2018 World Championships Live Blog | Women’s All-Around Final

/ November 1, 2018

Welcome to the live blog for the women’s all-around final at the 2018 World Championships, held in Doha, Qatar!

Please refresh your browser every few minutes to see the most recent updates, which will appear at the top of the page.

5:58 pm. Final Standings

1. Simone Biles, United States, 57.491
2. Mai Murakami, Japan, 55.798
3. Morgan Hurd, United States, 55.732
4. Nina Derwael, Belgium, 55.699
5. Angelina Melnikova, Russia, 55.698
6. Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos, France, 55.599
7. Chen Yile, China, 54.632
8. Flavia Saraiva, Brazil, 54.366

Angelina Melnikova and Artur Dalaloyan of Russia win the Longines Prize for Elegance!

5:56 pm. Morgan Hurd sits in between Murakami and Derwael, currently second with Simone Biles still to go on floor. Morgan is 0.066 behind Murakami, and 0.033 ahead of Derwael.

Biles USA FX: Moors, big bounce back OOB. Biles, not into the stag, step forward. Front full through to stuck full-in. Last pass is a double double, little bounce. As if she was gonna do anything but crush floor!

5:54 pm. Moors CAN BB: Off on a side somi.

Teramoto JPN UB: hit routine!

5:52 pm. Now Murakami gets basically EXACTLY what she needs to edge Derwael. The scores are SO FREAKING CLOSE. This is the best all-around final ever. Less than two tenths between the current top four, and with the two Americans to go. I’m PANICKING.

Mori BB: Had a fall early on, nice triple flight series though.

Hurd USA FX: Double double, solid, tiny hop. Double layout is great. So is the front full. Double pike, stuck. DEAR GOD it’s going to be close.

5:49 pm. Simm GBR UB: Hit everything at the beginning, Bhardwaj was a little crooked, double layout with a hop. Overall a solid set and a good way to finish her day.

5:48 pm. Murakami JPN FX: Double double and double layout are both fab. 2.5 to front full, little hop. Double pike hop back. Great routine, I think her turn at the beginning may have been wonky but I couldn’t really see it.

5:47 pm. NINA GOT THAT BY 0.001 I CAN’T EVEN

Kovacs HUN BB: Hit routine.

Visser NED UB: Hit routine.

De Jesus Dos Santos FRA VT: Hit her DTY, very nice! Tons of power.

5:46 pm. NINA GETS A 13.3 ON FLOOR TO MOVE AHEAD OF ANGELINA MELNIKOVA WITH A 55.699 I’M SOBBING AND SHAKING

5:43 pm. Saraiva BRA VT: DTY, loses form slightly at the end, hop. 14.533

Charpy FRA BB: Nice side aerial. Switch leap to split leap to Korbut, clean. Hit the dismount. Great routine again from her.

Derwael BEL FX: Tour jeté full, 1.5 to front full, tiny little skid forward. Lovely work on the wolf turn. High double tuck, stepped back but turns it into choreo. #MakeItFashion Lovely leap at the end. STANDING OVATION from the 300 Belgians here!

Seitz GER UB: Maloney to Ricna, piked Jaeger, hit the Pak and van Leeuwen, toe full, hit the dismount.

Luo CHN VT: FTY, hop back.

5:42 pm. Melnikova gets a 13.633, puts her in the lead at the moment ahead of Chen with a 55.698! Great scores for her today.

5:41 pm. Downie GBR VT: DTY, looked good to me! 14.4, 54.233 total, good job climbing those rankings a bit I think, and with mistakes!

Alexeeva with a 53.798 today.

5:39 pm. Black finishes her day with a 54.133. Chen beats her, 54.632! Klinckaert with a 51.832.

Melnikova RUS FX: I love her going right after Ellie when parts of their music are the same. Hit the full-twisting double layout. Good leaps. Nice lift on the double layout, step back OOB. Last pass has a little stumble. Someone in the crowd popped a balloon right as she finished lol.

Alexeeva RUS VT: Clean and stuck FTY!

Golgota ROU UB: Big Tkachev to Pak, leg sep. Van Leeuwen a little rough. Double front half-out, some leg stuff, hop. Overall solid.

5:38 pm. Chen CHN VT: FTY, I didn’t see much of it, but saw that she landed it? Helpful, I know. Good day for her!

5:37 pm. Barbosa BRA UB: I wasn’t typing at the beginning but hit everything. Started typing at the Maloney to bail (ankle sep) to Ray. Toe full, a little messy, blind change to front giant half, double layout basically stuck. If only she and Flavia did bars for the team like they did them today……. 😦

5:35 pm. Klinckaert BEL BB: Layout mount, fall. 😦 Good layout series once she’s back on. Switch half to Korbut is nice. Side somi, clean. Transverse split jump half. Switch leap to wolf jump. Double pike, a little low but solid. 12.266

Black CAN FX: 2.5 through to double tuck, little bounce. Hit the front double full to punch front tuck. Leaps aren’t 100% but close. Clean double full. Solid. 13.233

5:32 pm. Rotation 3 Standings

1. Simone Biles, United States, 42.491
2. Nina Derwael, Belgium, 42.399
3. Angelina Melnikova, Russia, 42.065
4. Morgan Hurd, United States, 41.866
5. Mai Murakami, Japan, 41.798
6. Chen Yile, China, 41.199
7. Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos, France, 41.033
8. Ellie Black, Canada, 40.900

5:25 pm. Hurd USA BB: Now’s the heart-pounding era of my day. Big wobble on the standing full but fights and holds it. Side aerial, hands down. NOOOOOOOOO. Just nerves right now. It’s hella hard seeing your teammate fall and then having to wait forever for your turn. Bhs loso, solid. Front aerial to split jump to straddle jump. Transverse split jump half is solid. Full turn. Switch ring, solid. Double pike, stuck. Shame about the beginning, the rest was fantastic. It’s going to be pretty tough for her now I think…the others are REALLY close. 12.933

5:24 pm. Luo CHN FX: Double tuck, clean, front through to double full. Hit the last pass. 13.0

5:22 pm. Mori ITA UB: Toe full, Ricna, stalder full to Ray, nice! Bail to toe shoot. Double layout with just a bounce in place. 12.766

Murakami JPN BB: Split leap mount. Front aerial, slow to split leap to split jump connection but the jumps were nice. Punch front pike, solid. Just tucks her knees a little early in prep for the landing. Solid bhs loso. Switch ring, I wouldn’t give it to her. Side aerial is clean. Punch front tuck, great. Double pike, hop back. I think our girl’s gonna get herself an AA medal. 13.666

5:21 pm. Saraiva BRA FX: Tucked full-in and double layout are both solid. 1.5 to front full. All of the Belgians clapping along now! Love them. They got the rest of the crowd clapping. Double pike stuck. Great routine. 13.833

5:19 pm. Derwael BEL BB: Loso mount, beautiful. Good bhs loso. Front aerial to split jump, beautiful. Side somi, little bobble. Switch leap to split leap. Gets through the first wolf turn, tiniest wobble. Double wolf after that, perf. Steingruber dismount, little hop. She is killing it. 13.733

Kovacs HUN UB: Maloney to Pak, van Leeuwen, all okay. Caught her release. Double tuck dismount with a hop. 13.133

5:16 pm. Charpy FRA UB: Toe full, Chow to Pak, nice on both, van Leeuwen also good. Hit her release. Blind full, double layout launched forward, big leap to the end of the mat. 12.9

Downie GBR FX: 1.5 through to arabian double front, wild on the landing but doesn’t fall. Front layout to double front I believe after that, a little cowboyed but solid. Switch leap to tour jeté full, good. 2.5, little hop back. Good work aside from that first landing. 13.233

5:15 pm. Simm GBR VT: Handspring front layout half, landing was a bit rough with a bounce and a step. 13.9

5:14 pm. Melnikova RUS BB: Hit everything I saw at the beginning, mount was solid into the jump series, layout series also good. Full turn. Ring leap, low back leg. Had another ring element earlier that was similar in its shape. Good double pike! Very confident routine. 13.466!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s huge for her. GIRL WANTS DAT MEDAL.

Visser NED VT: Clean FTY, not a ton of power. 13.466

5:13 pm. Alexeeva RUS FX: Double pike, a little bounce back on one foot. 2.5 to front tuck is super clean and solid. Switch leap to switch half, also very clean. 1.5 to front full, little hop back. Good double full. 12.933

Perez ESP UB: Hit the beginning, nice Pak, toe on to Maloney to Gienger. Full-twisting double layout, hop forward on one foot. 12.9

5:12 pm. Seitz GER VT: FTY, little hop back, mostly good in the air. 13.7

5:11 pm. Black CAN BB: Wobbled on her mount so didn’t connect to her leap series but the rest is good. Solid layout series. Double pike, a little deep but solid. I think I saw everything but her double spin so not sure how that went but the rest was fine aside from the mount. 13.6

Klinckaert BEL UB: I wasn’t typing during this but it was a solid set for her!! Should be happy with that. 13.066

Golgota ROU VT: DTY, some form issues in the air, I couldn’t see the landing super well. 14.3

5:10 pm. Chen CHN FX: Triple full, ankles crossed but good rotation. 2.5 to front pike, form is okay, not the greatest. Just some little cleanup needed. Clean and stuck double tuck. 13.033

Barbosa BRA VT: DTY, good! I’m always surprised to see her doing a DTY, no idea why. And it’s always excellent. 14.5

5:09 pm. Teramoto JPN VT: Rudi, a little better than we’ve seen it here so far but still pretty rough. 14.633

Moors CAN UB: I saw it from the Pak, toe full, van Leeuwen, some little leg issues there, clear hip to blind change, bends in half but muscles out of it, to Khorkina, good save. Moors dismount with a step back. 12.566

5:06 pm. De Jesus Dos Santos FRA FX: Full-twisting double layout, a little piked. Good landing. Tucked full-in landing is a wee bit deep. Good double tuck. Double pike, hop back. 13.8

Biles USA BB: Triple wolf turn. Good jump series. Off on her barani. 😦 😦 😦 hit her triple flight series. Jumps into the back pike are good. Front pike, big wobble, but holds it. Oof. Front aerial, pause, no connection out of it. Hit the full-in dismount. 13.233

5:00 pm. Rotation 2 Standings

1. Simone Biles, United States, 29.258
2. Morgan Hurd, United States, 28.933
3. Nina Derwael, Belgium, 28.666
4. Angelina Melnikova, Russia, 28.599
5. Chen Yile, China, 28.166
6. Mai Murakami, Japan, 28.132
7. Luo Huan, China, 27.866
8. Ellie Black, Canada, 27.300

4:58 pm. Saraiva BRA BB: Nice jump series to Korbut. Roundoff layout is solid. Short on the second loso in the bhs loso loso, doesn’t give her the punch she needs into the last loso and she hits it short before falling. Hit leaps after that, including switch ring, not that bad, whips the double pike around and lands it with a step. 13.0

4:57 pm. Visser NED FX: Her first pass had a little stumble on the landing, but the double tuck after that was good. Front full is nice. 13.033

4:56 pm. Murakami JPN UB: Nice handstand before toe-on to Maloney to Gienger, good, some leg sep on the Gienger. Blind change to piked Jaeger, hop change to straddle Jaeger, solid. Toe full is a little arched, to bail to toe shoot, full-in with a tiny step. Another solid set for her. 13.566

4:55 pm. Downie GBR BB: Switch to switch half, good. Bhs loso, big wobble, NO IDEA HOW SHE KEPT THAT ON THE BEAM. Damn Ellie! Big wobble on the double spin, also with a good fight. Side aerial with a check. 2.5, a little squatted but stuck! Girl is nothing if not a fighter. 12.7

4:53 pm. Seitz GER FX: Love this silly lil routine. 1.5 through to double tuck, stuck! Double pike with a hop back. Front tuck through to double full, some leg form but good landing. 12.866

4:52 pm. Derwael BEL UB: Nabieva, Derwael-Fenton to Ezhova to Chow to Bhardwaj, YAS. Clean van Leeuwen. Short handstand before toe full to full-in stuck. BEAUTEOUS. She missed the Nabieva in warmups and I started freaking out but she made her competition routine look effortless. 15.1

4:48 pm. Golgota ROU FX: Double layout, leg separation so rough I can see it from a side angle, but good landing. Hit the second pass, and then stuck the tucked full-in, some form stuff in the air. Double tuck to finish is high, a couple tiny steps back. 13.333

Melnikova RUS UB: Hit her beginning up to the Pak well, then van Leeuwen with messy legs, inbar half with ankle sep to piked Jaeger, nice and high. Short on a handstand at the end, hit the dismount. 14.433

Alexeeva RUS BB: Hit her flight series and front aerial. Good leap series, side aerial, switch half. Clean double full. Another excellent routine from her! 13.366

4:46 pm. Kovacs HUN VT: FTY, good in the air, tentative landing with a step. 13.6

Chen CHN BB: Layout series, little stumble. Wobble on split jump to stag ring jump. Switch ring, low back leg, to Korbut. Switch leap to split ring jump. Full turn. Split ring leap, low back leg. Hop back on the dismount. 14.1!

Black CAN UB: Maloney to Hindorff, FALL. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Back on for Shang, Jaeger to Pak, van Leeuwen, some form issues on the latter two, blind full, a little short, stuck tucked toe-front half. 12.9

4:45 pm. Barbosa BRA FX: Tucked full-in then piked full-in, both solid. 1.5 comes out really low into the front full, sits it. Hit the double pike. 12.1

Charpy FRA VT: Clean FTY with a hop back. 13.333

4:44 pm. De Jesus Dos Santos FRA BB: Punch front pike mount, good. Then punch front pike, a bit tucked in her knees. Bhs layout series is good, as is the switch leap to sissone. Front aerial to split jump to back handspring, a little weak on the jump. Hit the rest, step back on the dismount. Good work! Her first hit beam here. 13.733

Perez ESP VT: FTY, clean, decent landing. 13.566

Biles USA UB: Weiler half to Maloney to Tkachev, good. Toe full, a little late, to big Church to Pak, clean on both. Van Leeuwen, good, Fabrichnova, a little more to the side than we usually see her get it, but solid, just a tiny bounce. 14.725

4:40 pm. Teramoto JPN FX: Hit her turns well at the beginning. Whip whip to triple full, good, just a hop. Step out of the front double full. Switch full. She always holds that landing for SO long before continuing, it’s so funny. 2.5, mostly clean, little bobble on the landing. Switch ring to tour jeté half. Hit the last pass. 13.033

Klinckaert BEL VT: FTY, huge and clean, step back. 13.7

4:39 pm. Moors CAN VT: Handspring front layout half, hop back. 13.3

Hurd USA UB: Komova II to stalder full to Tkachev, good, nice handstand before the Ricna to Pak, clean, Ray to high, inbar half to front giant half, inbar full to full-in stuck cold. Fantastic work from this lil star. 14.333

4:37 pm. Simm GBR FX: Lovely arabian double front. Tucked full-in, chest a bit down. Stumbled back her third pass, something through to a double tuck. Double pike, chest down. 12.466

Luo CHN BB: Leg up on her layout series and she made it look pretty, haha. Lovely Onodi to stag ring jump. Little check on the switch ring. Double pike, a bit stunned on the landing, chest down, then whips it up and takes a step back. 13.466

Mori ITA VT: Solid FTY. 13.4

4:36 pm. Sorry, I just realized that I wrote Cheng earlier for vault instead of Biles…but it was the Biles hahaha. I have no idea why I did that, BLAME THE STRESS.

4:33 pm. Rotation 1 Standings

1. Morgan Hurd, United States, 14.600
2. Mai Murakami, Japan, 14.566
3. Simone Biles, United States, 14.533
4. Ellie Black, Canada, 14.400
— Luo Huan, China, 14.400
6. Angelina Melnikova, Russia, 14.166
7. Chen Yile, China, 14.000
8. Ellie Downie, Great Britain, 13.900

4:28 pm. Seitz GER BB: Off on her punch front. Off again right after that, on her flight series. Hit the dismount. 10.4

Charpy FRA FX: Hit her first pass, double back I think, then a front full, lovely work so far. Double pike, a tad short, little hop. Switch to switch half. Beautiful routine! 12.833

Downie GBR UB: Front toe half to Maloney to Hindorff, good. Love her leo with the black and gold. Toe full to Downie to Pak, some form issues. Van Leeuwen. Most of her handstands are a tad short. Double layout, pinged off a little early, hop forward. 13.9

4:25 pm. Golgota ROU BB: Big stumble on her switch leap mount and people in the crowd legitimately shrieked. Same. Bhs layout, a bit piked with a bobble. Omg it’s def her teammates in the crowd and they are shrieking at everything with their munchkin voices. Switch leap, wobble, missed connection to switch side. Hit the wolf turn. Hit the dismount. 11.566

Perez ESP FX: Whip whip to full-in is killer, she looks fab on that. Front layout through to double tuck, a little short with a step. Good double full. Hit the double back to finish. 12.5

Alexeeva RUS UB: Toe full to Maloney to Gienger, great. Blind change to Ling to piked Jaeger, pak, some leg sep but fine, van Leeuwen, again with some ankle sep, stuck the double front cold! 13.866

4:24 pm. Chen CHN UB: I missed typing through this but hit everything, a little late on her Healy 1/2, but no real problems here. 14.0

4:22 pm. Derwael BEL VT: Clean FTY, bounce back on the landing. 13.566

Barbosa BRA BB: Great layout series. Switch side half, nice! Love those. Full L turn, check after. Double pike, looked like she punched off the beam like six inches away from the end which looked like it was gonna be terrifying but no problems. Could just be my angle. 12.933

Klinckaert BEL FX: Double layout, stuck cold, looked fab. God I love this routine so much. Front tuck through to super clean double tuck with a step. Deeeep piked full-in but still solid. Good double pike to finish, hops to the side. Good routine, leaps just need some work. 12.8

4:21 pm. De Jesus Dos Santos FRA UB: BEAUTIFUL Galante to Pak, omg. Maloney to clear hip, arches it over but gets the blind change to Ezhova no problem, barely an issue. Van Leeuwen, inbar half to front full pirouette, low on the full-twisting double layout dismount but gets it done. 13.5

4:19 pm. Melnikova RUS VT: DTY, second twist is a bit messy but the first was almost nice. Two huge bounces back though. 14.166

4:18 pm. Moors CAN FX: Solid front layout to double front. Her Podkopayeva is incredible today!!!! Switch ring to tour jeté half. 2.5 to front tuck, looks like she’s gonna be short on the punch but she gets it! Solid routine. 13.366

Teramoto JPN BB: Onodi is nice, super solid flight series. Bobble on a switch leap, missed connection to side somi. Triple full looks better than it has. 12.9

Black CAN VT: Believe she did the handspring front layout full, great landing. Really important improvement from quals out of the way. 14.4

4:17 pm. Luo CHN UB: Hit the begining, then clean Maloney, blind change to Ling to Healy to Jaeger, Healy half with some little issues, stuck the double layout. 14.4

4:14 pm. Mori ITA FX: Tucked full-in, bounce back, 2.5 to front layout is a little messy. Hit her next pass. Double pike to finish. 13.133

Simm GBR BB: Off on her standing full. 😦  11.533

Biles USA VT: Biles, SAT IT GOODBYE FOREVER aslfkjalsdkjfal;ksdfjalksf 14.533

4:13 pm. Saraiva BRA UB: Omg this is such a Texas Dreams leo, KZB is probably wathing from the stands and screeching. Hit her release to a Pak, toe-on to Maloney to Tkachev, blind full, blind change to front giant to double front, clean, but bounces forward on the landing. 13.0

Hurd USA VT: Another clean and solid DTY! 14.6

4:09 pm. Visser NED BB: Hit her mount. Side somi is clean. Side aerial to back handspring, solid. Check on the double spin. Switch leap to split leap to split jump, nice. Clean, stuck double full. Goodness, she’s gonna be such a gem for the Netherlands. 13.033

Murakami JPN VT: Clean, solid DTY with a great landing. 14.566

Kovacs HUN FX: Clean double layout, little bounce. Hit her second pass. Front layout to front full, goodl, then a solid switch full. Double tuck, low, stumble forward a bit. 12.066

4:05 pm. Athletes are out! Let’s get the show on the road, shall we?

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101 thoughts on “2018 World Championships Live Blog | Women’s All-Around Final”

  5. Idk y, but i had a bad feeling about that. Welp….this is going to be a much more interesting competition than originally anticipated. It is gymnastics. Anything is possible

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  10. What’s happening to Simone? Pearl of Doha? In 2006 Vanessa Ferrari won and many people said she shouldn’t have won with 1 fall.. Guess what would happen if Simone wins with 2 falls 😉

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  16. Pingback: 2018 World Championships Live Blog | Women's All-Around Final | species specific

    • .. though I´m happy for Morgan because if she didn´t get a medal here everyone would have said that it should have been McCusker competing!

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  20. Bummed for Melanie. She was what, like two tenths from the podium? That’s hard to take. And Nina I’m sure will be a little let down… but what an AMAZING competition from her. If she can keep this form and just up her difficulty a little bit… wow.

    Simone almost gave me a heart attack today. Jesus Simone. I wonder how much of it was the Doha Pearl.

    Pumped for Morgan to get on the podium again… I think she’ll be a little annoyed to get bronze, but given her error on beam, that’s a pretty amazing recovery… Given how inconsistent her floor can be, I was really worried for her going into the final rotation.

    But of course…

    MAI!! HOORAY!! I almost started crying as she walked off the floor in tears. She is just the best.

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    • i think hurd gets why she got bronze instead of silver – because she had a major error in grabbing the beam, and mai didn’t. (hurd won in 2017 because she didn’t have any major errors.) even with the grab on the beam, i think morgan’s performances were superior to melnikova (wonky form, vault landing error), derwael (just doesn’t have a podium-worthy AA program yet), DJDS (little errors that added up)

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      • Agree with all the comments here! I just meant that I think she’ll be annoyed with herself for making the error. I’m sure she understands why she wound up in the position she did. Mai absolutely deserved to be in front. And TBH Morgan’s comeback from the BB fall was incredible, especially because she’s been rather inconsistent on FX lately. Only the very best competitors can do what she did!

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  21. Wow! That was far more exciting of a final than I was prepared for. My heart is still pounding!

    I’m so glad Morgan was able to pull it together after her mistake on beam to make the podium. And though I feel that her floor was slightly underscored here (if I’m remembering correctly, her qualification routine, which scored higher, wasn’t as good as today’s performance) I’m actually glad that Mai beat her for the silver. Because let’s be honest. Mai had the best overall performance today, whereas both of the Americans stumbled.

    Which leads me to Simone. I really have mixed feelings about her win. On one hand, I am absolutely thrilled that she managed to make history by becoming the first woman to win 4 AA World Titles. AND I’m glad she was able to keep the American AA Title streak alive for another year. AND she’s Super Woman, the GOAT, certainly one of MY favorite gymnasts of all time, etc. BUT…

    She fell. Twice. And it just never sits well with me when the winner doesn’t really LOOK like they should be the winner. And today, for whatever reason (my money’s on the Doha Pearl), Simone was just off. Way off. I guess it just goes to show how much difficulty she has on the rest of the field that she STILL beat Mai by nearly 2 points.

    Oh well. It was still a great competition. And Congratulations goes to all the medal winners and the other competitors, as well! Here’s hoping that Simone can redeem herself in Event Finals. (And even though I know she already said she was only doing a Cheng in Vault Finals, I kind of want her to throw the Biles now, just so she can redeem herself.)

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    • In all honesty, Simone’s falls are going to to provide our favorite magical diva with a lot of ammunition to trash talk about the COP and declare she still is tied for the most AA titles…

      Oh, Khorkina…your Russian sass is such a welcomed commentary to my day (no matter if I disagree with it or not)!

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    • She actually said she was going for the Biles in her interview. She also sounded guilty for winning. i was pissed that with 2 falls a gymnast can win in this CoP. Was I mad at Simone? Of course not, just the fact that this is FIGS idea of a fair CoP.

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    • Her name in Cyrillic could go either way when transliterated to the Latin alphabet. It could also be Aleeya, Aliyah, Aleeah, etc. Aliya is most common because her name is spelled Aлия, which pretty much directly is transliterated to Aliya (A = A, л = L, и = i pronounced “ee” and я = ya) but sometimes whoever transliterates Cyrillic names for the FIG does it differently. We’ve always known Irina Alexeeva as “Alexeeva” for example but her last name in Russian (Алексеева) transliterates directly to Alekseyeva, but it could also be spelled Alekseeva (which is how the FIG spells it), Alexeyeva…and so on. You also see it a lot with Ksenia/Kseniia/Kseniya and a ton of last names. I’m still going with Alexeeva for Irina and Aliya for Aliya.

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  23. These worlds are so exciting! And (big) injury free so far! After the MAG competitions, it seems that WAG is more suspenseful than anticipated – even if the announcers forced it a bit too much because with the scores Simone usually gets on FX, she really needed a huge disaster to end up second.
    Mai looked so defeated after her FX routine but I think that was just the flow of emotions going out. I have so many favorites in this AA that I would have loved to see on the podium that it gets very frustrating to see them so close to medals: MDJDS (did they really have to show the replay of her in tears after VT on the big screen during the medal ceremony when she was announced in 6th position?!), Ellie Black, Nina, ….. this is hard.

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  26. Not surprised that Simone’s ridiculously high difficulty won the day. She usually wins by 4 points, today she won by a little less than 2 points. With two falls, that makes sense. Still, Simone must be furious. I just got the feeling she was in a lot more pain than she let on. That she can do gymnastics that is way above the difficulty of everyone else while suffering from a kidney stone, which is HIGH on the pain level chart, just makes me appreciate her all the more.

    I wonder, though, how it will affect her event finals routines? She’s in all four.

    Lastly, Ban Biles = Svetlana Khorkina 😉

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    • I hope very much they will have Simone checked out again at the hospital and decide the best course of action. If she needs to pull out of a couple (or all) EFs, then fine. Her health is the most important thing, and anyway she already got the big prize (team and AA golds). Although I am sure she will want to push ahead no matter what.

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  27. I’m so happy for Mai! I’ve got mixed feelings about Simone’s win like everyone else. I know why she wanted to compete and she still won, but I hold the opinion that medically it would have been better for her to rest. She must be in pain and she doesn’t have anything to prove in terms of AA. IDK. Like I said, mixed feelings.

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      • I don’t believe that the 10.0 system would have rewarded difficulty either. There needs to be a balance and the open ended code allows for creativity and more difficult skills which I like. However, taking off more points for a fall could be a way to minimize the frustration some people have of those taking gold with a fall while others execute cleanly with slightly lower difficulty and don’t make the podium. It’s not a perfect system and this is in no way trying to take away from Simone’s incredible comeback because I love her. It’s just food for thought

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    • I’ve seen a couple people suggesting lager penalties for falls today, and at first I thought it was maybe an interesting idea, but thinking about it I think that suggestion really ignores what an enigma Simone is. Last year, one fall was the difference between Mai getting a gold medal and getting fourth place. Other than Simone, Yao Jinnan is this only person who could have kept the same medal adding another fall into her performance; and that’s with her ahead of Aly with a meltdown on bars. For most people, increasing the deduction for a fall would be unnecessarily harsh. Simone really is completely in her own league, and we shouldn’t customize the rules to try to keep her in line. It would mostly result in excessive punishment for other gymnasts.

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      • There is no question that Simone is in a league of her own and it’s amazing that we can witness history being made literally every time we watch her. However, FIG is constantly downgrading skills, for example the amanar. This is not a dis against Simone, merely a commentary that multiple falls shouldn’t necessarily equal gold even with immense difficulty.

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      • I agree completely… Simone is unique. The majority of the time, a gymnast loses any shot at a medal with a fall (see: Flavia Saraiva, who, without a fall on BB, would have been only 0.366 points from the podium). So I don’t think the system is broken, except maybe on vault, where gymnasts who fall (or have godawful form etc.) can still win if they have high enough difficulty.

        What really impressed me today was the way Morgan Hurd came back from a bad error on BB to nab the bronze. I mean I practically fainted when she grabbed the beam, while she went out and hit the FX routine of her life. Damn.

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      • @Mary, Yes!! Thank you. Making reactionary rules is never a good thing (not just in sports). Biles will be around for probably 2 more years, and after that it’s very unlikely we’d have this scenario again. Competitions should be relatively normal for a while. For FIG to create new rules around a significant outlier would, I think, be a stupid decision.

        Also, while I’m all for harsh E scores, I actually think if they were going to re-vamp things, they should go the opposite way from what I’ve heard most people suggest. Keep a fall the same (or deduct a little more, whatever), but be way harsher on issues like form and technique. I hate watching sloppy form and crap skills all the time. I’d rather the edge go to someone who has generally great execution but the occasional mistake than to someone who just does ugly gymnastics over and over. And no, I’m not just some Simone fangirl trying to make excuses. As I said, Simone won’t be around forever, but I’d like to keep watching and enjoying gymnastics forever and ever!

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  30. Euros 2019 has an AA right? Because Nina, Angelina and MDJDS were SO CLOSE. Plus you have all the Italian juniors, Elena Eremina and Ellie Downie coming back, Mustafina hopefully coming back to AA… OMG it’s going to be SO GOOD.

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    • stop trolling. we get it, you’re not a fan of biles. but for those that are fans of biles, your words are disrespecting a legendary athlete of the sport, i assume, you love. so if you would be so kind and adhere to the golden rule, that would be greatly appreciated. the gym world is a world of support and kindness. drama is frowned upon.

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  32. Hahaha makes me laugh how over scored simone is… hey judges.. calm down..gymnastics is/was about perfection, two falls and winning gold, hmmmmm i dont like her gymnastics.. bunch of big skills never performed perfect, always bouncing, bleah

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  33. It will be VERY hard for the owner of this blog to justify the blatant American favoritism. The corruption is not just in USAG and USOC, it’s on a global scale. C’mon, prove this blog is not funded by corruption!

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    • I feel genuinely sad for you, who keeps polluating the comment section on each and every article, because you probably have nothing better to do. Everyone gives their opinion respectfully here, you’re really fucking annoying.

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  35. When will some of you people realize that Simone has awesome execution? I swear, for some of you toe point is more important than anything else, including doing gymnastics in a safe way….

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  36. I genuinely never thought I’d say this about a Simone win, but I honestly don’t think she deserves this win. She fell on half her routines. No matter how good her execution otherwise or how high her difficulty, that isn’t okay. Mai Murakami deserves the title. She hit on the day, and Simone…. didn’t.

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    • Simone herself said almost this exact thing in an interview after the meet. I’m sort of ambivalent on it. I guess it comes down to what extent you reward difficulty. Mai had a very difficult program, but Simone’s was in another league. The COP rewards her for that enough that she can still win with a disastrous meet.

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    • Eh, I think it depends on how you define “deserve”… If you mean doing the four routines which will fairly receive the highest cumulative total, then she absolutely deserves it. If you mean putting up the best gymnastic performance, well then I think I’d have to agree that I don’t think that really applies to her here. I wish Mai had been able to win, but I also accept that Simone rightfully got the highest total. And really, I think all the conversations people are having about how we should approach scoring in response to this are honestly kind of meaningless because it’s Simone and she’s just going to be different from everyone else. If you’re going to go to a more open system (which I definitely think the sport in 2005 needed), it’s much harder to account for a bad performance from an outlying great.

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    • Yeah, I think even Simone had the same feelings about not ‘deserving’ it. No one wants to win this way. Unfortunately for everyone else in the field, her difficulty makes it impossible for anyone else to challenge her, which is why she leads the field by four points on a good day and why we always say “she could win with multiple falls.” Unfortunately that finally happened.

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  38. Am I the only person who is super confused by the judging, and mostly the minor gaps between everyone BUT Simone? I want Nina to win bars, but I can’t fathom how a yurch 1/1 and such low fx difficulty ended up in 4th?! I obvs get the execution vs difficulty thing, and I like the fact that ppl can cater to their own strengths, but I can’t wrap my head around this one. Am I overthinking it, and it’s rly just more of the same of the judges unnecessarily hammering execution scores on any and everything more difficult than a forward roll??

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    • This is an interesting comment, because I feel like there are quite a few people who thought Nina should have been on the podium over Morgan or even Murakami because she had such a clean meet. I don’t really have an answer to your question, other than to say that it sounds as though maybe you prefer to reward difficulty more than execution? Which is fine! I don’t really have a preference.

      I do think the judging was rather inconsistent today though across the apparatuses.

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      • It’s not that I prefer it, I just expect a certain level when we’re literally deciding the top 3 in the world. Nina had a clean meet, which is commendable, but she also did a vault that stopped being considered difficult in 1992.

        I’m not slighting the value of clean gymnastics, and I get the whole ‘shouldn’t win with falls’ argument, but I struggle to think that the bigger problem isn’t the unbalanced and inconsistent execution judging.

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        • But Nina also did the most difficult bars set in the world and her average difficulty is comparable to everyone who isn’t Simone. Morgan’s and Mai’s average difficulty is 5.5, Nina’s is 5.25. It’s the Shang vs Mustafina argument all over again where everyone argued that Shang “didn’t deserve” the podium in Rio because of her Yurchenko full on vault, even though the rest of Shang’s events were MORE DIFFICULT than Mustafina’s. Having a less difficult vault shouldn’t negate everything else you do in your program. Some gymnasts have vastly different strengths than others so why is vault the only criteria people care about? Some people physically can’t do more than an FTY because of injuries and Nina happens to be one of those people (she actually has a 1.5 and a more difficult tumbling set on floor but due to a foot injury, can’t do either right now), just like Aly used to be in strong all-around contention back when her bars were really bad, Melnikova is in strong contention with a really weak beam (far weaker than Nina’s vault generally, tbh), and Kyla could generally pull through with a weak floor. Everyone (except Simone) has a weakness. Vault shouldn’t be the only weakness that discounts otherwise great all-around programs.

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  40. I find it funny that there is no controversy at all when Simone qualifies 4.5 points ahead of 2nd place, but when her falls reduce her margin of victory to a measly 1.693 people freak out about how the code is wrong.

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    • Yes thank you! It’s driving me nuts when people say someone doesn’t deserve to win because they fell on 2 apparatus. It’s about what she is able to do before and after she falls. Despite the 2 points lost for the falls look at her toe points, the flight that she gets, those perfect lines – bot to mention the incredibly difficult skills that she not only performs, but performs well. When Usain Bolt destroyed the competition and dominated for so long no one said he should be penalised more or doesn’t deserve it. If he won the 200m despite a stumble people would say wow what a comeback!

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