Gymnast of the Day: McKayla Maroney

McKayla is an amazing gymnast. She does the all around at Nationals to better her chances of making a Worlds Team, but when she gets named, she works it out with Marta to only do vault and floor, the events that involve power, which she excels at. I love McKayla as a gymnast, and I am excited to see where Mac's career takes her, and I am on for the ride. After her fall in vault finals, McKayla decided: Rio. She's been trying to impress Marta so she could have Marta think about her for Rio, and I think she is succeeding. I think McKayla will get to Rio, and will snatch the vaulting gold from everyone in the World. She is a great gymnast, and she is even trying to become an actress if the whole gymnastics thing doesn't pan out (Which won't happen because it will, she will get to Rio) Anyway, I am looking to see how Macky redeems herself over the course of the 1 1/2 years remaining till Rio.

Team Romania: Strengths and Weaknesses

 The Romanians, they have amazing prestige. When I think about Team Romania, I think of the legendary Nadia Comeneci. How she brought home a huge amount of medals for Romania in 1976. She set a new standard for Romania, the standard of greatness.  But after Nadia said goodbye to the sport, we were able to point out the strengths and weaknesses that we could not when Nadia was in the sport, but when she left, flaws were definitely apparent, as well as the strengths that hung around


Strengths: Romania has great artistry and power as we see on beam and floor. The Romanians are beautiful. It's always great to see classic Romanian artistry on these events, also the power, Romania can throw the big stunts, and they aren't too bad on vault either, sure they can't do the Amanar, but the most powerful athletes can do the Yurchenko Double, the next highest vault to the Amanar in the round-off position.


Weaknesses: Bars. The Romanians are not at all good on this event,  I can't remember them being good since Nadia's perfect ten at the '76 Olympics. This is a definite area of struggle for the Romanians, and I hope to see them get it back. But the way the Romanian field is looking right now, 1 1/2 years till Rio, it seems like no Romanian will be able to work bars as well as their gymnastics ancestor, the great Nadia "Perfect 10" Comeneci.


    Well, those are the strengths and weaknesses of Team Romania, stay tuned for another strengths and weaknesses segment on another country!

Judging Her Gymnastics: Alicia Sacramone

   We all remember Alicia right? Strong all-arounder, brilliant gymnast. Strong. Well lets talk about her gymnastics, her best events and worst.



Vault: Alicia is amazing on this event, she knows how to throw the huge vaults. She is World Champion of the event. She has the handspring with 1 1/2 twists as well as the double yurchenko. Those two packed together is a force to be reckoned with.

Bars: This isn't Alicia's best event, but she is solid on this event, she can contribute a solid set and be done. She has great form and focuses on execution on this event.


Beam: This is a great event for Alicia, she can deliver difficulty. She is great when it comes to connections, she can put the whole routine together from her front flip mount to her double pike dismount. She was always great on beam, with the exception of the team final. But that was the thing that brought Alicia back. She was at her greatest.


Floor: Alicia also fell on this at the team final, in her comeback in 2010, she excluded floor in her repertoire, probably because of that day. But when they went home with the silver once again in 2010, Alicia realized she needed to perform floor. She brought back that double arabian and the rest of her routine and made it on the team. Sure, it was because that she did that double arabian that she tore her ACL, causing her to miss the Worlds, and the rest of the season, as well as having a late comeback, resulting in her missing the Olympics, but she is good on this event



    Alicia was a great gymnast, and I was disappointed to see her retire out of devastation after she didn't make the team, but may I congratulate Alicia on getting married to quarterback Brady Quinn and may I wish them a happy life together as the newest sports power duo (Olympic Gymnast and a Star Quarterback) Sure, we'll miss Alicia, but we want her to life a happy life, with her star quarterback (not to bad Alicia)

Vault Chat: The Pordunova

   There is this vault, this vault that has only been performed exceptionally by one gymnast, and that gymnast is the woman who got this vault named after her, Elena Pordunova. The Pordunova is a double tuck vault. After Elena Pordunova retired. no one was able to perform the vault as beautifully as she did. One gymnast tried it at the Worlds stage, her name is Yamilet Pena Abreu. She has not landed it since the 2012 Zibo Cup. At the 2012 Zibo she landed the vault fairly well, I would give it a 5. She did win gold at the 2012 Medellin. But she never performed the vault well afterwards. The vault has amazing difficulty, if you hit it, you win it, but if you miss it, you're done like dinner. No one has ever hit the Pordunova as well as Russian great Elena Pordunova. And probably never will. But I am scouting the competitions for great talent on this vault. And when I find it, I will blog about it.