b) What is your current obsession?
Since right before the 2016 Rio Olympics, I’ve been *slightly* obsessed with women’s artistic gymnastics.
First, I was impressed by the flippy thing:
Ragan Smith – Floor Exercise – Double Layout
Then, I wanted to try the twisty thing:
Leanne Wong – Balance Beam – Triple Full
Before “realizing” my own limits and settling to replicate the spinny thing (unsuccessfully):
Sanne Wevers – Balance Beam – too many turns…
Upon realizing my limitations, I took to backseat gymnastics, beginning to follow and critique many gymnastics meets and following the sport through its NCAA and elite seasons (and fantasy gymnastics!).
And here are just a few reasons why I love this crazy sport.
1. Look at them impressive skills.
Maggie Nichols – Vault – Yurchenko 1.5
From NCAA to elite, skills just keep getting harder. The vault above dominated the sport in the late 1990s, when the Yurchenko 1.5 was the top vault done by the best athletes at World Championships and the Olympics. Now, this vault is the minimum Yurchenko-styled vault needed to get a 10.0 start value in college gymnastics.
New skills continue to be invented, and old(er) skills continue to be perfected.
You want to watch technically-beautiful gymnastics? Look to NCAA. The most difficult gymnastics? Look to elite.
2. Look at those graceful mistakes.
Because even when skills aren’t done right, there are many, many entertaining moments. It’s not uncommon to go from twisty arm things (pirouettes) to falling on your face within a second.
Nastia Liukin – Uneven Bars – Deltchev
Successful routines and unsuccessful routines are both fun to watch.
3. Look at that unlikely variability.
Mckayla Maroney – Vault – Amanar 
Mckayla Maroney – Vault – Mustafina
2012 Olympics. Same gymnast, just days apart. The left vault happened at Team Finals, earning the biggest score of the competition and the highest execution score since this scoring code’s invention. The right vault happened during Vault Finals, ending the gymnast’s streak of 33 cleanly landed vaults to miss out on the Gold.
Even with amazing, amazing gymnasts, the risk involved in gymnastics means that competitions are always exciting and uncertain.
4. Look at them relatable athletes.
Imagine being the literal best gymnast in the world and have a bee disrupt your actual crowning ceremony. Cannot relate.
5. Look at that painful dedication.
Following two falls from her teammate and a fall from herself that sprained her ankle, this gymnast vaulted again on an injured feet and LANDED CLEANLY ON ONE FOOT, helping to win the first Olympic Gold in the sport by USA.
LOOK AT THAT MENTAL FORTITUDE.
Kerri Strug – Vault – Yurchenko 1.5
JUST LOOK AT THAT MAJESTY.
I like gymnastics because it’s beautiful and impressive and requires hard work. I get happy when the twisty thing and the spinny thing combine to make the freaky good thing. I like the unpredictability, that only what happens on the day of the competition counts, that gymnasts are strong women who need no men.
Jordan Chiles (in a Wonder Woman leotard) – Uneven Bars – Tkachev to Gienger
And because of how much I admire gymnastics, it breaks my heart to know the many gymnastics-related scandals that has plagued the sport, in relation to Larry Nassar, to college admissions.
Then I began to question. Is it really ethical to support a sport connected to so many unhealthy practices?
I don’t know the right answer to that.
My answer involves visibility.
I feel that boycotting the sport is unfair to athletes who train for their whole lives, and doing nothing will simply allow the current culture to perpetuate. By promoting gymnastics as a sport and getting more fans to do the same, I can do my part in forcing gymnastics to become more transparent, so that bad practices will be harder to hide and quicker to change.
So here’s to gymnastics, a flipping fascinating sport.
Kim Zmeskal – Floor Exercise – Triple Whips to Back Handsprings to Tucked Double Back
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