Saturday, July 23, 2011

USA CoverGirl Classic - live bloggin'!

Because I can, yo!

Tim's intro commentary is really awkward with. Truncated. Sentences.

Shawn Johnson's warm-up is solid.

(Scoping out leos for the kids this season. Seeking inspiration. Chellsie Memmel's looks like a leader so far.)

Aaaand...break!

...

A decent beam routine for Mackenzie Coquatto. I like her ponytail.

Everyone at this meet looks like they want to die. My boyfriend is chuckling at how SJ keeps turning away from the camera.

Jordyn Weiber -- a confident start. Really aggressive on the connections. Split leap/jump not so strong. Switch-side half -- pretty cool. WATCH THIS, says Tim. Pretty good.

Looks like a decent crowd tonight, at least in the lower levels.

SJ- nice Geinger. Solid handstands. "Awwwww" on the landing -- from all parties, including me. The dominatrix leo isn't super flattering, but I like it. My college coach would have killed her for that dismount: "You can't think you have it, you have to KNOW you have it!"

Break!

...

SJ looked "not too nervous," Tim? I beg to differ.

Aly Raisman - sloppy transition. Flexed toes and extra swings. Better off forgetting this one. Whoa, awkward Stalder moments on the high bar. Looks like SJ wins that round. On the plus side, I like the floor music that was playing in the beginning.

McKayla Maroney - she's so tiny! Boyfriend laughs again at "beautiful knees and toes." Really liking the white-and-purple leotard, even though the top right is a little weird. Some hesitations. She is indeed pretty to watch. Oh, that gosh dang full turn! A jaunty wave to the crowd.

Gabrielle Douglas - have seen some vids of her and kind of love her. HUGE Tckatchev, wow! Legs apart but stuck dismount! That was excellent.

Chellsie Memmel, the grand dame of the night - the standard sleek ponyatil. I like the sparkles quite a bit. Team Sparkle Motion here. Low chest on the barani. "More height" than usual? Yikes. Good save on the Arabian (though the best attempt at a save belongs to Bross, of course). Lots of long pauses. Ugly leap. Never been a huge fan, but she pulls it out.

They are showing a record amount of gymnastics right now.

Jinx? Now the fluffy times of watching Chellsie eat something. I hope it's chocolate.

Why are they showing nonsense? (Alas, the perpetual question.)

Bross looks exhausted.

Sabrina Vega -- Newww Yooork! Really like that luxuriously long side aerial. Got a case of the shaky-shakes. Pretty split jump - sissone. Huge legs apart on the dismount.

Break away.

...

Mag Seven!!! <3<3<3 My friend Danielle: "I feel like I had never seen gymnastics before that Olympics and I thought they were the best things ever."

At this rate, is Chellsie the only all-arounder left?

Bridgette Caquatto - she's such a wee thing. How come we haven't seen anyone vault yet? Just wondering. Clean first past. Jai Hoooo. Not a huge fan of this particular cut. Choreography doesn't really do it for me. Solid tumbling. Ooof...and on the butt out of bounds.

Shawn Johnson - ponyatil tucked into a bun. She's doing business now, biotches. Real weirdness happening down that right arm. Also looks like duct tape down the right arm. But whatevs. I secretly hope she'll bust out floor and vault. Also, I want to hang out with Liang Chow.

I like that mount. BOO, off the beam on the layout. I feel emotionally devastated. Ew to the sheep jump. Standing full to back handspring one day, methinks? One of those times where you want to just get off mid-routine and hide somewhere. Beautiful connection out of the switch leap. You can tell the fans/little girls are relieved.

Now she can go hide.

After a weirdly intimate camera angle of her cutting out the knee tape, of course.

13.5 - generous.

McKayla Maroney - beautiful twisting form (re: no Mustafina legs). Frenetic music makes me feel out of breath. Pretty good choreo. Yikes, an ambitious double Arabian on the last pass. Not so much a success.

Alicia Sacramone - wearing a buttload of make-up. The aggressive hands are out and about tonight. I think this leo would be pretty ugly if Alicia wasn't pretty. Bent knees on those pikes. I like that she doesn't pause for lengthy periods before big skills or the dismount.

Chellsie Memmel - HUGE Arabian pike. I like this intense music, though I'm not sure I can hear it clearly with the AC going in here. Lots of slowww poses. A good routine!

A special guest? Oh, man, I thought it would be Nastia for a hot second.

...

Aly Raisman - flexed feeeeet. Leap flexibility still meh. Doesn't look like her usual self -- seems to lack confidence.

Sabrina Vega - Exotic music. Boyfriend says, "Wow, that was clean." Liking that floor section after the second pass -- nicely done. She looks like she could be on Team Romania - something about her face. Good stuff!

Casey Jo Magee - totally loved her NCAA beam routines! Wowza, what a save on the side somi! I like that she brought out the cool tricks. Good for her, I say. "A really low dismount," however, says the BF.

...

You know it's not a real meet until Tim calls something "tremendous."

Alicia Sacramone - big fan of this music. Don't think the choreography is a revelation, but it's nice. The crowd claps along. Woof, low front layout. Gotta love an epic chorus chanting in the background. Still has supreme power in the tumbling.

Bridgette Caquatto - finally, someone vaults! Full-twisting Yurchenko.

Aly Raisman - honestly, didn't really watch because I was trying to figure out how to make a TinyURL. I figured it out in time to see a nice and easy double pike finale.

Chellsie Memmel - very high vault.

Amanda Jetter - I forgot she was going to be here. Super thin. Wobbles and hesitation. Nothing to write home about.

Hmm. Not too many highlights from this meet so far. Where is Jordyn Wieber hiding? Hopefully protecting her body?

Sabrina Vega - good height on double-twisting Yurchenko, but not great form.

McKenzie Wofford - she is WAY TOO CUTE. And short. Sounds like Tim said, "You have to be sixty" rather than "sixteen." Low landings. My mind isn't really blown by this routine. But I'm intrigued by her gymnastics future.

Sophina DeJesus - silver eyeliner. Hip-hop dancer? Can we see her floor routine? Unless she's not doing one, which seems to be a theme here this eve. The eyeliner and her bio are the most interesting parts of this routine for me. Her coach hates her now. You can tell.

Taking a stir-fry break because, frankly, this meet is kind of boring. Let me know if something exciting happens.

Sabrina Vega has the lead! Cool.

Alicia's vault - as ever, pretty awesome with a hop back. "Did she even touch the vault?" wonders boyfriend, looking perplexed.

Not gonna lie - the stir-fry I'm making smells awesome.

Second vault - pretty FTY.

Sooo hungry!

The feed freezes. Possibly good timing.

Anna Li - I knew there was a reason I was still watching! Nice handstands. A little close to the bars. Long routine. Oops - and the splatfest continues.

Aly Raisman - ugly Amanar. Not so good. I don't care what Tim says about "just making it."

Chellsie Memmel, who has not bombed out yet today - Nice bar routine! Nothing to be ashamed of today.

Highlight of this meet: definitely the stir-fry.

Man, and just when I thought Sabrina Vega was going to win this thing. Egads. Somewhere, Marta shakes her head in shame.

So what do we do for the next twenty some-odd minutes until the meet officially concludes?

Ah, Mackenzie Coquatto on bars - short on a few handstands, at least from the camera angle. Good routine. Looks like she has improved with age (at the ripe old age of, what, 19?).

Jordyn Wieber comes out of hiding for a bar routine. Really like the composition of the routine. It's something different. I feared for her knees on the dismount! No injuries today for her, which is always a victory.

Bridgette Caquatto - a bit of a labored routine. Anna Li looked super psyched as she landed the dismount.

Aly Raisman pulls out a win, as she's one of the few people to do all-around. And they don't interview her. Clearly, a prestigious title.
Aaaaaand we're outta here!

2 comments:

Anjelica said...

What exactly is an Arabian?

d.g. said...

It's a pretty cool skill in which a gymnast takes off into the air like she's going to flip backwards, but performs a half turn and flips forward.

Here's a link to a double Arabian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTnnGrG6Ow