It’s the Simone show.
After that, we think it’s the Morgan show.
After that, it’s the 78 people show? Murakami? Melnikova? Black? De Jesus Dos Santos? Derwael?
The mysteries we face…
Olympic Channel telling us who might win. It might be Simone. Breaking news from Tim: the Doha Pearl has not passed yet.
“Tim, you’re going to give the update on Simone’s urinary tract. OK Cool? Cool.”
To add suspense, the broadcast is trying to figure out whether Simone will do the Biles or the Cheng.
Rotation 1
Murakami – VT – DTY – good power, medium hop back, solid direction, nice and expected. Probably best DTY we’ll see today, no leg crossing. 14.566
Hurd – VT – DTY – strong, a little bit of legs, fairly small hop back, better control than she used to have. 14.600.
Biles – VT – she has posted the Biles – HOLY CRAPITOLY – she fell on the Biles. Short. Sat it down.
I mean…she’ll still win…but…wow. Didn’t get basically any block.
14.533. So she’s basically tied with the others.
Flavia got a 13 on bars. That’s a good bars score for her.
Luo goes 14.400 on bars.
Black – VT – handspring layout full – excellent! Stuck-ish – some legs, some knees – small slide back in salute.
Melnikova – VT – DTY – not controlled – large bounce back and then 78 other little hops after that – some legs in the air but not too bad. 14.166.
13.366 for Moors on floor
Derwael – FTY – hop back, clean, normal. 13.566
Melanie’s bars score comes in at 13.500. She ca get higher than that, so that won’t help her pace a ton.
Axelle – FX – falls out of doubel Y, won’t get that – split leap 1/1 – strong DLO, small slide forward – front tuck through to double tuck – switch ring – split leap 1.5 – really deep on piked-full in, sort of lands in a ball shape and hops forward – double pike, dances out – oh Axelle, you treasure – but that was not her strongest
Golgota – gigantic break on her switch leap mount – “The hope of an entire nation” – a million steps on that mount but an amazing save – bhs back lay-pike, check – front tuck, check – side somi, another leg-up break – side aerial, large lean, significant breaks on every skill – double tuck was nice, small hop
11.566 for Golgota.
Luo – UB – Shap to pak, gorgeous – toe Shap – good finish on E piroettes – piked jaeger, solid – DLO, stuck, nice – Tim and Nastia freaking out about her last 1/2 turn, but not a big deal
Downie – UB – front toe 1/2 to toe shap to Hindorff, nice – toe full to piked tkatchev to pak – toe Shap – flings out DLO a little with a hop, but a really good one! 13.900
Valeri is here with Flavia, but you can’t see Flavia in the shots because she’s so small, so it looks like he’s just lurking around
After 1
Hurd – 14.600
Murakami – 14.566
Biles – 14.533
Black – 14.4
Luo – 14.4
Melnikova 14.166
Rotation 2
IMPORTANT CHALK CLOSEUPS
Luo – BB – switch to split ring to bhs, lovely – ro off to layout 2 feet, leg-up wobble, but kept her toes pointed in the wobble, so points for that – breaks a mixed series out of aerial – onodi to stag, strong – side aerial, check – switch ring, pretty good – double pike, locked leg with a lunge back
Hurd – UB – inbar Shap to stalder full to tkatchev, hit – Ricna to Pak, well done – stalder shoot – inbar 1/2 – inbar 1/1 to FTDT, small step back – basically the identical routine she’s been doing the whole competition
Moors – VT – handspring pike 1/2, big bounce back
14.333 for Hurd.
Biles – UB – weiler 1/2 – toe Shap to tkatchev – toe full to piked tkatchev to pak – toe Shap 1/2, solid – double double tuck, small hop. So year, she’s going to be fine…? 14.725.
Mori – VT – so this is a lot of look – full, small hop back –
Good 13.733 for Melanie on beam.
Chen – BB – ro layout to 2 feet – step to the side but kept it on – aerial mixed series, good, small check at the end – switch ring to swingdown – switch to split ring – this is much nicer than her previous beams – split ring leap – 3/1, gets it mostly around, hop back
Ellie Black fell on bars for 12.900. What life is this?
Melnikova – UB – inbar full – inbar Shap to Pak, lovely – toe Shap 1/2, leg break – inbar 1/2 to piked jaeger – short on orphan 1/2 turn – toe full to FTDT, small hop – fine, some handstands, some legs
Nina – UB – Nabieva (or as Tim said, “Na-beaver”) – Derwael to Yezhova to shap to Bhardwaj, nailed – Shap 1/2 – toe full to FTDT, stuck. Awesome again.
15.100 will shoot Nina up the standings obviously
Ellie – BB – front tuck, stuck – switch to switch 1/2, nice – bhs loso, huge break with a swim, saves it – double turn with leg-up wobble – side aerial – 2.5 stuck! Some really nice moments but probably too many large breaks to save the E score.
Murakami – UB – toe shap to gienger, a little low but hit – piekd jaeger, fine, a litlte close – jaeger, hit – toe full to bail, a little short – FTDT, stuck.
Saraiva – BB – ro bhs mount – ro layout to 2 feet, perfect – full turn – split leap to split – bhs loso three series and falls – WHY LIFE WHY – aerial to split ring – so upsetting, the rest of this routine is exceptional – split ring leap with a small wobble – double pike, bounce back
DJDS – BB – front pike mount, strong, arm save – front pike, also secure – bhs layout to 2, stuck – switch to split – switch 1/2 – aerial to sissone to bhs – side America, super secure – this is great – double tuck, bounce back
After 2
Biles – 29.258
Hurd – 28.933
Derwael – 28.666
Melnikova – 28.599
Chen – 28.166
Murakami – 28.132
Rotation 3
Biles – BB – wolf triple – sissone to wolf, solid – LORD, falls on barani – say it with me now, THAT DAMN BARANI – strong on bhs loso loso – switch to switch 1/2 to back pike – front pike, huge break, leg-up wobble – aerial, breaks connection to split jump – bhs bhs full in – bounc eback.
The thing is…her score is still going to be high
13.233 for Biles.
Chen – FX – split jump 1/1 – 3/1, small hop – triple turn, good – 2.5 to front piiiiike?, small hop – switch ring – double tuck, small hop – split ring – switch 1/2 – she’s having a much better day
Teramoto – VT – rudi – hits it this time, hop back (reminder to Tim that they can’t credit this vault as piked, that doesn’t exist in the code, they just have to deduct for the E)
Melnikova – BB – front tuck to split to straddle, super – switch ring attempt – bhs loso, strong – aerial to split ring – Nastia thinks these ring positions are hideous trash – side somi – split ring leap – Nastia having a coronary embolism about it – double pike, hop back. Super solid routine. Few checks.
Ellie Black’s 13.600 on beam should help get her back a little closer.
13.466 puts Melnikova into current 2nd, 4 tenths behind Simone.
Long wait for this score on the broadcast as Nastia launches into the next rendition of the “I hate these ring positions” in D minor. More of this, please, Nastia.
Derweal – BB – loso mount, some feet – bhs loso, check – aerial to split, lovely – side somi, check – switch to split leap – wolf triple, a little sluggish but a nice lean – double wolf but at least puts some choreo in between? (stab eye) – gainer full, hop forward, really nice routine
13.733 for Nina! She’s one tenth behind Simone. Trouble for Nina’s medal hopes will be her lower D on floor.
Golgota – VT – DTY, smaller hop back, some legs throughout
Murakami – BB – switch – aerial – switch to split – front tuck, lowish with an arm wave – bhs loso, solid – switch ring – side aerial, also hit – isn’t that her second front tuck? Was one a pike attempt? – full turn – double pike, hop back. Good.
13.666 puts her currently 4th, but her floor ability puts her squarely in medal contention.
Barbosa – VT – step back on DTY, good one, some knees
Hurd – BB – back full, leg-up break but saves it – side aerial, way off and grabs the beam – bhs loso, hit – aerial to split to straddle – switch – side America is good – full turn – switch ring – double pike, stuck. The second 1/2 was great.
Simone and Morgan are sharing some FML laughing right now.
12.933 for Hurd. She’ll be in 4th heading to floor.
These top five are all in it for medals going to floor.
DJDS – FX – DLO full, right into the corner, just like in TF, small hop – full in, short with a lunge to the side – switch 1/1 – wolf 2.25 – front loso to double tuck, slide back – double pike, bounce
After 3
Biles – 42.491
Derwael – 42.399
Melnikova – 42.065
Hurd – 41.866
Murakami – 41.798
Chen – 41.199
Will be tough for Nina to keep a medal place with the way Hurd and Murakami can score on floor, but not inconceivable at all.
Rotation 4
Chen – FTY – pikes it down, hop back
54.632 total for Chen. Good day. She goes ahead of Ellie Black with that.
Melnikova – FX – can she endurance it? – double L to double turn, will get it – DLO 1/1, keeps it just in bounds this time – switch ring 1/2, sigh – DLO, step back OOB – wolf 2.25 – front tuck through to double tuck, a little short – double Y is good – grab your rosary beads for this dismount – she hit it mostly! – a little short with a stagger step.
Much better than TF, but not as good as qualification
13.633. A little high for me.
Derwael – FX – switch ring – split leap 1.5, around, should get it – 1.5 to front full, a little slide – double Y, probably credit – wolf 2.1175 – doubel tuck, a little slow but gets it around – lunge back – lovely.
13.300.
HOLY CRAP SHE’S AHEAD OF MELNIKOVA BY .001
Saraiva – VT – DTY – really good height, small step forward
14.566 for Melanie on DTY, just behind Derwael and Melnikova.
Murakami – FX – falls out of quad spin, ended up doing like a 4.75 or something – doubel double, small bounce back – nails DLO – 2.5 to front full, a little short with a hop back – switch ring split leap 1.5 – L turn double – double pike, hop back. Good one, mostly good landings, that spin will hurt –
14.000. She’s in tears but she’s in first even with that turn.
What is actually happening?
Tim and co don’t know the score yet and are giving Nina medals already
Luo – VT – full with a hop back
Hurd – FX – double double, good, small slide – DLO, the same little pike but a super controlled landing – good switch ring – split 1.5, probably gets it – front lay to front 1/1, a little short with a slide – Ferrari – split jump full – double pike, stuck. This is going to be impossibly close.
13.866. Behind Murakami and into second. Didn’t get her full D score, and it’s the difference.
That means Nina and Melnikova will not medal after Simone goes.
We see the DTY from MDJDS, large bounce back
Biles – FX – Moors, bounces OOB again – Biles, no connection to stag, lunge forward – switch to split leap 1.5 – no trouble landing the full in, small hop – double double, great
15.000 for Simone.
FINAL:
1. Biles – 57.491
2. Murakami – 55.798
3. Hurd – 55.732
4. Derwael – 55.699
5. Melnikova – 55.698
6. De Jesus Dos Santos – 55.599
So there we have it. Simone wins because of course she does, but she did it with two falls, which will be fodder for the “bring back the 10.0” crowd. I myself am a little ambivalent about a person winning the AA title with two falls. Not as much because “she didn’t DESERVE it” or something…it’s Simone and of course she’s better than everyone else, but a sport where the result is actually inevitable is….meh. And Simone winning by this insane margin on this day proves that inevitability.
The rest of the medals kept this particular one from being meh.
But at the same time difficulty should matter. So I know there’s a lot of angst about Derwael finishing 4th despite having by far the cleanest day of the top five, but she vaulted a full, so she’s not going to be up there. It makes sense. And ultimately I think the placement of the remaining five makes sense. Hurd grabbed the beam, but Melnikova had a grabbing-the-beam-equivalent vault landing. Murakami fell out of a turn, but that’s not a HUGE deduction, comparatively.
Longines prizes to Melnikova and Dalaloyan.
Mai <3
I’m not very pleased how close everything is. I just feel like… how is it possible that everything is DECIMALLY close in both the men’s and women’s competitions? Like .001 differences. Something is off.
the judges are obviously biased in the last event because they know what each gymnast needs to place in what position. so they use the final event’s scoring to make sure the gymnasts end up in whatever finish they think is appropriate. obviously you can imagine that maybe half the judges think melnikova was better than nina, the other half think nina was better than melnikova, and so the difference becomes 0.001
Nope. This argument doesn’t work. The E-score and D-score panels are separated. The E-score panel does not know what D-score will be awarded, and vice versa.
So there’s essentially no way each panel would know what the other panel would award, so they wouldn’t know how to rig the meet.
I’m not happy with this result.
How can Simone win with so many mistakes? I mean THAT’s what makes the sport boring. Not Simone winning with a bang, not Simone being the first to attempt a ton of cool skills, but Simone doing messy gymnastics with falls and stuff and still winning. Nothing in her performance today was beautiful or thrilling to watch.
As much as I love Mai, wasn’t her floor overscored?
How did Derwael end up ahead of Melnikova? HOW?
The only good news for me is Morgan on the podium, and that Nina didn’t get a medal. But I am really weirded out by the rest.
Well, Simone had a 4.5 lead in the qualifying, so it was pretty obvious that even if she had a mistake she would win. We have always said she had a buffer with mistakes. She just usually doesn’t put us to the test like this.
I guess I don’t see Simone’s work today as “messy”. She had mistakes, yes. But if it were messy too, she wouldn’t have won. If every skill had bent knees, legs apart, multiple steps on every landing, she wouldn’t have won. She did beautiful, clean gymnastics with mistakes. Not ugly, chucked gymnastics with mistakes. And there’s a difference.
I’m sure she won’t make any excuses for her performance (be it to the media or to herself), but I bet those kidney stones hurt more than anything…
Look at it this way – Simone just made the individual events a lot more interesting because now you know she can be human and if she has another ‘human’ day, anyone can win in an INDIVIDUAL event.
If this was individual day Simone would not have medal on vault – process that.
Well, no beam medal—vault is averaged with 2 so she’d most likely still win because no chance she’d fall on both vaults.
This ^^^^ Even though she only beat her by 001. lmao. But still Ninas floor is a joke. 2 passes, bye!
Omg Melnikova and Artur for Longines? My f*cking life is made. UGH <3 Beautiful gymnastics and beautiful people.
I was kind of pulling for Morgan to take the silver here, I think there’s probably an argument for that to be made, but whatever.
YAY MAI!!!!!!!! REDEMPTION!!!!! I am so, SO happy for her. Few deserve it more.
I think it’s time for another major reconstruction of the COP. Winning the AA by 1.6 with 2 falls is hardly a joy to watch.
How would you reconstruct the COP? She does the hardest skills, hence her high D score. You have to reward difficulty. And what she does in the air is basically technically perfect. Hence her high E scores. She gets deducted for her errors the same as everyone else.
I hate that someone won the world championship with 2 falls. But that’s what makes Simone as good as she is, that she doesn’t have built in deductions in form and she starts with such a high D score.
We’ve never seen someone with this hard of difficulty before, and all this good of execution. Simone just absolutely obliterates everyone, but rightly so. All of her events are amazing.
wow, that was a splatfest… simone won again because she got such a buffer…. and we actually get to see that tested.!
she couldve played it safe with only doing the cheng and that might have unsettled her nerve a bit. i like it that she took the chance anyway, but i actually would rather she wouldn’ve done the biles vt during TF… Qual and TF has the most margin for error to experiment.
I think she will look at the beam routine again…. they might have to redo something because that has costed her several points since 2016…
The 2016 code is completely different. There’s no relationship between 2016 scores and 2018 scores, so Simone is just going to rewatch her routines and figure out what she needs to fix.
That was actually not at all a splatfest. Simone fell twice, but none of the rest of the top 7 had falls. There were some errors across the board, but compared to recent years, it was really one of the best hit meets in recent years for the top group.
I feel kind of sorry for the others, because the top six, aside from Simone, really weren’t a splatfest. I thought Murakami, Derwael and de Jesus dos Santos did great, and Melnikova and Hurd both had minor problems.
i meant simone’s splatfest…lol… i guess we have seen the theory and it’s now proven beyond doubt in an experiment!
I was referring to the barani and also the front pike/tuck. it seems like those are the skills that gives her trouble sometimes… i mean, they will probably still keep them anyway instead of replacing them with something else? i can’t think of anything else they can replace …. maybe someone else know the code can suggest?
I feel like Simone has won a championship with a OOB and two falls. Or at least one.
OMG DO WE LOVE SIMONE YET? SHE SHOOK MORGAN’S HAND ON THE PODIUM LIKE THEY DIDN’T KNOW EACH OTHER.
she ran over to hug morgan right after she hugged mai. it was really cute. (FIG stream)
I feel like this is also the shortest podium in a long while.
If you haven’t, switch to alkass, their athlete interviews are hilariuos!!!
I hate how they keep asking the athletes how much they love Doha! They’re such douchebags.
All the athletes like “WTF I don’t understand the question” 😀 😀 😀
I like how he was like “you won last year, did you expect to win this year?” And Morgan was like…. what is this question?
A better question for Morgan would be: How does the bronze medal compare to the gold she won at the Simone-less event last year?
Wow! Look at those 2-6 scores! What a final! Wouldve liked to have seen Nina make the podium; super stoked for Mai! Thriller for sure.
What a final! Simone even with 2 falls deserved it. She keeps pushing the sport. Gosh Melnikova and Artur for Longines well deserved . Great Worlds so far , no major i juries, fair scoring , thrilling endings.
I looked it up. The last time Simone was not leading at a rotation break at a worlds AA was 2013. After the 3rd rotation she was in 2nd to Kyla by 0.017
I think she was in second behind Mustafina, going into beam in Rio as well. I know, Olympics not Worlds, but it’s the only other occasion I can think of.
At 2018 US Nationals Simone was second to Riley heading to the final event (floor).
I have to bemoan the mathematical incorrectness of the fact that scores are truncated instead of rounded. When someone has a score that ends in 66 it comes from averaging, and the actual score ends in 666…. repeating. In Math we would round that up to 67, but gymnastics just chops it off after the 6. They do the same thing with 33. But those are really like thirds. 1/3 and 2/3 make a whole. Yet when someone has a score ending in 33 added to one ending in 66, they end up with one ending in 99, instead of 00, as it really should be. This happened once to Derwael, but twice to Melnikova, which is why she is .001 behind. They should both have a 55.7
I wondered if that had happened, but I hadn’t gone back and looked at the scores yet. Thanks for doing that. It sucks that they do it that way. Granted, if they would’ve done it the way I prefer then they would’ve had to resort to that tie-breaker rule that I don’t like either, but nonetheless I wish they didn’t award places based on who got the more favorable side of rounding.
I say no rounding AND no tie-breaking rules.
I completely agree.
I agree with Nastia about it being weird that the announcer does in-house color commentating. It wouldn’t seem odd to me if the announcer just threw in some facts like: “This is her first Worlds competition,” or, “She is last year’s all-around silver medalist,” but it’s weird to me when she comments on the routines.
Sorry, I meant no truncating!
Longines prize to Dalaloyan is well-deserved. Longines prize to Melnikova?????? HUH???
Ah, this issue that comes up every year because they don’t name it for what it’s judged by- it’s also largely a sportsmanship award.
Ohh… in that case I think it should have gone to Sam! Who was cheering for all his competitors EVEN AFTER HE’D BLOWN HIS OWN CHANCES. Sam is a precious ray of sunshine who deserves everything.
In terms of altering the COP, if they do change anything – I do think that a fall on vault should impact the E score more than just -1.0. Simone fell and she still got an 8.133 execution score. That’s just not right. A fall on landing should cost way more than that.
To be fair that was the lowest E score on vault for the entire competition… which just points out more issues with vault scoring in general.
I think simone should get a break on this vt… it’s not like she’s just chucking these vt unlike other people chucking the prod…. we see how she did it perfectly, not once, but twice… and probably several more times in training…she will get better with it..even when she messed up it not like she was going to die from it…unlike some prod attempts…
you can’t push the boundary without taking risk sometimes…
I’m not really targeting Simone. I’m saying that a fall on vault should be worth more than -1.0. No one with a fall on a vault should get an 8.0 execution score. I don’t think this vault is beyond Simone’s capabilities. I think Simone should have done it and I’m glad she is pushing the boundaries of sport. But vault scoring needs an overhaul if the lowest E score was in the 8’s. And that included a fall. Landing a vault properly is a huge component of the actual vault. For anyone.
In general, judges need to be tougher on execution on all events, but especially vault. Vault is only one element, so every flip, twist, and step should be scrutinized more harshly. A step on vault landing should not be judged the same as a step on beam landing in terms of how proportionally important it is to the score. SImone racked up points in difficulty for the Biles, but she should have been hammered for being so short on the landing that she rolled onto her back like a turtle.
Simone is so far ahead of the field in difficulty that we agree she should have won even with two falls. Simone would have won with three falls. Crazy, right? The women’s AA is now … hand the gold to Simone (as long as she goes through the motions of four routines), and let’s fight it out for silver and bronze. The judging needs to make it more competitive when gymnasts fall.
Strongly agree about the scoring on VT. The fact that VT scores are so inflated also gives an unfair advantage, IMO, to gymnasts who are strong there. Why should an athlete whose strongest event is BB be at a disadvantage against athletes whose strongest event is VT? You should be able to get the same score with an outstanding routine on either apparatus.
The other issue I have with the VT scoring is that it is dangerous. It encourages gymnasts to throw difficulty they’re not ready for and can’t control. Like Melnikova trying to upgrade to a Cheng – under this COP, doesn’t matter how bad her form is if she can put it to her feet. I also am tired of seeing gymnasts whose vaults are TERRIBLE win against gymnasts with slightly lower D but MUCH better E. It doesn’t balance out.
I would say it goes beyond even just giving an advantage to people who are good on vault. It screws over people who aren’t (i.e. people who are mediocre also hugely benefit). To me, a gymnast who does a DTY that is significantly piked, has bent and crossed legs, lacks height and distance, and has a messy landing is not someone who is strong on vault. She’s mediocre at best. Not talking about any gymnast in particular, we’ve seen tons and tons of these in the last few quads, but anyway. That really ragged DTY is often scored rather significantly higher than a Yurchenko full that is pretty darn clean. In my opinion, that’s not right.
In general, I wish the code paid more attention to how different vault is from the other apparatuses. If you cross your legs on a triple twist on floor, you crossed your legs on one of eight elements that counted toward your D score. If you cross your legs through the entire flight phase of your vault, you crossed your legs for nearly the whole routine. I think the scoring should reflect that.
What the fuck was Simones execution? Was it in the high 9.s? WTF do yall want for real? She was deducted. You want 2 points taken for a fall dumbass.
Yaaaas. Completely agree. If you can fall on a vault and still score 8 out of 10 – that’s freakin’ 80%! For non completion of an event, essentially, as someone else said.
E scores on vault especially need to be tightened right up. Proportionally speaking, a fall should be judged far more harshly on vault than say, floor. But no, both are 1.0. Vault is pre flight, flight and landing. 30% of the score should be directed toward landing, at least, not 10% as we saw today with Simone.
I
There were far more gymnasts who deserved a podium finish today than there were spots on the podium. Simone obviously is a unique case – she had a bad meet but enough of a buffer in D To win anyway – and Mai deserved her spot as the top gymnast following her. However, spots 3-6 were sooo close. You could make an argument for any of them deserving bronze. I do have to give major props to Morgan, though, for coming back from that error on beam and KILLING IT on FX. A real champion’s performance. So I am OK with her taking the bronze, if only for that reason.
Bummer for Nina, though, to come so close but miss a medal. She was insanely good today. She needs to upgrade her VT, though, in order to avoid becoming the Shang Chunsong of this quad. I really hope she takes gold tomorrow on UB.
BUMMER MY ASS! A girl with a yurchenko full and TWO FUCKING tumbling passes on floor shouldnt ever be in a AA convo. Shows why the field sucks, and Simone is so far ahead.
Am I the only one that isn’t obsessed with Nina as an all arounder? I mean her bars are amazing. But how she got ahead of melnikova is a mystery to me (besides the fact that truncating is dumb and incorrect mathematically). Her beam doesn’t seem as great as everyone makes it out to be and her vault and floor are just meh. Best bars worker but just not sure about her all around result…
Maybe I just don’t understand her floor difficulty. How does she have a 4.9 and Morgan Hurd have a 5.4 with 2 more tumbling passes (2 of which are extremely difficult)?