No discussion of the opening night of Olympic gymnastics’ apparatus finals—for women, the vault and uneven bars; for men.
The floor and the terrifying pommel horse—can begin without a sincere and heartfelt acknowledgement of one MyKayla Skinner.
A former 2016 Olympic alternate, former Utah Ute, and current silver medalist on the vault.
Skinner’s journey—from tweeting quasi-enfant terrible of Rio to feisty NCAA standout to elite return that few people predicted would succeed (I did!).
Now comes to a finish against all odds with a piece of silver slung around her neck.
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won the first-ever gold medal for her nation’s gymnastics programme, which failed to send a full squad to these Games.
However, Skinner performed the Cheng and Amanar vaults of her life, finally winning the medal she has been pursuing for her whole conscious existence.
She accomplished it with an unwavering tenacity that any of us would be fortunate to have for even a single day.
Jade Carey Solid on Uneven Bars in All-Around Final
Jade Carey, an American, got a 13.500 on the uneven bars in the women’s Olympic all-around final, receiving a big air on her dismount, after falling twice during warm-ups. Carey came in sixth place overall.
Gymnasts Say They Need Apparatus Warmups Back. That Should Be Enough.
Something wasn’t right when American gymnast Jade Carey hurdled toward the vault in Sunday’s apparatus final.
As she entered her roundoff onto the springboard, she took an extra step or shuffle. And in the post-flight portion of the vault, we witnessed the effects of this minor error.
Instead of doing her intended skill, which involved landing with one and a half twists off the table, she went backwards directly and performed a back tuck off.
In essence, Carey performed a “timer”—a non-twisting vault used in competitions.
A gymnast might perform a manoeuvre like this during a one-touch warmup to gain a feel for the equipment.
Conclusion
Carey’s failed vault had a terrible impact on her score. She performed a vault that was significantly less difficult than she had meant to.
And she was penalised with a neutral deduction for performing two vaults with the same entry, which is prohibited in the apparatus final.
(Her second vault, which she pulled off successfully, was a simple Yurchenko-style approach with two and a half turns off, one of the hardest in the competition.)
