a must see: 2000 Euros - Event Finals

Although it may not have been the best day in the history of gymnastics commentary, it's interesting and entertaining.

Nadia calls Produnova's bars "nothing special". Of course Isarescu is "conservative" but clean :)

She seems to like Viktoria Karpenko much better... until she calls her "robotic" - on beam.

Bart is not much nicer either. "look at her bangs, is that like an airfoil?" referring to Karpenko's hairstile while doing a Shushunova on floor.

I liked the fact that they show a little bit of the juniors, with Stroescu and Cojocar dominating the event finals. And you are not going to believe what was Pavlova's specialty. Uneven bars junior champ!

Part 1: bars final, with Produnova, Martinez, Isarescu, Khorkina, Karpenko 

or here

Nadia is openly bored with Khorkina's routine "Not only she can close her eyes and see her routine, I can close my eyes and see her routine" bwahahahaha

Part 2: Vaults by Moya, Zamo and Amanar, Karpenko and Khorkina on beam

or here

part 3 - Amanar and Zamo on beam, Karpenko on floor

or here

Yes,  Bart just called Svetlana "one cool character".

part 4 - Ludivine Furnon, Andreea Raducan and Simona Amanar on floor

or here

I did believe that Raducan was technically better than Ludivine Furnon but really, the French gave one of the most impressive performances I have EVER seen in an event final.

part 5 - and a very energetic take on Carmen by Produnova:

or here

25 reasons for which we love the 1999 Worlds (PART 2)

6) Maria Olaru

In her own words: "I never thought that my work could remain unrewarded... Honestly, at that time what happened seemed natural, I did not have doubts that I wouldn’t win. I was actually waiting for the contest knowing that it will happen… The evening before the AA final... it was not a premonition, I was simply having the positive nerves, a good positive feeling and eagerness. In the previous contests, the team finals and the qualifications I ended up on first place all around, it was an unofficial title but therefore I knew that I only had to do my job the next day.

It was a deja-vu feeling, I could visualise that I will be overwhelmed by the press, that after I won I would be very busy and would not have the time to sign autographs for everybody. So the night before, in order not to upset people, I prepared 2000 autographs. And then this really happened. After I won they took me to the press conference, doping tests, everybody wanted me somewhere so because I was prepared I shared my autographs and I wasn’t left with any. At the press conference, when they asked me “how do you feel about being a world champion?” and I answered “It was the natural thing to happen”, they were shocked by my answer. I was either very well prepared or this deja-vu affected my thinking."

Watch the entire interview here

7) The beam final

the finalists: Laura Martinez,  Maria Olaru, Dong Fanxiao, Anna Kovalyova, Olga Teslenko

the medalists: Olga Roshupkina finished third: her dance elements probably had the best amplitude in that final, she had a nicely choreographed and complex routine plus she made the side somis look artistic;

Andreea Raducan won silver: perfect lines, daring skills (full twisting back tuck), worked with confidence and determination, she was world champion material - 

but the judges gave it to the home favorite, Ling Jie: Andreea had one step out of the full twisting back tuck and a hop on the dismount; also her routine seemed slightly imbalanced - there was quite a lot of arm waving in the second half and maybe too little gymnastics;

So, Ling Jie with her beautiful choreography and perfect line was Beam World Champion 

As they say, it feels right when a Chinese wins the Beam title...

8) Team Australia

The 34th World Championship was was the most successful, up to that point, for Australia. The increased efforts dedicated to making their team a top player in the world started to pay off: it was the first time Australians qualified for the team finals (finished 5th ahead of US!), they had 3 gymnasts in the AA finals: Alana Slater (9th), Lisa Skinner (16th) and Trudy McIntosh (25th) and Trudy also managed to qualify for the VT finals placing 5th, just 0.025 away from the bronze medal.

I thought that their best apparatus, as a team, was the FX but they were looking very polished on uneven bars as well.

My favorite routine was Alana Slater's uneven bars:

9) Zamo

Elena Zamolodchikova was so tiny and had such a long name that the TV commentators used to say it would go around her leotard if gymnasts had to write their name on the back like soccer players. 

This was her first world championship and she made a strong impression through her gymnastics skills and also her charisma. She won the all around bronze and the gold on vault. The positive attitude, the bright smile, the explosive style instantly made her a star.

10) The team Finals: China's UB rotation

During the team finals, China had a great uneven bars rotation. They were spot on: three of their five competitors, Huang Mandand, Ling Jie and Liu Xuan,  got scores above 9.7.  

Even the other two gymnasts, that were not known as bars specialists managed to pull off beautiful routines which included a Comaneci release by Dong Fanxiao and a full twisting double straight by Bay Chunuye.

25 reasons for which we love the 1999 Worlds (PART 1)

(34th World Championships Artistic Gymnastics Tianjin (CHN) October 9 - 16, 1999) 

1) The Team Finals: Romania vs Russia


Romania: Amanar, Raducan, Olaru, Presecan, Boboc, Ungureanu
Russia: Khorkina, Produnova, Zamolodcikova, Lobazniouk,Kovalyova, Kuznetsova

I still remember that morning: it was my first year of high school and I had classes in the after noon. Back then, I was a pretty easily distracted "scatterbrained" child so I was always late for school. That morning I had serious reasons to forget to leave the house: Russia - ruled by the most annoying gymnast I had ever seen in my life, which I also considered my personal ennemy (I had changed my opinion since)- was challenging the Romanians – a bunch of  inexperienced lambs led by the shy Simona Amanar. 

And the final begins at around 9-10 am with Romania on beam and two disasters (Amanar and Ungureanu). The Russians on floor, could not care less: they manage solid routines and my number one ennemy puts on yet another outrageous performance for which she gets a ridiculously high score. On the next rotation things look okish: Romanians manage to recover a big part of the gap - they do not put a foot wrong on floor while Russia faces some long-messy-legs – all-over-the-place related problems on vault. Next: Russia’s darling apparatus – UB- where everything goes according to plan for them, while Romania gets honorable scores on VT.

Final Rotation: Romania on UB… oh well, we know what that usually means. Not that day! Now, that I have re-watched the competition with more mature eyes, I can say that the judges must have been looking at some other apparatus… or maybe they were doing their nails.

Khorky - circa 1999-wearing one of
her most unfortunate leotards

Anyway, Russia does not have the same luck on BB but they are still ahead. And the last routine finally arrives: Sveta on Beam. Sveta the queen of long slow people. She needs a 9.4 (again, I know this because I watched it again a few weeks ago :P) And on her signature move, slowly, and gracefully steps outside the beam. A walk on air. And Romanians were champions again. And I was in the 9^th grade and I got to school 30 minutes later only to find my colleagues in the courtyard waiting for the teacher who was late.

Coolest day of that fall :) 

2)Khorkina on UB

That year, unlike many other times, her favorite apparatus seemed to be on her side: qualifications, TF, AA, EF, she hit 4 good ones at the same competition!

Besides her Uneven Bars Gold, Khorkina also medalled on floor.
You can watch all her routines from the 1999 Worlds here.

3) Octavian Belu - at the height of his coaching wisdom.
It was around that time when Belu, who had already led Romania to three Team Golds in a row, started to be more transparent with his coaching philosophy. He was by then a very successful coach. Three times world champion is not an accident. He felt he had brought to the table the facts and now it was the right moment for him to speak comfortably about his team. He declared that his motto as a coach was "Never enough", that he was not satisfied and nor does he know the feeling.  


4) The Newcomers - the gymnasts that were for the first time at a World Championship had a great success that year: they won 4 out of five individual golds. Gymnasts such as Raducan, Zamo, Olaru, Olga Roshkupkina, Little Lobazniouk, Laura Martinez, Esther Moya, and many many more took the world by storm in the pre-olympic year. It was a feast of newcomers that shone through their artistry and brought the competition to a whole new level.

5) Elise Ray

She was the best US gymnast of the moment and much more than that. For me, Elise had all the qualities: pretty decent consistency, original skills, great technical abilities, some pirouettes and handstants on UB that were quite rare back then, a wonderful floor routine (nice choreo, good execution and a triple twist to punch front on the first pass) interesting gymnastics overall . Vault was the only piece of the puzzle missing.

She placed 8th in the all around and 7th in the Uneven Bars final. But it was a real shame she did not won a medal on floor... I would have given her the bronze over khorky:)

Watch Elise's Floor in the AA