It’s time for the 109th edition of You Asked, The Gymternet Answered! We apologize if we haven’t gotten to your question yet, but we try to answer in the order in which they were received (unless they are super relevant and need to be answered in a timely manner). Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Coach Wang Qunce has coached three individuals (Huang Huidan, Yao Jinnan, and Fan Yilin) to three consecutive world championships on bars. Has this been done before — a coach having different individuals as champions on an apparatus in consecutive years?

Hmm…probably at some point but it’s hard to say without knowing the individual coaches of every athlete (like, Russians and Soviets have gone back-to-back but I don’t necessarily know if their coaches were the same…that’s too big of a research project for me to handle). I think the closest to that in recent years would be Hollie Vise getting a world bars medal in 2003 and then Nastia Liukin getting one at the next worlds…they didn’t have the same coach but both came from the same gym, so that’s a little bit of a reach but it’s as close as I got. And this isn’t consecutive, but Alicia Sacramone won the worlds floor title in 2005 and then Aly Raisman, also trained by Mihai Brestyan, won the Olympic floor title in 2012. There are probably a few other recent close calls like this but these were the ones at the top of my head.

Why did rhythmic gymnastics become its own thing rather than staying part of women’s artistic gymnastics? Why did women stop doing the rings, high bar, and parallel bars?

I think rhythmic kind of branched off because women’s gymnastics was mirroring men’s gym a little…with both the rhythmic aspect AND the floor exercise, it didn’t make sense to have both, and so rhythmic kind of fell off of the women’s program while floor for women became kind of a combination of men’s with a focus on tumbling elements and then the older rhythmic style with the dance elements and choreography. So yeah, basically it didn’t make sense to have both as separate entities, and that’s kind of how the modern women’s floor evolved.

Uneven bars kind of became a combination of men’s parallel bars and high bar. Women started off doing parallel bars, but then this evolved into an apparatus with one of the bars raised (which is why you sometimes hear people call them “uneven parallel bars” and they literally just used modified sets of p-bars). In the 70s and early 80s, women wanted to begin competing release moves like the men were doing on high bar, which led to the creation of a brand-new uneven bars apparatus with the bars widened so the women could perform giants around the high bar in an effort to work on big release skills. So uneven bars are basically a combination of p-bars and high bar in a way!

As for rings, women did them for a few years back in the 40s and early 50s I believe, with a compulsory rings routine at the 1948 Olympics, but then as WAG started taking on its more modern form, they got rid of rings because back then, women physically couldn’t do a lot of the skills men were doing (they mostly just balanced and held positions on the rings as opposed to doing flips or anything). Today, I’m sure there are plenty of women who could build the upper body strength required for rings, but I don’t see them being added in anytime soon given that the four events have evolved but haven’t been added to or subtracted from between 1952 and today.

Giulia Steingruber pikes down on her landing on her DTY. I know we don’t know what deduction was actually taken, but how much of a deduction should that be? She also pikes down on the Rudi.

Yes, a deduction is usually taken for any vault that sees a pike on the landing. It depends on how severe the pike is, but the deduction is usually around one or three tenths.

Was Bela Karolyi removed as head coach of USA Gym because of abuse allegations or other reasons?

He was not removed because of abuse allegations. Karolyi showed in the 1997-2000 quad that his system wasn’t really working for the U.S. women’s program anymore, and so USA Gymnastics decided to go in a new direction. He was removed as the national team coordinator with Martha Karolyi taking over in 2001, which is when the current system in place for the elite women’s program began. I think with all of the drama surrounding the 2000 Games, USA Gymnastics was simply ready for a change. There was a lot of discord between Bela Karolyi and many of the gymnasts, he often was too outspoken in the media (with the cherry being his going to the press and blaming the 2000 team’s lack of a medal on them being lazy), and there was almost no cohesion between the national coaches and individual coaches, so teams didn’t really feel like teams as much as just a random collection of people who all came together for worlds and the Olympics, which doesn’t really work. Basically, a lot of his ways were turning archaic, and he wasn’t the right person to take the team forward going into the future.

What was your take on the Ukrainian men in the team final? It seemed no one knew what was going on.

I didn’t know what was going on for a while, honestly, and I don’t think anyone there really knew either…someone I know who was there spoke to a judge who said they assumed it was a political protest! Eventually, I understood that the Ukrainian men’s team was heading to the warm-up gym prior to the competition, and Maksym Semiankiv told the team to take his bag, because he needed to see someone in medical about his hand. The team trained, assuming he was fine. Oleg Verniaiev was supposed to be the alternate on all four of Semiankiv’s events, but he didn’t warm them up because they didn’t know they would need him. Fifteen minutes before marching out, Semiankiv returned and said he couldn’t compete due to a hand injury. The team didn’t know what to do, and because Verniaiev didn’t get to warm up, it would’ve been very unsafe for him to go up on those four events. He apparently wanted to compete, and would have, but the team didn’t think they could change the lineup that close to competition.

In your summary about the Final Five you said you’re not a fan of Gabby Douglas’ gymnastics. What is it that you don’t find as appealing? If you had your way, who would have been on the team? Do you feel differently given how well she performed on bars at the Olympics?

It’s just a personal preference…we all have our favorites to watch. I generally tend to like the really beautiful and elegant gymnasts with a lot of performance ability like Lieke Wevers and Nina Derwael, or the ones who go for crazy ballsy big skills like MyKayla Skinner. Douglas doesn’t really fit either of those…I don’t dislike her gymnastics but I just personally don’t find her as fun to watch because she doesn’t fit my personal preferences. If we’re talking technique and ability, that’s not even opinion, it’s a fact that she’s a very strong gymnast and deserved to be on that team no matter what my personal stylistic preferences are. Like, I fully know that Douglas is a much stronger technical gymnast than Skinner, but I just prefer Skinner because I like that she tends to be gutsy as an athlete and I find that really fun to watch. If it was my team based on my desires, I’d have Skinner, especially because (a) the team would’ve won gold no matter what, and (b) I would’ve liked to see Skinner get a vault medal, which she would’ve easily done if she hit. Again, because I have no issue with Douglas’ technical ability, seeing how well she performed on bars at the Olympics didn’t really change my opinion of her at all…I knew she was a good competitor. She was fantastic in the all-around in qualifications. She deserved to be on that team. None of that changes the fact that I don’t enjoy her style as much, just like no matter how good of a singer Carrie Underwood might be, nothing will ever make me ever like her style of music. Douglas could get 9.8 E scores on everything and win every gold and be the most amazing gymnast who has ever lived and I’d still not be a fan of her stylistically.

Do you think Aliya Mustafina was overscored at the Olympics, in particular in the all-around and uneven bars finals? Do you think Madison Kocian should have won the gold?

I do think Mustafina was gifted quite a bit in the all-around. I think the judges kind of gave her the benefit of the doubt on many of her E scores, pretty much everywhere but bars. Bars in general was crazy so I don’t think Mustafina was gifted there any more or less than anyone else. I do think she deserved to win the bars gold, and had Kocian won, I would’ve supported that as well. They were so equally strong, both with little minor form issues, but ultimately they were on the same level and I would’ve been happy with it had it gone either way. Their scores were so close all Olympics, it was impossible to say who was actually better, so I wouldn’t have argued against either one getting gold. They both deserved it.

My biggest issue in the all-around was that people kept going on and on about how Shang Chunsong didn’t deserve to win a medal because her vault difficulty is too low, and that Shang lost the meet on difficulty alone. However, Mustafina’s difficulty on beam and floor was basically the same as Shang’s difficulty on vault, and Shang ended up having 1.5 points more than Mustafina in terms of difficulty. So really, Mustafina beat her on execution, and I don’t agree that Mustafina had better execution on all four events. With the two finishing so close to one another, I would’ve given the bronze to Shang, who had an overall better day with no major mistakes. I think she was definitely low-balled on some of her E scores and Mustafina was definitely gifted. It’s over now so I don’t care THAT much and don’t obsess over it, but in that moment I was pretty annoyed that Shang was so underappreciated. But then hearing FIG president Bruno Grandi’s rant/attack of the Chinese program, it all made sense and I’m not surprised because they didn’t seem to want any Chinese gymnast to walk away on top here.

What happens to all of the gorgeous and expensive Olympic leos now? Will they ever be worn again? What about some of the pieces that individual gymnasts never got to wear because they only did one day of event finals?

Most of the gymnasts just keep them. These kits stick around until worlds next year, so if we see a U.S. gymnast show up at the Mexican Open or something this year, she’ll be in an Olympic leo. They’ll also keep these for American Cup, Jesolo, and other competitions next year. I think some of the girls who actually wore their leos in Rio may frame one of them or do something else sentimental, but if any of the Olympic team members continue next year, they’d be wearing the same leos again.

Will the new code in 2017 close some of the loopholes of this quad?

Yup! Most notable is the front/side tumbling loophole on floor. In the new code, gymnasts will have to do an actual front tumbling pass as opposed to a random front or side aerial as part of their choreography. We’ll have a whole article about everything coming up in the 2017 code in the next month or so, where we’ll explain all of the changes and new rules, but this rule specifically is one of the big changes that will affect quite a few floor routines going forward.

What is up with China always wearing heavy winter coats as warmups? It seems pretty excessive.

It’s just about staying warm. Arenas can get pretty chilly, so even while other athletes in the arena will just stick to sweats or yoga pants or just jump around in place or whatever to stay warm, the Chinese maybe just like the super warm coats better. Plus, they look super comfortable, like mini-sleeping bags. I kinda want one.

Where did Gabby Douglas go after the Olympic competition ended? Do athletes have a choice of whether to stay or not for the Closing Ceremony?

She went home a little earlier than others on the team, as did some athletes from other sports. Athletes don’t have to stay for the Closing Ceremony. Knowing that she had issues with her teeth and apparently some other personal stuff going on causing her to miss public appearances in the U.S., it’s possible she just wanted to get home early so she wouldn’t have to spend more time than necessary in the public eye. I don’t blame her…she was treated like crap during these Games. I’d want time away from it all too.

Have a question? Ask below! Remember that the form directly below this line is for questions; to comment, keep scrolling to the bottom of the page. Keep in mind, we sometimes get about 50 questions a day and can only answer usually around 30 or so a week, so don’t be discouraged if we don’t get to you right away. We do not answer questions about team predictions nor questions that say “what do you think of [insert gymnast here].”

Article by Lauren Hopkins