How Very Mid-Quad Of Us

It's that time of year again, the time of elite thinking. The 2014 NCAA season is well behind us, and it's not really healthy to start thinking about the 2015 season in any depth for at least another three or four months (lying). So, it's once again time for my annual attempt to return my attention to the elite scene, with all its D scores and team selections and switch ring full turns, and dive in feet first. (I've never been much of a diver, so headfirst seems inadvisable. Even though that's the expression, I'm not comfortable with it, and it should change.) 

As we enter the second year post-Olympics, we're starting to move into that meaty area at the center of the quad where things start to get a little more real. In the first year of a quad, we can only learn so much. It's a year of posturing, where we just sort of quaintly applaud people who have decided to stick around but can't make any real conclusions about the future. It's so hard to keep up for a full quad, and what seems like a given in year one is often obsolete by year four. Just ask Ana Porgras and Rebecca Bross about that one.

True story: I forgot Ana Porgras's name a few months ago. I was like, "Who was that good Romanian? The one with the face?"

But as we move into the second year, we start to wonder about who's actually in this thing, not just to hang around the edge of a Worlds team here or there but to be a major player. Now the ramshackle, debt-ridden Rio venues become a glinting tease shining on the periphery of every conversation. It's not close enough to be a thing, not nearly, but if you're a gymnastics fan, you find yourself absentmindedly forming possible World and Olympic teams while chopping vegetables, or taking a shower, or drinking the blood of your enemies, knowing it's too early and that none of these people will even have working bones anymore by the time 2016 rolls around, but still resculpting and reimagining the picture with the emergence of every new Gowey of the month.

But should we entertain that taunting Rio glint, or shut it out? How much is year 2 really relevant to year 4 of a quad? I don't have any grand conclusions because every team is different and every quad is different, but it's worth looking at how the years compare as we progress through a quad, keeping in mind how much things tend to change, or in specific cases, stay the same. In that spirit, I took a look back at 2010 Worlds and compared those teams to the 2012 Olympic teams to get some idea of how things progressed from year 2 to year 4. 

A Team Sport

Here's a rule: In gymnastics, you're allowed to have the attention span of a hummingbird.

So while the Olympics aren't even cold yet, and we haven't had time to fully process both the winners and those who will spend the next four years resenting the winners through creative use of dartboards and poppets, it's okay if you already want to put a lid on elite until next summer. I know I do.

But before I turn back to the main purpose of this blog, NCAA women's gymnastics, where the schedules are currently coming out but there will be little else to discuss for months, I have a few thoughts on the concept of team in gymnastics.

Event Finals Day 3

End of the line, everybody off. Four more event finals to finish off our Olympic Games.

Men's Parallel Bars:

 Women's Beam:

 Men's High Bar:

 Women's Floor:

Event Finals Day 2

We already learned during yesterday's finals that Christmas has been cancelled and there is no Northwest Passage, so it's hard to muster enough enthusiasm for today's results to make predictions (also, I haven't the foggiest). Let's just all try to pretend that we're not getting just a little Olympics-ed out so we can bravely push through to the end.

Men's Rings:

 Women's Bars:

 Men's Vault:

Comments forthcoming.

Event Finals Day 1

Our first day of the slow descent toward the end of the competition includes men's floor, men's horse featuring Louis Smith (champion if he hits), and women's vault featuring McKayla Maroney (champion even if she doesn't hit). [buhhhhhhhhhhh]

Men's floor:

 

 Women's vault:

 Men's horse:

Notes when we begin from 9:00 ET/6:00 PT

Men's All-Around

In the Men's Team Final, we all became caught up in the "Boo, Chinese men!" tornado, and look where it got us. Let's make a pact not to make the same mistake with the "Boo, Kohei Uchimura!" tornado. He can win with a fall, especially because all his closest competitors excel in the "beautiful disaster" category. Unfortunately, Uchimura's inconsiderate performance on the first day means that he is in the second group, so we can't just follow the lead group from event to event the way we will be able to with the women.

In an expected change, Yamamuro is out because of the injury suffered during the Team Final. He will be replaced by K. Tanaka. I'm having a strong Uchimura, Hambuchen, Leyva podium feeling right now.

Competition begins at 11:30 ET/8:30 PT

Women's Team Final

This is it, our day of days. I hope the gymnasts are less nervous than I am right now, because otherwise they will all be falling all over the beam. If there was ever evidence that I could never be a high-level athlete, my mental state right now is it. I'm not even doing anything.

Gabby Douglas, Huang Qiushuang, and Ksenia Afanasyeva are all doing beam in an Olympic Team Final. I think I have reason to be disconcerted. How many times over the months and years have we said, "over my dead body" about all three of those?

My current state:

Well, here we go. All of the attention will revolve around how the US hasn't won since 1996, but the Russians have technically never won (as an independent state), so both are overdue. China is relying on Yao to do vault in Team Finals, so that tells me what I need to know about their chances, and Romania just isn't strong enough on bars or vault (aside from Izbasa) to challenge hits from the US and Russia. I say hits, but honestly I would be surprised if either the US or Russia goes 12 for 12 tonight. There will be falls, the question is when and how many.

Follow along after the jump at 11:30 ET/8:30 PT

Men's Qualification - A Day of Thoughts

Men's Qualification day at the Olympics. I'll be popping in and out of the coverage throughout the day with thoughts and concerns, mostly concerns.

Standings after 2 Subdivisions:
1. USA - 275.342
2. Great Britain - 272.420
3. Japan - 270.503
4. China - 269.985
5. France - 265.759
6. Italy - 262.085
7. Korea - 255.327

1. Danell Leyva - 91.265
2. John Orozco - 90.567
3. Kristian Thomas - 90.256
4. Kohei Uchimura - 89.764
5. Daniel Purvis - 89.199

Please don't let this mean that the US will suddenly become the "favorite" to win everything in the minds of certain commentators. 

Commentary after the jump:

Men's Podium Training

Disappointingly, this year we have no broadcast of men's and women's podium training, which we had in Beijing, so instead we have to rely on our bevy of reporters embedded in the Pink Nightmare Arena.

Men's podium training (we need to stop for a minute and talk about how I recently heard someone refer to it as "Po Tray" after which I died a thousand deaths, and now that's all I can think of when talking about podium training) is notoriously unrepresentative of competition performance, similar to what we see from the Russian women. Unlike the situation with American women, a fall in podium training is not some kind of red flag that will get you taken out of the competition lineup. You know if Gabby Douglas falls on her Amanar in podium training tomorrow that Aly Raisman will become the #3 vaulter.

So what have we learned?

Olympic Gymnastics Score Sheets

For those who like to follow along at home, here are some score sheets for men's and women's qualification.

Men's Qualification

Women's Qualification

Enjoy!

Olympic Gymnastics for Beginners

Two weeks. We have just two weeks until the Olympics begin and I sequester myself in a live-streaming bunker heretofore unexplored by civilized man. Mmm, early-round badminton at 2:30am? I'm there! I'm already a little angry at NBC that ranking round archery on the morning of July 27th is not on their live streaming schedule on the Live Extra App. (Yeah, I'm not well.) Frankly, I will emerge from my cave on August 12th looking like the missing link. I have the Smithsonian's number in my phone already just in case they need to make some observations for posterity.

But given that we are about to enter gymnastics' quadrennial foray into public consciousness before the attention is squandered yet again, those of you with social tendencies (I'm sorry) may find yourselves in the awkward position of watching Olympic gymnastics with other people. More specifically, other people who don't know anything about gymnastics.

It's a harrowing experience, what with all the questions and lack of understanding about 180-degree splits, so after the jump I have provided a handy list of common questions with their appropriate responses to help you through the process. Feel free to refer to this list, perhaps even employing a simple point so you don't have to use words, when dealing with a beginner.