As We Wait for Worlds - Vault

The Universiade Games proved to be an excellent preview for the gymnasts we might see in the 2013 Vault Finals. Of the 8 finalists, there were 6 with a chance of earning a medal. Maria Paseka delivered her cleanest Amanar vault yet and Russian teammate Ksenia Afansyeva surprised us further with another Amanar and somewhat better execution. We saw the 2008 Olympic Vault Champion Hong Un Jong return to competition and land two of the hardest vaults being competed.

You can watch the entire VT EF here or below:


In recent years, vault has been one of the best chances at a medal for countries outside of the Big 4 - USA, Russia, Romania, and China. However, the Big 4 has caught on and will return to the World Championships with more athletes competing 2 vaults. Afansyeva is an addition to Paseka for Russia, and Alla Sosnitskaya is waiting in the wings. Olympic Champion Sandra Izbasa is now joined by teammate Larisa Iordache. There are multiple Americans training 2 vaults alongside silver medalist McKayla Maroney. This includes Simone Biles, Elizabeth Price, Lexie Priessman, and Mykayla Skinner. While we haven't seen Priessman and Price's second vaults, Skinner proves to be competitive with the high difficulty combination of an Amanar and a Cheng. It will be interesting to see who makes the Worlds team and who continues to train 2 vaults throughout the quadrennium since it takes valuable time from training on the other events - most important for strong all-arounders like Larisa Iordache.

Here's a list of the vaulters with a chance of making finals at the 2013 World Championships. For those who have mocked vault finals previously, this is shaping up to be a very competitive final!



The list includes the highest start value the athlete has competed. * indicates these vaults have not been competed this year.

Athlete	SV 1	Name VT1	SV 2	Name VT2	Total SV
Yamilet Pena*	7.0	Produnova	5.8	DTY	12.8
Hong Un Jong	6.3	Amanar	6.4	Cheng	12.7
McKayla Maroney*	6.3	Amanar	6.0	"Mustafina"	12.3
Ri Un Ha	5.8	DTY	6.4	Cheng	12.2
Fadwa Mahmoud	7.0	Produnova	5.2	? Tsuk 1/1	12.2
Janine Berger*	6.2	Rudi	6.0	Tsuk 2/1	12.2
Ellie Black	6.2	Rudi	6.0	Tsuk 2/1	12.2
Alexa Moreno	6.2	Rudi	6.0	Tsuk 2/1	12.2
Giulia Steingruber*	6.2	Rudi	6.0	Tsuk 2/1	12.2
Phan Thi Ha Thanh	5.8	DTY	6.2	Rudi	12.0
Sandra Izbasa*	6.0	"Mustafina"	5.8	DTY	11.8
Ksenia Afansyeva	6.3	Amanar	5.6	Lopez	11.9
Simone Biles	6.3	Amanar	5.6	Lopez	11.9
Maria Paseka	6.3	Amanar	5.6	Lopez	11.9
Oksana Chusovitna*	6.2	Rudi	5.5	Tsuk 1.5	11.7
Jade Barbosa	5.8	DTY	5.6	Lopez	11.4
Noel van Klaveren	5.8	DTY	5.2	Tsuk 1/1	11.0
Larisa Iordache	5.8	DTY	5.2	Tsuk 1/1	11.0
Maegan Chant	5.2	Tsuk 1/1	5.4	FHS 1/2	10.6

* Explained:
- Pena has not competed these vaults since the Olympics. She was injured causing her to withdraw from an FIG meet earlier this year. Her coach was also having difficulties with funding/his salary so Pena's status for Worlds is currently unclear.
- Maroney has not competed these vaults since the Olympics.
- Berger was injured earlier in the year and did not attend European Championships. These are her Olympic vaults.
- Steingruber competed these vaults at the Olympics but has not competed them since. She competed a clean Tsuk 1/1 at European Championships where she earned gold and talks about upgrading again in an interview with GymNewstics.
- Izbasa not competed these vaults since the Olympics.
- Chusovitna not competed these vaults since the Olympics. This year, she has competed a front handspring full twist with a 5.8 D-score as her 1st vault.



The list was compiled with help of Uncle Tim's UTRS as well as my Explaining VT EF from the Olympics.