After four subdivisions of thrilling qualification action at the European Championships, we now know exactly who has earned the final Olympic spots out of Europe. Confirming what had previously been her cult-favorite status, Error Code 232404 had a tremendous day, setting the standard from the first subdivision and never looking back. Her buffering circle was so extended and pristine, and while I would have liked to see a little more closure in that ring position, that’s being picky.
After EC Dubs annihilated the competition early, there was really only ever going to be one Olympic spot left. To the surprise of no one, Error 502 Bad Gateway—honestly the stronger of the Bad Gateway sisters, especially these days—performed like the rock she is to take the spot, with the shocking complexity of her movements truly standing out, even among this esteemed field. When Error 502 is at a competition, you absolutely can’t watch anyone else.
With only two Olympic spots on offer, there were always going to be some heartbreaking moments, and the most gut-wrenching of all had to belong to Problem Providing Access To Protected Content, a new senior who couldn’t have done more throughout the entire third subdivision. Yet, with such established stars in this group, she simply never had a chance to make her mark or get the scores she needed. To be quite honest, I think she has an argument for being underscored because the judges were anticipating having to save their highest numbers for defending champion Video File Cannot Be Played in the final subdivision.
As for Cannot Be Played, I was shocked that she had such a poor competition. She brought everything we expect from her at her best—the error codes, the stuttering, the crashing—but it suddenly felt like there was no place for the staccato finality and predictability of her style in this year’s competition. where leaving the door open for interpretation and vacillation and the pure uncertainty of not knowing what would come next clearly won the day.
In the end, the Russians finished in the top three spots in the all-around despite all falling on beam (that’s our Russia), which officially secures the full six Olympic spots for the Russian women—four for the team, and two to throw at whatever individuals they like. It was a nail-biter for the second spot, but Larisa Iordache ultimately hung on by three tenths ahead of Martina Maggio to secure a spot for herself in Tokyo. Larisa sure made it interesting, falling on a double turn on beam in the first rotation and getting a .3 OOB deduction on floor in the second rotation, but her beam somehow still got the top score of the day, and she was able to use solid hits on the final two events (we think) to sneak by Maggio, who very nearly played spoiler. Maggio was the alternate at worlds in 2019 but is sure making a case for herself for the Italian team this year.
A stellar performance from Amelie Morgan settled her in sixth AA with absolutely excellent bars and beam routines (advancing to both finals). Morgan doesn’t have enough difficulty back yet on floor or vault to get a higher overall total, or one that could challenge the Olympic qualifiers, but she really couldn’t have done better on the day. The same is true for Vanessa Ferrari, and while she would have had eyes only for an Olympic spot today, her seventh-place finish in qualification is a tremendous comeback accomplishment.
In two-per-country news, Vladislava Urazova finished in Wieber Zone and was knocked out of the AA final by a mere couple tenths, coming in just behind Listunova, who herself was just behind Melnikova. Urazova ended up having the least disastrous beam of the three, but her floor score was too low to keep up with the 14s that Melnikova and Listunova got at the end. As for Elena Gerasimova’s performance, some things are best left undiscussed. Melnikova advanced to the vault, bars, and floor finals, while Listunova made the floor final and Urazova the bars final.
Other possible contenders—Alice Kinsella and Alice D’Amato, both competing in early subdivisions—were also two-per-country-ed out of the all-around final.
Jessica Gadirova ended up the top qualifier on vault and #3 qualifier on floor, which is a huge deal for her. Giorgia Villa did not compete AA today but will figure in the bars final—though sadly Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos will not be in the bars final after a miss. Thankfully, both Weverses did advance to the beam final, and Steingruber made both the vault and floor finals.
Tomorrow brings us men’s qualification, with both AA finals coming on Friday.
Hahahahahahahaha! Omg, this is hilarious! All of these things drove me up the wall today! At least give me scores!? But of course, why would they make it so easy?
This lightning has to freaking stop, i haven’t seen so many beam falls since 2017, or perhaps it was too slippery?? Something is just not okay.
Poor Lena Gerasimova :”(
Partly that, partly COVID rules in Europe have meant that in some countries, the gymnasts have barely been on a beam this year and I think it’s the main piece where any rustiness will show.
Why do you think that? I would’ve guessed that it would be the least rusty apparatus since it is the easiest to do related conditioning and training with limited space (e.g. at home) and beam doesn’t require the cardio to get through a routine that bars or floor do.
(real question, not just arguing with you)
how did you forget error 504? sure she needs so polish her server connection a bit but she’s one of the most promising talents of her generation
Yana Crow is thrilled about the Russian beam developments at Euros. If she wins Russian Cup beam (which she can certainly do) I think she makes the team. Russia cannot afford to be 5-6 points behind China on beam alone.
Well these were Russia’s top 3 AA gymnasts and they all fell there…. So tbf I don’t think winning Russian Cup is going to be enough at all for Yana. She would need to A. consistently compete her current routine across three days of competition or B. Upgrade her routine to a point where a miss from her would still be higher than hits from anyone else.
Her beam routine is the most difficult in Russia right now (6.3 difficulty, Gerasimova is only 6.1 iirc) so she doesn’t need to upgrade any more. But I do agree she needs to hit.
Today proved that the three AAers can comfortable handle vault bars and floor. The idea that consistent Gera would come in to save the beam rotation at the Olympics suddenly was thrown into question though! Today still proved that SOMEONE needs to be able to come in to save beam, just maybe not Gera. An opening for Yana for sure. The other thing that helped Yana was the huge floor scores for Melnikova and Listunova. Akhaimova is not going to add anything to the team at this rate
Huge floor scores from them does not help Yana…… That has always been her second best event. She should be scoring right up there with them in the low 14s on floor if she wants to make the team. Also I highly doubt Russia will take a powerful gymnast like her who can’t hit a DTY
Yana hit the DTY in qualifications at nationals!
Yana is even more of a meltdown queen than Gera…
Ha. Europe sucks.
Spencer!!! Lmao! I have never laughed so hard reading one of your posts!! Someone give her an award for commentary. Hilar: you rule 2021.
Omg I dies at the first part, thank you!! Haha
I don’t think anyone knows what the answer is for Russia and beam. Maybe their best hope would be to downgrade their routines for the team finals and avoid falls? Routines with no falls and d-scores in the low to mid 5s will score better than routines with falls that have d-scores in the low 6s. However, that assumes they can actually hit lower difficulty routines which I’m not sure I have confidence in this group to do. On the flip side, it might be better to go all-in on difficulty and just absorb the inevitable 2 or 3 falls.
Melnikova did downgrade last year, she’s only at 5.4 difficulty.
Has anyone watched a Flo Gymnastics broadcast before? What kind of production is it? Do they have commentary and analysis? Or is it basically just a livestream? Would like to watch the American Classic tomorrow, but skeptical that the cost is worth what I’m likely to get from it.
Flo is a ripoff of epic proportions. I think it’s safe to say most commenters here would agree.
Worst quality. Don’t get it. Stream doesn’t even work half the time. Not worth paying for.
Appreciate the responses. I guess I’ll wait to see if anyone manages to get some of the key routines up on youtube. Or I’ll just look at the scores afterwards on USAG and *imagine* to myself what the routines must’ve looked like.
Unfortunately, Flo is also aggressive about pursuing copyright violations on YouTube, so we will not be seeing anything show up on there either.
This was really a terrible deal for the sport.
I’m gonna put my MBA to use and predict that Flo won’t be holding this contract for long. Prices too high, quality too low, bad reputation. If even most gymnastics enthusiasts aren’t willing to pay for the product (or support the company regardless of price point), then they will very likely lose money on this contract.
The fact of the matter is that the overall demand for these kinds of events is pretty low, in the grand scheme of things. I find unedited gymnastics meet streams a bit hard to watch. It’s hard to know what’s going on, who each athlete is, what we should be paying attention to, and there’s so much dead air. You end up watching 90 minutes for about 15 minutes of content you actually care about. But putting together that kind of production is very expensive! I think USAG should do some kind of publishing of these mid-tier events on their own. Record it, do some post editing, and put them up on youtube. They won’t make money off it (no one could), but it’ll help grow the sport, keep the fans informed, and not make us feel extorted like we are with the status quo.
CorruptScoring is all it is. Surprised that an amateur Azeri company got the contract when UEG’s president is one Mr. Gayibov, a personal friend of Azeri’s dictator and his gymnastics-obsessed wife?! Corruption at its finest.