MCSMaria's Artistic Gymnastics Blog

It's official, starting 2019 - the Super Six final will be no more and will be replaced by a four team final, thus eliminating the need for byes. The NCAA approved the new format change last week during the Division 1 Championship Oversight Committee meeting. Coaches voted in favor of this format over the summer. So how will this work? After reading the details, here is what I've come up with:

Worlds is over for another year (sigh).  While I'm still feeling nostalgic for Worlds, I'm going to recap the best and worst moments of the world championships with my Power Rankings. Power Rankings are a feature I usually do during NCAA season, but it's still appropriate for an event that all roads lead to in elite. For the "rankings" of the "power rankings" I'm going to rate an event on the basis of fail or win (occasionally and epic win or epic fail and the general moments of hilarity and heartbreakers. Let's get started.

They say all good things must come to an end and today, the World Championships will wrap up with the second and final day of event finals. Yesterday, the 2015 World Champions all defended their titles. What will the event finals have in store for us today? We will see the men's vault, parallel bars and high bar and women's beam and floor. Refresh the page every few minutes to get the updates. Here are the start lists for today's events: Currently they're showing warm ups for men's vault and women's beam. Morgan is wearing the ombre raspberry leo with red white and blue sparkles that Jade wore yesterday. Ellie Black is wearing a cerulean leo with sparkles in the shape of a maple leaf. Mai is wearing the leo that has "Nippon" on it in sequins, because rhinestones are for peasants. Men's vault is first and the athletes are being introduced. I don't seen any flame throwers, which is a mistake. HA. They could have Spaceballs the Fla...

The excitement of the World Championships continues with the final day of event finals and the final day of the championships. With five packed finals, this day is sure to offer up some heartbreaks, tears and more tears and possibly some blood. Let's take a look at what's in store for the final day of event finals and the World Championships. The events for today are men's vault, parallel bars and high bar and women's balance beam and floor exercise. I'll start with the women's events since that's what I'm most familiar with.

Morgan Hurd's life changed forever last night when she became the all-around World Champion. Morgan, an adorable, whip smart little sprite is an avid reader and a huge Harry Potter.  Today, Morgan received a congratulatory tweet from Harry Potter author, JK Rowling. The gymternet at large rallied together to retweet to Rowling to tweet to Morgan. Their efforts paid off greatly.

We've had an exciting week of highs and major heart breaks and beautiful memories made at the Montreal World Championships. There's still more to come with the event finals. Refresh the page about every five minutes to get the most recent updates. Here are the start lists for today: Warm ups are going on for the guys on floor. Lots of glorious shots of six packs. Oh hi Paseka with your construction worker back brace. Another random observation: Bram Verhofstad looks a lot like Grant Gustin, aka "The Flash." I'm just going to call him Flash from now on. Because that's what he reminds me of. The intro music is Ellie Black's floor music, I think.... I know it's someone's and I cannot remember whose it is at the moment. Walk outs are starting here in a sec. Camera is panning over the crowd. That is a MASSIVE stadium. You've got to make a grand entrance from a cloud of steam. Hello Kenzo! He's getting tons of cheering from t...

So now that our new all-around champions, Xiao Ruoteng and Morgan Hurd, have now been crowned, it's time for the event finals. Without further adieu, let's take a look at what's in store for us during event finals. Men: Floor, Pommel Horse & Still Rings Women: Vault & Uneven Bars

Tonight, a new queen of women's gymnastics will be crowned. This is a tight race as Ragan Smith and Mai Murakami qualified in first and second, separated by only 0.001, Mai with a 55.933 to Ragan's 55.932. Also contending is Elena Eremina, Russia's newest little darling with her Nabieva on bars. And you can never leave out the home team as Ellie Black is a major contender as well as Brooklyn Moors with her beautiful nostalgic, wistful floor routine. Also look out for Morgan Hurd, Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos of France, Nina Derwael of Belgium and her ridiculous bars and Diana Varinska of Ukraine. Refresh the page every five to ten minutes for updates. Here are the starting rotations - Starting on vault - Ellie Black Ragan Smith* Mai Murakami Morgan Hurd Elena Eremina Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos Ioana Crisan Starting on bars - Aiko Sugihara Nina Derwael Diana Varinska Tabea Alt Giulia Steingruber Angelina Melnikova Starting on beam - Brooklyn M...

Xiao Ruoteng of China took his throne as the newest all-around champion in men's gymnastics after defeating his enemies at the Battle of Bosworth... ahem, I men the men's all-around final. The Gymnastics Wars of the Roses will continue tonight in the name of crowning the newest queen of women's gymnastics. The biggest contender for the all-around title was Larisa Iordache, Of course, this was before she tore her achillies in the touch warm up during qualifications. At that moment, there was the sound of the breaking hearts of gym-fans all over the world. Trying to put bad memories out of our heads, we must move on. The Americans, Ragan Smith and Morgan Hurd are big favorites to win the all-around. Neither of them had a perfect qualifying round. Ragan fell on her layout on beam and Morgan put her hands down on one of her floor passes. Even with this mistake, Ragan qualified in 2nd place to the all-around final with a 55.932 and still showed a strong performance eve...

Nine new elements have been submitted to the Women's Technical Committee for entrance in the Code of Points. For the women, to get a skill named for you, it must be submitted to the technical committee and you must successfully complete the element at a World Championships or Olympic Games. Here are the elements that have been submitted - keep in mind these have been submitted, they're not officially in the code yet. Bars - Tabea Alt -The "Alt" - proposed value - C Description - A Zuchold Half -  Stoop through on high bar, dislocate and release with half (180 degree) turn in flight between the bars to catch low bar in hang via GIPHY

The bad news is that Kohei Uchimura, the king of men's gymnastics has been dethroned due to withdrawing after injuring his ankle in qualifications. With Simone Biles taking time off after the Olympics, this championships marks the first time since 2013 that a new men's AND women's all-around champion will be crowned. So who is the heir to Kohei's throne? Who is the heir to Simone's throne? I'll start with the men tonight. This will be brief as I am not as up to snuff on my men's gymnastics as I should be.

It's time for the fifth and final subdivision featuring the ladies of team USA. Japan and China. After this session, the all-around and even qualifiers will have been decided. To follow along, refresh the page every five to ten minutes or so. Happy Worlds!

Today is the second and last day of Women's qualifications at the World Championships in Montreal. Today, we will see the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, the Czech Republic (Czechia), Norway,  Latvia, Azerbaijan, Mexico Refresh the page every five to ten minutes to follow along.

Time for the second subdivision of the women's qualifying round at the World Championships in Montreal. This subdivision will feature Canada and Russia, along with Israel, Egypt, Vietnam Belgium, Portgual, India and South Africa. You know the drill. Refresh the page every 5 to 10 minutes for updates.

I'm still really sick, so I'm going to try my best to sound coherent. This is the first subdivision for the Women's competition, featuring Great Britain and Australia. Refresh the page every five - ten minutes for updates!

Time for podium training! Follow along with me as I guide through the fun and craziness of podium training. Refresh every few minutes for updates.

Well, the time has come. Hot Pink Nation is officially no more. The evidence was clear. All week, we've not seen a hint of hot pink (save for an ombre training leo) from the ladies at Team USA. On Ashton Locklear's Snapchat, the ladies of Team USA were looking lovely in blue podium training leos, complete with tons and tons of sparkles.