What We’re Talking About
The scoring. There were a lot of 10s and a lot of 198s. The gymnasts putting up beautiful routines and getting rewarded with a 10.0 were: Mara Titarsolej, Jordan Chiles, Maile O’Keefe (x2), Sage Thompson, Derrian Gobourne, Jordan Bowers, Sloane Blakely, Sunisa Lee and Trinity Thomas. The 198s this week came from Florida, Auburn, Utah, Oklahoma, Alabama (x2) and UCLA. It’s not so much that the 10s are the problem (mostly), but the fact that so many other routines are so close in scoring. More separation would go a long way in making each of these 10s more special.
Russia and Belarus are banned. They should be. Remember… Russia already couldn’t use their flag nor national anthem because they were systematically cheating as a delegation. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they are not just flaunting war propaganda iconography, but defending its usage. It sucks that innocent athletes are going to get swept up in this ban, but severe consequences are necessary. Who knows how this will all play out, but Russia qualifying for this year’s World Championships in Liverpool is already in jeopardy and repeating as Olympic Champions in Paris will become less likely with each falling bomb.
Feelings
- Ivan Kuliak should be banned for at least this quad.
- Auburn’s velvet leos crushed.
- Emma Malabuyo plays with the crowd better than anyone else on floor.
- We don’t mind the boo birds making an appearance at LSU v. Kentucky.
- Also, the rules were followed correctly.
- White fingernails are an excellent choreography accent (but only if you don’t have broken wrists!)
- 30 routines received a 10.000 from at least one judge in a single day—that’s too many.
- There have been 19 198s this season, which ties the record. The quality of gymnastics this season has been spectacular, but that’s still too many with several weekends to go.
- Get-off-my-lawn complaints aside, we love seeing 10s and they’re great for the sport.
- China’s gym association and central ballet have an agreement where the gymnastics teams will receive choreography and artistry training and ballet will receive guidance on physical fitness. This is the way.
- Also… Reminder that ballet is not the only form of dance.
Facts
- Cristal Isa is coming back for a 5th year.
- So is Allie Stern and Olivia Trautman.
- How’s retirement Chuso? 46-year-old Oksana Chusovitina wins gold again.
- Oklahoma posted a 48.825 on bars, tying the highest uneven bars rotation in NCAA history with UCLA (’04) and Cal (’21).
- On vault, Jordan Bowers received her first perfect 10. Then she nearly did it again on bars, and good lawd!!! the height on her double-pike on floor.
- Auburn and Florida tied with the 4th-highest team scores in NCAA history: 198.575.
- The cumulative score for the meet of 397.150 was the highest two-team score ever.
- Utah joined the party with their own 198.575.
- 4 of the top 11 scores in NCAA history happened on March 04, 2022.
- Will Graves is a treasure.
Award(s)
- Constant Vigilance Award: WOGA Alumni
What’s On the Socials?
chuso doing the same vault – 32 years of difference (1990 – 2022) pic.twitter.com/n4L63KWt1w
— romeo (@inbarfull) March 4, 2022
https://twitter.com/OU_WGymnastics/status/1501226244637032450?s=20&t=KRFsa8_We8vkmGjve6sdqA
Watch Mara's perfect 10 routine! https://t.co/aqNem1rz2B
— LIUSharksGymnastics (@LIUSharksGym) March 7, 2022
https://twitter.com/UtahGymnastics/status/1499947946871115776?s=20&t=WRnRiy3aDcntzV9qvGDL5Q
View this post on Instagram
Quotes
“For me, that (ruling) is not the story. The story is even with that, if we’d done what we were supposed to do, we wouldn’t be talking about that. We’d be talking about a win. I’m not mad at Kentucky and I’m not mad at the officials. They caught a break.” ~ Jay Clark, LSU HEAD COACH
Clark is responding to the circumstances of the end cap coming off of the beam on the final Kentucky routine, allowing the gymnast who had fallen earlier in the routine to redo her set and put the Wildcats ahead on the scoreboard.
♦
“Every time they stuck (a landing), they put a sticker on the stick. At the end of 2½ days, the stick was full of stickers, because that’s how many times they’d stuck in 2½ days.” ~ K.J. Kindler, OKLAHOMA STICKER DISTRIBUTOR
The Oklahoma head coach explaining the stickers on the motivational stick stick in preparation for their showdown with then ranked No. 1 Michigan.
♦
“I’ve been wearing the same earrings since my college career started.” ~ Lexy Ramler, TOE-POINT AFICIONADO
Lexy was asked if she had any rituals, she said no with the exception of her hair and wearing the same earrings.
♦♦♦
What? You want even more? Be sure to check out our new College & Cocktails episodes for Club Gym Nerd members on Friday nights right after the competition. Then we give the sober analysis on Monday after we’ve allowed the data to penetrate our feelings.
This column was composed and compiled by Steve Cooper, Editor, GymCastic; as performed by hosts Jessica O’Beirne and Spencer Barnes.
