Quick, who were the Olympic All-Around Champions in 2000? Alexei Nemov and, um, Simona Amanar? It always takes me an extra second to remember that Amanar’s name is officially at the top of the list. With 50% of the field competing on a vault that was set 5 cm too low, the playing field was hardly fair. American Elise Ray suffered a scary crash when she missed the vault entirely in warm-ups, and then proceeded to fall on both vaults during the biggest competition of her life. “It really scared me. I felt something was wrong but I didn’t know what it was. I was so disappointed. It carried over to the next three events. I can’t believe a setting could be wrong at the Olympic Games.” (source: International GYMNAST magazine, November 2000)

Five of the gymnasts from the affected rotations did decide to take another attempt: Elise Ray (who by then had already fallen off the balance beam), Sara Moro (ESP), Galina Tyryk (UKR), Lisa Mason (GBR) and Jana Komrskova (CZE).

Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, a gold medal contender, crashed on vault in the first rotation and then found herself in the wrong mental mindset before her best event: the uneven bars. She then fell on a Stalder-Tkatchev on an event where she was already a 4-time World Champion and the defending Olympic Champion. It was only after the disastrous bars routine that Khorkina was advised of the equipment error in her previous rotation. She chose not to repeat the vault.

After seeing several mistakes on vault during the preliminary rounds, one cannot help but wonder if perhaps the vault was set to the wrong height at this time as well. There were several crashes not characteristic of an Olympic Games to which the gymnasts have devoted years of their training. Here is a montage posted by maloneystibiarod. You’ll notice that every single one of these gymnasts underrotates the vault due to insufficient block off the horse.

2000 Sydney Olympic Gymnastics Vault Crashes – Was the vault too low in prelims?

0:05 to 0:16 Elise Ray misses her hands in warm-ups

0:17 to 0:26 Her competition vaults

0:27 to 0:34 Svetlana Khorkina’s timing is off

0:35 to 0:37 The vault height is reset

0:41 to 0:51 Allana Slater (AUS) shows horrendous technique, form and execution (totally atypical of her usual gymnastics!). She was the first gymnast to notice the incorrect vault setting.

0:52 to 1:00 Liu Xuan (CHN) underrotated her Yurchenko-1.5 and could have seriously injured her knees

1:01 to 1:03 Brooke Walker (AUS) actually overrotated her vault

1:04 to 1:20 Chinese Kui Yuanyuan’s Olympic Games were over after this vault

1:21 to 1:33 Slater’s second vault is even worse than the first. She’s lucky she wasn’t hurt (and that the judges didn’t give her a 0.000 for not having her feet touch the ground first!)

1:34 to 2:24 Kristen Maloney (USA) hurts her leg on the first vault but prepares for her second vault like a trooper.

In addition to the vaulting error, there was of course the whole fiasco surrounding Andreea Raducan, the Romanian stripped of her All-Around Gold after pseudoephedrine from cold medicine was found in her system. I don’t think most gymnastics fans would believe that this substance could possibly have given her an advantage over the competition. In fact, it is no longer listed as banned substance by the IOC, and yet her name has been removed from Olympic All-Around records. It’s a pity that due to the faulty vault setting and the pseudoephedrine scandal, Amanar’s Olympic win will always have a large asterisk beside it.

Here’s a great montage posted by mfinger that pretty much sums up the All-Around event at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: some great gymnastics, some botched vaults, some unexpected errors on floor…and China’s first medal in the All-Around, courtesy of Liu Xuan!

Sydney – Khorki, Zamo and Karpenko’s disaster

0:04 Simona Amanar (ROM)

0:22 Yelena Zamolodchikova (RUS)

0:34 Andreea Raducan (ROM)

0:48 Svetlana Khorkina (RUS)

1:14 Standings after the first rotation: Khorkina in the lead

1:17 Amanar

1:25 Zamolodchikova

1:43 Raducan

1:54 Khorkina

2:15 Adjusting the vault to the proper height

2:20 Viktoria Karpenko (UKR)

2:46 Standings after the second rotation: Zamolodchikova in the lead

2:48 Raducan

2:57 Khorkina

3:15 Karpenko

3:34 Amanar

3:51 Karpenko

4:31 Raducan

Interesting side notes: Raducan was one of the gymnasts to vault on the incorrect setting during the All-Around, but she still managed to score 9.706! Even though her Gold medal was taken from her, she was allowed to keep her Silver vault medal a couple of days later, as the pseudoephedrine had cleared her system by this point.

The inaugural Montreal World Cup was a great success in the men’s field. Seasoned veterans such as Razvan Selariu (ROM), Krisztian Berki (HUN) and Daniel Popescu (ROM) won Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse and Vault, respectively. Danny Rodrigues (FRA), a finalist at the Beijing Olympics on Rings, won this event in Montreal with two Victorian Crosses!

Danny Pinheiro Rodrigues, 2009 Gymnix, Rings

Check out the Victorian Crosses at 0:27 and 0:53!

Aljaz Pegan (SLO) demonstrated the skill named after him (double front-half release) in warm ups on the High Bar but unfortunately didn’t end up competing.

Aljaz Pegan, 2009 Gymnix, High Bar Warm Up

Canadian Nathan Gafuik managed to win a medal in each final he entered: Silver on the Floor Exercise and Bronze on Vault. This World Cup was also a coming out party for Adam Kierzkowski (POL) who won Parallel Bars, and Marijo Moznik (CRO) who won High Bar. There were also several Japanese newbies who produced some fantastic gymnastics: gorgeous handstands on Parallel Bars, a high Kolman (full-twisting double back release) by Yosuke Hoshi, and a stuck Kasamatsu-2.5 by Koji Yamamuro following a lightning-fast run.

Koji Yamamuro, 2009 Gymnix, Vault

Unfortunately, the women’s portion of the competition left much to be desired, expecially on Vault where only Charlotte Mackie (CAN) was a serious competitor (Puerto Rican Maricarmen Rivera produced a decent layout Tsukahara first vault but only competed a handspring as her second vault). Mackie earned a medal of each colour in Montreal, including the Silver on floor Exercise and Bronze on Balance Beam.

Charlotte Mackie, 2009 Gymnix, Vault 2

Round-off, half on, tucked barani

Marine Petit (FRA) was the only Olympian in the women’s field, and she showed steady work on her way to winning Silver medals on both Uneven Bars and Balance Beam. While watching Mattie Larson (USA) on Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, it soon became clear that she was the class of the field. Indeed, she won the two events she entered by about half a point. Her teammate, Samantha Shapiro, won Uneven Bars by a whopping 1.075 despite having an injured foot that prevented her from competing on other events.

Mattie Larson, 2009 Gymnix, Balance Beam

Sometimes the best part about attending a gymnastics competition is spotting the former gymnasts! Coaches on the floor included Teodora Ungureanu, Elvira Saadi, Yelena Davydova and Galina Marinova, while Amélie Plante, Julie Beaulieu and Yelena Grosheva were spotted in and around the arena. I also noticed Yekaterina Privalova and Ioan Suciu as judges. I wonder which other former gymnasts were present that I didn’t spot?!

Gymbyte and I have just returned from L’International Gymnix 2009, and it was an amazing weekend in Montreal! This was the inaugural year as a World Cup event and it was a great success, especially on the men’s side where many of the world’s top competitors were present.

The Junior Cup portion of the competition included female gymnasts from Canada, France, Russia and the USA. The International Cup female competitors competed alongside the juniors, with gymnasts representing Canada, Australia, USA, France and Peru.

My favourite Bits:

– The General Warm-Up. I saw the American girls going through the routine of donkey kicks, needles, walking on hands, twisting leaps, etc…all under the watchful eye of Marta Karolyi. The Russians’ warm-up routine included rows of back extension to 1.5 pirouette on hands to front roll to press handstand to 1.5 pirouette on hands.

General Warm-Up, International Gymnix 2009

– American Jordyn Wieber stole the show, winning all four events thanks to her level of difficulty, consistency and neat form. On Vault she performed a double-twisting Yurchenko, while on Beam she nailed her front aerial, one-hand backhandspring, layout combination and her standing full to back tuck. It was also a pleasure to see that Teodora Ungureanu’s protégée, Sabrina Vega, had been added to the roster at the last minute.

– One of my favourite routines of the evening belonged to Russian junior Yulia Belokobylskaya. Hers is the most balletic floor exercise in recent memory.

Yulia Belokobylskaya, International Gymnix 2009, Floor Exercise

– Canadian Mikaela Gerber’s floor exercise was every bit as gripping as Aisha Gerber’s Dire Straits routine. Both sisters exhibit interesting choreography and nice lines.

Mikaela Gerber, International Gymnix 2009, Floor Exercise

Stay tuned for Part 2…the Montreal World Cup!

Hello everyone! I am pleased to see that I’m getting a fair amount of traffic to my blog, and I want to give a special shout out to my friends from St. Catharines, Tallahassee, West Hollywood and New York City!

There are a few important tidbits of news circulating in the gymnastics world this week. To begin with, it has come to light that former gymnast Emilia Eberle (now known as Trudi Kollar) and choreographer Geza Pozsar are writing a book describing the alleged physical and emotional abuse they suffered or witnessed in Romania at the hands of Bela and Marta Karolyi. They have American Dominique Moceanu in their corner, too. She has been speaking out against the Karolyis’ training methods since before the Beijing Olympics, and has now encouraged others to do the same. More to follow when the tell-all book is eventually published….

Emilia Eberle, 1979 Chunichi Cup, Uneven Bars

Now for a bit of bad news: over the weekend, Anna Pavlova (one of my favourites!) tore her ACL on her 2.5-twist Balance Beam dismount at the DTB Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. She was carried off the podium by her coach/mother. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Here’s a montage which highlights her career up to and including the injury. Interestingly, it’s set to her Floor Exercise music from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Anna Pavlova Montage