**Spoiler Alert – If you have not yet watched the finals for the Women’s Gymnastics individual vaulting Olympic competition and do NOT wish to the know the results yet, stop reading now, for those who wish to know how the event turned out, keep reading**
Today wrapped up the gymnastics events for the London 2012 Olympic Games with the Women’s individual balance beam and floor exercise events. Team USA members Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas competed for another shot at a Gold medal in the balance beam event while Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman compete for a medal in floor exercise.
Balance Beam
Douglas went first in the balance beam event for Team USA and once again was not her usual rock solid self, having a few balance checks, one fall, and a small hop on the dismount. With a score of 13.633, Gabby landed in 7th place ahead of Russia’s Viktoria Komova (who had several large balance checks and a two major falls).
Raisman on the other hand went out and did a pretty solid routine with only a few errors (that we could see) and a hop on the dismount, everyone was expecting a decent score and bronze medal for Raisman. However, when her score of 14.933 came in an official inquiry was issued and her score was raised to 15.066 which would once again tie her for the bronze medal, this time with Catalina Ponor from Romania . Due to the level of difficulty in her routine , the tie-break was in her favor and Aly Raisman was awarded with the bronze after China’s Deng Linlin (Gold) and Sui Lu (Sliver).
Floor Exercise
The floor exercise is the only event in which Jordyn Wieber had a shot at getting an individual medal in these Olympic games (she remains a gold medalist in the team all around) and Aly Raisman’s last chance to get a gold individual medal.
Wieber was the first of the two Team USA members on floor. During her first tumbling pass Jordyn had an off landing and landed out of bounds on her second pass (much like in the qualifying rounds). Wieber managed to complete her floor routine but just from looking at her you could tell she knew it was over, and her score of 14.500 she was in second place but knew she couldn’t hold it.
Aly Raisman is third up and has a massive first tumbling pass, going for the all the difficult skills and nails it. Raisman hits all of her passes with very few errors and with a score of 15.6 she claims first and has a real shot at the gold.
Next up Catalina Ponor from Romania (who Aly edged out for the bronze in beam) who managed to stick all her landings and with a score of 15.2 comes in second. After routines from Australia’s Lauren Mitchell, and Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari, Raisman keeps her first place standing and all that is left is Romania’s Sandra Izbasa (who took Gold in vaulting) and Russia’s Aliya Mustafina.
Mustafina does a solid routine, manages to stick all her passes but her leg positions were not perfect, she ends up with a score of 14.9, which is enough to land her in third. Izbasa is last up on floor and after a fall on one of her passes she is given a low score of 13.333 landing her in 8th place just behind Jordyn Wieber.
Medals in Floor go to Gold – Aly Raisman (USA); Silver Catalina Ponor (Romania); and Bronze Aliya Mustafina (Russia)
Overall Team USA leaves with a total of 5 medals in women’s artistic gymnastics: Gold – Team All-Round; Gold – Individual All-Round (Gabby Douglas); Silver – Individual Vault (Mckayla Maroney); Bronze – Individual Balance Beam (Aly Raisman); and Gold – Individual Floor Exercise (Aly Raisman).
If you missed the mornings live stream of the events on NBCOlympics.com, tune into NBC Primetime tonight at 8pm ET to watch coverage of the final gymnastics events.
London 2012 Womens Gymnastics Individual Beam Event
[photos via NBC Olympics]
Gymnastics is my favorite event at the Olympics and this year Team USA has really been at the forefront. Aly Reisman did fantastic on her floor routine and she definitely did decent on the beam. I’m hoping we will see Aly in four years in Rio. There are thousands of hours of coverage and several channels included in the Olympics coverage so finding what you’re looking for can be really hard. I just recently upgraded to the Hopper which comes with three tuners and 2,000 hours of recording time available. Now I can record each event and I don’t have to stress out about having enough space for all the sports I want to see. I’m glad I followed my Dish co-worker’s advice: the Hopper has been a huge time saver. Even though Gabby Douglas didn’t do well today she has nothing to be ashamed of. She has done fabulous in London. The saddest news coming from the gymnastics team is that Jordyn has a possible stress fracture. I hope she gets better soon and that she’ll be able to compete in the 2016 Games.