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The spectrum of grace - from Afanasyeva to Raisman

And finally, the judges did some judging. As a result, we have a world champion - Afanasyeva - who is worthy of the honoured title 'artistic gymnast'.

At the end of the day, Afanasyeva won because the judges chose her routine as the best. At last, I like to think, artistry influenced the outcome. Only the judges could tell you, though, whether this was actually the case. The top 3 gymnasts all had the same difficulty value - 6.1. They all made errors and so all had deductions. It was very close indeed.

Discussing artistry is difficult. It is a concept that is not easily articulated as it is largely intangible. It's also rather contingent on matters of taste. A shared understanding of the vocabulary would be a good starting point though. 'Choreography' as understood by many of us is a synonym for 'dance composition' and yet there is so much more to the art of choreography, including but not limited to ideas of balance, line, rhythm, amplitude. There is relatively little scope for sophisticated dance composition in today's floor routines as the gymnasts have to include so many acrobatic and gymnastic elements. So much of the artistry in a floor routine comes from good body alignment, extension and amplitude. These qualities are often ignored by the judges, unfairly, as this is a matter of training, not body type.

Expression is also important and by that I mean whole body expression and not just the vacant smiles some judges and coaches seem to think is essential to a good 'performance'. A good floor routine can express a theme as a whole, including the rhythm and pace of the acrobatics.

Let's have a look at yesterday's medallists.

Ksenia Afanasyeva



Or watch it on Youtube.

Afansyeva's body type is not too different to Alexandra Raisman's. Both are relatively powerful, about equal height, and blessed with a long neck. There the similarity stops. Afanasyeva's shoulder and neckline during movement is graceful and expressive; she is fluid, and her movement well balanced from head to toe. She is not especially flexible when compared to others such as Komova, but she does have a good line in splits leaps as compared to others eg Wieber. Her generally good range of movement and her innate musicality allows her to use whole body movements throughout the routine. There is barely a redundant step in the entire routine. Afanasyeva has very expressive arms and hands yet this does not end up as a routine of 'flippy floppy' arm movements and not much else. Upper and lower body movements are balanced and she does not suffer from the same 'straight line' dance composition of some other gymnasts. There is whole body expression and she lends variety by the angle of her head and eyes. The routine is well composed from start to finish, reflecting a general theme (the exotic east?) that emanates from the carefully chosen music.

When I first saw this routine, I thought it wasn't a spot on her 2010 floor. However, having looked more closely, I think it is quite a lot better, largely in the concentration of dance moves she performs and the overall expression of quite a distinctive piece of music. You can look at individual performances and differentiate between the clean-ness of individual elements but this exercise makes a whole package.

Lu Sui



Watch it on Youtube.

Lu's body type is closer to Komova than Afanasyeva and she has the beautiful flexibility and line of the Chinese. Her movement is fluent and amplitudinous. The routine was choreographed by Adriana Popa and has some very nice poses in it, but the dance composition does not saturate the entire exercise and there are significant passes of straight line work, empty steps and windmilled arms. I would say this is a nice floor routine, but not outstanding. Having said that, Lu's work embraces artistry significantly more than many of her rivals. The music is very nicely chosen for this gymnast, with good rhythm that she follows right to the end. She works with the tango well but could add some more dance elements.

Alexandra Raisman



Or you can watch it on Youtube.

Alexandra has a long neck and this routine includes some interesting poses. She has been trained for power and reliability, which makes her shoulder and leg lines rather tight, and although she achieves height in her tumbles and leaps, you don't get much feeling of her soaring effortlessly, and the landings seem rather heavy. She doesn't have excellent range of movement, and her dancing is rather stiff and wooden.

The most immediate difference you perceive between this floor exercise and the other two is the selection of music which, like Wieber's, is punctuated by an extremely heavy mono beat. This is a good ruse as it makes it look as if the gymnast is performing to the music even though the movements might not have much to do with the sound and melody at all. It's also quite catchy and easy for the audience to join in with.

There is a lot of posing in this floor routine, and much of what could be described as 'dance' is in fact static. Elsewhere, Alexandra bounds through the routine sideways in a straight line - I have heard it described as 'lumbering', but I couldn't possibly comment on that. She is a good tumbler, but the sport is artistic gymnastics, not sports acrobatics. There isn't really any whole body expression at all and it's essentially tumbling joined together by a few bits in the middle including the essential turns and leaps. Satisfies the Code competently but does not even attempt to be the whole package.

Of course, Martha said she thought Alexandra deserved the gold - you would, if you were her team coach.

In conclusion :

These three floor routines are fascinating when seen side by side as in my opinion they illustrate strongly the added dimension that artistry brings to a floor routine. Artistically speaking, in my opinion, the result was right.

I also want to emphasise that this is not a question of body type, but of the very earliest training a gymnast receives in the sport's basics and the continuing emphasis that is put on the gymnast's training.

It is worth remembering that the current version of the Code has been influenced by the incorporation of some elements of judging that were previously carried out under the compulsory stage of team competition. I think that in the main, judging has lost sight of this. It is worth considering whether the results of this competition would have been the same if there had been compulsories.

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