Surprise surprise (not really) Team USA pulled out another world championship win during today's team final.
Team USA, led by Simone Biles and Kyla Ross, left no prisoners as they led their team to victory with a huge 6.693 lead over team China. Taking the bronze, team Russia, led by Aliya Mustafina.
The ladies of team USA pulled out all the stops and performed near flawlessly while their competitors littered the floor with falls and mistakes.
Their night started on vault, a strong event for team USA, especially since Simone is doing an Amanar with a 6.3 start value and MyKayla Skinner with her Cheng that has a 6.4 start value. Simone's vault, beautiful, super high and clean. It's probably better than McKayla Maroney's Amanar. Now if we were to rename the Amanar for Simone, would we call it the Biles-anar? Or the Simone? (the vault's namesake shares a first name with team USA's darling). MyKayla's vault (even though she still only vaults with one hand, whatever) has greatly improved. She improved her score in the team final by 0.10. While she is still only vaulting with one hand, her legs are together, it's high, clean and she lands it very well. MyKayla should be awarded "most improved" by USA Gymnastics, if they give out such an award. Seriously, she has come so far.
Look Ma, one hand!
Really, after team USA's vaulting rotation, the rest of the competition was mostly a formality for them. For everyone else, it was a fight for second and third.
China managed to win silver on their home turf. It wasn't without a fight. They started off on vault, not a strong even for them. They did manage to have two double twisting Yurchenko's at least. Yao Jinnan had a decent vault, maybe piking down slightly on her landing, but overall pretty good. Chen Siyi's DTY was not as nice really, she landed basically on her knees, not really having enough power to land upright. She scored a 14.169 and Yao scored a 14.966.
Bars, which is usually an excellent event for the Chinese faired the same as vault. Young Shang Chunsong overarched a handstand and could barely hold on, scoring a 13.933. Huang Huidan anchored the team with her beautiful bars, her many Stalders, Chows and those twirly E +E turns which I'm sorry, I cannot remember the names for those elements. She scored a 15.133.
They managed to save it on beam. The highlight being Shang Chunsong. Last year at worlds, she had issues during the all-around final and had a wobbly routine during event finals. She hit it today, nailing her back handspring, back handspring to two foot layout and finishing with a great triple twist dismount. She is quite the little twister that one, on floor, she was able to perform on the AAI floor while some of her teammates struggled. She had twists up the wazoo in that routine.
Coming in third was Russia, who is dealing with a team of mostly young-ins and a couple of veterans. Aliya was the proverbial and probably literal anchor of that team. She is gorgeous as always on the bars. Her beam was much improved over qualifications when she did not connect a single element. On floor, young Alla Sostnitskaya fell on her double pike tumbling pass, which is unfortunate after she'd performed a double layout for her opening pass, followed by a triple twist. She looks a lot like a baby Larisa Iordache with her dance style and her personality on floor.
Then there was Romania. That just broke my heart. They're a team of baby gymnasts and Larisa Iordache. Sadly, they could have used Diana Bulimar, at least for her experience and consistency. Larisa was fantastic on beam, although she didn't go for her two fulls, instead only doing one tucked full (hopefully she adds the second in event finals?). That beam is Larisa's bitch and it bends to her will.
Some highlights -
Claudia Fragapane on floor for Great Britain. I love her so much! I love this routine, I love her spunk, her originality. All of it!
Chen Siyi's "Moon River" floor routine. She crashes her double pike dismount, but forgetting that, she has such a beautiful balletic style and I really enjoyed her "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed floor routine. The new floor rules have allowed for athlete's individual styles to be showcased.
Simone Biles floor that cinched Team USA's win. She get's better all the time. Simone stuck her first two passes and her tumbling is just mind blowing. Of course, her infectious personality is what makes this routine great.
Aliya always, on uneven bars
Team USA, led by Simone Biles and Kyla Ross, left no prisoners as they led their team to victory with a huge 6.693 lead over team China. Taking the bronze, team Russia, led by Aliya Mustafina.
The ladies of team USA pulled out all the stops and performed near flawlessly while their competitors littered the floor with falls and mistakes.
Their night started on vault, a strong event for team USA, especially since Simone is doing an Amanar with a 6.3 start value and MyKayla Skinner with her Cheng that has a 6.4 start value. Simone's vault, beautiful, super high and clean. It's probably better than McKayla Maroney's Amanar. Now if we were to rename the Amanar for Simone, would we call it the Biles-anar? Or the Simone? (the vault's namesake shares a first name with team USA's darling). MyKayla's vault (even though she still only vaults with one hand, whatever) has greatly improved. She improved her score in the team final by 0.10. While she is still only vaulting with one hand, her legs are together, it's high, clean and she lands it very well. MyKayla should be awarded "most improved" by USA Gymnastics, if they give out such an award. Seriously, she has come so far.
Look Ma, one hand!
Really, after team USA's vaulting rotation, the rest of the competition was mostly a formality for them. For everyone else, it was a fight for second and third.
China managed to win silver on their home turf. It wasn't without a fight. They started off on vault, not a strong even for them. They did manage to have two double twisting Yurchenko's at least. Yao Jinnan had a decent vault, maybe piking down slightly on her landing, but overall pretty good. Chen Siyi's DTY was not as nice really, she landed basically on her knees, not really having enough power to land upright. She scored a 14.169 and Yao scored a 14.966.
Bars, which is usually an excellent event for the Chinese faired the same as vault. Young Shang Chunsong overarched a handstand and could barely hold on, scoring a 13.933. Huang Huidan anchored the team with her beautiful bars, her many Stalders, Chows and those twirly E +E turns which I'm sorry, I cannot remember the names for those elements. She scored a 15.133.
They managed to save it on beam. The highlight being Shang Chunsong. Last year at worlds, she had issues during the all-around final and had a wobbly routine during event finals. She hit it today, nailing her back handspring, back handspring to two foot layout and finishing with a great triple twist dismount. She is quite the little twister that one, on floor, she was able to perform on the AAI floor while some of her teammates struggled. She had twists up the wazoo in that routine.
Coming in third was Russia, who is dealing with a team of mostly young-ins and a couple of veterans. Aliya was the proverbial and probably literal anchor of that team. She is gorgeous as always on the bars. Her beam was much improved over qualifications when she did not connect a single element. On floor, young Alla Sostnitskaya fell on her double pike tumbling pass, which is unfortunate after she'd performed a double layout for her opening pass, followed by a triple twist. She looks a lot like a baby Larisa Iordache with her dance style and her personality on floor.
Then there was Romania. That just broke my heart. They're a team of baby gymnasts and Larisa Iordache. Sadly, they could have used Diana Bulimar, at least for her experience and consistency. Larisa was fantastic on beam, although she didn't go for her two fulls, instead only doing one tucked full (hopefully she adds the second in event finals?). That beam is Larisa's bitch and it bends to her will.
Some highlights -
Claudia Fragapane on floor for Great Britain. I love her so much! I love this routine, I love her spunk, her originality. All of it!
Chen Siyi's "Moon River" floor routine. She crashes her double pike dismount, but forgetting that, she has such a beautiful balletic style and I really enjoyed her "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed floor routine. The new floor rules have allowed for athlete's individual styles to be showcased.
Simone Biles floor that cinched Team USA's win. She get's better all the time. Simone stuck her first two passes and her tumbling is just mind blowing. Of course, her infectious personality is what makes this routine great.
Aliya always, on uneven bars
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