The Olympics are here! The US women recently finished their podium training, and one highlight was Jade Carey's upgraded floor exercise. This could receive a 6.7 difficulty score (D score) if the Gogean is credited, and even if it isn't, a 6.6 score is still massive and extremely competitive. I was especially impressed by her front layout connected to Silivas (0.2 combination value) -- super difficult and well executed. She's putting her best foot forward for qualifications, and I would love to see her in the event finals! See how I scored her difficulty score (D score) and execution score (E score) from her podium training exercise in Tokyo.
Given that the competition for finals will be fierce, it'll be interesting to see if Jade chooses to compete the triple twisting double layout (triple-double laid out - K ranking, more difficult than Simone's Biles II!), or if she just submitted it as an option but doesn't intend to do it. In qualifications, if we assume that Simone Biles will take the first floor spot, Jade will need to outcompete every other American (notably Jordan Chiles and MyKayla Skinner, but every athlete is in the running) to earn the second spot and not lose the finals spot from the two-per-country rule that we see in gymnastics.
Who do you want to see in the event finals for the Americans? I'd love to see the finals spread out across multiple athletes: Suni Lee potentially finaling in bars and beam, Jordan Chiles competing on beam or floor, Jade and MyKayla Skinner in the running for floor and vault, and Grace McCallum as a steady all-arounder that could probably find a place in any final besides vault on a very good day. It seems like Simone, the GOAT, will be in contention for every final; I'm excited to see her Yurchenko Double Pike!
Notes:
- The Chusovitina may have incurred more deductions than other elements simply because of the unfortunate camera angle. Judging on video is a bit difficult to do, so I judged as accurately as I could. Additionally, there's no standard score to use as reference, so I'm just doing the best I can :)
- Leap series deductions: precision on the Full L Hop, body shape on the Switch Split 1/1 (think hips not square, etc.)
- I didn't consider audience engagement (artistic deduction) because there was no audience. It'll be interesting to see how the judges deal with that in competition.
- Jade does have complex choreography and moves touching the floor. She is deducted for expressiveness and failure to express a role, theme, or emotion, but she otherwise seemed fine with artistry deductions? Let me know if you think differently. Maybe corner choreography should've been deducted as well.
Score calculated: 14.300 = 6.6 + 7.7 (0.2 artistry deductions)
I’m not an expert judge, and if you have an alternate perspective or a question, I would encourage you strongly to let me know in the comments! Judging is always subjective; judging in real time differs from judging on video. The purpose of this video is not to malign the gymnasts, but rather to highlight their accomplishments and explain why they earned the score that they did.
If you enjoyed, please like, share, and subscribe! It helps me out a ton :)
Footage does not belong to me. This video qualifies as fair use (educational, informative, transformative use) and is therefore being used properly and legally. Video is from the broadcast of podium training taking place at the Ariake Gymnastics Center at the Tokyo 2020/Tokyo 2021 Summer Olympics.
