2016
RIO

Max Whitlock winning gold on floor at the Rio Olympics – photo BG

Cont’d

I remember Kristian asking him if he wanted to know the scores, but Max said no. As each gymnast went, Max’s medal colour changed. I tried hard to refrain from telling him anything but when the last competition finished and the score came out, I remember hitting Max in the leg and just saying ‘you’re Olympic Champion!’ He was quite emotional and neither of us had planned or prepared for that! It was an amazing feeling, but we both knew we had to re-compose ready for the pommel final, as that was what we were there to do. And that’s exactly what he did.

Kristian Thomas remembers

Max did not want to know his floor score, wanting to stay focussed on the next routine on pommels. It was incredible, that he got the gold on pommels as well, although it was a sure thing  that Max and Louis in some order would get gold and silver on pommels.

Louis Smith going for Pommel glory at the Rio Olympics – photo BG

The Greek gymnast was in a class of his own, a rings specialist, only performing rings in the qualification competition. The Greeks have had a great history in this discipline. The first Olympic gold on rings went to a Greek gymnast in 1896.

What a final with three gymnasts vaulting with a difficulty of 6.4. but only Ri could match this on his 2nd vault. Both Ri and Abliazin used the Tsukahara double back with full twist in the first somersault. Abiliazin performed a 6.2 vault next and Shirai a 5.6.

31 year old Ri was unable to compete in London 2102 due to a total ban on the North Korean gymnasts following the persistent issues regarding falsification of female gymnasts’ ages.

Dragulescu, that renowned and charismatic vaulter from Romania, remembered forever with his gift of the Dragulescu vault, double front half, had been world champion on vault in 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2009 but an Olympic gold medal on this or any other apparatus has eluded him.

The Ukrainian gymnast Radivilov qualified in fourth place with a first vault of 6.0 difficulty, however in the final he went for a massive 7.0, but was unsuccessful.

A great and popular win for Verniaiev. With a couple of mistakes with overarching of the back he managed to stay ahead of Leyva with his 7.1 difficulty score and finishing with a great double front ½ turn to a solid landing and a smile on his face.  All of the medallists had great routines, travelling the length of the bars with ease and showing great artistry; what a difference from parallel bar routines of the early days.

An emotional Nile Wilson after winning historic Olympic bronze medal on high bar – photo BG

Britain’s Nile Wilson was next up, realising that there might now be a chance for him to medal. A great routine with a rock-solid dismount but the difficulty gap was too much to make up with Hambüchen on a 7.3 and Wilson on 6.8.

Others tried to challenge but only Leyva with his flair on his release elements succeeded.

A great result for Wilson, GB’s first ever medal on high bar; fantastic.

Dong Dong may well have been hoping to match Maclennan’s performance but he had to settle for silver. He had been the talk of the trampoline world with his 1.2 lead in London, but here he was in Rio trailing by 1.2.

Nathan Bailey GBR just missed out on the final, he came 9th in qualification scoring 106.795.

Such was the ascent to glory of the Russian Yana Kudryvtseva since 2013 that nobody doubted that she would win the title in Rio. For the last Olympic cycle, she had swept all the three consecutive World all-around titles; two European titles, reigned at the first European Games in 2015 and accumulated an enormous tally of World Cup gold and silver medals. Known as “The Angel with Iron Wings” she was acclaimed as a “gymnast from another planet” even by the President of the FIG Bruno Grandi.

However, it was just a fragment of the last second of Yana’s clubs’ routine in the Olympic Final that turned the fortunes away from the 18-year old Muscovite. A drop of one club led to a score of 17.883 pts. That was indeed bitter to swallow but most importantly, impossible to compensate for, given the steady performances on the day of Yana’s compatriot Margarita Mamun.

The 20-year-old “Bengali Tiger”, called so because of her Bangladeshi-Russian connection, Margarita performed first of all the ten finalist with the last apparatus, the ribbon. Her “Black Swan” routine, choreographed to Tchaikolvsky’s “Swan Lake” will indeed remain in the history as the Princess’ march to the Queen’s throne. Mamun deserved a score of 19.233 pts and literally blocked the way of Kudryvtseva to the gold.

As for the Groups, the teams on the rostrum were the same as 20 years ago, in Atlanta 1996, where they were introduced to the Games, but arranged in a slightly different order:

Russia (bronze in Atlanta’ 96) took their fifth consecutive Olympic title (Sydney 00, Athens 04, Beijing 08 and London 12).

Spain – the Olympic Champions in Atlanta 96 came second in Rio with two flamboyant performances and due to their luck in the tie-break with Bulgaria (higher note for artistry).

Bulgaria – the silver medallists 20 years ago, took the Olympic bronze (as in Athens 04) with two sophisticated routines and a team that deserves a bow for their consistency and longevity.

Traditional innovators and former four-time World champions – Italy dropped to fourth 0.217pts behind Spain and Bulgaria, followed by Belarus, Israel, Ukraine and Japan.