Yelena's Olympics 1996
Yelena was selected for Atlanta at the Russian
championships in Moscow 1996, she qualified with the third highest score
- earning the right to compete on all apparatus.
The Russian team drew the final round for
the compolsory session - this was good because scores are often higher
in later rounds. The Russian team started on compolsory uneven bars. Grosheva
was 3rd in the lineup for bars, she was going well until the hecht from
the low bar to the high bar missed and she fell! A dissapointing start
to the Olympics on one of her best apparatus.
After a dissapointing first effort when
she logged the lowest score - The Russian's took to beam, Yelena's weakest
event. But she performed this routine better than she ever had in competition,
scoring a 9.55, the third highest on her team. Beating even beam expert
Svetlana Khorkina.
Grosheva had the last spot on floor and
her team mates had all performed beautifully setting her up for a high
score. Yelena preformed her routine with grace and she had that touch that
some others were missing. She scored a 9.75 the highest Russian score on
compolsory floor!!
The last event of compolsories was vault.
Here she performed a great vault with one of the best landings of the day.
Scoring a 9.8!! Bettered only by Roza Galiyeva.
Three solid routines routines helped her
team win the compolsory round over the American's and Romanian's!
Two days later were the optional routines in team
competition. Russia the leaders were starting on vault. Grosheva was the
fifth competitor up. Her team mates had performed mediocre vaults. Grosheva
vaulted 2 yurochenko's with one and a half twists. Her highest score was
9.70, which ended up being the 2nd highest after only Dolgopolova.
Next was bars, the event grosheva fell from
in compolsories, here she performed better than earlier, but didn't land
her double forward somersault perfectly, still partly due to high release
skills she scored 9.737 not bad, but the Russian's has slipped behind USA
at this stage and the next rotation was beam, a tough one, and they needed
great scores.
Yelena was second up, mounting with a forward
somersault she slipped on landing and nearly fell!! She regained balance
without falling and completed her routine. Scoring only a 9.437, her score
had to count because of a fall from Oksana Liaypina. But great routines
from Roza Galiyeva and Dina Kotchetkova kept the team in second heading
to floor, the last event.
Floor was Yelena's favourite event, up only
second she was extremely underscored for her beautiful routine which mounted
with a piked full in. Scoring a 9.775 which was the team highest Grosheva
watched her later team mates make minor mistakes and score routines between
9.50 - 9.75.
After a dramatic finish on the vault from
the American's Russia couldn't hold onto the gold, but claimed the silver
over world champions Romania!! Really a good effort coming to the Olympics
not even ranked in the top 3!
Because of excellent routines in team competition
Yelena qualified for the vault and floor finals. In vault finals she finished
a creditable 7th place preforming a phelps vault and a yuchenko 1 and a
half twist. 9.637 average. We were looking forward to seeing her floor
routine one more time and maybe also hoping she could grab an individual
medal on floor, but she was replaced on floor by Dina Kochetkova because
of a lingering injury.
So in her first Olympics Yelena preformed
well with a few up and downs and grabbed the team silver medal!!
|
Yelena's Event Scores
|
Event
|
Score
|
Rank
|
|
Compolsory Vault
|
9.800
|
4
|
|
Compolsory Bars
|
9.237
|
57
|
|
Compolsory Beam
|
9.550
|
7
|
|
Compolsory Floor
|
9.750
|
7
|
|
Compolsory Total
|
38.375
|
(4th team)
|
|
Optional Vault
|
9.700
|
10
|
|
Optional Bars
|
9.737
|
15
|
|
Optional Beam
|
9.437
|
31
|
|
Optional Floor
|
9.775
|
9
|
|
Optional Total
|
38.649
|
(4th team)
|
|
Vault Final
|
9.637
|
7
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