GYMNASTICS; THE TRIGGER OF ALL EMOTIONS

We witness athletes displaying various emotions in every sport during the Olympics, but women’s gymnastics is the one sport where everyone wears their emotions on their sleeves. Sometimes it’s joy, sometimes it’s disappointment, sometimes it’s pure ecstasy, and sometimes it can be total heartbreak. In a sport where the athletes start intense training and competition from as young as age 4, it becomes their life and they invest a lot of time and money into it. All gymnasts dream of getting to the Olympics and earning that medal that they work so hard for. You really can’t blame them for showing their emotions when they accomplish or fail to achieve their goal. We have witnessed various displays of all these emotions so far in the gymnastics competition, here are a few instances that stood out.

TEAM USA WINS GOLD

There is no other way to describe the reaction of U.S.A.’s team competition victory than PURE ECSTASY!!!! They went into the competition as favorites and lived up to the hype. When you combine the unparalleled vaulting ability of McKayla Maroney, the impeccable uneven bars technique of Gabby Douglas, and the top class floor exercise performance by Aly Raisman how was any team supposed to be able to challenge them for gold. The Russians put up a good fight but with so many mistakes on the vault they fell off the pace to compete with the American girls. Years and years of hard work by all of those girls finally paid off and you could see the satisfaction on their faces.

SANDRA IZBASA SEIZES GOLD MEDAL OPPORTUNITY

Sometimes in various competitions there are heavy favorites. Athletes that are so much better than the competition that it seems like there is no possible way for them to lose. These are the situations where anybody else that really wants to win has to have their best day and hope the favorite has a terrible day. In the women’s vault competition McKayla Maroney was that heavy favorite to win, but after a shocking fall on her second vault she left the door open to the final competitor Sandra Izbasa of Romania. Izbasa put up two outstanding vaults and waited patiently on the judges to post her score. When the scoreboard showed Izbasa’s name over Maroney, the whole Romanian team exploded in celebration. Sandra saw a golden opportunity after Maroney’s mistake and pounced on it. Oh the drama of the Olympics, we all love it.

VIKTORIA KOMOVA FALLS SHORT

 2^nd place is not the worst thing in the world, but when first place is your goal and you lose by the smallest of margins then the feeling of being 2^nd is definitely the worst. Russian gymnast Viktoria Komova had to experience this unfortunate feeling in the women’s all-around final. Komova was in a tight battle with American Gabby Douglas throughout the competition, which kept the crowd in suspense. Viktoria lost some ground on Gabby after a shaky performance on the vault but created a very climatic finish with her flawless floor exercise routine. When the scores were displayed Komova came up just short of Douglas’ score and instantly burst into tears. Even as she received her silver medal Komova struggled to force a smile. The timing of her loss didn’t help either, this came the day after the Russians self-destructed in the team competition falling further and further behind the U.S. after each event and eventually settling for silver. Wow, talk about heartbreaking.

MARONEY’S REACTION TO TRAGIC FALL

 Earlier I told you about how McKayla Maroney to the shock of everyone fell on her attempt to land her second vault. The fall opened up the door for Sandra Izbasa to take the gold. The reaction of Maroney to the loss is what stood out to me. I expected her to burst into tears like Viktoria Komova did after losing the all-around final, but she didn’t. The look on her face and the way she refused to interact with her coach showed she was both disappointed and disgusted but still composed. You could tell she was fighting back the tears and did not want the world to see how much she was devastated on the inside. Maroney posted tweets following the competition saying she was disappointed but still proud of her performance. I’m guessing there were probably some tears shed when she got back to the hotel though.

The female gymnasts put on a good show and the looks on their faces shows us exactly how intense the competition is. We look forward to watching the rest of the gymnastics competition and also riding that wave of emotions with them.

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