Gymnastics Fan Glossary

Some useful words to know when talking to gymnastics fans:

DTY: Yurchenko vault with 2.0 twist. Known as a Baitova to gymnastics snobs.

Form: noun. The prettiness with which a gymnast does her skills.

FTY: noun. Yurchenko vault with 1.0 twist.

Handstand: noun. Uneven bars; In which the gymnast is perfectly vertical (or at least within 10 degrees) above the bar.

Hardware: noun. Medals.

Headcase: noun. A mentally unstable gymnast who usually doesn’t live up to great potential; cf. Fan Ye (CHN) in 2004 and later.

Hit: verb. To accomplish, to succeed in representing or producing a good routine.

K2: noun. The Khorkina II vault.

Lock: noun. Someone certain of success (usually in making a team lineup); cf. Shawn Johnson for the 2008 USA Olympic team.

Peak: verb. To attain a peak of activity, development, popularity, etc., constituting the highest or maximum level; cf. Hollie Vise (USA) in 2003.

Rob: verb. To deny a gymnast a fair score of her routine; cf. Kui Yuanyuan (CHN) in 1997 World Championship balance beam finals.

The QUEEN: noun. Svetlana Khorkina. (Yes, the capitalization of ‘queen’ is necessary, or else it loses all meaning. [/sarcasm])