Event
Balance beam
Skill type
Mount
Known as
Two flanks to flare
Baitova
Named after
Svetlana Baitova (SOV)
About
First, a note on spelling. The officially spelling of this skill is flair, but over my dead body. Flare is what you mean. Flaring the legs is what is happening here. The argument for the flair spelling is that the skill is so-called because it is a circle element done with “flair,” and I’ll be over in the corner vomiting. You just misspelled the word you meant.
Svetlana Baitova’s tribute to pommel horse is among those unique skills that a gymnast invented because it suited her particular abilities but is really the domain of just that one gymnast. It’s also in some ways a vestige of a different era because it contains multiple shapes and treats the order as significant. If someone came along now and said “I’m going to do a flare to a flank to a flare” and tried to get it named after herself, I can’t imagine the WTC would be like, “Yes, all the orders and combinations of this can be their own skills!”
Value
C