LIKE A BROSS: why I am rooting for Rebecca

The curse of the birthday is one of those saddening and unavoidably frustrating aspects of a gymnast’s life, and often accompanies our saddest gymnastics tales. Through no fault of their own, gymnasts are forced to peak at a far later time than they would if age were no concern. Of course, we hear success stories now and again. Nastia Liukin is one of those bright child stars who would surely have made the 2004 Olympic team had she been a whisker older to make the age cutoff, and she went on to take the AA title in Beijing. Despite these heartwarming tales there are those for whom an extra four years is a stretch too far - Vanessa Atler being a prominent example.

It is with an impending sense of foreboding that the time has come to acknowledge a nagging doubt that I have been suppressing to the back of my head for the last few weeks. With 16 weeks to go until the US Olympic trials, does Rebecca Bross have enough time?

Ask anyone in 2009/2010, Bross was a lock for team USA in London. She had some fantastic aspects to her gymnastics that were fantastic not only in an AA situation, but invaluable for a team too. Unlike many USA gymnasts, Rebecca was great on floor, beam AND bars. With fantastic execution and power on the latter and the potential for more upgrades, things were set to get bigger and better with time.

It wasn’t as if she started badly either. She was the talk of 2009 in the USA and would have strolled her way to a national title. Mistakes, however, meant Rebecca handed the title to Olympic veteran Bridget Sloan (not to put down Bridget, I really like her work, but Rebecca is a better gymnast or was in 2009 at least).

Already you can tell I like Rebecca. I just do. I like the look of all her work and how she ATTACKS all four pieces - there is a real fighting spirit and aggression in her work that you see in few other places. For me, this makes up for her lack of “artistry”, which I know gets some people down (and I see why). But Rebecca is that type of gymnast who even if the videos were pixellated you would still know it was her, and I think that kind of individuality is fantastic.

But this goes beyond simply liking someone: everyone has their favourites. Rebecca is one of those gymnasts who has had such an INCONVENIENT career (not Memmel inconvienient, but not far off), that I think it’s hard not to root for her.

A whistle stop tour of a less than ideal senior career

2009

First senior year. General expectation to be the national champion in a podium completed by Bridget Sloan and Ivana Hong. Mistakes put her in third behind these two, more experienced competitors.

Worlds: Qualifies first into the All Around(despite a botched beam dismount) ahead of Porgras, Mitchell, Linlin and Sloan. One of only two all arounders to qualify with an apparatus score in the 15s (on bars). Hits first three apparatus in AA finals (receiving a beam score that would have been golden in the EF). Entered floor needing only a 12.925 for the title, but fell at the very last hurdle on her 2.5 twist to layout half. Just missed the required mark and for a second time handed a title to Bridget Sloan.

2010

Started the season strongly by winning her first American Cup. Then went on to convincingly win the national title. Headed into worlds as a competitor for the title, with the competition painted as a Russian/American rivalry between herself and newly eligible Russian superstar Aliya Mustafina. Qualified in second behind Mustafina, despite a disappointing floor outing. In the finals, Rebecca started well but fell from the beam, losing her chance to become the world champion yet again. However in the last rotation she harnessed her trademark fighting spirit and came back with the best floor routine of her life to get a 15.233 - a score which remains the highest on the apparatus in this quad so far.

2011

Sat out most of the season due to injury, and didn’t compete competitive gymnastics until the Visa Championships in June. Looking tired and unable to compete the skills she had been hitting for years, fans were immediately concerned for her safety and message boards were full of talk about her health. After falling from the beam on both days, sitting down her beam dismount both days and falling from the bars on a tkatchev, Rebecca fell afoul of the dreaded knee injury, a super-low DTY dislocating her kneecap and rendering her incapable of competing again in the 2011 season.

2012

We first got a hint of how Becca was doing at the WOGA classic early in the year. Only competing bars and beam, Becca was looking a little better. Most of the skills were looking good, but she was unable to put her Patterson dismount to her feet. On bars, the old skills were done well enough and an upgrade shaposhnikova half gave a hint of significant improvement, but Becca fell on this new element. In Jesolo, Becca landed the Patterson for the first time in a competition since the 2010 World’s Event Finals. She still failed to stay on the bars however.

Low dismount, but stuck like she never has

So where are we now? Well with no sight of any vault or floor for a year, no hit bars and a dismount that has been landed once in competition, no one can pretend that things are looking good for Rebecca. But there is still hope. Despite the falls (which were probably just flukes - I am sure she is more than capable of that bar transfer) Becca’s bars look very crisp. With a bit more work, beam could be back to a good standard, and if she has floor then she is still in the enviable position of offering three team final worthy events that include a good bars set (people seem to forget how simply superb Becca is on floor - she KILLS it). Few others (really only Kyla Ross at this point) can say that.

Although most of this is a self indulgent whine about the misfortune of one of my favourite athletes, I think this is pretty undeniable: Becca is a great gymnast, one of the stars of this quad, and due to difficult circumstances is now under a huge amount of pressure from all angles. With the WOGA threepeat legacy placed upon her shoulders years ago, rumours of rising tension between her and her coach, and the prospect of fighting for a spot on the Olympic team with little recent international experience, VISAs and trials will be touch and go times for Bross.

I keep my fingers crossed that she can still fight her way to something fantastic on beam, floor and bars. She really deserves it both as a great gymnast and as a person who has had a really hard few years.

Rebecca Bross for London! (but as an edit, I have to add that whether she does or not, it won't make her any less of a star in my eyes)

EDIT 15/05/2012 Bross is no longer going for the All Around


An article posted today on the Dallas news website confirms that Rebecca Bross will from now on "focus on the balance beam and uneven bars" - http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/more-sports/olympics/20120515-gruesome-injury-costs-dallas-gymnast-rebecca-bross-a-shot-at-all-around-glory-but-not-olympic-gold.ece

The full meaning of this is unclear as yet - "focusing" on bars and beam does not necessarily mean that floor is completely out of the question, however, it seems obvious that vault will not be a priority. The time required to get a good DTY that would never be used in a team situation seems pointless given the ticking clock and the remaining work to be done where Bross can actually be used.

Although it is very sad to think what could have been, I think this is generally positive. The pressure of the threepeat is now officially lifted and Becca can plough all her energy into perfecting her routines where they are needed: primarily the uneven bars. Of course, this does mean that the competition between Bross and Liukin is 100% head to head: with a five person team only one of these WOGA girls will make it to London.

We eagerly await Classics to get a better indication of who....

Pictures: http://nimg.sulekha.com/sports/original700/rebecca-bross-2009-10-16-17-10-3.jpg, screencap from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UqXmwiK_ps, http://s4.assets.usoc.org/assets/images/article/photo/39181/full/105992158.jpg, http://cdn.rickey.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Rebecca-Bross-Injury.jpg, http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/galleries/197/197989/crop_450x500_GYI0058655058.jpg

The (all a-) round up: how much has the top-billed cast changed in a year?

"And now is the winter of our discontent."

Perhaps when Shakespeare wrote these lines he was inspired by an emotional response to the end of the gymnastics year in terms of major competitions. Probably not, but for those die hard fans among us, the slow march into December can be a bitter pill to swallow. In many ways, the very second the last event final medal is draped across a gymnasts’ shoulders at a World Championships, the same dreary anticlimactic misery descends over you in a manner reminiscent of childhood boxing days: you had a great time, and may even have got everything you wanted, but despite any good feelings you know that you are now the furthest you can be from Christmas day.

Luckily, this isn’t one of those years. It is already impossible to say “2012” without a thousand adverts and exaggerated promotional slogans bursting into your head. Yes, we are about to embark upon an Olympic year. And personally, I have never been more excited. I know more about the sport than I ever have, am much happier with the state of the sport than I was in 2007, and it is in my home country. What more could a guy ask for?

London 2012: anticipated in the media with the same urgency as a coming apocalypse. But its hard not to share in the excitement.

But enough of that. Stretching ahead of us is a barren tundra of time filled with boring Olympics speculation, so the time for hysterical anticipation is not now. Now is the time to look back over a year in gymnastics and appreciate the good moments, note what has changed and ponder upon the validity of our former expectations. Below is an incredibly brief summary of how 2011 panned out for last year’s big WAG names.

2011 IN BRIEF.

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lb320ternZ1qat3uuo1_500.jpg

We left 2010 in awe of Aliya Mustafina. Whether we hated, loved or couldn’t make our minds up about her, she was without a shadow of a doubt the gymnast to watch coming into the 2011 gymnastics year. She absolutely smashed the 2010 all around, putting up incredibly solid performances on each of the four apparatus (of which she had no real noticeable weakness, somewhat uncommon in modern gymnastics). Aliya was the reigning queen, and Rebecca Bross her vanquished opponent. Fading away slightly following her disappointing bronze medal finish in the 2010 worlds AA, we heard very little form Rebecca following this competition. But her fantastic performance on floor left a lasting memory.

Killed. It.

For me, the first big competition of the new season was the American Cup. Although dogged with judging fiascos, this event is usually a long awaited relief from competition wilderness and we usually get a good look at how the American’s are doing. Rarely do we get a look at the reigning gymnastics top dog slogging it out against her bushy tailed new kid on the block rival: yes, this year’s American cup was all about Wieber vs Mustafina. There is nothing quite like a good old Russian/American rivalry and this competition was no exception. Mustafina showed she was even more formidable than before, with an upgraded bars set that was quite simply incredible (inbar 1/1 - tkatchev - pak - stalder ½: NOW THAT’S a combination). However, Wieber managed to edge her out with better consistency on beam, a nicer vault and less floor mistakes. The two had proven they were a match for one another. Aly continued her quieter but super impressive consistency (on all but bars).

Just great.

By the time Europeans rolled around we were all well and truly ready for Aliya to be European champion. It seemed inevitable. But disaster struck: the vault that execution sticklers the world over had been bemoaning for the best part of a year caused Mustafina to tear her ACL. And just like that, she was gone.  Fan favourite Anna Dementeyva took the AA gold in her teammate’s absence. Europeans provided us with our first good look at world champion uneven bars worker Beth Tweddle, who showed up with an even harder bars routine filled with insane connections (most of which she missed in finals, causing her to win gold by the narrowest of margins against the assault of Tatiana Nabieva, Russia’s famous skill chucker).

Meanwhile in Australia, Aussie superstar Lauren Mitchell was showing some cool new connections on beam, but looking like she was slowing down a bit. Similarly, over in China, the annual nationals showed former world champion Deng Linlin fail to make the beam podium even within her own country (and even with a new super hard combination under her belt). Bars superpower He Kexin was also showing some signs of growing pains, with increasingly laboured work and a worsening pak. Despite this, there were hints of the potential debut of a new double pirouette skill.

By the time of the VISA nationals, people were poised for the long awaited return of Rebecca Bross and her campaign for a third shot at the world AA title. What they got instead was very hard to watch indeed. After an incredibly messy two days of competition (with the notable exception of floor which was good as ever), Bross took a terrible landing on her DTY and dislocated her kneecap. And thus the top two AAers of the previous year were out for the count.

Worlds happened, and we know what happened there. It was a win for the new blood, with the notable exception of Ksenia Afanasyeva, the long time Russian underdog who finally struck gold with a fantastic showing on floor.

So, looking to the huge event that is next year, how are our old timers doing? (and inspired by a recent intlgymnast thread)Whose stock is up and whose is down? In my opinion this goes broadly as follows

UP

Ksenia Afanasyeva - showed she is not only a team player but capable of success in her own right

Tatiana Nabieva - a gymnast who was previously famous mainly for doing high level skills to a very poor standard showed that she could tone it down, clean it up and win a medal

Catalina Ponor - showed that despite missing pretty much a whole quad, she can still pull out some cracking performances and make an event final on her signature apparatus

Alexandra Raisman - She scooped her first individual medal on the floor, and put in her usual super solid appearances in the team final. She would be an even better position, however, had she finally managed to hit bars in the AA. She didn’t.

Sandra Izbasa - A strange one given that she didn’t compete at these worlds, but the poor team performance of the Romanians showed that they need her next year

DOWN

Yoana Dufournet - A medal was hers if she hit. But she didn’t. Seems like she is running out of chances to prove herself

Beth Tweddle - in terms of her floor. I am a huge Beth fan and I have to admit that it was AWFUL at worlds. BUT her bars routine in TFs was the best and most difficult I have ever seen her do, so she is up in that respect

Lauren Mitchell - No EFs from original qualifications. Then a shoe in. Then no medal.

Jiang Yuyuan - no all around for the previous silver medallist. Outshone by the young ones and unlikely she will be up there again

He Kexin - Inconsistency, growing pains and being removed from the team lineup by a country that isn’t hard on headcases all equal a plummeting stock. This might spell the end of the road for this former Olympic champion.

Alicia Sacramone - it pains me to say it, but her injury at worlds had more than just a physical impact. The US proved that they can win without her, and who knows how far she will be set back by this injury in terms of her upgrades (in particular her handspring 2/1 twist).

So in conclusion, has much changed? We have seen plenty of the old cast members fade away in the shadow of many bright young things. But in terms of the All Around, the potential returns of Bross and Mustafina are still a big threat in the AA. The coming year is shaping up to be one of the best of its kind: I can’t wait.