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Favorite Routines: Courtney McCool, Balance Beam

For this installment of Favorite Routines, I am featuring Courtney McCool on the balance beam.

I wanted to feature this routine for several reasons: obviously it's beautiful. Next, Courtney's execution is superb.

 She's really a very tiny little thing, but she extends her legs and her toes until they can't stretch any farther and it makes her look so poised.  Every thing down to her last pinky toe is meticulous. She moves so gracefully and with such ease and precision.  Courtney does one of my favorite Onodis ever, it's better than Nastia's. The only part where one can really criticize is she under-rotated her triple twist dismount.

Until recently, Courtney was coaching with Mary Lee Tracey at Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. Her influence on those girls is shown in their execution, particularly with a young Emily Gaskins who is already showing some very McCool-esque qualities as an elite.

For 2014 gymnastics, I want to see more flawlessly executed routines like this one. I know this routine is ten years old now, but it's still beautiful and breath taking. I hate to use the term "artistic" to describe this routine, because for me, artistry is such a blanket term. This is virtuosity.

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