgrade- her triple off beam also looked better today than PT- and it was a great way to end the meet with a 14.446. She clearly let the beam mishap impact her but in the RIGHT kind of way, angering through the next two events and ending the day in fourth. She's only tenths behind the 2nd and 3rd place qualifiers and they're pretty maxed out in scoring while Elena would've undoubtedly been ahead of Downie if she had done her usual on beam. Overall, I was able to stop fretting about her being bumped from AA because I was sure she would make floor and bars finals, and she has, in addition to one more shot to get it right in the All-Around tomorrow night.

Wonder Women Returns

"Paseka. You're saving my job rn"

One minute she's dying of back pain, the next she's being pushed into retirement, after that she's considering surgery, then she's not, then she's training, then she's on the Euros team. The Life and Times of Maria Paseka. Never a dull moment with Masha and she hyped me up with an amanar and cheng in podium training. She played safe for quals but now that Elissa Downie is qualified in first I'm certain she's gonna thrown the heavier vaults in EF's. It's the Russian way. Her lopez was starfished (as usual) but trust me she'll thrown that cheng in the final if it kills her. And it will. The dty was terrific, and stuck, so she deserved the 14.6 but I concede that there were some who vaulted better dty's that received unfair lower marks. What can I say, it's a status bonus. Despite coming on board last minute, Paseka did her job, as she is wont to do. And the haters will continue in their duty to put her down and question why she makes teams. 

The next two girls ought to answer that.

Princess, Why? (Part II)

You can read Part I to this tragedy right here, just scroll on down to the end. So. After the second subdivision we were all fretting about who would bump Elena, right? I was like: 'Oh no Lena had a fall, she’s not gonna make it with Kapi and Melks to go. Wait...is this what having depth is? I hate this!' Kapi has the lowest difficulty and Melka's a mess but all three somehow manage to stay within each other's range of scores so both of them could've taken advantage of Lena's mistakes and moved ahead. They could've. They should've. Instead what they did do was fight over which of them would be in the final. Once it became clear Lena was in no trouble, I thought that Kapi would advance over Melka and I was right. Still, I was seriously disappointed with Kapitonova. I don't need her to be a great AAer or make AA finals- her d-scores can't always keep her in the top 24 everywhere- but what did disappoint me is that she's losing her consistency AND is regressing on her pet event. The plan was, be a great bar worker and be dependable everywhere else, like a utility player for the team. But in one fell swoop she managed to convince me it's a long shot she'll ever accomplish either of those things. What happened to her bars, people? Today she was so sluggish and inaccurate and hesitant- ...the hesitancy, that's what killed me! I could understand if it had been a year since we'd seen her last but she was slaying this event two months ago at Nationals. Yet, lately, if she's not falling she's barely surviving the encounter with her UB specialist label intact. Some people think Daria S. should've been here but a) hindsight is 20/20 and b) Natalia is now where Dasha has been for weeks. Neither of them seem capable of making a UB final. It would be mostly forgivable if Kapi was proving to be reliable on beam and just doing her best effort in the AA but she's not.

Then we have the pitiable Melka. The victim of her country's abysmal track record when it comes to transitioning girls from one year to the next in a healthy manner. I don't blame her y'know. I can't. I look back at the girl who was upset after every mediocre performance at Nationals and I can't reconcile her with this girl who seems unfazed by even costlier mistakes at Euros. It's Melka physically doing the falling and blustering oob's, but it's the coaches fault for the decline of this great athlete. Like I said in Part I, they kept pushing her and expecting a new result, when she had no time to grow into the person who was supposed to do these new things. Once she started getting humiliated on the international stage her confidence was replaced with toxic doubt. What happened to Melka would ruin the potential of any gymnast. You can't take a girl who's unfit at the start of the season and think it's a competition that's gonna work her into shape. Let's gain some perspective and source some international examples so you guys can understand this better. In 2016 the US senior team went to two international events back to back: Jesolo and Pacific Rim. Some girls competed on both teams... and did their performances drastically alter for better or worse? No, of course not, because the two days of training they had in between those competitions wouldn't make a difference. Those that performed excellently in Jeoslo performed likewise at Pacific Rim. See, those girls were in shape so doing back to back competitions won't tire them and guarantees a similar routine each time they perform. Melka was starting from a low point this season, fighting her way back from her own injury, and then blitzed through four competitions (not including the ongoing Euros), two of which were multi-day meets. The coaches should've known that nothing was going to change from week to week just like nothing's changed from last week's AA performance to this week's. Are any of us surprised that Melka didn't make the AA final? No, because we knew what to expect from her based on several recent 'tests.' If we simpletons can deduce the consequential effects of overusing an unfit gymnast why couldn't top trained coaches do that?

And poor Melka is at a loss as to why things aren't working out and I don't blame her for that either. Physically she's worn down and mentally she's fatigued so no matter how much she wants it, the limits to what she can do are in place until she gets that rest, recovery, and reboot. To use USA again (to prove this is not just about Melka being "a Russian"), Kyla Ross was in a very similar position in 2015 when she expressed the mental strain of leading the team and the physical damage it wreaked on her body after so often competing in less than stellar shape. She was permanently limited in what skills she could do which affected her psyche. She lost her confidence and thus her consistency, making numerous mistakes throughout a long season before retiring in 2016. Remember those days, when no one could quantify how steady-as-a-rock Kyla went from a secure spot to not making Worlds? Remember how we began to anticipate her falls, just as she did, and each time it occurred her reaction to it became more restrained? What happened to her occurred over a period of two years and culminated with retirement, and what's happening with Melka is like a micro version of that. She doesn't want to fall but she doubts she'll stand it up either, and worse than that, she believes she will fall because it's happened so often it's like validation of her doubts.

Okay no more about USA, I promise. But I really hope people see how they messed Melka up by tossing her back in a leotard before she was fit to compete. They did the same to Seda, who spent the winter vacationing, not training, and apparently she's injured for the foreseeable future. Angelina has to take personal responsibility for her performances, and she has, but I personally can't find it within me to blame her. I think no matter how much you love something, being motivated to fight for it requires a lot of conviction, and that's only gained by what you've already created. Melka has all these bad experiences burdening her and the sense of self worth and her place on this team is being tested. Without good experiences to build confidence it's hard to gain that conviction which urges athletes to fight, to endure, and to aim higher.

Other Thoughts

Congratulations to Elissa Downie, qualifying for every final. This is a huge achievement for any country and after 2 subdivisions of watching Russia it looks extra impressive. 

Cata almost making FX EF's: I hope the judges can find a magical five tenths for Lena tomorrow heeheehee.

Since Lena's not in the final I want Eythora to win beam gold. It's not gonna happen cuz she's a unicorn and all, and for this magical creature it's her consistency that's the myth.

A good day for Germany I'd say. The way they carry themselves and the quality of so many performances testifies to the wealth of their experience as veterans. I hope they're all healthy next year for World's.

Results are here.