I’ve struggled to see the European beam final in any kind of perspective at all until the last day.
The thing that slapped me in the face was the dismount of the gold medal winning routine - just not an international level skill and completely out of synch with the rest of the gymnastics shown.
The execution of that routine was ok, but the content rather low. Should it even have been in a final? Well, that’s a Code problem, not a gymnast one … but will the judges see the Code differently in Liverpool? How will this charade be seen on the world podium?
When are the judges going to start doing their job, and judge? Just because someone had decided that there should be a home advantage to the Germans didn’t mean they had to win two gold medals. One would have been enough. It is a pity that Pauline Schaefer had a mistake as I felt her quality of work was otherwise best on the day … but mistakes happen. Ondine Achampong executed well and had higher difficulty than the first placed athlete - it is plain that the gold should have been hers. And that’s about the judging, not the athletes.
Still, the general standard of work was pretty poor on beam and that seems to have become a European problem. We got carried away with happiness, seeing the wonderfully spirited Italians do so well. It blinded us to the fact that more generally the level was very low. I think in Liverpool Europe will struggle to compete with China, Brazil, Canada and even the USA on beam. The difficulty of the vaults in Munich would not have been enough to win the Olympics as far back as 2012. Others can comment on bars and floor.
Russia’s exclusion from these Games was a tragedy for their gymnasts as individuals … I talk about the principle of this elsewhere, and I conclude that Russia, as a team at least, will not make an appearance at the 2024 Olympics. What I haven’t considered is the impact of Russia’s absence on gymnastics in Europe in general, beyond a certain motivational impetus. People can see more medals becoming available to them in the absence of the Russians, but medals aren’t everything; what about the work?
Standards have fallen, and there is no leadership. We need Russia to lead Europe’s competitiveness in world gymnastics, and there is already a lag developing. Is there anyone who, in their absence, can make more of a case for European women’s artistic gymnastics? Because I don’t think we can do this without them …
That´s clear it couldn´t have been a real Euro championship without the best ones. Stupid policy trying to punish someone "because of". We all were punished, gymnastics was punished. Cui bono?
ReplyDeleteI think the point of banning Russia has a lot to do with the integrity of the sports programs. They were punished by the IOC with a slap on the wrist, and sanctioned doping clearly continued. There has to be a real punishment of even the athletes for there to be change. Yes, in some sports it will be a grave and justice and perhaps a disservice to the fans and to the other athletes who need Russia to set the standard. This does not justify letting Russia continue without a real penalty, At this point, a ban has to be tried, and Russia's ultra-nationalistic sports programs will face the consequences of their repeated disregard for honesty in competition.
ReplyDeleteCollective punishment is illegal and immoral. We have done a horrible thing
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