Gymnastics

Gymnastics flying high in London

Posted by barneyspender on August 8, 2012
Posted in: Gymnastics, London 2012, Olympics, Sport. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Walking in an Epke Zonderland: the Flying Dutchman’s daring routine on the high bar was the single most thrilling performance in the gymnastics competition

It is with a touch of sadness that I closed out the Artistic Gymnastics on Eurosport 3D yesterday and began to think about my top moments of the competition (see below).

It had been an eye-opening experience for someone who had never previously been that close to the sport. Strength, artistry, poise, precision and incredible athleticism wrapped up in explosive flashes of action.

I had always enjoyed watching gymnastics but – apart from some rather half-hearted vaulting and rope-climbing sessions during my school days – it is not a sport I had ever studied at close quarters. Until that is, I was detailed to commentate on it during these Olympics.

People often criticise the choice of commentators for sports that are not their speciality. I can understand that but I am afraid this is how it works: like any television company that takes its sport seriously, Eurosport has a number of employees on its books who are either commentators in a specialist sport and/or work on the news desk. They are at the very least professional broadcasters.

When a big competition like the Olympics comes along, these full-time broadcasters are redeployed to pick up different events. For example, the BBC used its cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew to cover the Archery competion, probably on no better strength than that it was at Lord’s Cricket Ground. He had no previous knowledge of archery but is a first rate broadcaster.

Such was the case for me – although I hasten to add I am several divisions below Agnew when it comes to the broadcasting league tables.

My specialities are rugby union, which I cover for Eurosport, and, like Agnew, cricket – my first commentary was way back now in 1988.

But in the last 24 years I have also been called on to commentate at various times on tennis, table tennis, athletics, football, swimming, ten pin bowling and polo – the last of which was a tad unfortunate as the SOS from SABC came just as I was finishing off a very imbibious lunch prior to a South Africa-Argentina test to which I had been invited purely as a guest.

So to be asked to commentate on gymnastics was at the same time exciting and daunting.

The North Greenwich Arena (aka the Millennium Dome and the O2 Arena) provided a superb setting for the gymnastics albeit very pink

Exciting because it is such a great sport but daunting because of all the technical talk involved. How could I possibly learn the difference between a Yurchenko and an Amanar on the vault? What was a double Arabian?…you get the idea.

Fortunately, unlike some television stations, Eurosport believes in the value of having an expert on the commentary team. Hence my fellow commentator Dave Crossan and I were joined by Ioannis Melissanidis, the 1996 gold medallist on the floor.

That meant that David and I could anchor the presentation while Ioannis could bring an expert eye and talk us through the technicalities.

It was a happy combination which leant colour and depth to some thrilling gymnastics.

TOP FIVE IN THE GYM

To pick a few moments is a touch mean but I am going to do it nonetheless. In no particular order here are my moments from the gymnastics. Feel free to add yours:

1 – A gymnast requires not just technical excellence and a touch of artistry but a degree of courage as well. He who starts with a very difficult routine is reaching for the highest prize in the knowledge that one error could end it all. In the case of Epke Zonderland an error could also have meant serious injury. But the Flying Dutchman produced a hair-raising routine on the high bar, with a breath-taking series of combinations that had the crowd at the North Grenwich Arena gasping in awe and fear. And he was perfect. No mistakes and a deserved gold medal.

2 – Beth Tweddle is an equally adventurous gymnast on the uneven bars. Now 27, she had won the World Championship twice but never had an Olympic medal. Indeed, no British woman had ever achieved a podium finish. She qualified first in the bars and the NGA went dilly when she set off again on a high octane performance in the final. Like Zonderland she produced a heart-stopping performance right up until her dismount. Unlike the Dutchman, though, she didn’t quite nail the landing. A couple of steps and the gold had gone to the Russian Aliya Mustafine. But Tweddle did collect the bronze and the smile on her face at the medal ceremony showed just how much it meant to her.

3 – I don’t want to come across as too British in this piece but it would be wrong of me to overlook the achievemnts of the British team. When I was a kid, gymnastics really wasn’t seen as a British sport. When the Olympics came around, we would all admire the grace and skill and beauty of Olga Korbut, Nadia Comineci and co (I am afraid I never really took much notice of the men) but there were no Brits to look out for. In the last few years, though, there has been a sea change in the way gymnastics is perceived. Louis Smith got things rolling in Beijing with a bronze on the pommel horse and he went one better than that this time with a silver, losing out to Hungary’s Krisztian Berki on execution value after they had finished level on points. His teammate Max Whitlock added to the Brits’ day by taking bronze. With the British men – European champions in May – also winning bronze in the team event, the women reaching the final and Tweddle taking her bronze, it was an exceptional Games for the Brits.

Grace and beauty: Catalina Ponor may inspire a generation of female gymnasts that there is life after 20

4 – We all love a comeback and there were two superb ones in the women’s competition. Aliya Mustafina was on top of the world a couple of years ago but suffered a nasty anterior cruciate ligament injury a year ago. A place in London looked highly unlikely. But she fixed her knee and came back with wonderful composure. After helping Russia to the team silver behind the USA, she then took bronze in the individuall all-round and on the floor as well as a gold on the uneven bars. Arguably, her performance usurped that of Gabby Douglas, aka The Flying Squirrel, who won the women’s all-round and a team gold. The other comeback came from Catalina Ponor, the three-time gold medallist from Athens eight years ago. After quitting the sport in 2007, she found she missed it so much that she had to return. “It was like a drug for me,” she told Eurosport before the Games. The elegant, beautiful 24-year-old showed that, in spite of not winning a gold this time, the star quality never fades. A team bronze was followed by disappointment on the beam where she lost third to Ally Raisman after an inquiry. But she then made up for that with a delightful routine on the floor, not good enough for gold which went to the more powerful Raisman but still with enough quality to secure the silver. An example to the younger female gymnasts that there is life after 20, it would be great to see her in Rio in four years time.

5 – Last but certainly not least, the Japanese Kohei Uchimura. Labelled by many as the greatest all-round gymnast ever, he had a slow start to the competition, only qualifying for the individual all-round in seventh spot. His uncertain dismount from the pommel led to a steward’s inquiry which saw Japan elevated from fourth to second in the team event. But any doubts about his form disappeared in the all-round final when he was imperious. Grace, elegance, strength across the six apparatus…it was a thoroughly deserved gold medal to add to his three world championships. A silver on the floor was a nice bonus.

These are obviously just a few highlights. Apologies if your favourites aren’t in there. Feel free to add them below.

Barney Spender 2012

Iliadis brings Georgian cheer to Greece

Posted by barneyspender on August 1, 2012
Posted in: Georgia, Greece, Gymnastics, London 2012, Olympics, Sport. Leave a comment

Ilias Iliadis, the Georgian bear, gives Greece their first medal of the London Olympics

It wasn’t gold but it was a medal nonetheless; it didn’t have the hometown glamour of Bradley Wiggins crossing the line to park himself on the throne. It won’t make a ripple on the news in New York, London, Paris, Munich…but it is a refreshing blast of good news for Greeks all over the world.

The economy is a mess, the politicians don’t seem to have any clue whatsoever, the country is lurching in the wake of international aprobrium and feeble jokes about being in a double dip recession – the tsatsiki and the taramasalata are both off, apparently.

In the shadow of all this, a medal is something to enjoy. It won’t feed people and it won’t provide jobs but it will give the people a little lift, a reminder that Greeks can go out in the world and hold their own.

The medal in question was a bronze and it went to Ilias Iliadis in the under 90kg judo after he beat the Brazilian Tiago Camilo by yuko.

Iliadis, who had won gold in the 81kg category at the Olympic Games in Athens when he was just 17, lost to Russian Kirill Denisov who was then beaten by the Japanese Masashi Nishiyama, the man that Iliadis beat in the final of the world championships two years ago.

Dae-Nam Song won the gold for South Korea by beating Cuba’s Asley Gonzalez in the final. Iliadis and Nishiyama both took bronze.

“Congratulations to the lad that won the very first medal for Greece in the London Games,” commented the Greek deputy Minister for Sports Yiannis Ioannidis who presumably couldn’t actually remember Iliadis’ name.

It can be difficult, of course, remembering Iliadis name – and some people even question his Greek credentials. Anyone listening to Iliadis talking in Greek may well question his right wear the national colours.

He stumbles pidgen-fashion and is far happier in Russian which betrays his Pontic connection. His journey to Greece nonetheless is a peculiar one which does not appear to have been fully explained.

Born in Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, a country which is far more advanced than Greece in the world of judo, Jarji Zviadauri was adopted at the age of 12 by Nikos Iliadis who became the Greece national team coach and renamed Iliais Iliadis.

His family remained in Georgia, his cousin Zurab Zviadauri winning the 90 kg gold medal at the Athens Olympics for a strange family double. Ilias’ natural father was ringside when he won his Olympic gold.

There is no doubt about the legality of his citizenship but it is difficult to find an explanation of why a 12-year-old from a good home should be adopted and removed to a different country.

Iliadis’ defection to Greece hit a nerve in Georgia with President Mikheil Saakashvili criticising him by name for his decision not to stay in the country.

Aged 17, he was already European champion in the 81 kg category when he strode through to Olympic gold, the first Greek ever to win the top prize in judo, the youngest ever judo gold medallist.

“My age does not matter,” he said at the time. “When someone has an objective they have to fight to achieve this objective. When you have the gold medal in your sight you have to fight for it.”

As he got older so he got bigger and he subsequently moved up to the 90 kg class, settling for silver at the 2005 and 2007 world championships. Then came the injuries.

Knee surgery a month before the Beijing Olympics was hardly ideal preparation and he fell at the first hurdle, his Games saved perhaps by being given the honour of carrying the Greek flag at the opening ceremony.

Surgery on the other knee a year later contributed to a third round loss at the world championships in Rotterdam.

In 2010, though, Iliadis finally found himself free of injury and began to compete with more confidence.

He took the bronze at the European championships in Vienna and followed up with two fifth places at top ranking events in Rio de Janeiro and Moscow.

Then came the world championships in Tokyo when he overcame the local favourite Nishiyama.

Iliadis, barrel-chested and stalking his prey with the intent of a powerful, single-minded bear, gave Nishiyama no option but to defend and retreat.

“My judo is based only on the attack, I don’t really care about who is in front of me,” said Iliadis. “I just keep pushing and pushing until my opponent made some mistakes. Nishiyama is very young and strong, but I just felt so good today. Today was my day and I did it.”

Sadly, he wasn’t able to replicate that form in London. No gold medal this time – but a bronze is still a medal; and still a great excuse to set out the dips, crack open a decent bottle of Nemea and toast the fact that for Greece, architects of the Ancient Games, the 30th Olympiad is finally underway.

—–

Kohei Uchimura: off his game in qualifying but a gold medal performance come the big event

In other Olympics news, Kohai Uchimura showed just how champions bounce back. The Japanese gymnast is considered the best in the world, silver medallist in the all-round and world champion for the last three years. He was the Dead Cert favourite going into London.

The wheels came off though in qualifying on Saturday, his rythm and routines misfiring to such an extent that he could only qualify ninth for the all-round final, one and a half points behind top qualifier Danell Cheyva.

That was followed by Monday’s team final when Uchimora’s dismount from the pommel horse saw him whacking his head on the side of the apparatus as the judges disappeared behind a screen of papers trying to work out whether he had actually completed his dismount.

They did and Japan picked up the silver behind China. A decent enough return although a touch embarrassing for the man rated by many as the greatest gymnast there has ever been.

He put all of that to rights on Wednesday. From the start of the all-round final he was the star performer, his troubles of qualifying a distant memory. He won it with a total 92.690 points – 1.659 points clear of silver medallist Marcel Nguyen.

Leyva did well to bounce back from a poor pommel to clinch the bronze.

Uchimura is a champion in every sense.

©Barney Spender 2012

US gymnasts fly to new heights

Posted by barneyspender on July 31, 2012
Posted in: Gymnastics, London 2012, Olympics, Sport, USA. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

The USA women on the podium after landing their first team gold since 1996

I am going to be honest about this one. Although I used to enjoy watching gymnastics, I was never what you might want to call a fan. I fell in love with Olga Korbut when I was nine and admired – without falling in love with – Nadia Comineci four year later…but since then I have looked on at arm’s length.

That began to change last summer when I met up a couple of times with Ioannis Melissanidis, the exuberant Greek, who won gold on the floor at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996.

I was working on a book for the Olympics – sadly dumped at late notice by the publisher – and we were chatting about the pressures and experiences of preparing for and taking part in the Olympics.

It was only then that I fully began to realise the pressure and strain on a gymnast’s body, the attention to detail, the hours of work and the lack of beer in the gymnast’s diet. One line, in particular, stayed with me.

“Before I went out in the final, my coach said to me; ‘Today, you are not going out there to do a routine – you are going out there to fly’.”

And boy did he fly. His routine is a wonderful mix of muscular gymnastics and Nureyevesque ballet.

And that is pretty much what we saw from the USA women as they cleaned up the gold medal in the team event today (July 31), beating second-placed Russia by a whopping five points.

It began on Sunday when they drilled the bejaysus out of everyone else in qualifying. Already world champions, they were undoubtedly the team to beat.
The Russians had the best chance but the US were flying, almost literally, from the start, some wondrous vaulting on the first apparatus immediately giving them the initiative.

Jordyn Wieber, surprisingly eliminated from the individual all-round final by two of her teammates, led the way with a vault that earned her a score of 15.933 before Gabby Douglas lived up to her nickname of the Flying Squirrel with a 15.966.

McKayla Maroney then ignored her injured ankle to fire in another Amanar and log a 16.233 – an echo of Kerri Strug’s limping vault securing the US their only other women’s team gold back in 1996.

“Starting out on vault was really good for us,” said Wieber. “Just kind of kickstarting the competition like that was really good for us, and we just carried everything through to the next three events.”

It was poetry in motion and there was to be much more of it. Not just from the Americans. The Russians, Romanians and Chinese all had their moments but the Americans were too consistent in their brilliance to be troubled.

At 37, Oksana Chusovitina proves there is no reason why female gymnasts should not last beyond their teens

The one perturbing thing about the competition is the youth of the gymnasts – they are girls rather than women – and the burnout. Four years ago, we were all talking about Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson…now aged 22 and 20 respectively, they are has-beens, listed as retired gymnasts. It hardly encourages parents to put their daughters on the beam.

Three cheers then for the likes of Beth Tweddle anc Catalina Ponor, both in the mid to late 20s, and the extraordinary Oksana Chusovitina who is still going strong at 37, in her sixth Olympics.

I was lucky enough to be commentating the final with David Crossan – you should follow him on Twitter for Eurosport in 3D. It is a wonderful way to watch, the gymnasts bursting through the screen. Well, okay, not actually bursting through the screen but giving you a sharp little wake-up call as they hurtle off the vault.

An added bonus, incidentally, is Dave’s supreme efficiency at naming every song used by the women in the floor exercises – tonight he even picked up on Jude Law’s musical contribution to The Talented Mr Ripley.

You can join us on Wednesday for the men’s individual all-round final. Sadly, I will lose my Mr Statto to the athletics track next week although the blow has been cushioned by the news that the aforementioned Ioannis Melissanidis will be joining me in the box for the individual apparatus finals.

Incidentally, if you have never seen his gold-medal wining performance from the Atlanta Games of 1996, then spare a couple of minutes now to take a peek.

 

©Barney Spender 2012