Thank you bad qualifications, it always works for Team Russia! Bad qualifications=good team final.
After the surprise team silver for the Russian men yesterday, the women took another surprise silver. And I'm so happy. I don't even know what I'm most happy about.
- Aliya, who went through hell to get to Rio gets rewarded for her work for Russian gymnastics
- Princess Tut again comes through for her team when it's most needed and hits under pressure again and again
- Gelya turns her tears of disappointment into tears of happiness
- Masha, who had to nervously wait for her one vault for two hours, cliches the team silver with a great performance
- Dasha... did okay I guess
- Aliya and Masha are Olympic medalists, again, after 4 difficult years
- I've seen Dasha, Seda and Gelya grow up from little gymnasts to Olympic silver medalists
Queen Aliya proved once again her worth to the Russian team. She basically is the Russian team. They have her and her incredible strength to thank for that medal, in addition to having to thank her for this entire quad of Russian gymnastics and two Olympics now. Another amazing bar routine, right when it was needed, she couldn't do her best for 4 years, but now she put in everything she had. And on balance beam too. She missed a connection, but who cares when she had a back-up connection to make up for it, and a successful acrobatic series. And she still posted the highest score of the team on beam. Floor wasn't her best and she fell out of every turn, thank god for the inquiries. I'll scream if she manages to hit the routine in the AA final. And vault, another stuck DTY with a great score. What would Russia even do without her. Let's not think about that, these Olympics are not over yet.
And SEDA, MY PRINCESS TUT! What a transformation, and at the Olympics, she definitely proved that she deserved to be on the team. So amazing. That was some nervous beam work from her, hideous leaps and balance checks, but she saved everything and didn't fall. Poor girl had to go last too, with Melka's score weighing down on her, she so deserves that medal. Floor was messy, but she had little time to recover after her beam, emotionally and physically. And she saved that double pike too, it could have been a lot worse. It's just so amazing that she turned out to be the MVP of the Russian team. The only one to hit beam during her qualifications and continuing steady performances during team final.
Gelya hit another good bar routine with that terrible giant half that she inherited from Vika, I'll be so happy if she one day learns a cast half. I didn't see her beam and I was pretty happy about it, since she fell and the rest of it wasn't good either. But I love that she managed to shake that off and do a good floor routine, the best floor routine of the team. And even though that vault wasn't her best, it was a hit vault and I'm sure she was very nervous, Russia needed 3 good vaults, they were off the medals before vault and she had already had one fall. I'm so proud. She cried the most out of the Russians when they found out they got a silver and it was such a wonderful sight since only days ago we saw her cry from disappointment.
And then there's Masha. It was really unfortunate that they started on bars and she literally had to wait for the duration of the competition to do her one vault, the nerves must have build up. She also had that unfortunate vault in the qualifications and she was the last up, they had gone 4th to the last rotation so she knew they needed a huge score from her, or they could be left without a medal. But she did her job, back pain or not and secured that silver with a great vault. Like Aliya, she's had difficult 4 years with constant injuries, so I'm sure that vault and that moment was worth it, and the silver was worth a gold.
Dasha was there to do one routine and it was...okay. She's been one of the few consistent medal winners of the Russian team this quadrennium and it's great that she now has an Olympic medal for all the hard work that she's done for her team.
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| Where did Masha go? |
And now I'm giving you a warning, don't read on if you want to stay in the happy zone and keep celebrating that silver.
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*happy dance for silver*
DON'T READ ON IF YOU WANT TO STAY IN THE HAPPY ZONE
*happy dance for silver*
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I was a bit disappointed with Masha. Dasha performed a downgraded routine and got the team's lowest score on bars, 15.100. She could have gotten at least 0.7 higher the way they were scoring today, and they needed every tenth. She was on the team to get them that one high score. It was the first rotation and they qualified only a few tenths above GB and Brazil, and that was even with a more difficult routine from Dasha, so it's not like playing safe to secure a medal was in the agenda, especially if they wanted to beat the Chinese team. And we know she can hit that routine in her sleep, she has the medals to prove it.
Aliya however... Aliya has many injuries that get worse when she's overworked. And she's working hard in Rio. She did AA during qualification, team final, and she still needs to do AA during the actual AA, and then she has bars finals. She has no time for rest, unlike Dasha who had 3 routines during qualification, one during team final and one during event finals and days between the team final and UB event final. Yet Aliya gives her best for the team, as she always does. No half effort, she puts everything on the line because her team needs it, even if it means that she has doesn't have all her strength left for individual glory. And I'm not saying Aliya should give half effort too, I'm just saying that Dasha shouldn't get a free pass. Also, Masha. She's a strong contender for an individual medal, and she's injured and fighting back pain, but she still put her knees on the line and did an amanar for the team. They could have had her go safe and do a DTY, or pull her out completely and save her for the event finals and have Seda vault.
I'm not sure if it's team strategy or Dasha's personal decision, probably a combination of both, but it's stupid. And I don't care if she was nervous, everyone else was nervous too, but they gave their everything. Like Seda. And the individual finals must be even more nerve-wracking with a quiet arena and nothing to do but wait for your turn, but she delivers then.
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