In the Wake of the European Championships
April 8, 2008 by northernriver
Now that European Championships are over…reflections in relation to the Beijing Olympics:
- Ksenia Semyonova (RUS) is still very much in the mix to challenge Nastia and the Chinese for the uneven bars title in Beijing, but I’m more worried about Beth Tweddle. Oh God please let Beth get an Olympic medal on the bars!
- Sandra Izbasa, and maybe even Beth, are now Real Ultimate Contenders on floor exercise vs. Cheng/Johnson/Sacramone. But I’d rather Beth get a medal on uneven bars, as her floor is…uh, uninspiring.
- And as much as I want Alicia to get her floor title back (and I really want her to), gymnastics snobs are in General Agreement that floor exercise is Cheng Fei’s to lose. Some people are also saying that Izbasa, with her current routine, is now legitimately Cheng’s equal, given her performance at these Europeans. What do y’all think?
- In terms of the battle for the Olympic team gold medal, however, nothing has changed. Yet. Romania is still behind China and the USA in point totals, and Russia kind of screwed up at Europeans, with Ksenia Afanasyeva counting a fall.
- However, it still looks like Shawn doesn’t have any brutal competition for that all-around title, even with Nastia upgrading uneven bars like crazy. With Steliana Nistor still competing all-around at about the same level that she did at Worlds, and Vanessa Ferrari stumbling along…one wonders how Jade Barbosa is doing.
- France has the ability to pull it all together without Isabelle Severino, but…do you really think they can compete against eleven other countries and get Olympic bronze?
To sum it all up, I think Semyonova, Izbasa, and Tweddle have firmly established themselves as contenders for Olympic gold in individual events. Nothing else has changed, not yet anyway.
That’s all my talk. The Europeans are officially over…and here’s my favorite picture from the team medal ceremony:
Sandra Izbasa helps injured teammate Cerasela Patrascu onto the medal stand to receive her gold medal with her teammates
Aww. 
Can I just say that looking at the Europeans championship makes Jana Bieger, Chellsie Memmel kind of “big”?
The Europeans seemed so skinny and yet have some power. It makes the whole thing looks better..
\I just started following gymnastics since 2004.
i have to say tha the romanians are in the battle for the olympic gold!!! they gave a great performance at the european championships with one injured, one new comer and with nistor,isbaza and tamarjan back from injuries!! i think that by the time of the olympics all the team will be at great form and they will win the olympic medal!!!
honestly you really have the point about alicia. its true that shes poweful and all but it just doesnt look that she can pull to win the floor. and there are already many gymnasts who are looking better in the floor compared to alicia. like cheng, izbasa, shawn, beth,yuyuan and even myzdrikova(if she can be a russian member in the olympics). I also like anna pavlova to win atleast bronze in the floor. her new routine in just beautiful but she need lots of work especially in upgrading her routine’s A score.
about beth, i really dont think she can medal in the UB. yes she is beautiful bar worker but the game in the olympics will be A scores. it will definitely a battle between nastia,semenova and the two chinese girls.
its true that at this point, there is no clear gymnast who can challenge shawn. Izbasa can step up if she cleans her UB. nistor needs a lot of work on her UB. she has the big A score but the B panel will give her a lower score.Jade also need to work her UB i mean a lot of work.it seems that the event that she can score high is only the vault.ferrari also need lots of work and i really don’t see her doing the amanar. but ofcourse she is really determine to win so she will definitely do everything. Jiang yuyuan can also medal with her new amanar vault. she can score atleasr 16+ in the UB and 15+ on the floor and BB. WHy dont He kexin try for the AA, she is also said to have the amanar vault. with the sky high score on the UB and a decent BB score and floor.
my heart also goes to patrascu. she is very useful for the romania especially on UB and she can also givew a decent score on the BB and floor. And by the way the romanians have upgraded their vaults to DTY.
Anna pavlova also showed her amanar vault but wasnt close enough she has a lot of work to do to make that vault.
I really thought that afanaseva can really give a great score and can even compete on the olympics but she was just inconsistent and made errors in all the apparatus she did.
im still wondering about lozhecko especially the updrades she did in her BB and floor anr especially the vault because she is said to be trying the produnova vault.
Kramarenko may also go to the olympics because aside from semenova there is no longer gymnast who can deliver on UB except her. this situation can also be applied with worley.aside from nastia there is no longer american gymnast who can score that high not even shawn and memmel.
if only cheng fei were competing in the all-around. she could give johnson some good competition.
im so tired of people giving these athletes medals in the olympics and they have not even qualified yet! ANYWAYS
i think this olympics should be a good one with all the upgrades and everthing.
if nastia nails all her routines she can give shawn a run for her money