I miss true All-Around gymnasts. By this I mean gymnasts that were competitive in both the All-Around and in all event finals. It was fairly common for the top All-Around gymnasts to be threats to qualify for all event finals in the past.
Let's take a look at the routines of the lovely Mighty Mo (yes, I know that she never pulled it together enough to dominate competitions, but I still love her, her routines, and her potential).
She could do everything and do it well.
I know that changes in the sport have facilitated the demise of All-Around gymnasts beyond what the gymnasts can control. The 6-6-5 format has not been around since 1992. The fact that not everyone has to compete on every event has led to the specialist movement. While this is advantageous for gymnasts with a particularly glaring weakness, it hurts the heart of the sport, the All-Around.
The last time a gymnast was really a threat to make every event final was in 2000. Jiang Yuyuan probably had the most potential to do this in 2008. Let's make everyone train two vaults again. Let's have a code that encourages looking awesome while preforming, as opposed to throwing the hardest skills you can kind of do. The winner of the team final should truly be the best, most well-rounded team instead of the team that messes up the least. Let's go back to 7-6-5 or 6-5-4 instead of 6-3-3 or 5-3-3. I want to see more gymnasts that can do it all and look clean and confident while doing it.
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Agreed!
ReplyDelete"The last time a gymnast was really a threat to make every event final was in 2000. "
ReplyDeleteUM Did you not remember that Nastia won the all-around and made 3 event finals? Floor, Beam, and Bars?
EVERY event final. Nastia didn't have a second vault, so she couldn't make vault finals. She did make every other final possible, though...
ReplyDeleteBesides not having a second vault, it's hard to classify someone as a threat to make all four event finals when the hardest vault she does is a Y1.5. That being said, Nastia obviously did very well in Beijing.
ReplyDeleteA lot of gymnasts aren't doing 2nd vaults these days. It's understandable because they only need to do 1 in the Team/AA competition. Why work a 2nd vault and risk injury? Rebecca Bross, Bridget Sloan, Aliya Mustafina (a few others) are still very strong all-around gymnasts, but I agree that it's nothing like it was 10 years ago.
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