Dual Delight

Dina Averina is our new All-Around champion, attaining the title after outscoring her next closest competitor- her sister, Arina- on every apparatus by sharp margins. It's a huge contrast to how they've been getting on most of the year, although even when the numbers are closer, Dina typically wins. She ends the year as she begun it at GP Moscow: the undisputed champion. Every one of her routines was delivered with trademark precision and intensity. She opened the competition hoping to put a gap between her and Arina, and indeed, her opener scored her the highest mark of the night with 18.850 to a black swan themed hoop routine. In fact, her highest scores came from the two apparatus she won individual titles on the previous day. By now, I think we're all familiar with Dina's work- so I won't go into minute details- but what I find so refreshing about her is that she's more disciplined than Arina in areas of technical expertise. Although she's scored higher in other AA competitions, none of her mistakes got the better of her abilities and she persevered when Arina slightly faltered. Sadly, I found her ribbon to be an uninspiring end to the night. It's my least favorite event from her repertoire and now she's got an ugly bolero costume to go with it so needless to say it was anticlimactic for me. She just looked silly gathering the ribbon for several seconds to stand with arms outstretched. For someone who's always upgrading I still can't believe she and her coach are satisfied with that ending. In any case, thanks to the monopolizing efforts of Russians Evgenia Kanaeva and Yana Kudryavtseva, Dina is only the fourth World Champion we've had in a decade!

A remarkable sign of the consistency the Averina twins have attained was made clear throughout three days of competition: Dina's quals AA is only .075 less than her final, Arina's is only a tenth lower. And it hardly needs reminding that each girl took home two individual titles- keeping the gold medals strictly in the family- with scores nearly identical to what they receive on each apparatus in the All-Around. Their stability was held in stark contrast to an AA final riddled with mistakes from the top 12 group (compared to Group B where gymnasts performed very well but were underscored). The business-like way the Averina's project on the carpet has won them many admirers and critics, with the latter group thoroughly turned off by performance presence taking a backseat to all that astounding difficulty. But for the fans, their concentration and devotion to accuracy is what makes them the only gymnasts capable of consistently mastering code breaking routines. And it's what'll make them a very hard duo to beat for the next three years.



Personally, I find the Averina's exciting not for their difficulty, which many Russians have (albeit not 10+ difficulty), but for how comfortable they are with changing their routines to push for more even when they've hit their accredited cap. There's always something being upgraded to make it even harder. But I also acquiesce to the critics who yearn for more artistry, and I'd like to hope the Averina's can someday incorporate musical interpretation with the acrobatics. Just like my personal queens: Vladinova, Pazhava, and Halkina. They never win the gold medals (EVER) but they win hearts. If Dina wants to occupy that type of affection she'll have to mature as a performer because, as crazy as it sounds, plenty of gymnasts get forgotten in our minds even with incredible records- solely because they've not given us things worth remembering in the long haul. Regardless of the code cap, the sport is still heading in an ambitious direction, so difficulty alone can't be a gymnast's claim to fame. Not when everyone is working at such a high level and each quad sees more difficulty than the last. But loveliness never loses its appeal and that's what RG fans cloyingly remember. Conveniently, it's also what the sport's about so the griping isn't without justifications.

With that being said, Arina and Dina deserve, and have, all my respect for refusing to stay in the shadows of Soldatova any longer. They've been crafting these routines since 2016 which explains why they were so prepared at the Grand Prix compared to everyone else. But truthfully they've always been excellent and I can recall them scoring near their current range for much of last year too. So I guess it's worth it to always seek the more because they've managed to break out and now they're the ones to beat. Congratulations to our new AA winner, and to her equally fabulous twin sister.



Results for the AA can be found here.

On a related note: I'm reaching the end of the rope with how many ways I can pun to death or word play the whole twin sister shtick in my titles .