Ahhh...gymnastics. My all-time favorite sport to watch, to be a part of. Most people would think "oh, gymnastics it looks easy." Think again. It's ranked the sixth hardest sport (it really should be in the top three hardest sports, but hey, at least it's getting recognition.
The artistic gymnastics FOR WOMEN consists of four events: the balance beam, the floor exercises, the uneven bars, and the vault. Floor and Beam is where tumbling happens. Bars is where you swing feeling like a monkey. The Vault is where you run and do many tricks.
All four events require strength, flexibility, speed, etc. Most importantly, it require a lot of mental work. If you aren't confident, then it will be pretty scary. On beam, it can be very scary because you can split it or fall of, but you need to be focused or else one will fall of. It's 4 inches wife and 16 feet, 5 inches long and sits of 4 feet of the floor. Simone Biles' wolf turn on the beam is just fascinating to watch. She's a beast on the beam and floor and vault. Peng-Peng Lee, a Canadian Olympian and UCLA gymnast, has one of the hardest mounts: two flying flairs. Look it up! Shawn Johnson, Samantha Pezcek, Nastia Liukin had really beautiful beam routines. Laurie Hernandez is very confident on the beam, which is what is needed. Although it can be scary - in my opinion- it can be fun competing for high school because you add all this "fluff" to make it look elegant.
The floor requires a song and dance moves and tumbling passes. The tumbling requires speed, flexibility, mental concentration. Gymnasts must careful to stay in-bound. Aly Raisman's first tumbling pass is just ridiculous but so much fun to watch. Shawn Johnson was also an excellent floor gymnast. While tumbling plays a huge role, another factor to consider is the dancing. Leaps, jumps, "fluff" are required. It's the longest routine than the others, so the audience has to be well entertained. Laurie Hernadez's routine was entertaining not just because of her tumbling passes but because of her dancing. When she was out there, she was energetic, she gave it her all. That's super important.
Then there's the uneven bars. Now, this one requires a lot more strength. The kip is the hardest skill to learn, even Shawn Johnson said it in one of her videos with her husband Andrew East. Gymnast go from one bar to another and do handstands or giants. Going from the high to low require a lot of focus or else...there might be a very bad fall. This is one my favorite events. Nastia Liukis was the queen of uneven bars. Her score on of her routines was a 17.1 Uneven bars requires straight legs and legs together when doing a skill. Her legs were, like, glued together. Madison Kocian is the current U.S.A bars queen, but no one will ever be Nastia.
Lastly, there's the vault. My second favorite event. Speed is SO important for this event because you're running to the vault. You have to know your measurements because if the measurements are not correct, it will most likely mess up the routine. This event require height because - the higher, the better chance you'll have a cleaner landing. A low landing, the less chance to land it. You might fall on your butt. Mckayla Maroney was a vault specialist. Her 2012 Olympic Vault routine on, I think, the qualification day. This is another event SImone Biles excels at.
Gymnastics is no easy sport.
