UCLA vs. Georgia January 25, 1992-We have found another enemy to artistic gymnastics. I am talking about theNCAA's. We were fortunate (?) enough to witness the UCLA vs. Georgia women'sdual meet at UCLA and were mildly disappointed. We figured that in the more relaxed atmosphere, and with the individuals allowed to compete on as few as one event, that we'd see the interesting skills and combinations that are missing from our top-ranked gymnasts. Wrong. Although Georgia showed a variety of skills on bars (front giant-full thru to Jaeger a la Poto, Shushunova, stuck double backs) they seriously lacked on the other events, and were, in fact far superior to UCLA. You call that beam choreography? Lavinia Milosovici looks positively balletic next to these gymnasts.When Eva Rueda can outdance you, you are hurtin'. I wish I could remember some of the beam moves used, but all those mediocre performances ran together like the paints on a palette, creating a big brown mess. Floor composition was at an all time low. There were few full-ins, but floor exercise is more than tumbling. These girls seem to have borrowed music from the Romanian gymnastics team. We are talking worse mixes than Popa or Neculita could ever dream up. Techno-disco-crap to themax. My favorite mix was the Georgian gymnast who smooshed together C&C Music Factory with Phantom of the Opera. Even Olympian Hope Spivey got into this music mess, which confused me as I thought Marie Roethlisberger was the deaf one. Scoring was scoring. Many of UCLA's 9.2 beam performances were receiving9.6's. Other than that things were fine, but like I said, it all ran together. It was nice to see a competition without Yurchenkos, and I guess it wasn't all bad. However, it certainly wasn't artistic gymnastics, but what is anymore. This meet is guilty as charged.. |
Moves we'd like to see Balance Beam 1 1/4 turn immediate Groshkova full-twisting Yurchenko loop Consecutive layout-fulls Back layout, punch front Gainer Rulfova Front 1-1/4 on
Uneven Bars Layout Shaposhnikova, back uprise release to Jaeger One arm giant. release to Gienger Layout Tkatchev Triple-back dismount |