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| Viktoria Komova shows off her silver medal! |
I love me
some Gabby Douglas and I am excited about the fine young lady’s future in
gymnastics, as are many people.
Having
said that, I also want to go on record to say that I fell like Douglas was extremely lucky to have won
the gold medal in the all-around portion of the 20102 London Olympics.
Why?
Because
Russian superstar Viktoria Komova unleashed a floor exercise that I believe
should have catapulted her past Douglas in their respective quests to win the gold medal.
Don’t be
mad at me…I’m as pro-U.S. as any American African-American male can be (it is
really hard some days). However, as a longtime journalist, I also have been
trained to call things the way I see it, in a thought-provoking manner, no
matter how any reader or group of readers may react.
In
essence, if I didn’t share my true feelings on how I view things, I could never
live with myself knowing I didn’t write the ‘truth’ at least as I saw it.
Again,
from where I was sitting on the night of the all-around finals, I saw Komova
unleash a floor exercise performance that I thought was as close to absolute
perfection as any I have ever seen.
Komova
needed a 15.360 on the floor exercise to beat out Douglas for the all-around gold medal, she
fell just short and was denied the gold medal by just .039 to Douglas .
Still, I
say Komova should have been awarded the gold medal as I believe her floor
exercise routine deserved at least an even 16.00.
Nevertheless,
I am quite pleased that Gabby Douglas won the gold medal – while making
African-American history with he spirited floor exercise performance, even if my journalistic duties
lead me to say it should have gone to Viktoria Komova!
I see your points based on Komova's exquisite ballet training. She performed her very best on the grandest of scales. Her face after the floor was emotionally and physically exhausted, leaning her head on her Russian teammate. Whether she passed Gabby on the floor is one thing, but I think Gabby did better on the other apparatuses.
ReplyDeleteI honestly could not believe that Komova did not win the all around after seeing her floor routine. In fact, I already thought something was a bit suspicious when Gabby scored a 15.733 on bars for a routine that was not much different from what she did in the team final (there, she scored a 15.2). Regardless of that, Komova knew going into the last rotation that she would need the floor routine of a lifetime to beat Douglas. She nailed every single tumbling pass like an olympic champion should and yet somehow the score came up short. As an American, I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed for the USA when Gabby won when she clearly should not have.
ReplyDeleteif this was the floor exercise finals she might have won... but it was all around. there were three other apparatuses they were judged on. Remember the vault where komova didn't even land on the mat? And besides you don't even bother to post her start value. Stop being a hater and talking about a sport you probably don't know that much about (especially the scoring).
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with Ed. The only thing I saw Douglas do better on was the vault. I'd call beam even. Komova looked infinitely more graceful on bars. Douglas looked as if she had to try, Komova looked just a strong, but so much more graceful. Douglas wasn't even in the same league on floor. She looked mechanical, as if she felt she had to beat the floor into submission. Komova floated, and her landings were flawless. For the record, I'm a white male who grew up with the U.S.S.R. and have no bias towards Russia, nor against African Americans. I just don't think that Komova's landing on vault was as bad compared to Douglas' as her floor routine was good. I stared in disbelief at my TV when the scores were announced, shame on you judges, your decision was bad, and you should feel bad.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Komova should have won but did not deserve a 16. Her difficulty was 6.0 so it means she needed a perfect 10 to have 16. I believe, though, that some of Doudlas' score were a little bit too generous. Her beam first. Her D score was a tenth too high. And in execution, she was not better than Komova even if the score says otherwise...On floor as well, Komova's score should be slightly higher than it was, around 15.3. Overall, Komova was better on bars, beam and floor. Douglas on vault. But judges decided otherwise. On the other hand, reference judges gave Komova 3 tenth more than Douglas in their analysis. So the results are very controversial even in the judging community in London. In the end, Komova is still a better gymnast, more polished, higher difficulty, more precise execution, better artistry and dance training. SO even if the score were close and their performance equal, all those qualities Komova has should have seal
ReplyDeleteCorrect.
ReplyDeleteCorrect!
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