My impression of the 2014 Europeans ( Seniors) New GGMB and Lex

Doc and Kerri Fairy have decided to start a new GGMB and you can find the link to that blog here. If you feel the need to discuss GGMB and the aftermath of the apocalypse PLEASE take all discussion to that particular blog GTT is now back to discussing gymnastics. I want to thank my regular followers for being their classy selves and ignoring it all 🙂

DISCLAIMER

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lex was discussed in the comments section of the GGMB blog and I think the bullies that laughed at his death and continued to harass him on line before his suicide should think about getting fucking therapy. For those who don’t know who Lex was he was a former gymnast and a huge gym fan that used to post on all the gymnastics boards back in the day. I remember a few conversations we had at the gymn.com chat room and he seemed like a smart sincere young man.

He had some great montages on youtube that I can no longer find. You can read his obituary here.

My impression of the 2014 Europeans ( Seniors)

Simone Biles and Kyla Ross (upgraded or not) have nothing to worry about if these Europeans are any indication of what will happen at Worlds this October. Sadly my overall impression of these Europeans is that a lot of team are in trouble if they don’t do something to drastically improve their depth and consistency in the up and coming months.

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Giulia Steingruber winning the Vault title with a Yurchenko full (A piked one no less) is why I think the US should be able to use 3 vaulters at every competition even if the gymnast isn’t on the team. Mckayla Maroney, Simone Biles and MyKayla Skinner all would have won this title doing vaults with their eyes closed. Its a sad state of the sport when a YURCHENKO FULL can win a vault title in 2014. No offense to Giulia who has a more difficult vault and chose not to compete it. A smart thing to do for her but terrible for the sport. Though she did gamble with only doing the Yurchenko and you could tell by the look on her face she knew it would be close.

How great was it to see Anna Pavlova smile? Okay so she slipped off the podium and was caught and that is why she smiled but IMO she should have won this vault final. Her DTY had some feet issues and was piked but the form before that was dead on ( how did she score less that Iordache’s mess of a DTY?)

Maria Kharenkova’s beam routine was a hot mess of a lot of skills with a lot of bobbles but I kind of like her. Not sure why and if you need any more proof that Aliya Mustafina is not the diva NBC pretends she is watch the reaction of Maria when she turns around and see’s her after her routine. That isn’t a fake I am happy to see you its a genuine excited reaction to seeing her teammate.

Claudia Fragapane’s floor routine seems to be the new favorite of the gymternet at these Europeans but I don’t understand why. She seems spastic and out of control and down right sloppy. While I like some of the choreography even if it is a bit quirky I think she would do herself a favor by taking a little out of it to conserve energy. She has so much amazing tumbling that I think resting a little in between her tumbling would help the quality of the overall routine. I know we as gym fans are always complaining there isn’t enough Choreography in floor routines these days but that isn’t the way to go with this code. Code whoring is the way to be.

The reason I chose this video above of her routine is this was my favorite leotard of the competition. The US should use this for Worlds this year.

I am not a big fan of the Great Britain seniors at this meet. They just are not my type of gymnast and while I despise cry babies and sap stories I have to admit I like Becky Downie’s bar routine. She has a few small feet separations but stayed on and did a great job deserving her win.

The unofficial AA champion and star of this Europeans belongs to Larisa Iordache. She led her team to gold. Won gold on floor by herself and won medals in 3 of the 4 Event Finals. She pretty much carried her team to victory.

Romania’s reaction to their team win at Europeans. It was nice to hear Beth Tweddle commentate.