The Sunrise & Sunset of Two Programs

As the announcement for Ellie Downie's floor score came in, she was crowned the European champion with fresh tears of gratitude on her face, and Elena sat stoic in her seat as tears of a different sort came to her eyes and she began to sob. But the race was never between her and Ellie, and the final score was only confirming what became obvious after de Jesus' vault: she was not getting a medal. I don't think I breathed through any of her routines. I have no words of comfort or solace for her or Russian fans. Not because I'm angry, just because what can be said? The situation is exactly like 2015 Worlds TF; there can be no ill feelings towards those that beat her as they justly deserve to be rewarded for their competence.

It's still unbelievable.

There's talent to be found but the WAG program continues to sunset in regards to AA. Russia you have a beam problem. You are not putting these girls through enough full routine repertoires. You must condition their legs to get the strength to fight for landings on every apparatus. You must evaluate the competency of routine construction if there is a negative pattern of performance. How can this not be obvious. According to Valentina, (and she's part of the reason we regress), the score board was showing incorrect standings throughout the day so they thought Eremina had bronze, until the score board was corrected. No wonder Elena was crying, she was misled...but still, it can't have been that unexpected- she scored lower than quals on every event except for beam.

She just...comes off. Like, her legs are as frail as leaves in the wind! I know they prefer
the 'light touch' as their style of gymnastics- but what about squeezing through
your core, your thighs, try planting your feet. Is that taught anymore?

At this time last quad, it seemed the men's program was the one in need of fixing but since 2015 our guys have been killing it at the European and World level. Not to say they did badly before then (they won the 2014 Euros TF for instance), but they were over reliant on Denis Ablyazin for success. Now, in addition to Denis and David, we have Artur, Nikita, and Dmitrii blazing their way towards the top and it's very exciting. Russia has great MAG AAer's and the program in it's overall depth has seen a sunrise when many thought it was doomed. I hope the day will come when they dominate and people stop expecting them to flake at competition. We're not in the same realm of depth as Japan or China but since they can't send their army to world's, it's just their six best guys versus ours and we hold our own. I'm proud of Artur Dalaloyan who proved everyone wrong by consistently matching his performances over two days to take silver behind Oleg Verniaev in the men's All-Around. He was calm and collected like I'd never seen him before. And his gymnastics? Gorgeous (seriously watch him WAG fans). A huge accomplishment, Artur, molodets. 

The best.