The No. 1 Gymnastics Podcast in the Galaxy

128: Aly is Back

Raisman prepares for bars back on the national team
Aly Raisman training in the recent USA Gymnastics documentary

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In the News
Uncle Tim and Jessica chat about:

  • Komova’s triumphant return to international competition (nobody cares if she watered down)
  • Oleg’s baby mohawk, Ruggeri’s floor , Roxana Popa’s hot new bars steal the show at the Blume Memorial.
  • Why does Boguinskaya make Chusovitina pose in front of lingerie shops wherever they go?
  • Our jazz hands filled love for Elythora Thorsdottir and Axelle Kinckaert’s big band choreography.
  • Why the Romanian juniors are leading the charge for artistry and uniqueness in eastern Europe.
  • Should all competition bibs feature names instead of numbers like the did at the Stuttgart World Cup?
  • Afanaseyeva is back with a new floor routine and a huge neck tattoo. Seriously.
  • We lament for the Mustafina who could have been in Stuttgart (it wasn’t pretty, e.g. helicopter legs triple full is back).
  • The adorable VK fan chat with Oleg Vernaiev. That American’s are the friendliest and he still hates high bar!
  • All the reasons to love german announcers especially when they talk about Donell Wittenberg and Hambuchen.
  • Andres Breischneider does the double twisting kovcas again! You better STEP UP Epke!
  • Who has the best team on paper — the NCAA signing day debate.
  • The 43-year-old mother of three, Louise Andrew’s experience competing in the masters gymnastics (AKA being the coolest mom ever).
  • The cheerleader who’s never competed in gymnastics, Laney Madsen of Gym-Max, was invited to national team training camp.

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The Liukin
9 years ago

Haha, I am indeed a guy. I would say my enthusiasm for Oleg is pretty similar to Uncle Tim’s except I actually did cry happy tears when Oleg won pbars at Worlds.

And yay for this episode!

P.S. Oleg will forever and always hate high bar.

gymbot
gymbot
9 years ago

Per Jessica’s request, Popa-Nedelcu’s Bar Set:

kip, toe-on pirouette + van leeuwen (D+E, CV 0.1)
kip, toe-on half pirouette + straddle jaeger (C+D)
kip, ray/toe-on tkatchev + pak salto (D+D, CV 0.1)
kip, maloney/toe-on shaposh + gienger (D+D, CV 0.2)
kip, full twisting double layout (E)

sorry for spelling errors, gymternet

E2D6 (3.4), CV 0.4, Comp Reqs 2.5 = 6.3 SV

Helena
Helena
9 years ago

Someone should keep a running record of all notable gymnast tattoos and have a special award for the wildest tattoo based on design and placement!

I also had a similar reaction as Uncle Tim’s about the Aly interview. I thought it was very modest of her to say that she feels at 50% despite looking so amazing in her skills. Then again, it’s probably the difference between getting skills back vs being in routine shape. In regards to the AA tiebreaker, it was the sum of 3 highest scores, not the sum of E scores, that broke the tie. But even if it was the sum of E scores (which would make more sense IMO), Aliya would still win the bronze over Aly by 0.1, and I think Jessica’s speculation about Aly’s focus on execution is not unfounded. Aly really had the difficulty advantage over Aliya in 2012, but had she been better in execution by just even 0.1… We can only imagine how difficult it must be for Aly to go through that reality.

I’ve also found it interesting how we’re witnessing two different methods of comebacks with Komova/Afan and Aly. Komova and Afan get the benefit of starting with low expectations by competing basic routines to gain confidence and get back into the competitive mindset, whereas Aly is spending her time bringing back her competitive routines before returning to competition. I can see pros and cons to each method—what do you think?

Alyssia
Alyssia
9 years ago

JESSICA!!! I can’t believe you didn’t even mention EKATERINA SOKOVA!!!!!! She’s a junior and competed at KSI Cup too! JUST LOOK FOR HER FLOOR IT IS THE CUTEST THING!! ALL OF HER FLOORS ARE THE CUTEST THING!!! AND SHE’S SO TINY!!! AND HER NAME TRANSLATES TO JUICES IN GOOGLE TRANSLATE!!!!!!!!! She was born in 2000 so I’m hoping she’s an outsider. So cute, my god. Pls look for her videos and squeal with me.

Hmmm I hope the Shawn Johnson thing works out… It would be so cool! Even if it’s some random elite from a South American country that might not be big on the World level you know. It would be cool.

I’m like 99% sure Eythora is going to go to Euros if she’s even just slightly healthy. She’s not even doing full routines yet (on floor I think she can do harder passes) and she’s scoring about 53 (usually with a fall here or there). She’s gonna go. So watch out for that!

Afan’s tattoo is a big flower! It’s a blue flower, idk what type. I know whiptotriple on Tumblr/Twitter had pics.
Obviously Aliya had a bad day as you said. Like I was so surprised? I have never seen Aliya headcase before. But now apparently she has a lumbar spine injury she’s going to Germany for so it makes a lot more sense. She wouldn’t need surgery they said in an article. Rewriting Russian Gymnastics has the link. So now I’m like. Yep, I see now. It wasn’t her mind, it was her body. She better get some rest and some treatment and hopefully won’t compete until at least Europeans. The floor… yeah no I don’t even know what she’s thinking. The only thing I guess is that she would use the meet to test out some new combinations and stuff. Like last year when she went to the DTB Cup (team) and showed up with an improved beam. Obviously she was trying something like that this year. We’ll have to wait and see. And we all knew the Rodionenkos totally despise Aliya (because they hated Alexandrov).

(…ee I’m having to leave but perhaps I’ll write a second comment when I listen to the rest of your episode!)

NCAA GymCastic Live Show in Fort Worth, TX April 19, 2024

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