2002 World Championships - Event Finals - Day 2

[@SDoesNotKnow]

It's amazing how much better this commentary team of Bart Conner and Chris Marlowe is compared the usual NBC ones who speak like people who had trouble graduating high school. Much more eloquent, giving interesting and INFORMATIVE background information, and much better voices for television broadcasts.

[@Smielyb2000]

Bart Conner as well as Kathy Johnson was outstanding. Never understood why nbc never picked them up.

[@AveryWeinstein]

Nowadays, gymnasts make the smallest mistakes and I’m like here comes Tim Daggett with “And that right there…” like it’s the end of the world or something. (I get that it’s a bigger deal here because it’s a 10.0 system.)

[@mikeg8375]

​@Smielyb2000 Probably had to do with timing.... in 1988 when NBC Started with their streak of broadcasting the summer Olympics, they used Mary Lou Retton (who totally sucked) and Bart... They ended up dismissing both of them, The broadcasts were weak but it was mostly because Mary Lou Seemed afraid to speak and when she did she said stupid things. So Bart had to talk more than usual to bail her out. NBC decided to clean house and hired Tim and Elfi and Bart went to ABC/ESPN where he worked much better with Kathy Johnson Clarke. By then it was too late for NBC to hire Bart... To me, Tim was ok, , mildly annoying at times but Elfi sucked. At least we have Nastia now, and I've enjoyed Sam Peszek's commentary also.

[@kras118]

Ugh Chusovitina’s double lay is gorgeous

[@stereotypea123]

I wish they’d drop in some local trivia in the broadcasts now…it’s nice to learn a little history while enjoying gymnastics.

[@mikeg8375]

Bart Connor is such a great commentator. He explains things very clearly and has a positive demeanor.

[@AveryWeinstein]

Li Xiao Peng’s vaults are incredible!!🙌🏻

[@etownshawn]

Have this playing in the background while doing laundry and I hear both announcers yell "OHHH!!" and Im like ok who fell this time? haha

[@kirstyevensen7557]

Me too! :D

[@AveryWeinstein]

So glad that the vault is the newer one here. The old one gave me so much anxiety, especially the men’s one.

[@saragrant9749]

Same here. I remember a couple of life changing accidents (one which ended up fatal) from the old vault horse. The current one is so much safer.

[@annapavfan4680]

Indeed, what a dynamic routine from Elena Gomez (and her eponymous skill too ;).

[@saragrant9749]

Right? It’s still such a hard skill to execute completely- and so unusual to see.

[@saragrant9749]

Of course the athlete would say she hated the judging in Atlanta The Russians weren’t guaranteed a gold medal, didn’t get one- silver instead- and so the judging just had to be unfair. Never fails, and it’s still their attitude today. In terms of a loud crowd, every country that hosts the Olympics has had loud crowds, particularly for their own team. Most athletes train for the noise. If these girls didn’t it’s on them, not the fans.

[@rexjdk]

It is actually on the coaches not having them train with noise.

[@saragrant9749]

@@rexjdk that is true, excellent point. That was essentially the point I was intending- I just didn’t word it quite how I meant. I know when I competed in track in high school as a thrower, we did a ton of practicing with music blaring in the background to teach us to ignore it. Paid off at major meets when everyone was cheering for people on the track.

[@kras118]

Postell really seemed to calm down after her difficult flight series on beam

[@saragrant9749]

I so wish she could have gone to the Olympics (dratted injuries). She is such a “oh what could have been” story. At least she can always say she’s a world champion though!

[@mikeg8375]

​​​​@@saragrant9749So many gymnasts like that from this quad (Fjordholm, Tricase, Ishino, Yim, Sheehan, Heenan,) who might have had more of a chance in the spotlight in a different era but the team depth and/or injuries really limited or eliminated their chance to build a career. Some of them like Postell and Vise were even former world champions... I agree it would have been interesting to see what she could have done in Athens.

[@saragrant9749]

@@mikeg8375spot on the mark. I do believe that, had Hollie Vise or Ashley been healthy (Hollie most likely because of bars which was our one weakness) would have gone instead of Courtney McCool. Of course, had Chelsea been healthy she’d have probably gone because of her AA prowess. That’s the one issue with having so much depth- not everyone makes it.

[@DMH_701]

Totally love Oksana Chusovitna, but what happened on men's high bar that the last guy ended with a 5????

[@saragrant9749]

I believe it was a case of him falling part way through his routine and not ending up finishing. I’m pretty sure he got hurt.

[@kras118]

Tiny correction to the commentary - even with two falls, Khorkina did not finish 8th on bars. Yarodskaya only scored a 7.0 and was last; Khorkina was 7th

[@saragrant9749]

How’d she score THAT low? Multiple falls like Khorkina?

[@mihkyg]

Why was there no all around in 2002?

[@intldawn]

btrfeder Eh, they were doing some funky stuff back then. Worlds used to be every other year and it would be the whole shebang: team, all around, event finals. Then the FIG switched it to every year, but an event finals only format during an Olympic year. But for a while they stopped having team competitions at worlds so they brought that back with a team-only worlds in late 1994, then made it a full format again starting in 1995. Then they switched it back to every two years. Then in this quadrennial they decided to do every year but event finals only in 2002 and there was no worlds in 2004 at all. Really don’t know why. Since 2005, I believe, they’ve gone back to having a full worlds every year.

[@Emmehxx]

Since 2005, they have done individual worlds (AA & EF) the year after the olympics (2005, 2009, 2013, 2017), a full worlds the following 2 years of the quad, then no worlds in the olympic year. Also, I don't believe they ever really stopped having team finals at worlds. The first time there was no team competition at all was 1993, and as you said they brought it back the following year, although along with a second worlds that had AA and EF. After that mess, it was back to normal in 1995. I think the easier way to answer the question of no all around worlds in 2002 is that for a good 12 years, between the 92 and 04 Olympics, the FIG couldn't make up it's mind about Worlds, resulting in no Worlds at all in 1998, just EF in 2002 (and the EF only Worlds during an Olympic year in 92 and 96), and two Worlds in 1994. I don't know why they changed from the every other year format that seemed to be working fine prior, but at least they're being consistent again. (Can you tell I've spent a lot of time on this question myself? Haha)

[@intldawn]

Emily S What you said. Lol. The FIG could not make up its mind about how to handle the worlds format. So they just kept messing with it for a decade. It’s exhausting to think about. 😂

[@Levic0rpus]

Oh, Oksana Chusovitina ! :O :D

[@Beargeek616]

Love these championships, but they did seem kind of "fluffy" ;)

[@mht4908]

Why was Oksana's floor score so low? Her tumbling was amazing!

[@erinmccargar7607]

Like the commentator said, she had great tumbling but her dance skills were not very difficult (turns, leaps, jumps). Plus you notice she hopped out of her double turn, so she really only got credit for 1 full turn. You can see in her difficulty value score in the end, only 9.5

[@josephqualtier961]

Ik some of oksanas dance elements weren’t great but come on her tumbling was so far ahead of everyone else

[@saragrant9749]

That quad only cared about dance, overlooking entirely the tumbling aspect. All you have to see to realize how messed up it was is look at the Olympic floor final- won with excellent dance and the worst tumbling form I’d ever seen.

[@dakotahmandina8904]

I want to hear Bart narrate more 😡

[@MzKaylcC]

This seems like. World Cup not a world champion