#aliya’s first olympic ub title

[musaliya]

it’s missing 2010-2012 Team Russia hours

[queen-chengfei]

AA Performances of the Decade—as voted by the gymternet

Ok some of you might remember I put together a vote for the best routines of the decade as a run-up to the Olympics, and then I TOTALLY forgot to post the final one in the series, which was favorite all-around performances. Since Tokyo 2020 isn’t happening, I thought I should go back and finish off writing out this one. For your quarantine viewing pleasure, here are your favorite all-around performances of the decade, as voted by the tumblr gymternet.

I found individual links to routines for every gymnast on the list, and full replays for all the AA competitions featured:

2010 Worlds 2010 YOG 2011 Worlds 2012 Olympics 2014 Worlds 2016 Olympics 2017 Worlds 2018 Worlds 2019 Euros 2019 Worlds

1. Aliya Mustafina (RUS)—2010 Worlds (40 votes)   VT / UB / BB / FX The winner by a LANDSLIDE. Proud of all of you—time could not erase the euphoria of witnessing the coronation of Queen Aliya. And because I know we all live for this shit, here’s Aliya+Russian anthem

2. Simone Biles (USA)—2016 Olympics (19 votes) VT / UB / BB / FX The GOAT. One of the most dominant AA showings in history.

2. Morgan Hurd (USA)—2017 Worlds (19 votes) VT / UB / BB / FX She is the only gymnast who has won a World all-around title since the Simone era began, though her 2017 program deserves more than just comparison. As a first year senior, facing immense pressure and Montreal’s horrible lighting, she produced a clean and consistent day, topped off by a well-executed and difficult floor routine with beautifully interpreted choreography.

4. Larisa Iordache (ROU)—2014 Worlds (15 votes) all routines Romania’s best AAer in recent years, Larisa gave Simone a run for the gold, missing out by only a few tenths. Only #TrueLegends take an extra long choreo break in the corner to decide if they should upgrade their last pass to a piked full-in, and then actually go for it in a final bid for the gold.

5. Shang Chunsong (CHN)—2016 Olympics (10 votes) VT/ UB/ BB/ FX I AM ETERNALLY SAD ABOUT THIS. She finished at a heartbreaking 4th place, just 0.116 away from bronze, reigniting complaints from 2015 about underscoring and generating the #SongsongWasRobbed movement.

6. Mai Murakami (JPN)—2018 Worlds (8 votes) VT / UB / BB / FX One of the best Japanese female gymnasts ever, Mai has been a force on the international stage since her senior debut in 2012. In 2017, she had a golden opportunity to win AA gold over Hurd, but fell off the beam and the medal podium. In 2018, she took her opportunity and won silver, showing her chops as a floor champion with a routine featuring a double double and double layout. She became Japan’s first ever (edit:)silver AA medalist (sorry i forgot u Koko), and jumped tearfully into the stands to hug her equally tearful mother.

7. Gabby Douglas and Viktoria Komova (USA)—2012 Olympics (7 votes each) Gabby VT / UB / BB / FX Vika VT / UB / BB / FX

I PROMISE I DIDN’T RIG THIS, but it’s maybe fitting one of the biggest AA controversies of the last decade ended up tying each other, head to head. Gabby, a dark horse prior to the competition, made history and became the first black Olympic AA champion. With high difficulty and clean execution highlighted by a stand-out bars routine with soaring flight elements and difficult floor routine, Gabby edged out Viktoria Komova to become Olympic champion.

And Vika. Oh Vika. Ever since her rocket to fame at 2010 YOG, she was hyped to become the next great Russian star. With amazing toepoint, gorgeous lines and huge difficulty, she seemed set to fulfill her destiny when she came first in qualifications. However, despite a strong performance including a near-perfect floor routine, she fell short of gold by just a few tenths. Curses to those extra steps she took on her vault!!

9. Aly Raisman (USA)—2016 Olympics (6 votes) all routines YES I CRY WHEN I WATCH HER FLOOR, WHAT OF IT.

10. Tang Xijing (CHN)—2019 Worlds (2 votes) all routines After spectacularly choking in qualifying and getting 2 per’d out of the AA final, Tang Xijing got a second chance when she was substituted for her teammate Liu Tingting, and took full advantage by becoming the first Chinese AA medalist since Yao Jinnan in 2011, and matching the highest result achieved by Jiang Yuyuan in 2010.

The following received one vote apiece

Angelina Melnikova (RUS)—2019 Worlds VT / UB / BB / FX

Viktoria Komova (RUS) 2010 YOG  all routines 2011 Worlds VT / UB / BB / FX

Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos (FRA)—2019 Euros VT / UB / BB / FX

Ellie Black (CAN)—2017 Worlds all routines

[thehonoraryamerican]

Stacked Up - 2012 Olympic UB EF

Next on Stacked Up; the 2012 Olympic bars final!

While not near as competitive as the 2012 Olympic floor final, the bars final from the same Games was still a hotly anticipated battle at the top. Let’s look at our top eight qualifiers:

1. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 2. He Kexin (CHN) 3. Viktoria Komova (RUS) 4. Yao Jinnan (CHN) 5. Aliya Mustafina (RUS) 6. Gabby Douglas (USA) 7. Elisabeth Seitz (GER) 8. Koko Tsurumi (JPN)

The battle for the medals in this final was always expected to concentrated around the top five finalists. While strong bar workers, the last three qualifiers would have had to see a few mistakes at the top as well as being absolutely on top of their game to challenge for a medal.

Let’s have a look at the accolades in this final. We had:

- The reigning Olympic champion and former World champion; He (2008 Beijing; 2009 London) - The reigning World and European champion; Komova (2011 Tokyo; 2012 Brussels) - A former two time World champion; Tweddle (2006 Aarhus, 2010 Rotterdam) - The reigning Olympic all-around champion; Douglas (2012 London) - A former World all-around champion; Mustafina (2010 Rotterdam)

With the exception of Jinnan and Douglas, you can see the top half or so of the final was basically reserved for title holders, and these were the girls who were wholly expected to challenge. Let’s dig a little deeper into accolades that weren’t titles:

Beth Tweddle - Two World bronze medals on bars, 2003 Anaheim and 2005 Melbourne - Four time European champion on bars, 2006 Volos, 2009 Milan, 2010 Birmingham, and 2011 Berlin - European silver medalist on bars, 2004 Amsterdam - European bronze medalist on bars, 2002 Patras

He Kexin Major titles aside, He had little to no other accolades on the uneven bars, aside from her World Cup Final win in Madrid in 2008.

Viktoria Komova - All-around World silver medalist, 2011 Tokyo - Youth Olympic Games all-around and uneven bars gold medalist, 2010 Singapore

Yao Jinnan - All-around World bronze medalist, 2011 Tokyo

Aliya Mustafina - All-around Olympic bronze medalist, 2012 London - World silver medallist on bars, 2010 Rotterdam - European silver medalist on bars, 2010 Birmingham NB: Mustafina would go on to win numerous other medals in both the all-around and bars events, but in the years following the Olympics.

Gabby Douglas Individually, Gabby Douglas’ only major achievement was winning the Olympic all-around just a few days prior to the bars final.

Elisabeth Seitz - European all-around silver medalist, 2011 Berlin

Koko Tsurumi - World silver medalist on bars, 2009 London - World bronze medalist in the all-around, 2009 London Koko also won a bronze medal in the 2008 World Cup Final

While not as stacked as the floor final, the bars final still had a hotly anticipated competition at the top of the pack. Aliya Mustafina, who had sat out a year from injury in 2011, reigned supreme, breaking Russia’s gold medal drought in Olympic gymnastics that had lasted since 2000. He Kexin became the first Chinese woman to medal on the same event in consecutive Olympics by chasing Aliya up for the silver, while Beth Tweddle made history by grabbing bronze after a few large steps on her dismount, the first Olympic gymnastics medal for the British women. It was an exciting final all the way through, and surely, the accolades accompanying it speak that for themselves!

[kateua]

I'm glad you had fun! Yes I love tennis so much too! I feel ya, I get way too attached to so many athletes and always want all of them to win and they just can't and it always depresses me but I just never seem to learn 😂 what's your favourite ever Olympics and worlds for RG & AG that would watch a lot of and your 1 favourite routine from each!

hmm, i think Sydney 2000. for RG, not AG lmao. it’s the first Olympics i remember watching and my first two RG idols, Tamara Yerofeeva and Olena Vitrychenko, competed there. it’s also one of the few Games where i actually liked the gymnast who won lol (Yulia Barsukova was spectacular!). i used to rewatch it a lot on my VCR. i watched a recorded version of it after school since the competition was too early for us and i missed most of the live broadcast. my fave routine from there is Toma’s ribbon in the AA final, but i’ve already shared it along with Olena’s ball, so i’ll choose Barsukova’s iconic ball routine to add some diversity (and cheat a little on your one-routine rule =P).

Worlds - Kyiv 2013. because i actually went there and saw all of it in person!!! there were many disappointments in terms of results, but also many great and memorable performances. like Alina Maksymenko’s golden hoop in the finals.

as for AG… from what i’ve seen, i think it’s Rio 2016. i was especially happy for Oleg, Simone, and Sanne with their titles. and Aliya Mustafina’s uneven bars routine in the finals was a highlight

Worlds - wow, it’s so hard to choose. i’ll go with Nanning 2014. my Ukrainian boys did great there! Oleg won the bars title (i liked the PB podium in general) and Igor got silver on vault. also Larisa finished with the AA silver and a couple of EF medals (i miss those times omg 3). event finals brought some nice performances. i’ve already mentioned that i was impressed by Verniaiev’s PB routine and Bai’s BB, so this timemy pick will be Yao Jinnan’s UB in the finals =)