2017
was a sad year for gymnastics.
It
will be remembered as the year of the sexual
abuse scandal that involved USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, and of the
unacceptable attempts by USA Gymnastics to cover up Nassar’s crimes, its own ineptitude
to protect athletes and its dirty conscience. We pay respect and we support all
victims, more and less famous, among which are Rachael Denhollander, Jamie Dantzscher, Mattie Larson, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Gabby
Douglas and rhythmic gymnast Jessica
Howard.
We
hope that the scandal and the suffering of all the victims will lead to a new
culture in the sport of gymnastics, in which the health, well-being and
happiness of the gymnasts will come before any results and personal gains.
The
other sad aspect of 2017 was that it was a year marred by an incredible number
of injuries, which prevented many
talented gymnasts from achieving deserved results. Romania’s Larisa Iordache, U.S. Ragan Smith and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade got injured just before
or during the World Championships in October. Great Britain’s Ellie Downie underwent surgery in
summer and could not compete at Worlds. Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva got injured before Worlds. And Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari tore her Achilles
during the floor final at Worlds.
2017
also saw some heartbreaking retirements.
Olympic champion Cătălina Ponor bid
farewell to gymnastics after a disappointing World Championships, extinguishing
the last flame of the golden age of Romanian gymnastics. China’s Shang Chunsong retired after not being
named to the World Championships team. She left gymnastics with much fewer
medals than she deserved. NCAA super talented juniors Madison Preston of UCLA and Sabrina
Schwab of Utah both put an early end to their college careers due to
recurrent injuries. U.S. talents Jazmyn
Foberg and Christina Desiderio
also both announced that their bodies could not handle elite gymnastics any
longer, and went to college one year early, Jazmyn to Florida and Christina to
LSU.
So
what was left in 2017?
What
was left was a lot of surprises, some new faces and some long-overdue
victories.
At
the European Championships in April
Great Britain’s Ellie Downie became
the first British gymnast to win the all around title, ahead of Hungary’s Zsófia Kovács and France’s Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. History
was also made by Nina Derwael, who
became the first Belgian woman to win an uneven bars gold medal at the European
championships. Long overdue medals were achieved by the Netherlands’ Eythora Thorsdottir, who won a silver
on beam and a bronze on floor, and by Russia’s Angelina Melnikova, who pulled out her best ever floor routine to
win the floor title. On beam, Romania movingly raised its head to win the title
with Cătălina Ponor (at its fifth European victory on this apparatus) and a bronze
medal with Larisa Iordache. France’s
Coline Devillard won a surprising
title on vault.
2017
saw the senior international debut of some very talented gymnasts. Elena Eremina was Russia’s best gymnast
in 2017. She won a silver medal on bars at the European championships, and a
silver medal on bars and a bronze medal in the all around at the World
Championships. Another impressive debut was U.S. Jade Carey’s, who won two silver medals, on vault and floor, at the
World championships, her first ever international competition. Impressive on
bars was also Russia’s Anastasia
Iliankova, who battled through injuries to finish fourth at Worlds on that
apparatus.
Another
sensational international debut was that of 2017 World all around champion Morgan Hurd of the United States.
Morgan came into the World championships as the underdog of Team USA, which
included two Olympic alternates, but due to some luck and lots of nerves, she
managed to win the title. She was also later congratulated by her favourite
author J.K. Rowling!
The
World championships in October was a disappointment on many levels. There was no
sensational debut as Simone Biles’ in 2013, the level of gymnastics was good
but not exceptional, old champions seemed out of shape and injuries were
rampant. That said, however, a few gymnasts managed to finally get the medals
they deserved, and overall, it was an exciting and unpredictable competition.
Canada’s Ellie Black and Belgium’s Nina Derwael made history for their
respective countries, Ellie by becoming the first Canadian gymnast to win an
all around medal (a silver), and Nina by becoming the first Belgian gymnast to
win a medal at the World championships (a bronze on bars). Three gymnasts
managed to snitch a long overdue medal. Japan’s Mai Murakami, after disappointing fourth-place finishes on beam and
in the all around, finally won a gold medal on floor (Mai Murakami is a World
champion, woohoo!); Switzerland’s Giulia
Steingruber won a bronze medal on vault to add to her bronze Olympic medal
from 2016 (and she and Maria Paseka became BFF!); and Great Britain’s Claudia Fragapane managed to win a
bronze medal on floor. Two gymnasts impressively retained their titles against
all odds: Russia’s Maria Paseka on
vault and China’s Fan Yilin on bars
(this time on her own!). Germany impressed on beam, where it won two medals. Pauline Schäfer, the 2015 bronze
medallist, won gold with the best routine of the championships, and Tabea Alt won bronze.
Among
the surprises of 2017 was the immense depth
and talent of the U.S. junior squad. The depth of Team USA is no surprise,
but the United States is building a group of athletes who are both powerful and
elegant, good tumblers and impressive dancers. Credit goes to the coaching
staff, as well as the incredible commitment of the young athletes. Hopefully
they will be raised in a safe and healthy environment, and will achieve their
dreams at an acceptable cost. Among the talented group of gymnasts are U.S. all
around champion Maile O’Keefe, U.S.
floor champion Emma Malabuyo, U.S.
beam champion Kara Eaker, U.S. vault
champion Leanne Wong, as well as Gabby Perea, Adeline Kenlin, Sunisa Lee,
Audrey Davis, Olivia Dunne and others.
Another
pleasant surprise was the comeback of Russia’s stars Aliya Mustafina, who had a baby girl earlier this year, and Viktoria Komova, who is coming back
from injury. They both seem very motivated and excited to be back.
The
NCAA saw two Olympic champions
compete in college for the first time. These were Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian,
both for UCLA. Kyla Ross went on to be named Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and to
win two NCAA National titles, on bars and beam. A huge number of talented elite
gymnasts also joined college gymnastics in 2017. These included Olympic
alternate MyKayla Skinner for Utah,
who tied for the NCAA floor title in April and became the first college gymnast
to compete a double double on floor, fan favourite Maggie Nichols for Oklahoma, who led the all around ranking all
season, Olympian Ruby Harrold for
LSU, Olympic Trials participants Amelia
Hundley and Rachel Gowey for
Florida, and U.S. national team members Maddie
Desch for Alabama and Sabrina Vega
for Georgia.
Oklahoma won its third national title in April,
ahead of LSU (I’m still heartbroken,
2017 was their year!) and Florida.
Oklahoma may not have a lot of internationally renowned names, but they are
incredibly consistent, they stick landings and they hit beam – always. Credit
and respect goes to head coach K.J.
Kindler for building such an incredible programme. LSU’s freshman Kennedi Edney had an impressive season
and was crowned NCAA champion on vault. UCLA’s freshman Kyla Ross won beam, and the floor title was shared by Utah’s
freshman MyKayla Skinner and LSU’s
senior Ashleigh Gnat. The bars title
was shared among six gymnasts for the first time: Maggie Nichols and Nicole
Lehrmann (Oklahoma), Kyla Ross (UCLA),
Alex McMurtry (Florida), Sarah Finnegan (LSU) and Katie Bailey (Alabama). The all around
crown was won by Florida’s Alex McMurtry,
who inherited the title from her teammate Bridget Sloan, ahead of MyKayla Skinner and Alabama’s Kiana Winston. Alex McMurtry was also
the winner of the prestigious Honda
Award, while LSU’s Ashleigh Gnat was the recipient of the AAI Award, awarded to the best senior
gymnast in the country.
Among
post-season and pre-season surprises, the main one is the replacement of
Georgia head coach Danna Durante with former Georgia superstar Courtney Kupets-Carter, who was
accompanied back to Georgia with former legendary head coach Suzanne Yoculan. We shall see what the
dream duo can do! Another surprise is the immense talent Florida is bringing in
for the 2018 season: Alyssa Bauman,
Jazmyn Foberg and Megan Skaggs
are all on the Gators’ roster for next year. Wow! In another surprising move,
Stanford fired head coach Kristen Smyth, and replaced her with former Cardinal standout
Tabitha Yim. The Cardinals have also
welcomed a ton of new freshmen, to start the new season from scratch and forget
last year’s disastrous finish. Final significant surprise, check out Kyla Ross’s new dismount on bars – a full-twisting
double layout!
In
other gymnastics related news, congratulations to Russian stars Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Ksenia Semenova, who all became
mothers for the first time this year. Congratulations also to 2004 Olympic
champion Carly Patterson and 2004
Olympic medallist Courtney Kupets-Carter,
who gave birth to two healthy baby boys this year. And congratulations to Utah’s
Makenna Merrell (now Merrell-Giles) and
West Virginia alumna Brooklyn Doggette
who got married in the summer.
Finally,
if you are up to procrastination and you have already watched all of the NCAA
pre-season meets, you can have a look at Simone
Biles’ appearances in Dancing with
the Stars from earlier this year.
Simone
Biles is also officially back in the gym, so who is excited for 2018?!
Article by Talitha Ilacqua
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