International Gymnast - December 2011

floor bounced her backward after her second run of a high double tuck, which interrupted the flow of her choreography. Errors of various degree marred her triple twist (slightly short), Memmel turn (she fell out of it) and her double pike dismount (legs buckled on a low landing). But without a complete splat anywhere, Komova’s body language conveyed both relief and triumph. Even Wieber gave her a polite handshake of congratulations as they passed near the floor podium.

“At that point, I didn’t really know [who had won],” said the
16-year-old Wieber, a Dewitt, Mich., native who is coached by
John and Kathryn Geddert. “But I knew I wanted to congratu-
late her just because she did a wonderful job.”
Then the scoreboard flashed the good news for Wieber. “I was
so surprised,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to come out on top,
but I am really happy and glad that I did enough on that floor
routine to make it.”

Said John Geddert: “There are no words
to describe this. She should have been out
of the meet [after uneven bars] and out of
the medals. She’s not a quitter. … I actu-
ally thought Viktoria had enough to beat us,
Some in the Russian camp were furious. “That’s nonsense,”
said State Coach Valentina Rodionenko. “How can they give our
girl 8. 8 on beam and give the American 9.2 when she can’t even
split her legs to 90 degrees?”
Unlike Rodionenko, Komova, who is coached by Gennady
Yelfimov, took her defeat with the grace she had displayed in the
meet. “I should not have made mistakes,” she told Sport-
Express. “If I hadn’t made them, everything would have been
fine. I am the one who did not do everything.”
She also revealed what her mother later told her. “That I
missed a lot of things myself, and that if I lost, then that was
what was supposed to be,” said Komova, a 16-year-
old from Voronezh whose father, Alexander
Komov, also was a gymnast. “That’s how she
calmed me down.”
The irony in Tokyo is that any debate
over who should have won would have
been eliminated had Yao not fallen off
balance beam. Add a point to her
bronze-medal winning 58.598 and
she’s the indisputable champion.

A native of Fujian who is coached by Wang Qunce and Xu Jinglei, 16- year-old Yao began her meet with an excellent double-twisting Yurchenko that outscored Komova’s. She posted a 14.933 on bars (even with a weak low-to-high transition and flat handstand pirouette), and performed a lively floor routine to “West Side Story” (double layout, triple twist, 11⁄2 twist through to 21⁄ 3 twist, double pike).

Given her natural power, it would not be a surprise to see her upgrade to an Amanar by next summer and become the first Chinese woman to win the Olympic all-around.

American Alexandra Raisman, fourth, was left to wonder “What if?” for the second consecutive worlds. A year ago in Rotterdam, where she qualified third to the all-around, her medal dreams vanished after an 11.700 on uneven bars. In Tokyo, she began her meet with a stuck Yurchenko-double twist ( 15.233) but crumbled on bars again. This time, she missed a kip, cast-hop to undergrips twice in a row and scored only 12.900. To her credit, she maintained her composure and finished well on beam and floor, where her 14.900 was second only to Australia’s Lauren Mitchell ( 15.033) in the all-around final.