International Gymnast had a very pretty picture of Ksenia Afanasyeva (who seems to fall on floor exercise every time I watch her) while reporting on the Russian Cup. The competition will help Russia choose its team for the Olympics, which must be prepared to battle (and I do mean battle) for a medal of any color, as they don't have Khorkina to help them out anymore.

I'd say Ksenia Semyonova is a definite for the team, and also Anna Pavlova.

The sentimental, weepy side of me wants to see Zamo and Yezhova Grebenkova on the team, as well as the hapless child Yekaterina Kramarenko, who deserves to redeem herself from that vault error at least year's World Championships.

Speaking of Zamo, her chances of making the team are much slimmer than they were in the previous Olympic cycles, which makes me want to cry. But her coach says Zamo will soldier on, leastaways until 2009.

While the U.S. Olympic Trials were happening, across the world the Dutch were quietly determining their own women's Olympic team at the Dutch Open.

They might have called it the Russian Open instead. Russia sent what may well be its Olympic team -- Anna Pavlova, Ksenia Semenova, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Svetlana Kluykina, Yulia Lozhechko and Ekaterina Kramarenko to Amsterdam with the expectation that they would dominate, and they did.

The Netherlands' one-woman squad will apparently consist of new mom Suzanne Harmes, the only Dutch gymnast to meet the selection committee's standards, which are still a bit unclear.

Harmes was seen to be in contention for the berth with longtime Dutch great Verona van der Leur and former Dutch champion Lichelle Wong. Harmes, who missed the 2007 World Championships due to pregnancy, placed third on floor at the 2005 Worlds.

Harmes looked OK but not great at the 2008 European Championships. It's a sad ending for Van der Leur, the first woman to perform a one-armed Onodi at a World Championships (she fell, so the skill isn't named for her) who truly deserved to see an Olympics, albeit after her prime.

Suzanne Harmes, 2008 European Championships Team Finals, Balance Beam:

Other mothers besides Oksana Chusovitina to compete in an Olympic Games since Agnes Keleti did it during the 1950s? Leyanet Gonzales, maybe? Anyone else?

(via International Gymnast Magazine, Difficulty plus Execution)

Commentary by Gymnastics and Stuff.

I guess the Moscow World Cup gets coverage in Brazil because Jade Barbosa and Lais Souza are competing; Brazil covers a lot of World Cups because Jade and Daiane Dos Santos compete in them quite often, as opposed to the USA. Huh.

Observations and Thoughts:

• Lauren Mitchell (AUS) topped the balance beam qualifications and made them her bitch with a 15.700. Ksenia Semyonova was second with 15.500. China's Deng Linlin and Sui Lu were not at their best that day. But who cares, GO LAUREN!!
• However, Lauren fared poorly (13.950) on floor exercise (again?!).
• I don't know anything about Sui Lu except that she's a "dark horse 'lock'" (hah) for China's Olympic team. To be frank, I'd rather watch He Ning and Zhou Zhuoru over these new kids.
• Dasha Joura didn't score as high as I would've liked her to on floor exercise (14.550), finishing second to Deng Linlin. Maybe she'll pull out the stops in finals.
• Ksenia Afanasyeva (RUS) fell on floor exercise but qualified to finals.
• Dariya Zgoba (UKR) fell off beam.
• Anna Pavlova (RUS) didn't like the floor mat so she didn't do floor exercise (HA HA), despite the fact that her current routine is PRAISED TO THE HEAVENS by gymnastics snobs as ZOMG THE MOST ARTISTIC ROUTINE EVAR. Anna might just be showing a shade of the QUEEN Khorkina, but then again I thought Yulia Lozhechko was the bitchy one...
• And before I forget, Anna qualified first into vault finals (14.800), though she obviously did not do her Amânar. Neither did Jade, who is supposed to be doing her Cheng vault here in Moscow.
• Fan favorite Pang Panpan (CHN) led uneven bars qualifications, over Zgoba (15.025) and Semyonova (14.825, shock horror). Semyonova's score is rather horrifying to me.

China is not most countries.

Here are Deng Linlin and Guo Weiyang, two from the People's Republic whose success at the just concluded Doha World Cup may contribute to their own Olympic surge. Guo won gold on high bar in Doha. Deng won gold on beam and silver on floor.

She didn't do too shabbily on vault, either, winning a bronze behind Germany's Oksana Chusovitina and Russian Anna Pavlova.

Deng Linlin, 2008 Doha World Cup Event Finals, Vault:

Guo Weiyang, 2007 Chinese Nationals Event Finals, High Bar:

Matters aren't much clearer when it comes to the prospective Russian women's team, either. Ksenia Semyonova is the reigning world champion on the uneven bars, but Lyudmila Yezhova Grebenkova keeps coming up with big results at smaller meets. Ksenia Afanasyeva had a great competition at last week's Russian Cup.  

Add veteran Pavlova to the mix, as well as the stalwart Yelena Zamolodchikova, Svetlana Klyukina, Yekaterina Kramarenko, Polina Miller, Kristina Pravdina, Anna Grudko, Irina Isayeva, Daria Elizarova and Yulia Lozhechko. There's no dearth of talent in Russia.

Who goes? Who stays? Who knows?

Good grief.

Remember Yekaterina Kramarenko? The girl who sadly balked on a vault at the 2007 World Championships and cost the Russian team a medal?

Kramarenko's disaster, and Zamo's "Morituri te salutant" salute. Massive heartbreak.

Well, she's back! She broke her leg in December (eek!) and so could only compete uneven bars at the recent Russian Cup this past Saturday, but she won the event! Good for her; I hope that she'll be able to make it onto the Russian Olympic team, and redeem herself from that horrible vault fiasco.

Zamo was not at the Russian Cup, but Anna Pavlova was and she won vault. Yulia Lozhechko (I've been spelling it wrong, dear me) was there too, and acquitted herself well, winning balance beam--tying with Ksenia Afanasyeva. The other Ksenia, Ksenia Semenova (or should I say, Semyonova) was out sick.

As for the European Championships, which are going to be in April--I'm excited!--apparently, the two Ksenias, Lozhechko, Pavlova, and Svetlana Klyukina are being prepped to go.

And--damn, they're busy!--Pavlova, Afanasyeva, and Lyudmila Yezhova Grebenkova (whose coach is 2000 Olympian Yelena Produnova)  are going to the Doha World Cup event on Tuesday.

And OMG the Russians are sending a group to the Pacific Alliance! Yay!

(from International Gymnast Online)

The timeline of Lozhechko's last six months goes something like this: September: Competes at the World Championships in Stuttgart. Falls on her beam dismount (a Patterson, or an Arabian double front) in team preliminaries, which knocks the 2007 European balance beam champion out of event finals.

October: Is unceremoniously thrown removed from the Russian National team for not obeying her coaches and throwing a safer dismount on said beam routine.

February: Makes stunning comeback to win the all-around at her first competition back on the national team.

Lozhechko literally came from out of nowhere on the second day. She wasn't even mentioned in International Gymnast Magazine's rundown of the preliminary competition. Russian veteran Anna Pavlova, apparently on the strength of her new Amanar vault, bounded into the second place spot behind Lozhechko. A duo of Ksenias (Afanasyeva and Semyonova, the latter the defending world bars champion) took bronze.

"I trained this for a long time — in fact I learned it six years ago," Pavlova said. "Awhile back Yelena Zamolodchikova was doing this vault, when I was just beginning, but for many years nobody was doing it. Certainly, I had some silly mistakes over the course of the competition, but of all the apparatus I am happiest with how I performed on the beam."

Other than Simona Amanar, who threw the vault in competition once and only once, I believe Zamo was the first woman to do the 2.5-twisting Yurchenko. It was at the 2001 French International, if memory serves.

That competition also featured a fabulous vault by 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Yang Yun of China, who threw one of the more perfect handspring front layouts ever done in international competition. She literally looked like she was flying.

Yang Yun, 2001 French International, Vault:

Russian veteran Sergei Khorokhordin came from behind to steal the Russian Cup title from 2007 European Champion Maxim Devyatovsky, who was also pulled from the Russian team for bad behavior in Stuttgart in September. Deviatovsky's crime was pulling out of the all-around in a show of poor sportsmanship after he took himself out of contention for the title with a fall on parallel bars.

He also left the arena before the meet was over, which may have gotten the Russian delegation in some hot water with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) since it's against the rules for a non-injured gymnast to do so.

Devyatovsky certainly limped around quite a bit after that rotation, but coaches seemed to think he was faking. Maybe the FIG did too.

Devyatovsky had been in position to make a Lozhechko-like comeback (he was first in the qualifying round) but finished fourth after a fall on high bar. Yuri Ryazanov was second, ahead of Dmitry Gogotov.