Bieger swings her way to gold in Stuttgart, Chusovitina impresses
WCSN is proud to welcome Dominique Dawes, three-time Olympian and gold medalist, to discuss the U.S. women’s team performances at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.
See all of these routines and more gymnastics at http://www.wcsn.com.
Oksana Chusovitina’s vault:
1st vault: front handspring, front full. This is a difficult vault. Oksana had a slight pike throughout which will be a deduction. Also, there a few forms breaks, slight leg separation and she bent her legs as she was landing. Other than deductions, this vault was performed quite well. She had great amplitude and only had small deduction for the hop on the landing.
2nd vault-Tsukahara 1 ˝ twist: This is an impressive vault. From my experience, it is easier to twist from a round-off entry versus a half-on (Tsuk). Oksana did a fabulous job fighting to control the landing. There were a few deductions throughout; the vault needed more amplitude so that she could have finished the vault and not stumbled off the mat. Her landing was slightly short, due to the lack of amplitude. Her shoulders were not over top of her feet, which is why she did not have control on the landing. Since she felt the landing was short, Oksana bent her knees so that she would make the vault.
1st vault- Yurchenko double twist. Anna is a powerful vaulter. She made this vault look easy and, from my experience, it is not. Her lines were beautiful and she had great amplitude. The deductions that I saw were her crossed legs throughout the twist and the large step on the landing. Other than that you would have to look really close to find many more.
2nd vault-Yurchenko ˝-on, front layout ˝-off: Again, Anna made this vault look easy. She performed this difficult vault with beautiful form and straight lines throughout. The straight body is what the judges are looking for when you call a layout vault. Anna accomplished this. There was a small hop on the landing, which resulted in a minimal deduction. Polina Miller’s bars: I enjoyed Polina’s bar routine. I did not compete against Polina, nor had I watched any of her performances prior to this one. Her body lines were impeccable in almost all skills. The first thing that stood out to me was her high glide (on high bar) kip to cast handstand. There was no question that she hit the handstand in full. This was a great way to start off the routine, showing great form and swing. Though her routine was impressive, there were a few deductions that I witnessed. Throughout the majority of the routine her heels were apart, which is a deduction for each move where this form break exists. In the beginning of the routine, she performed an awesome layout Yaeger. She wrapped up the routine with her dismount that had a form deduction and there was a step on the landing.
Jana Bieger’s bars: 
Jana starts the routine off with trouble. She began with her jump to handstand mount, then proceeded to perform a front stadler. At the end she did a great job fighting to complete the skill. Even though she did not fall, there is a deduction for the break in swing. The remainder of the routine was the strong bar performance that Jana is known for. However, there were a few positives and negatives that I will point out. While Jana performed all release moves with great amplitude and control, there were many areas in the routine where her arms were bent (casting to handstand) and legs separated.
I believe she improved her feet perform in comparison to her performances at the World Championships last week. She was a little loose on her full pirhouette at the end of the routine. She finished up with a fabulous dismount that rose above the bar, with a small deduction on the landing.
Oksana Chusovitina’s bars:
Oksana’s routine was packed with a multitude of skills! I am certain that keeping up the new code of points is causing gymnasts to lengthen their routine to add more difficulty and combinations, and for some, this means more skills. She had nice swing throughout. I enjoyed her pirouette combinations, especially her hop full, giant full, to Dawes, which is a giant 1 ˝ pirhouette. I was impressed. However, on her hop full there was a deduction due her loose body on the catch. There were a couple form breaks in the routine; first, there were leg separations on her kip cast handstand, and then her toes did not look fully pointed on her dismount. Other than her feet form the dismount was executed to near perfection, great amplitude, legs together, and a stuck landing. The German audience had to be proud!