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Daria Spiridonova competes on bars. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

Something weird happened during the qualification round at the Rio Olympics in summer 2016. 

Russia’s Daria Spiridonova performed an uneven bars routine worth a difficulty score of 6.5. The judges, however, awarded her a 6.7 D-score, 0.2 higher than she deserved. Spiridonova scored a 15.683, but in fact she should have scored a 15.483. Such score would still have qualified her into the event final, but such an obvious mistake on the part of Olympic judges is very disappointing!

This is Daria Spiridonova’s routine in qualifications:

Inbar Stalder 1/1 (E) + Maloney (D) + Pak (D) + Van Leeuwen (E) – CV 0.4
Inbar Stalder ½ (D) + Piked Jaeger (D) – CV 0.1
Toe-on Circle 1/1 (D) + Double Tuck 1/1 (D) – CV 0.1

Skills: E E D D D D D D – 3.4
CV: 0.6
Requirements: 2.5
TOTAL: 6.5

Here is Daria Spiridonova's routine in qualifications in Rio, worth a 6.5 D-score.

Here is instead Daria Spiridonova’s routine as it was (most likely) scored:

Inbar Stalder 1/1 (E) + Komova II (E) + Pak (D) + Van Leeuwen (E) – CV 0.5
Inbar Stalder ½ (D) + Piked Jaeger (D) – CV 0.1
Toe-on Circle (D) + Double Tuck 1/1 (D) – CV 0.1

Skills: E E E D D D D D – 3.5
CV: 0.7
Requirements: 2.5
TOTAL: 6.7

Here is Daria Spiridonova at Euros 2016 performing her 6.7 D-score set.

Judges are allowed to watch the gymnasts’ routines in podium training, as a preparation for the actual competition. What is likely to have happened is that Spiridonova trained a 6.7 D-score set, which is the one she normally performes, but then competed an easier routine in qualifications, worth a 6.5 D-score. The two judges forming the D-score panel, however, in a moment of distraction, did not take notice.

Spiridonova’s teammate Maria Paseka was the first to notice the mistake. At first Spiridonova was skeptical, but when the score was officialised, both gymnasts burst out laughing in disbelief.

By Talitha Ilacqua
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Houri Gebeshian competes in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

Rio was the Olympics of records. In gymnastics, several women achieved different types of records, being them unprecedented medal victories, remarkable placements and first ever Olympic participations. We hope to include them all here.

1. Nine women became the first female gymnasts to represent their country at the Olympic Games. These are Isabella Amado Medrano for Panama, Farah Boufadene for Algeria, Marisa Dick for Trinidad and Tobago, Houry Gebeshian for Armenia, Dipa Karmakar for India, Ellis O'Reilly for Ireland, Ariana Orrego for Peru, Irina Sazonova for Iceland and Toni-Ann Williams for Jamaica.

2. Achieving her Olympic qualification was also 41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan, the first gymnast to compete in seven Olympic Games. She was named in this year’s Guinness Book of Records for her incredible longevity in gymnastics.


3. In Rio, U.S. Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas became the first American women to win back-to-back gold medals in the team competition. Raisman and Douglas were members of the Fierce Five in 2012 and of the Final Five in 2016.

4. U.S. Gabby Douglas also became the first all around Olympic champion to return to the Olympics since Nadia Comăneci in 1980.

5. U.S. Simone Biles became the first American woman to win four Olympic gold medals in one Olympic Games. She is also the first American gymnast to have won the Olympic vault title. With her vault victory, the United States have won every women’s gymnastics Olympic event. Biles joined Mary Lou Retton (1984), Shannon Miller (1992) and Nastia Liukin (2008) as the only Americans to have won five medals in one Olympic Games. She is also the fourth consecutive U.S. gymnast to have won the Olympic all around title, after Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Gabby Douglas (2012).

Simone Biles competes in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

6. Russia’s Aliya Mustafina was the first gymnast to win back-to-back Olympic titles since compatriot Svetlana Khorkina in 2000. Mustafina, like Khorkina, won twice the uneven bars Olympic title, in London 2012 and Rio 2016. Mustafina was also the first Russian gymnast to win back-to-back all around medals: she won bronze both in London and in Rio.

7. Winning gold on balance beam, Sanne Wevers became the first Dutch female gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal. She was awarded the Dutch Sportswoman Of The Year trophy last week for her Olympic achievement.

8. The Netherlands had their best ever placement in team final, 7th. Eythora Thorsdottir finished ninth in the all around final, the best ever placement of a Dutch gymnast in that competition. What an Olympic Games for the Netherlands!

The Dutch team. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

9. Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber won bronze on vault and became the first Swiss female gymnast to ever win a medal at the Olympic Games. She was named ‘Dream Woman’ of the year by Glücks Post magazine last week.

10. With her bronze-medal finish, Germany’s Sophie Scheder was the first post-reunification German gymnast to win a medal on the uneven bars. Scheder finished just 0.032 ahead of teammate Elisabeth Seitz.

11. Great Britain’s Amy Tinkler became the first British gymnast to medal on floor exercise. Tinkler was third, behind her idols Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.

12. Canada’s Ellie Black finished fifth in the all around final, the best ever placement of a Canadian gymnast in that competition.

13. There were a lot of first-time event final participations. On vault, Dipa Karmakar was the first gymnast to make the final for India. Oksana Chusovitina made the final before, but it was the first time she competed for Uzbekistan. Jessica Lopez became the first Venezuelan gymnast to make the uneven bars final. Canada’s Isabela Onyshko and France’s Marine Boyer became the first gymnasts to make the balance beam final for their respective countries. On floor, Amy Tinkler became the first British woman to make the final, as well as to medal, and Mai Murakami became the first Japanese woman to make the final. It was also the first time that two Italians, Vanessa Ferrari and Erika Fasana, made the floor final.

Vanessa Ferrari competes in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

14. In the team competition, the U.S. women, the Final Five, won by the widest margin since the establishment of the new open-ended scoring system. They won by a margin of almost eight points, against the five points of the Fierce Five in 2012, and the two-point victory margin achieved by the Chinese women in 2008.

By Talitha Ilacqua
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Algeria's Farah Boufadene. Photograph: YouTube

 Rio was the Olympics of records. In gymnastics, the first Olympic record happened in spring 2016 at the Olympic Test Event. There, nine of the women who qualified for the Olympics became the first female gymnasts to represent their country at the Olympic Games.

 Isabella Amado Medrano (Panama)

Amado Medrano, 20, trains at the Excalibur Club in Virginia Beach, USA. She competed for Panama at the World Championships in Nanning in 2014. She is also a silver and bronze medallist on balance beam at the South American Championships from 2013 and 2012. She competes in NCAA for the Boise State Broncos. After achieving her Olympic qualifications, she told Newsroom Panama: ‘I’m happy, I worked five years to get here…it is a high point in my career.’


Farah Boufadene (Algeria)

Boufadene, 17, turned senior in 2015 and competed at the  World Championships in Glasgow in October. She did not compete at the Olympic Test Event in spring 2016 due to an injury, but was awarded a qualification spot, in order to ensure Africa’s continental participation. South Africa’s Claudia Cummins was also awarded a spot to represent the full African continent at the Olympic Games. Boufadene was born in France and was a member of France’s junior national team. She switched nationality in 2015 in order to improve her chances to make it to the Rio Olympics.


Marisa Dick (Trinidad and Tobago)

Dick, 19, was born in Canada from a Trinidad and Tobago’s mother. She turned senior in 2013 and competed at the World Championships that year, as well as in Glasgow in 2015. She has a balance beam mount named after her, the 'Dick': using a springboard, the gymnast jumps in the air and lands in a split position onto the beam. Dick was at the centre of a controversy right before the Olympic Test Event in spring 2016. Trinidad and Tobago was to be represented at the Test Event by Thema Williams, who had outscored Dick in Glasgow. Williams, however, was mysteriously pulled out of the competition by the federation just hours before the latter started. Dick replaced her, causing outrage among the local population.


Houry Gebeshian (Armenia)

Gebeshian, 27, is an Armenian-American gymnast, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. She competed in college gymnastics for the Iowa Hawkeyes between 2008 and 2011. In 2011 she decided to compete for Armenia to have a shot at an Olympic participation. Failing to qualify for the Games, however, Gebeshian stopped training for a few years. She came back in 2015, competed at the World Championships in Glasgow and qualified for the Olympics at the Test Event in Rio, the first Armenian female gymnast to ever achieve it. Gebeshian’s story is touching, because while training for the Olympics, she also worked full time as an obstetrician. Gebeshian has an uneven bars move named after her, the 'Gebeshian': a mount with a 360 degree turn with repulsion off the low bar to the high bar, worth a D.


Dipa Karmakar (India)

This summer Karmakar, 23, became the first Indian female gymnast to compete at the Olympics, as well as the first Indian gymnast to do so in fifty-two years. Karmakar is also one of only five gymnasts in the whole world to have landed the Produnova vault, the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics. Karmakar gained attention when she won bronze on vault at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, the first ever Indian gymnast to manage it. Karmakar competed at Worlds in 2015 and qualified for the vault final, where she finished fifth. In spring 2016, she qualified for the Olympics at the Test Event, and also won the vault final. She was welcomed home as a star. At the Olympics in Rio, she finished fourth on vault, with an overall score of 15.066.


Ellis O'Reilly (Ireland)

O’Reilly, 18, was born in Kent, England, but competes for Ireland through her Irish grandfather. In the past, she also represented both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She is a three-time silver medallist at the Northern European Championships. After her Olympic qualification, Gymnastics Ireland CEO, Mr Ciaran Gallagher told the Irish Times: ‘Ellis has made history for Gymnastics Ireland by qualifying to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. This is a huge step forward for our women’s programme and in becoming the first Irish female gymnast to qualify to an Olympic Games Ellis’ achievement will serve to inspire to all the young up and coming Irish gymnasts who will want to follow in her footsteps.’


Ariana Orrego (Peru)

Orrego, 18, is a three-time gold medallist at the South American Championships from 2014, with the team, on vault and on the uneven bars. She also competed at the World Championships in Nanning that same year. Orrego moved to the United States in 2014 to train and enhance her chances of making it to the Olympic Games. Her hard work paid off, and Orrego qualified for the Olympics at the Test Event in spring 2016. After the competition, she told La República: ‘I’m happy and emotional to have competed and to have done my best, and to be the first [Peruvian] gymnast to compete at the Olympic Games.’


Irina Sazonova (Iceland)

Sazonova, 25, is a Russian native and competed for Russia until 2011. Representing Russia, she won bronze with the team at the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen. Representing Iceland, she won gold on the uneven bars at the Northern European Championships both in 2014 and 2015. She also represented Iceland at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. She is known for having a huge tattoo on her left leg.


Toni-Ann Williams (Jamaica)

 Williams, 25, was born in Randallstown, Maryland, USA, from Jamaican parents. She currently competes in college gymnastics for the Cal Bears women's gymnastics team. She and British-Jamaican gymnast and UCLA Bruin Danusia Francis competed for Jamaica at the World Championships in Glasgow. Francis edged Williams, but Williams was awarded the possibility to compete at the Olympic Test Event by the Jamaican federation because of her stronger connection to Jamaica. Williams qualified for the Olympics in 76th place.


By Talitha Ilacqua
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Photo by Silvia Vatteroni

 Despite scoring high enough to qualify to the finals, a lot of gymnast find themselves fall victim to the two per country rule.

 Here are the gymnasts who got denied a chance to compete in the finals in Rio due to that rule.

 Gabby Douglas of USA
Photo by Silvia Vatteroni
Douglas is the most famous victim of the two per country rule on our list. The 2012 Olympic all around champion got denied a chance to defend her Olympic title despite finishing in the top three places in the qualification as teammates Simone Biles and Aly Raisman qualified ahead of her. 

 On balance beam, she was also victimized by this rule. The American gymnast finished in seventh place but could not compete in the final since teammates Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez had higher scores.

 Douglas was the only member on the final five to not win an individual medal in Rio. Mmm could Gabby have won an individual medal has there never been a two per country rule?

 Angelina Melnikova of Russia

 Melnikova was expected to shine in Rio. Unfortunately, she did not live up to our expectations.

 The Russian gymnast had a disastrous beam routine and suffered a fall on floor exercise in the qualification. As an all arounder, She finished in 22nd place behind her teammates Seda Tutkhaylan and Aliya Mustafina. 

 Nevertheless, Melnikova left the Olympics with a silver medal which she won with her team in the team final.

 Aiko Sugihara of Japan

 Sugihara finished in 16th place behind teammates Mai Murakami and Asuka Teramoto. The Japanese team finished in 4th place in team final.

 Jade Barbosa/Flávia Saraiva of Brasil

 Rebecca Andrade and Flavia Saraiva earned spots for the all around final, finishing in 4th and 19th place respectively. However, Saraiva was pulled out of the all around so she could concentrate on preparing for the balance beam final . Jade Barbosa, who finish in 23rd place, substituted her.

 Sadly, Barbosa suffered an injury in the second rotation of the all around final forcing her to withdraw from the competition.
Claudia Fragapane of Great Britain

 Great Britain had only two gymnasts compete on all four events; Ellie Downie and Claudia Fragapane.

Fragapane did not place in the top 24 places. But under the three per country rule, which has the top 36 highest scoring gymnasts advance to the final, she would have got the chance to compete in the all around final as she finished in 30th place. 

 Among the gymnasts who would have competed in the all around final under the three per country rule: Alexa Moreno of Mexico, Ana Sofia Gomez of Guatemala , Zsófia Kovács of Hungry, Rune Hermans of Belgium, Emma Larsson of Sweden and Ana Pérez of Spain.
Photo by Silvia Vatteroni
Laurie Hernandez of USA

 Hernandez finished in fourth place on floor exercise behind teammates Simone Biles and Aly Raisman hence got two per countried out. 

 She didn't leave Rio empty-handed as she clinched a silver medal on balance beam.

 Aly Raisman of USA

 Four years ago, Aly Raisman grabbed a medal on balance beam. In Rio, she had the highest seventh score on balance beam among her competitors but the rule prevented her from trying to repeat the success she had on the apparatus in London.

Written by Gigi Farid
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Simone Biles in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

 The Olympic Games are a very emotional moment. For gymnasts, it is the pinnacle of their career. Expectations are high, and big victories, as well as bitter losses, bring about lots of tears.

In gymnastics, the Rio Olympics did not witness as many tears as London 2012. The main reason is, I believe, that many gymnasts in Rio were very happy with their silver medals, while many athletes in London saw their second place as an unbearable defeat.

Here are the tears of joy and disappointment we witnessed in Rio this summer.

TEARS OF JOY

Simone Biles (USA) – all around final

We never saw much emotion from the Olympic champion throughout her gymnastics career and her astonishing number of victories. But when Simone won the all around gold medal in Rio, she eventually burst into tears. It was such a deserved release of tension, she must have felt so much pressure!

Aly Raisman (USA) – all around final

It took Aly Raisman three world championships and two Olympic Games (and a total of four finals) in order to win an all around medal. She won silver in Rio. Aly started crying the moment she landed her last tumbling pass on floor, and many fans cried with her. It was so nice to see all her hard work finally paying off.

Aly Raisman in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

 Angelina Melnikova (RUS) – team final

Angelina Melnikova had a disappointing qualification round, falling on floor and having a very shaky beam routine, and failing to qualify for any final. She however contributed greatly on all apparatuses during the team final, and Angelina shed a few tears when she realized she and her team had just won an Olympic silver medal. Melnikova was still recovering from a recent injury, and that was such a big accomplishment for her.

Sophie Scheder (GER) – uneven bars final

Sophie Scheder came into the bars final with the sixth highest score, and the hope to deliver a great routine to finish her Olympic Games. She left with an unexpected Olympic bronze medal. When she realized it, Sophie burst into tears. During the final, Scheder also showed great sportsmanship. The last competitor in the final was her teammate Elisabeth Seitz, who had the potential to strip her of her bronze medal. But Scheder cheered her on during the routine and congratulated her before the score came out.

Sanne Wevers (NED) – balance beam final

Well, Olympic champion, is there any better reason to shed tears of joy? Sanne Wevers put years of preparation into her beam routine, and delivered her best ever routine when it most counted, in the beam final at the Olympic Games. Her fans shed a few tears too!

Amy Tinkler (GB) – floor final

Amy Tinkler came into the floor final without medal expectations. Her coach simply told her to perform well, as she had nothing to lose. Amy performed one of her best floor routines ever, and earned a well deserved bronze medal. When the competition ended, she shed many tears of joy and disbelief.

Amy Tinkler with her Olympic medal. Photograph: Amy Tinkler's Instagram

Jessica Lopez (VEN) – uneven bars qualifications

Jessica competed at three Olympic Games (2008, 2012 and 2016) but had to wait until Rio to finally have her moment of glory. In qualifications, Lopez performed a beautiful uneven bars routine, which qualified her into the final in seventh place. She was the first Venezuelan gymnast to accomplish it. When the score came out, Lopez started sobbing uncontrollably in her coaches’ arms.


TEARS OF DISAPPOINTMENT

Shang Chunsong (CHN) – all around final

Fourth place is always the worst place where to end. When it happens during the all around final at the Olympic Games, and the bronze medal is so close but also so far away, the pain and disappointment must be unsustainable. We all felt for Chunsong, who finished fourth and burst into tears at the end of the all around competition. Every four years there is a fourth-place all around finisher, but the habit does not make it less bitter!

Elisabeth Seitz (GER) – uneven bars final

Here is another fourth place disappointment. Seitz was the last to go into the bars final. The score to beat was 15.566, which was high but achievable. Seitz, however, missed a connection towards the end of her routine, and had a few minor execution breaks throughout the routine, and narrowly (REALLY narrowly) missed out on a medal. She scored 15.533, just 0.033 behind her teammate Sophie Scheder.

Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) – floor final

And here is a third fourth-place finisher. Ferrari was fourth in the floor final at two consecutive Olympic Games: 2012 and 2016. Before the competition, Ferrari had affirmed that Rio would be her last Games, and really hoped to bring home a medal to end her career at her best. For her, however, was only another bitter fourth place. On the bright side, after the Olympic disappointment, Ferrari said she may postpone retirement, and set eyes on Tokyo!

Vanessa Ferrari in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

Mao Yi (CHN) – team final

The Chinese team was solidly in second place during the team final all the way through until the very last gymnast in the last rotation. Mao Yi was last up on floor, her job was to land on her feet. The routine, however, went disastrously wrong. Mao fell on her first tumbling pass, finishing also out of bounds and not having the connection value recognised, and had problems landing her last tumbling pass as well. She scored in the 12s, which dropped China into a disappointing third place. Mao was consoled by her teammates, but fought hard not to burst into tears.

Angelina Melnikova (RUS) – qualifications

Due to a recent injury, Melnikova performed poorly in qualifications, failing to qualify for any final. At the end of the competition, disappointment had the best of her, and she started crying. A few days later, however, Melnikova won silver with her team in the team final, dissipating (at least partly) the disappointment.

Angelina Melnikovain Rio. Photograph: Silvia Vatteroni

 Daria Spiridonova (RUS) – uneven bars final

Russian number two. Spiridonova had a disappointing Olympics. The European and World champion on the uneven bars never really shined on her event, and fell on her transition from the low to the high bar in the event final. Spiridonova was really disappointed, and rumour has it that during a post-competition interview, her coach yelled at her and she burst into tears. See also: Rumor Has It: Andrei Rodionenko Humilated DariaSpiridonova In Front of Journalists For Failing To Deliver What Has BeenExpected of Her At The Olympics

Seda Tutkhalian (RUS) – all around final

And Russian number three. Seda was having her best ever all around competition half the way through the night. Then everything started to go wrong. Tutkhalian fell on her dismount on beam, and fell on two of her four tumbling passes on floor, scoring in the 11s, and finishing 23rd overall. We always see a lot of tears from the Russian team, but this was really a waste and a disappointment!
By Talitha Ilacqua
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A month ago, we experienced the most exciting moment of the previous quad after a long wait of four years. As it has come to an end, let’s revisit the most significant Rio moments that will change the sport forever. Maybe this can help us make sense of the changes drafted in the 2017-2020 CoP.


Vault
Oksana Chusovitina (Photo @ Dailymail)
Good:
- 2008 Olympic vault Champion Hong Unjong made a first WAG attempt (though unsuccessful) of the triple twisting Yurchenko
- Shallon Olsen landed the first ever Canadian Amanar in the Olympics
- Oksana Chusovitina again shattered her own record of the oldest WAG finalist at 41
- Wang Yan was the first Chinese gymnast since 2000 to enter the vault finals who successfully landed both vaults
- The powerful Guilia Steingruber is the first Swiss medalist in Olympic WAG
- Maria Paseka is the first back-to-back WAG vault medalist since USSR’s Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1976
- Simone Biles is the first Olympic AA champion since Lilia Podkopayeva from 1996 to win an Olympic EF  
- Biggest margin win (no big mistakes) between gold and silver in all Olympic WAG vault finals
- Most Amanars (4), Chengs (3) and Produnovas (2)
- Most diversified representation of countries (8 countries)

Bad:
- Hong Unjong’s Cheng in Rio had a worse form than last year (presumably due to emphasizing too much on triple twisting Yurchenko?), which was a shame as she had improved so much during the first 3/4 of the quad
- Most big mistakes (falls or near falls) (4)

Beauty:
- Shallon Olsen’s Khorkina is the first properly done one since Svetlana Khorkina in the 2004 AA
- Wang Yan’s clean glued-together leg form shows the Chinese’s attention to details
- Guilia’s DTY was one of the cleanest she had done ever
- Simone Biles told the world what true layout position is with her Cheng vault

Uneven Bars
 
Shang Chunsong (Photo @ Toshifumi Kitamura)
Good:
- First defending champion (Aliya Mustafina) on bars since 2000 by Svetlana Khorkina
- First time a German (Sophie Scheder) medaled on bars since 1988, and also first time 2 Germans entered bar finals since 1988
- First time 2 American gymnast entered bar finals since 2004
- First ever Venezuelan bar finalist (Jessica Lopez)
- Oldest average age of medalists (19.67) since 1976
- Gabby Douglas was the first Olympic AA champion after Nadia Comaneci to go for a second Olympics

Bad:
- Only 1 Chinese bar finalist since 1996, and no Chinese medaling in the event since 1980
- Least diversification of country representation since 2004 (5 countries)
- Only 1 gymnast performed full handstand pirouettes such as the Ling turn and Bi turn (Shang Chunsong)

Beauty:
- All medalists included the Komova II (Clear pike circle backward through handstand with flight to hang on high bar) in their routines
- Sophie Scheder’s long lines magnified every move, and her controlled swings looked like Mustafina’s; her release with counter movement to high bar, which was often discarded by others due to dead hand deductions, was surprisingly smooth
- Jessica Lopez’s gorgeous clear hip circle - Tkatchev – Geinger combination
- Mustafina’s beautiful details: slow motion floating on Jaegar, crescent moon-like arched toepoint all the way from Komova II to Pak, and smooth-as-butter swings (remember that a year ago she could barely pull out a 6.5 difficulty, now she won with a 6.8)
- Shang Chunsong’s toes pointed all the way through her sky high piked Hindorff (Shang, F rated) release, usually the ladies flexed their toes to avoid hitting the bar

Balance Beam
 
Fan Yilin (Photo @ China News)
Good:
- Only 1 fall in the finals (least in 12 years)
- 1st Dutch EF finalist, medalist and champion, and oldest beam champion since 1960
- First “pirouetting champion”, as Sanne Wever’s routine highlight was her difficult pirouettes
- Also first ever French (Marine Boyer), Brazilian (Flavia Saraiva) and Canadian (Isabela Onyshko) beam finalists
- First since 1980 for the champion to perform a non-double somersault dismount, and also first Gainer dismount performed by the beam champion
- Bar raised for the difficulty of the acrobatic series in an Olympic finals: Flavia Saraiva landed 3 acrobatic series (Larisa Iordache attempted 3 in 2012 but only landed 2) and Isabela Onyshko of Canada landed 2 E/+ series

Bad:
- No 2 Chinese finalists since 1996
- No Russian finalist since forever
- One of the 2 Olympics since 1976 (the other being 2008) with only 1 Romanian finalist

Beauty:
- Huge layouts: Fan Yilin, Marine Boyer
- Beautifully extended leaps: Isabela Onyshko, Fan Yilin
- The slow-motion beam work: Sanne Wevers, Marine Boyer, Isabela Onyshko

Floor Exercise
 
Vanessa Ferrari (Photo @ AVAX)
Good:
- First time USA finished 1-2 on floor
- First ever floor medal for Great Britain
- First time Japan and Switzerland had a finalist since 1956 in a non-boycotted Olympics
- First time ever for Italy to have 2 finalists in an Olympic WAG EF
- No out of bounce in the entire competition!
- High level of performance -- Biggest margin (no big mistakes) between gold and silver on floor and between gold and bronze among all individual events  

Bad:
- Lack of variety of tumbling passes, as most ladies opted to perform double somersaults (especially the double double + double layout/Chusovitina together)
- We saw only 1 triple twist (Wang Yan), and most ladies performed single difficult tumbles instead of connecting tumbling elements together in a pass
- We saw only 1 gymnast doing forward tumbling pass (Aly Raisman), whereas in the past we saw 2/+ gymnasts doing a forward tumbling pass since 1996
- Amplitude of tumbling seemingly favoured over form
- Vanessa Ferrari became the first unfortunate non-Olympic medaling gymnast to place consecutively 4th in the same event in Olympics WAG
- One of the two rare Olympics when Russia did not enter floor finals (the other being 2004)
- First time no individual medal for China since 1988
- First time Romania no Romanian floor finalist, and no medal of any sort since 1976

Beauty:
Amy Tinkler’s very confident show-up was a blissful 1.5 minute joy to watch, from the very relaxed Chusovitina to the nearly stuck double double
- Aly Raisman finally embraced her version of artistry and added a double turn with leg held on horizontal to her repertoire. She also cold-stuck 2 F-rated passes – double Arabian pike and double layout
- Vanessa Ferrari’s emotional performance to 2 opera selections (madame butterfly, Nessun Dorma) was the perfect (performance-wise) ending to her 10-year fruitful career



It will be an unstopping quad of chasing new stars, following competition after competition, encountering surprises and disappointments, and bidding farewell to veterans. As a gymnastics fan, it will be very tough to go through another four years, but I believe that our love of the sport will find our way to Tokyo. 



Written by Valerie Theodora Ko
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