American Cup 2012 - The Good and The Bad
I have awful timing, starting a blog right before exams (we’re on trimesters). I am going on break next week so I’m not sure how often I will get to post. Either way, I wanted to talk about the American Cup and since I go to a touchy feely school, I’m going to do a negative followed by a positive to ease some of the Scam screaming that has been going on and because it’s helping me organize my thoughts.Personally, I thought the coverage was a sh*t show. Instead of watching the girls on floor, we watched a very attractive man from West Germany put his grips on. There were so many commercials. As Bekah said, “The worst words you'll ever hear: "We'll be back to gymnastics in a moment, but first..." Why? I don’t care about the Saints (football). I don’t care about Tiger (golf). Show me more gymnastics! It’s one of the few times that gymnastics is on TV and it wasn’t even well advertised or run. A few friends were in the lounge with me and they just couldn’t get into the pattern of 1 routine, let’s watch the gymnast stand and hug and put pants on, followed by 5 minutes of commercials. (Yes, I am still bitter about 2011 Worlds Team Finals and watching Chuso put pants on while Gabby was on bars.) Also, there was a girl from Germany there? Who knew! I had no idea, thought we only had a male competitor from West Germany.
The positive is that they eventually they showed Gabby Davis, I mean Douglas, on beam AND on floor. I was shocked but super excited.
Negative – Tim was being a negative Nellie! Actually, they all were. First, he was being an OOB Nazi. Then, Al said that poor Rebecca Tunney would need Dr. Phil after her beam routine. Are you serious? I’m slowly starting to like Elfi more and more. I don’t know if it’s because she talks less but she doesn’t seem to be full of garbage. She talks about the sport, the elements, strength, flexibility, all that good stuff. It’s still not as much as I would like but I think she helps viewers appreciate the little things. And her wow for Gabby’s double tuck split connection seemed genuine.
And the positive is that Tunney just looked absolutely adorable in her leo, don’t you think so? It's a white leo with the Union Jack on the back. She also had red, white, and blue scrunchies in her hair. Adorable! I am also glad that there was coverage. So thank you for that, NBC.
Negative - The scores were all over the place. Personally, I don’t like Wieber’s new front handspring – full – back handspring connection. I know she wasn’t awarded the connections but how was her e-score higher than Aly’s? I know we can talk Aly’s splits and toes to death but I thought Wieber’s wobbles during her routine, especially that new connection, was not worthy of an 8.966 e-score. I’m not bringing this up to point fingers but more so someone can help me see deductions that I’m not seeing.
The positive is that I think Aly had one of her better all around performances. The gymnastics fan world has gone in a frenzy over Aly’s bar score but it is what it is. Other than the bent legs on her Tkatchev, it was a pretty good routine for her (anyone want to explain the Wieber-Aly e-score difference to me because I’m not quite seeing it here either considering the form breaks both had). I also think that she actually performed her floor routine. It’s like she had an extra little sass in all her moves. It makes me excited for what improvements she’ll make by Classics. Oh, and her Amanar. It looks so good! I’m of the opinion that no one should score higher than Maroney but Team USA now has 2 more solid Amanars. Crazy!
Negative - I didn't like the constant comparison with the American Cup in MSG and winning the all around gold medal. I've decided I don't really like comparisons. I think my main example is calling Shawn Johnson the next Mary Lou. I don't think that worked out so well for her.
Positive - A comparison I would like: the year Nadia Comaneci won is also the year that Bart Conner won. And now they're married and adorable.
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