#. <- the point. and you all are vaulting over it like olympic athletes

[blood-choke]

lord pls i just wanna kiss my wife without hana bitching and moaning about it

well, considering you just upended Hana's life and ruined her nearly 100 years-long relationship by coming back from the dead, you're going to have to deal with her "bitching and moaning," which i personally think she is entitled to.

i know this is probably a joke, but i don't know how you can read that conversation with Hana and then refer to it as "bitching and moaning." some of you are way too comfortable joking about Hana specifically in my inbox and it really rubs me the wrong way!

[ivanaskye]

(wo)men are flipping on tv, or, ivana's olympic watching experiences so far i guess

(artistic) gymnastics: the absolute classic of flipping on tv. you're probably either already watching this or not i guess. if you are on the fence men's is much, uh, more competitive than women's right now. speaking of gender the 6 men's events vs 4 women's is sure some kind of way--and of those 6 vs 4, only two (vault and floor) overlap! and of course women's floor has music and includes facial expression in judging whereas men cannot have music, that is too girly. what precisely is manly about a single high bar as opposed to two bars of uneven height? no one knows.

trampoline: speaking of gymnastics this is technically a subcategory of it, along with the above and rhythmic gymnastics my beloved (but not having yet happened). uhhh ok so in trampoline people Go, up into the Air, apparently 26 ft+. then flip. very concentrated flip per second here, recommended if you want flip. each athlete's run is very short though, which may impact followability

diving: this time we flip into water. synchronized diving is very easy to tell if people are doing well bc you just kind of go, hm, are they doing the Same thing? in all diving you know someone's done something right if they make very little splash into the water. ok ive also literally only watched one event here

skateboarding: if you take anything from this list, let it be this- please please please watch olympic skateboarding it is so fun. skateboarders attempt two 45 second runs (of which only the best score counts) and 5 individual tricks (of which only the two best count). as such they are incentivized to take a lot of risks and fall down all the time. it's great. also makes for great ease of watching: you know they did well if they landed All That, and probably didn't if they are on the ground.

bmx (jump version): kind of like skateboarding but worse bc risks are less incentivized

boxing: absolutely incomprehensible to a mere mortal. apparently the judges determine who wins each round based on.... uh..... who... seemed to be doing better. so, vibes? vibes. it's not something as pedestrian as 'who landed more hits'. absolutely mystifying. also moves very fast.

judo: moves much slower than boxing! so you can at least tell who is doing what to who. as for whether what they are doing scores points. well. uh. see. the match instantly ends if one fighter throws the other with "strength, speed and control". if they have only two of these they get a point; two points wins. how are any of these words measured? uhhhhhh. vibes!

handball: i checked into this for maybe ten minutes to see if i could figure out what handball 'is'. i still don't know. there's a ball in a hand. soccer-like but with a hand instead of a foot. how do the rules actually work? a mystery.

table tennis/ping pong: actually pretty followable though not engaging enough to me specifically that i watched much. mb not enough flipping. my god these people move fast.

equestrian jumping: in some ways like many other events, except the creature jumping is a horse. i like to imagine what the horses are thinking about this whole situation. i tried to look up what a horse's name meant and discovered he has a website (he has no idea he has a website) where his sperm is sold for hundreds of pounds (he has no idea this is happening either). very followable as there are no positive points of any kind, only penalties. did that horse clear the bar without knocking it over? congratulations that was a success.

equestrian other things: opposite tier of followability i have no idea what these creatures are doing.

track: running is the easiest thing to understand, closely followed by swimming. who gets from point a to point b fastest. we can all understand this. however mostly it is not very interesting

triple jump: jump far*. the closest part of the indentation they make in the sand to the starting line is what is judged as their distance. *technically, triple jump is 'jump far with extra steps'. long jump is the true 'jump far' but i haven't seen any yet.

hammer throw, shot put, discus: the throw things real far events. to which javelin is added but i don't think ive seen even a bit of that. wait im not sure i saw any hammer throw yet either. anyway. the builds of these athletes are so mountainous. which is great.

elsewhere in field i haven't watched any pole vault but that one guy did get betrayed by his own junk so there was that

shooting: unfortunately the memeable people everyone has seen are in air rifle which is perhaps the least interesting event to try to watch of all time. you can barely even see when they pull the trigger and you don't get to see the target itself, only a graphic of it. mystifying presentation choices. skeet and trap however are followable as moving targets are shot, scored on a pure yes/no of did you shoot that thing or not. americans hilariously uncommon in shooting events despite our gun culture; don't you know, it's not actually american to shoot something accurately!!!

[diazsdimples]

Fuck It Friday

In honour of the Olympics (which I don't watch fsdkjdh) I started a new Bucktommy AU, based off this AU post that @aesthetictarlos prompted me for. It's become A Thing.

Tagged for FIF by @inell and @actuallyitsellie thank you friends!

The training gym in Paris is insane. Buck’s never seen anything quite like it. Each country has their own training area – allegedly to decrease the chances of sabotage – and the USA has decked theirs out with red, white and blue banners everywhere. It’s laid out almost perfectly the same as the actual gymnastics area they’ll be competing in, to allow for familiarity. Buck’s aware that he probably looks like a dick, standing in the middle of the floor with his jaw somewhere around his ankles, but he’s excited, okay? It’s his first Olympics. He wants to lie here and soak it all in. “Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Buck jumps, not having heard anyone come up behind him. He turns and takes in the familiar, broad chest of one Tommy Kinard. His hero, his rival, his most embarrassing crush. Eddie teased him relentlessly when he found out. “H-hey Tommy,” Buck stammers, his face flushing a deep red. “It’s – uh – it’s so big.” Tommy laughs and begins to make his way towards the vault. Buck trails along behind him, shrugging off his hoodie. Much like many of the other athletes, he often opts not to wear a shirt while training. They’re too restrictive and can flop over your eyes, obscuring your vision. Buck knows better than most how dangerous that can be when you’re trying to stick a landing – something he’d learnt after he broke his left leg in 3 places after a dodgy dismount from the horizontal bars. “Ready to get your ass whipped?” Tommy asks, gesturing to the vault. He’s also divested himself of his jumper and Buck’s having a hard time concentrating on much other than Tommy’s nipples, if he’s totally honest. Buck tears his gaze from Tommy’s chest and looks where he’s pointing. Tommy will never admit it, but the vault is the only thing Buck repeatedly scores better at. It’s become something of a joke between them. “You wish, old man.” Tommy tuts and flicks Buck’s arm. “You need to learn to respect your elders. C’mon, show me what you’ve got.” Tommy lines himself up at the end of the track, chalking up his hands. He turns and gives Buck a wink, before turning and sprinting at the vault at full tilt. He’s so fucking beautiful, Buck thinks, when he’s in his element like this. Tommy pushes himself off the vault with ease and pulls himself into a pike position, rotating twice before landing on the mat. He has to stick his leg out to stop himself from toppling over, but other than that, it’s a perfect jump. He turns to Buck with a grin and does a little bow. “Your turn, kid.” Oh, game on.

NP tagging friends/mutuals (feel free to ignore) @theotherbuckley @hippolotamus @daffi-990 @buckera @watchyourbuck

@bidisasterevankinard @babybibuck @bibuckbuckgoose @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @bucks-daddy-issues

@wikiangela @loveyouanyway @spotsandsocks @slightlyobsessedwitheverything @thekristen999

@tommysdaddykink @underwaterninja13 @rainbow-nerdss @monsterrae1 @bigfootsmom

@perfectlysunny02 @half-oz-eddie @agenttommykinard @buckevantommy @evanbi-ckley

@bucksbignaturals

Also lmk if you want to be added/removed, I've forgotten who all my bucktommy mutuals are now fdskjds

[freifraufischer]

It seems like a good time to point out the Jade Carey Disney Princess Narrative again.

It goes something like this...

There is a particular genre of young adult movies/novels which I will broadly call the "secretly a princess" genre. In this the protagonist is a ordinary young girl, often times with academic or artistic interests that set her apart from her peers. A figure shows up in their life and informs them that they are, unbeknownst to them before, a princess and they are then trained to take their rightful place ruling over peasants attending balls and saving the country. It's worth knowing that this genre has been gendered female in relatively recent times but famous historical examples of it often involved poor young men switching places with identical looking princes. But for a modern audience perhaps the most famous example is the Princess Diaries.

One sub set of this genre is the Olympic Athlete version. This usually goes something like: In a sport that normally involves many years of training a older mentor figure/coach spots the protagonist messing around in a playground, at a school talent contest, or the local ice skating rink and sees their natural talent. This would be athlete is far too old for the sport normally but they advance quickly and succeed above those who have been working in the traditional path (and who may have been sabotaging the protagonist or laughing at her). The poster above is from one version of this story, Disney's Ice Princess.

One of the key appeals to this genre of story is the reader/viewer's ability to imagine themselves in the position of the relatable ordinary protagonist who turns out to be extraordinary.

I contend that Jade Carey is as close to this narrative as anyone will ever be in real life (but also you know... not). She was spotted at an L10 meet but famous coach Valeri Liukin and invited to an elite camp as a prospective vaulter for the US National team. She is coached by her father and they got to the Olympics through a root that a lot of people (somewhat inaccurately) believed to be rebellious/sticking to to the corrupt USAG. She dramatically trips in her run to a vault medal and then comes back to win a gold medal on floor as 'redemption'.

But key to all of this is that Carey is a quiet, relatively private young woman appears to be a lovely if awkward friend. A blank slate, perfect to project whatever personality you want onto her.

And that's what some of her fans have done.

[tittaagent]

Aruna reddy

Practice, patience and hard work – this has to be your mantra. There is no fast way to achieve results in gymnastics. If you keep doing what you’re doing and keep improving yourself, you will be able to achieve your goals. But that’s not the point – the point is your passion and love for the sport. If you start out with gymnastics, especially in India, you may find that you don’t get a lot of recognition initially. This is a sport that takes years of development to reach success, with some people training for over 15 years. Hard work and patience are most essential. What is your message for other young Indians who want to get into gymnastics? But I must stress that it is going to be the steepest hill I have ever climbed. With proper training and care I think I will be able to achieve my goal. So, 2019 is going to be a great challenge, especially because October of 2019 marks my last chance to get into the Olympics. I am just recuperating from a surgery at the moment. I have come this far today only because of her immense support and confidence in me. She has been a pillar of strength for me and is always there to motivate me. Being a single mom and managing the lives of two young girls can be quite a challenge. After the loss of my dad, she has stood by me and my sister, through thick and thin. Who would you say is your role model in life? That’s easy! My role model is none other than the world’s no.1 gymnast, Simone Biles. When it comes to gymnastics, who would you say is your role model? Apart from normal training, we would spend time together organizing a few events and just having fun. We all stayed together and this was a very fruitful experience. There were people from all over the country. My routine changed drastically and I had more training to keep up with but I met a lot of wonderful people along the way. Is there any specific experience you would recall from your career as a gymnast that was special to you? But gymnastics remains as my passion as I will keep pursuing it. This has been hard for many of us who work hard to get to the top. The sport isn’t promoted at all and it receives close to no publicity. To be honest, there is not much support for gymnasts in India. How do you feel about the opportunities for gymnasts in India? There’s always something new and different you can create with gymnastics. Well, I would say it’s a very unique sport. What are your personal views on Gymnastics? My performance in Jakarta earned me the 6th position in the Asian Games – 2018. My first medal was the bronze medal at the Melbourne World Cup. I have been consistently improving my performance at the International podiums. In 2009, I participated in my 1st international competition – World School Games, Jr. Posted by ARUNA BUDDA REDDY on Saturday, March 3, 2018 Won bronze medal in 2018 World cup Gymnastics in women's vault event in Melbourne and Created history by becoming the first Indian to clinch a medal. Respect Coach Brij Kishore, who is no longer with us, trained me for 10 years. I also managed to get the title of senior champ. It was quite disappointing as I had been training hard for the same. For some reason there was no competition held in the year of 2014. I remember it was 2005 when I set my heart on my first gold.Ĭan you tell us about your career in the National levels? Earlier I was being trained by Coach Swarna Latha. My karate master was able to observe my capabilities and he was the one who insisted I try out gymnastics. However I didn’t feel like like it was true calling. He encouraged me to join karate and I practiced karate for 3 to 4 years, earning myself a black belt. Having been born in a family with two girl children, my dad wanted one of us to do something unconventional. Well, to be honest none of my family members are athletes. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pinterest EmailĪruna Reddy, a successful and inspiring gymnast that hails from Hyderabad, took the time out to tell us about her experience as a gymnast in India.

[hornime]

watch and learn | iwaizumi hajime x f!reader x team japan

there were two things they all had in common: the growing bulges in their pants that they were urgently trying to distract themselves from, and the fact that their full attention was on you.

warnings: 18+, timeskip!everyone, BIG MANGA SPOILERS BASICALLY, exhibitionism, voyeurism, orgasm denial

w/c: 3.1k

a/n: now i don’t know if iwaizumi hajime (27) athletic trainer learned about female orgasms when he was studying sports science at irvine BUT he def knows how to show a girl a good time which is reason enough for me to write this. also, i read this article to prep for this piece and it was super enlightening, so i do recommend giving it a read if you’re interested!

in the middle of his morning run, iwaizumi slowed momentarily to check the repetitive buzzing of this phone, curious as to who was messaging him this early. when he’d left the apartment, you were sleeping, and you had the tendency to still be sleeping by the time he returned, so who else could it be?

he unlocked his phone, quickly finding the source of the notifications: the team japan group chat.

[06:43 AM] miya: hey @iwaizumi—you know stuff abt the human body right?

[06:43 AM] miya: cus like you studied it in college and shit??

iwaizumi rolled his eyes. i spent four years in america to earn my degree, came back home to support my country’s olympic team, and dealt with the biggest idiots of volleyball, only to get treated like this?

[06:44 AM] iwaizumi: yes, miya. i took many courses on the human body. in fact that’s the purpose of my job. to know the human body. because i am a fucking athletic trainer.

[06:44 AM] miya: okay okay i get it. dumb question

[06:44 AM] iwaizumi: why? is something up? you need help or anything?

[06:44 AM] miya: uhhh kinda

[06:44 AM] miya: @hinata i’m not fucking asking this

[06:44 AM] bokuto: bro just do it

[06:44 AM] miya: @hinata @hinata @hinata 

iwaizumi cocked an eyebrow. what the hell are they going on about?

[06:45 AM] iwaizumi: so am i needed or...

[06:45 AM] hinata: YES

[06:45 AM] hinata: we had a question

[06:46 AM] sakusa: by “we” he means him, miya, and bokuto

[06:46 AM] suna: yeah don’t bring us into this

[06:46 AM] hinata: don’t listen to them! both suna and sakusa wanna know too

[06:46 AM] iwaizumi: okay. what’s up

[06:47 AM] hinata: we wanted to know how to make a girl cum

he chuckled in disbelief.

[06:47 AM] iwaizumi: you’re telling me that you guys are in your mid-20s, literal olympic athletes, and you don’t know how to make a girl cum

[06:47 AM] iwaizumi: have you never done it before??

[06:47 AM] miya: NO

[06:47 AM] miya: FOR THE RECORD IVE MADE MANY GIRLS CUM

[06:48 AM] bokuto: ME TOO

[06:48 AM] bokuto: i think

he laughed out loud, briefly startling another runner on the sidewalk.

[06:48 AM] iwaizumi: you guys are unbelievable

[06:48 AM] hinata: i mean she says she finished but idk what i did to make that happen

[06:48 AM] bokuto: ^^

[06:48 AM] hinata: so like i wanna know how to actually do it

[06:48 AM] suna: actually im kinda interested in this too

[06:48 AM] aran: i pray for your future girlfriends. this is painful to see. im out

[06:48 AM] kageyama: i’m with aran on this one. you guys are dumb

[06:48 AM] hinata: shut up. you suck.

[06:48 AM] miya: cmon iwaizumi, help a guy out

[06:48 AM] sakusa: it wouldnt hurt for you to give us some pointers at least

iwaizumi sighed.

[06:49 AM] iwaizumi: @miya @hinata @bokuto @suna @sakusa meet in the locker room after practice. ill give you guys a lesson in the art of pleasing a woman

to teach effectively, he needed a volunteer, though he was sure you wouldn’t need much convincing. you’d always loved the attention, and the biceps, of the pro athletes. he spun on his heel and jogged home.

you woke up to the sound of your apartment door opening, your boyfriend creeping inside, forehead damp with sweat.

“hey,” you said quietly, making your way towards him.

“hey, baby. sorry for waking you up, i was trying to be quiet.”

you giggled sleepily. “s’okay, haji. you spoil me too much anyway, always letting me sleep in for hours while you’re off doing god knows what.”

at that, his eyes crinkled in amusement, and as you tried to step into a hug, he shuffled back. “woah there, baby. i gotta shower, ‘m all gross from my run. and then,” he gave you a peculiar look that you couldn’t quite place, “i got a proposition for you.”

after his shower, he waltzed out of the bathroom, steam wafting out from behind the door. his tanned body made you feel things you definitely shouldn’t be barely an hour after the sun’s risen, and you reached out to massage the tension in his shoulders. “so, what’s your proposition?”

“well,” he hesitated. “it’s a bit... unconventional. the team asked me to show them how to make a girl cum,” he took in your intrigued expression. “and it’d be a lot easier to explain if i had someone to do a live demonstration with. so,” his eyes flicked up to you. “that’s where you’d come in.”

“a... live demonstration? like you’re gonna make me cum in front of them?”

“yeah, essentially.” he gave you a devilish grin. “you want that, baby? wanna show those boys how a real man treats a gorgeous woman like you?”

you rubbed your thighs at his words. “yeah,” you purred. “i do. wanna show them how good you are to me.”

and that’s how you found yourself nestled between iwaizumi’s muscled thighs, back pressed against his chest, completely naked, with five of japan’s best volleyball players staring at your body in awe.

practically an expert in his field, iwaizumi knew the human body inside and out. this had many benefits; of course it allowed him to catapult up the ranks and work with the country’s best athletes to keep them at the top of their game, but it also had a unique side effect: an overwhelming vault of knowledge on how to make a woman feel good anywhere. 

you’d seen the proof firsthand; he knew exactly where to push, prod, stroke, and tease to have you cumming in seconds, over and over, as many times as you wanted. he was amazing, and you were well-aware just how lucky you were to have such a talented man in the sheets.

“oi,” iwaizumi snapped his fingers, drawing each of the players’ eyes away from your glistening cunt. “pay attention. i know more than anybody that she’s hot as fuck, but you gotta listen to what i’m saying or else there’s no point to this.”

he lightly pressed his lips against your collarbone, slowly tracing them against your jaw, the contact making you squirm. “if you wanna make a girl cum, first thing you gotta do is make her comfortable. if she’s worried about how she looks or sounds or smells she’s gonna be too stressed to let go.” he moved his hands to grope your tits, his calloused fingers brushing over your hardening nipples. “so reassure her, tell her how irresistible she is, how pretty her moans are, how tasty her pussy is. shit like that. the sexier she feels the better it’ll be.”

he leaned into you, whispering into your ear. “feeling good, baby? we can stop whenever.”

you nodded weakly, afraid to open your mouth, barely holding in your whines as his palms worked wonders on your chest and stomach, sending shocks of heat wherever they touched. 

you craned your neck up to observe the men before you. atsumu was flushed red, wringing his hands as if he was worried they’d do something embarrassing if he didn’t keep them occupied. hinata was bouncing his leg up and down, wiping his palms on his shorts as he took in the plushness of your thighs. bokuto was basically drooling, greedily tracing your soft curves with his eyes. suna maintained his indifferent expression, but the reddening tips of his ears showed that he was a lot more hot and bothered than he let on. sakusa stood quietly to the side, leaning against the wall, mask tucked under his chin as if he’d just realized how much the temperature had gone up in the room.

there were two things they all had in common: the growing bulges in their pants that they were urgently trying to distract themselves from, and the fact that their full attention was on you.

"make sure to try different things; there’s multiple ways to make a woman cum. only like a quarter of women experience orgasms just from penetration,” someone made a sound of shock. “yes, the number is that small, bokuto.” 

his fingertip slowly trailed past your belly button, dipping into the mess between your thighs, causing you to slightly arch your back into the solid chest supporting you. “foreplay with the clit is your best bet; even stupid fucks like you probably wouldn’t screw it up too bad.”

hinata opened his mouth to speak, but iwaizumi anticipated his question and continued.

“i know you’re wondering where the clit is. it’s around here, under this hood of skin,” he slid his digit between your labia. “s’not gonna come with a label so you gotta explore a little bit. i know where hers is like the back of my hand, but for you guys, with your girls, you’re gonna have to move your fingers around. slowly. and pay attention to her expressions.” he began to rub in a circular motion around your clit, causing you to make small whimpers of pleasure and shift your hips to meet his movements. 

“if she clenches up or twitches when you feel a certain spot, like this,” your legs flexed as he increased the pressure, “that’s the clit. be kind, it’s not a volleyball. be gentle n’ make small circles, whether it’s with your fingers or your tongue.” 

he thought for a second. “speaking of which, oral’s important. very important. most women cum when they’ve been eaten out, so use your mouths for something more useful than just dirty talk. suck on the clit, maybe tongue-fuck her a ‘lil, but your main focus should always be the clit.”

he removed his hands from your sopping pussy, and you made a pathetic noise of frustration. “’m sorry, baby,” he muttered seductively in your ear. “don’t wanna have you finishing too early. lesson’s barely started.”

he turned his attention back to your audience, his lustful tone being replaced by a more instructional one. “there’s other places that’ll help a woman orgasm, too: her nipples, her neck, her ears—”

“her ears?” sakusa questioned. he blushed profusely as everyone turned to look at him, surprised that he’d opened his mouth. “what? we were all thinking it.”

“s’a valid question,” iwaizumi said. “yeah, you can lick ‘em if they’re sensitive. hers are.” as if to prove his statement, he licked a stripe on the shell of you ear, making you wiggle helplessly at the stimulation. “‘n leave kisses everywhere else. feels good for them just like it does for us.” he wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him and forcing your movements to stop as he traced patterns with his tongue all around your neck.

“something you should know about an orgasm is that it’s something called a positive feedback loop.” he looked up and was met with five blank stares. shouldn’t have expected anything from these dumb jocks, he lamented. “basically that means that, once you start releasing sexual tension, things will feel better and better until you climax.”

“oh!” atsumu chirped. “like how my sets get better and better throughout a game.”

“no, not really,” he quipped. “your sets suck throughout.” atsumu frowned at that.

iwaizumi exhaled exasperatedly. “the general idea is that the body gets more and more sensitive, muscle contractions become more and more frequent, and touches feel more and more stimulating until you cum. all right?”

they all made noises of understanding except for bokuto and hinata, whose eyes had glazed over at the first mention of an academic term. whatever, iwaizumi thought. they’ll get it through example.

"don’t worry about it too much if you don’t get it, that’s just an orgasm on paper. in practice, though, this is the crucial step: listen to her. she knows what feels good. never forget that you’re just an idiot with a cock.” he took a breath, gathering his thoughts before proceeding with his lecture.

“if she tells you to slow down, you slow down. if she tells you to go harder, you go harder. if she tells you to keep doing what you’re doing, you...”

“keep doing what you’re doing”, they all chimed in at staggered times.

“that’s right. don’t go faster or else you’ll mess up the rhythm and she won’t cum. and you wanna make her cum, don’t you?”

they nodded simultaneously.

“so if you keep up the tempo and force that feels good to her, you’ll be fine. questions?”

suna spoke up. “what about,” he choked on the word. “penetration?”

hinata hummed in agreement and bokuto jumped in. “yeah, what if i wanna make her cum on my cock?”

iwaizumi made a weird face. “that’s some pretty advanced stuff, but i guess i can go over it. when you try it, though, you have to be patient. with both of your bodies. s’not rocket science but s’not always easy. also it depends on the woman but sometimes she physically won’t be able to finish from penetration alone. just make sure you’re communicating.”

his swirled two fingers over your hole before shoving them in, your wetness making it easy for him to thrust in and out as your entrance stretched to accommodate him. “f—fuck!” your eyes flew open at the intrusion and you body lurched forward, but you were held back by his strong forearm. “ohmygod, oh my g—ah! feels s’good haji, s’good!”

“i know, baby, i know. you’re taking it so well.” he turned his attention back to the men, each of who were gulping heavily. if that didn’t signal to you that they were evidently affected by your moans, the way they shifted in their workout shorts did.

“boys, focus.” he curled his fingertips, brushing at the spongy spot at the top of your walls, ripping a pleasured wail from your throat and causing tears to prick at your eyelashes. “when you’re fingering her, you’ll feel an area inside that’s a bit soft and squishy. that’s the g-spot.”

you trembled in his arms as he mercilessly struck the same place over and over again with his fingers. “when you’re fucking her, try to keep the pressure building there, but it’ll be harder to make her finish since you can’t see what you’re doing.”

your breath hitched as iwaizumi’s incessant movements brought your body tantalizingly close to your release. he suddenly stopped and you almost sobbed in disappointment, until he plunged his fingers impossibly deeper.

a guttural scream of ecstasy came from within you, and your eyes rolled back as he began playing with another part of you, your body putty in his hands. “hngh, haji, ah! so good, s’good...” you threw your hands back around his neck, nails digging into the skin as you desperately tried to keep yourself grounded. your soft moans filled the air.

“stop clenching,” he hissed. “can barely move my hand.” you tried to relax but failed miserably as the tips of his fingers grazed your cervix. 

“holy fuck,” suna muttered. “you’re a god.”

“she sounds so pretty,” atsumu said in amazement.

“i wanna make a girl feel good like that, too!” bokuto sulked.

“you can do it, bokuto!” hinata hit him on the arm. “just listen to iwaizumi. clearly he knows what he’s talking about.” 

their eyes refocused on your figure, writhing in pleasure, prompting white hot waves of arousal to pool in their stomachs. 

“yeah,” sakusa said. “clearly.”

“stop talking,” iwaizumi ordered. “and listen. beyond the g-spot is the cervix, which is basically the end of the vagina. if you’re long enough,” he briefly scanned each of their faces, “which i’m sure you are, you’ll be able to reach it if you bottom out.”

“haji—hajime, please.” the stimulation was coming absolutely unbearable, and you could tell he was sadistically holding you at the edge, refusing to give you the satisfaction of finishing. “lemme cum, please. please lemme cum, please, please, i can’t—i can’t take it ‘nymore!”

“what was that? you can’t take it anymore? gonna cum?” you helplessly bobbed your head up and down, hoping that he’d give you permission. “well,” he growled, “we can’t have that happening, can we?”

he abruptly halted his thrusts, pulling his fingers out of you with an embarrassing squelch and popping them into his mouth. pearly tears rolled down your cheeks as you grieved the loss of contact and relief.

your viewers looked on in horror, feeling immense sympathy for you; you just looked so dejected from being denied yet another orgasm.

“why didn’t you—why didn’t you let her cum?” bokuto asked.

“why do you think?” iwaizumi snapped. “don’t want you guys to see her when she does. that’s for me, and only me.”

“oh, okay,” he responded, disgruntlement clear in his voice.

iwaizumi’s glare could cut glass, it was so sharp. the possessiveness that had enveloped his mind made him hyperfocus on just one thought: being alone with you. “so, any other questions? if not, we’re done here.”

you pouted at that, not wanting the demonstration to be over. “but haji,” you mumbled into his collarbone. “i di’nt get to cum. and i wanna.” you looked up at him, eyes wide with want. “please make me cum.”

iwaizumi sent a harsh glance to the players that nonverbally communicated his message loud and clear: get out. they shuffled awkwardly out of the locker room due to the hardness between their legs that they would most definitely need to deal with soon.

your boyfriend turned his attention back to you. “’m sorry, i know i had to deny you a bunch of times. i just really hated the idea of anyone but me seeing the cute way you look when you cum.”

you made a small noise of acknowledgement and a little whisper of it’s okay, haji. he looked down, sensing the way your poor, desperate cunt was pulsing around nothing, the erotic sight injecting him with the pure need to ravage you.

he shifted his head to kiss you passionately. “why don’t i make it up to you?” he breathed between your parted lips before picking you up by the backs of your thighs, forcing you to lock your ankles around his waist. 

he delicately situated you onto one of the recovery beds at the back of the room, before murmuring something that made your pussy throb in anticipation: “i’ll make you cum whichever way you want, however many times you want, all right? all you gotta do is lay back and take it.”

© property of hornime 2021. do not plagiarize any of my writing and do not repost/copy my writing onto any other sites.

[viktoriakomova]

hey, local here! can you elaborate on the simone biles thing?

howdy, local! 🤠 i’m actually very sympathetic to new fans, there’s no shame in not knowing stuff. everyone here started from having no gymnastics knowledge at all. i hope as you learn more about it you’ll enjoy watching it even more and you’ll want to keep up with the sport after the olympics!

okay so the simone “mainstream narrative” thing.

things that DID happen, in reality, on this timeline and in this universe:

simone biles was the first gymnast ever to do a double twisting double back flip beam dismount in 2019. she submitted it as a new skill so it could be given a value for judging. the international gymnastics federation (aka FIG) rated it an H (an A is worth 0.1, B 0.2, C 0.3, and so on. so an H is worth 0.8 points). many people think that was too low and it should have been an I (0.9 points). the skill simone originated is the only H-rated element on the balance beam, and she is the only person to have done it in competition.

the FIG justified their decision saying that they didn’t want to rate it an I because that would incentivize gymnasts attempting it in competition before they can actually do it, just because it’s worth so much. for perspective, a fall is -1.0. Usually when gymnasts fall, there are multiple deductions taken because of how the fall happened. But hypothetically, if a gymnast did the dismount and fell on her face, without incurring any other deductions, she would only lose 0.1 points. that gamble is mathematically worth it if a gymnast can do it maybe 50% of the time, since if she DOESN’T fall, she’ll get a big score boost.

(FWIW I don’t think it was for safety, I think they just didn’t want to jump from G elements being the hardest and skip over H to give the new element an I rating lmao)

in may 2021, simone debuted a CRAZY hard vault, unprecedented in women’s gymnastics. it was assigned a difficulty value of 6.6. for perspective, the Amanar, which was the gold standard for vault difficulty in gymnastics in 2012 and 2016, is worth 5.8 points. so its a big fuckin deal. but some people argue that it should be a 6.8.

there’s no real reasoning for why they gave it a 6.6, other than looking at the progressive increase in vault difficulty for increasingly harder vaults and then just giving it a value that’s however many tenths higher than the value of the hardest vault in the code of points already. but regardless, people insisted that it was unfair to simone individually, specifically, personally.

things that definitely did NOT happen:

a skill simone does getting banned

a skill simone does getting undervalued because it is “unfair to her competitors” how far ahead of the rest of the field her scores would be

a skill being undervalued to “punish her for greatness”

simone getting a zero from doing a skill that is banned (this one is just..??!)

simone getting a zero for doing a skill that is banned for being too hard and sticking it (even more ??! than the last one) (she didn’t stick a single vault at olympic trials iirc)

the “punished for being too good” narrative likely comes from 3 years of US sports media progressively building up this (damn near ficticious) story line about how it’s a grave injustice to humanity that simone’s skill is rated a whole entire tenth too low because the FIG doesn’t want anybody to try what she can do. she will now win gold on beam by a paltry 0.7 margin instead of 0.8 points!

i think twitter morons who dont understand anything (but know that a perceived injustice against a black athlete prepetrated by The Man is going to get a lot of attention) have warped it over time from “its underrated because the FIG is concerned someone else will hurt themselves trying it” to “the FIG is undervaluing it because nobody but simone can do it” to “the FIG is undervaluing it because simone is so far ahead of everyone else” to “the FIG is punishing simone for being too dominant and too successful” to “the FIG is punishing simone for being so dominant and successful by banning her death-defyingly difficult skill.” a perfect recipe for righteous outrage and a flurry of retweets, but completely removed from any version of reality.

i dont have a problem with people who don’t know about gymnastics, i DO have a problem with people watching like 4 clips on the internet, deciding they know what they’re talking about, and getting up on a soapbox to preach against this injustice with a totally unfounded degree of confidence

[emiliaheartfeel]

Supergirl

Chapter 5: Soaring

You laugh as you see Atsumu’s post. Only he would be salty about you eating Osamu’s cooking, even though he can’t cook for shit. You are slightly soar from sleeping on the ground apparently with Atsumu, but nothing that some time at the gym can’t fix. You glance at the twins as Osamu starts cleaning up while the blonde stuffs his face. Sighing you get and hug Osamu tightly. You missed them, you missed this. You had no family left after the car accident seven years ago. The twins and their family were all you had basically considering your foster parent didn’t really do much for you. By the time your parents had died you had long since decided that you were going to be an Olympic gymnast. Showing great talent for the sport at a young age you had gained yourself a sponsor. Said sponsor eventually became your foster parent, he was always more focused on your career then on you. He knew this so he let you practically live with the Miya’s while he paid for all of your expenses. Once you become a national ranked athlete he got you an apartment after news reporters stalked the Miya’s to get to you. You still spent the majority of your time with the Miya’s just tried not to sleepover too often. Atsumu comes over and makes it a big group hug as he smooshes you between him and his brother. Giggling as Osamu groans in irritation, you can’t help snuggling into his back. It just makes Atsumu squeeze both of you hard. You start to wheeze from laughing the oxygen slowly being squeezed out of you. Osamu turns around and glares at his twin.

“You squeezing her to tight. Poor girl can barely breathe.”

“Sha up”

“Osamu is right though! You need to let me go Tsum. I can’t breathe!”

“Oh you can’t breathe can you! Huh you can’t breathe!”

He grins down out you as he picks you up from behind swinging you in the air. You can’t help the squeal you release but it’s soon followed by the most joyful laughter. Osamu is watching with amusement. Seeing you so happy and content made him tingly even if it was from being in his brother’s arms. The typical jealously is numbed by the casualness of the situation. This is how you three have always been. The twins are the only people who can’t all of your feelings. Your bitterness, your silliness, your mischievousness, your sadness, your joy. They get it all. They are the ones you call at 2 in the morning before a big meet questioning if your good enough. They were the ones you called after you won your medals. The medal ceremony had barely been over and you were calling them voice thick and tearful. They had watched how you had almost collapsed on the pedestal from being overwhelmed barely being able to hold back to tears. They had been the ones to take to your parents grave as you told them you did it , you were the best gymnast in the world. They were also the ones that held you years prior to that when you were injured to the point it was questionable if you would compete ever again. They were always the ones that were there.

Not too much later the three of you are leaving the house to go to your gym. This was your gym. It’s almost as much your home as the Miya’s house was, your sanctuary. You almost sprint to get changed to. The brothers can’t help but be amused. Somethings never change. You are back out in no time and they watch you go to the vault. You hate the vault. It’s the only event you didn’t medal on, but you know you have to work hard to make yourself a more rounded athlete. No fun and games here on this day. The brothers are in awe like usually watching you push of the vault with such power and grace. You continue on with the vault. Practice with your weak points is you main focus for the first few hours and then you take a small break and check your phone.

You chuckle and go to start you floor routine. There has been some adjustments since the Olympics to make it more difficult so you can get the gold on it next time. Silver wasn’t bad but you want to be better. The brothers find themselves drawn back in after hours of watching you launch yourself off of the same board in the same way. You move gracefully with your soundtrack now playing in the background a mix of some classic American rock and baroque. Not long after you start your routine Suna shows up and gives the twins a lazy wave before sitting down watching you.

“Wow”

“Yeah we know”

“Ha if you boys are impressed with that wait until you see her on the uneven bars”

An old man says with a giant grin on his face. The twins jump a little because the gym had been empty except for them until now. Osamu recognizes the man as the owner he had been there since before you had thought of becoming a gymnast. But it almost like you heard him as you go to the uneven bars your best event and get started.

The boys can’t help but think it is like you are floating through the air. You had told Osamu once that this was how you fell in love with gymnastics. The feeling of flying through the sky. You were soaring and it’s what hooked you. You eventually decide that the boys are probably bored out of their minds and go over to them.

“Suna and I are going out for lunch. You boys should head home.”

“We are?”

“Why can’t we come”

“Cause this is a date”

“It is?!”

Mastelist

AN: I think this is a long one. But a shout out to Kaleidoscopekai, Liferuinedby5idiotsand1genius, syazaihvg, and bebetiny for the comments I always appreciate them and reading through them motivated me to write this chapter faster!

Please comment!

@kaleidoscopekai @liferuinedby5idiotsand1genius @je-suis-argent-miel @poppi144

[bigskydreaming]

Is it true that gymnasts can't work much when they're 30+ ? Is it like an Olympic gymnast thing or just stuntwork in general? I saw some people concerned over Dick's back causing him problems as he gets older. But then a lot of martial art guys like Donny Yen, Jet Lee are still pretty flexible aren't they?

I see this a lot in fandom too, anon, and as often happens, lol, I myself cater to the ‘fandom’s got it backwards’ take.

Fandom specifically focuses on Dick’s body giving out early on in life compared to the rest, due to acrobatics being ‘his niche’ but in reality - or as close to it as we can come in a universe that tbh really demands suspension of disbelief over the fact that any and all of the Batfam take as much punishment as they endure.....

Thing is, Dick is actually one of the family most likely to have the LONGEST longevity of physical fitness.

This is because fandom keeps correlating Dick’s niche as gymnastics, rather than what it IS - acrobatics.

Yes, gymnastics is typically considered a ‘young person’s game.’

ON AVERAGE.

But, something to keep in mind, is that there are different TYPES of gymnastics. There’s competitive artistic gymnastics, but also rhythmic gymnastics, aerobic gymnastics, and a few others. Olympics gymnasts are primarily competitive artistic gymnastics, but even there, there are specializations so to speak. All Olympic gymnasts are usually cross-trained on the various events/categories, but the teams overall put up their best gymnasts in each category to compete in that category when possible....because for the most part, someone who excels at say, floor routines, is not going to be the most optimal choice to do the high bars or the vault. That’s because floor routines emphasize more rhythmic gymnastics, whereas something like the vault is more in the arena of a power gymnast.

And these different areas of focus put different kinds of strains on the body.

So yes, while its true that a lot of gymnasts retire early and the Olympic teams as a whole tend to see their gymnasts exiting the game by 30 at the latest......the latter is because those gymnasts are expected to be at least capable and at elite levels in ALL events, so they can compete as needed for the overall team....BUT, in the case of the former, the gymnasts that retire early completely.....those are almost universally the power gymnasts, the ones who specialize and emphasize in the hard-hitting events like the vault, the beam, the uneven bars, etc.

I say hard-hitting, because I literally mean hard-hitting. 

Because these are the high impact events. The ones that see a gymnast land with the full weight and impact of their body on their feet at the end of a successful (and exponentially force-multiplying) flip, handspring, dismount, etc. 

That kind of impact puts TREMENDOUS strain on your joints....and that, specifically, is what leads to a lot of early retirements, and a lot of early wear and tear on the body. That’s the kind of punishment that the body can only withstand at elite levels for so long.

But that’s not the only kind of gymnastics, and its definitely not the thing that Dick’s known for specifically - that’s acrobatics. And while there’s similarities and crossover, that’s another ballgame entirely.

In fact, where the similarities and crossover tend to happen is in the areas of rhythmic gymastics, aerobic gymnastics.....the kind of things that you see in events like floor routines, the rings, the parallel bars, the pommel horse.

Those gymnasts, the ones who specialize primarily in those areas of focus......they tend to retire from the OLYMPICS around the same time as the others, because again, everyone on those teams needs to be on the top of their games and CAPABLE of being pitted against the power gymnasts of other teams on events like the vault if they need to fill in in a pinch.....BUT they don’t often retire at age 30 overall.

You wanna know where a lot of them end up going after that?

Cirque de Soleil.

Dead serious, I shit you not.....a ton of elite level gymnasts after leaving gymnastics end up....essentially running away to the circus, lol. A full third of Cirque de Soleil’s performers ARE former professional gymnasts.

And a lot of them end up....acrobats.

Because after all, there is a lot of crossover in the two, in terms of feats.....but the difference, the thing that lends acrobats more longevity than most power gymnasts and the like.....is the latter endure most of the abuse to their bodies and joints....when their bodies hit the ground at the end of their feats.

Acrobats, in contrast.....are kinda focused on.....not being on the ground.

A lot of the same wear and tear simply doesn’t happen on their bodies, and allows them to perform much further into life....because there’s simply less strain in the types of aerial feats acrobatics focus on, while suspended high up off the ground.

And we see this reflected in the Batfam and their various styles of fighting and focus, which is why I say despite people focusing on Dick’s body giving out soonest, as the quote unquote athlete of the family -

(Which tbh, I kinda...eh, about, because it feels often like one of those things where people NAME him ‘the athlete of the family’ just to give him his niche without having to acknowledge him as being the equal of any of the ‘brainy ones’ in that regard like Tim or Babs or Bruce, etc.....but honestly, when was the last time you saw any significant focus put on Dick being able to do something physically that the other members of his family COULDN’T do, because they’re not ‘the athlete’? Y’know what I mean? Like, there’s a lot of MENTION of how he’s the most athletic or acrobatic or all of that.....but that never seems to hold any of the others back from doing any of the equivalent physical feats one is inclined to write them doing, or allowing them to be written as sizably less skilled as fighters in any meaningful way. So focusing on Dick as being the most specifically physically minded and oriented of the family feels a bit performative, tbh, and that puts the focus on his body being specifically vulnerable to wear and tear, moreso than the others a bit.....suspect imo. BUT I DIGRESS).

My point is, regardless of that, my take is the focus on Dick’s body giving out soonest is ironically just....completely backwards. Because actually compare his form of physicality to some of the others, and you see what I’m saying:

Bruce and Jason for instance - they’re perfectly capable of high-level gymnastic feats when necessary, but their overall approach to flips and jumps and grappling swinging and the like is to use it as a means to an end. Its always in service to getting them ON THE GROUND as quickly and efficiently as possible....where they can use their brute strength and mass and physicality to its most effectiveness, wading in to brawl hand to hand with combatants anywhere possible (excepting of course when Jason is using guns from a distance, or Bruce his Batarangs, but you get what I mean in terms of overall styles).

But THAT kind of thing....is far more the realm of the power gymnast. The kind of high impact landings and force-multiplying jumps and flips meant to just....cut straight to it. Hone in like a heat-seeking missile. Deliver the full force of them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In contrast....Dick’s style is entirely different, and hails directly from his origins and his strengths as an acrobat. He’s NOTED for basically spending as much time IN THE AIR during a fight as possible. He soars above when possible, rather than engage up front and hand to hand. He’s more likely to leap over criminals’ heads, kicking out and navigating upwards on his way to ‘tag’ the next one in any manner he can....dodging in and out, using confusion, weaponizing evasive maneuvers, getting his opponents to get tangled up in each other’s way...that’s HIS style.

Dick deliberately keeps himself at a distance as long as possible, not out of fear but out of basic awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses and his instinctive (due to being a born and raised athlete every bit as much as Damian and Cass are born and raised fighters) drive to look after his own body and keep it maintained and honed and efficient for as long as he can - something that I don’t doubt was drilled into him by his acrobats-as-their-livelihood-family from the very first moment they began training him. 

The less he HAS to engage hand to hand, the less he HAS to land feet flat on the ground after a flip rather than using the balls of his feet to simply spring off even further and then transition into firing his grappling hook mid-air, the less he HAS to block a strike with the side of his forearm or strike someone fist to face rather than block with an escrima stick and strike with the other.....

The longer Dick’s body stays in strong enough condition to remain his most effective weapon.

And that’s not something everyone in his family can claim, or even point to as a priority of any kind.

Which is why I maintain that focusing on Dick’s body giving out young is not only a bit....eh....given they all perform equivalent levels of physicality in their vigilantism day in and day out.....its also, IMO, focusing on the wrong family members entirely. 

(Overall, personally I’d rate Dick, Tim and Cass the ones most likely to retain their physical fitness the longest based on their respective styles and how they’re typically depicted in fight scenes).

[vaulthigh]

Written in the stars.

Saturday, I stepped onto the baking 100+ degree University of Oregon track to compete in my second Olympic Trials. The feelings overcoming me were quite different than those I experienced in 2016, which back then were derived from being one of the fresh faces on the scene - one of the youngsters who had “plenty of years” to chase the Olympic dream. There may have been some pressure felt then, but this time around it was incomparable.

The Olympic hype is no doubt a factor in the emotional roller coaster most experience at the U.S. Olympic Trials. I compete 9 months out of the year every year, yet this competition (and the Games themselves, of course) is the only one that really grabs the attention of the public eye outside of the track community. Not even World Championships can compare to the Olympic hype, which I find ironic because that team is just as difficult to make, and you end up competing against the same fierce competitors at Worlds as you do at the Games.

I digress.

The point of that paragraph is to say - the pressure was on for the Trials, and while I preach to interpret it as support and encouragement from outside sources, it’s hard to overlook the feeling of expectation when I repeatedly hear the phrase “oh, you’ll make the team easily. Just go for gold in Tokyo!”

“Make the team easily”… ha. The Trials are a beast, and even the top dogs have to be on their A-game. No bad days allowed, because a dozen other athletes slightly down the totem pole are chomping at the bit, rearing to snag those rare 3 spots on the Team. My bad day is their chance to claim the spot, and rightfully so - but no matter how good you are, you can never go in thinking you have something in the bag. That’s when your bag will be lost, and you’ll never get it back. (Sort of like losing luggage while transferring through Charles de Gaulle airport - it’s just gone 😅. I hope someone who has followed me a while giggles at my reference.)

All this to say, the pressure was surmountable, and the most unfortunate part of my story is my confidence on the runway has been lacking the last month or two. It’s been a culmination of attempting to push my physical boundaries and raise my grip, but also combined with attempting to change technical things this season. I ended up biting off way more than I can chew. Being at the level I am, I will be the first to say “don’t try changing too much at once, that can really mess you up.” Well, I guess my judgement has been clouded by my burning desire to improve, and I ended up going against my own advice without recognizing it - until things came crashing down, that is. And I mean that in a literally way.

In my final competition prior to the trials, I ended up going back down to my shorter series of poles because I have felt my technique suffering. I was putting so much energy into trying to jump on the longer poles that my training sessions lacked focus on the basics of my form, which is what made me a 5 meter pole vaulter in the first place. Grip height never got me there - physical ability did. I cannot lose that because speed and power, and my ability to attack at the takeoff, are what made me great. They are my bread and butter.

While change can be a good thing, there is always going to be an adjustment period. Unfortunately for athletes, we still have to compete during the awkward times, which leaves you trying to compete at your best when you’re in the middle of a metamorphosis. It’s going to look as though you’re suffering, but in reality you’re just in the middle of morphing into a butterfly 🦋, and no butterfly can take flight before it leaves the cocoon.

That’s how I feel right now. I believe big positive changes are on the horizon, but they will only happen with persistence and positivity, and also with understanding given to myself from myself. As elite athletes, we hold ourselves to the highest of expectations at all times. I know the process I am going through, yet still was so infuriated at myself for my performance at the Trials. I don’t want to lose that fury and that fire, because that is what’s going to get me through to my goal, but I do want to work on not being so hard on myself. I know it sounds elementary, but it’s true at all levels. If anyone understands the struggles you’re enduring, it should be you. As humans, we should be allowed to show ourselves compassion just as we do toward others.

In that final competition before Trials that I referred to, I felt just ok on the shorter poles. I mean, no worse and no better than I do on the longer ones. (For reference, I’m talking 4.45m/14’7” poles versus 4.60m/15’1” poles.) I am glad I went back to them because it made me truly recognize my technique was suffering. It had nothing to do with what poles I was jumping on. I needed to “get my jump back”, regardless of poles, and I needed to do it fast because the trials were two weeks away at that time.

A few days later I did another vault session on the short poles, and I think it was probably the worst practice I have had in years. Like, literal years. I mean it. I don’t even know why - my body felt fine, the conditions were fine, etc. For whatever reason I just didn’t have it that day. I would run down the runway feeling good, plant the pole, and completely miss the swing and connection. I chalk that day up to sport. That’s just sport. Your bad days are going to happen and you sometimes can search and scrape for an explanation, and there simply isn’t one. You just didn’t have it that day.

“Well, crap.” I thought, when I ran through my last vault of the session and the pole ripped the skin right off the palm side of my thumb. “I needed that skin” I said, laughing in disbelief and also laughing because my body didn’t know what to do with my panic. Isn’t the human body such a strange thing? I felt panic and my reaction was to laugh - not sure that was an appropriate reaction but hey, I’m weird and I know it.

So now I was one week from the trials, I had just had a poor competition, and even more poor practice session, and ripped off vital skin I needed to heal within six days. A pole vaulters ability to grip is vital.

My emotions went numb at that point. I think I had worried away all of my worries. I decided to focus on getting lots of sleep, nourishment, and healing my hand. I kept it bandaged properly 24/7, and soft with ointments. This turned out to be the perfect approach because day 5 it was nearly perfectly healed and didn’t end up being an issue for my first competition day at prelims.

Prelims were absolutely necessary for me, and ended up being the first step in getting my groove back. Aside from it being hot (which I’m used to, thank you Arkansas…) the conditions in prelims were close to perfect. Throughout the warmup I got my feet under me and felt I successfully shook off the former horrid practice. I made 4.50m on my first jump, and with that single jump I qualified for the final round.

Two days later, the heat dome in Portland roasted the stadium to a whopping 111 degrees F. I wanted to take as few jumps as possible the get myself to the higher bars. In hindsight I know that was the right call because wow, doping control took me two hours because I couldn’t pee 90ml of fluid. (90ml is the absolute minimum required amount for a drug test - and it’s not much!) In warmups my run started to feel like “Sandi” again. I hadn’t felt like that in quite a while. I entered the competition and made 4.50m and 4.60m on my first attempts, but I didn’t expect those to be my only jumps of the day.

The bar went to 4.70m and I felt like I was rolling and ready to go now, shorter poles and all. It didn’t matter. First attempt, huge blow through. Needed a stiffer pole, so I missed. Second attempt, same thing! I landed so deep in the pit I had zero chance of making that bar. “Ok” I thought to myself “the next bigger pole has got to be the one. That’s always been my money pole!” So I went up a pole a third time, and after watching Morgan run down and make 4.70m (congrats Morgan!) I knew I had to respond. At this point I didn’t even know I was already in 3rd place and on the team, in my mind, I had to make this height to qualify. (Thanks ADHD, I’m not so great at processing those things mid competition when the adrenaline is pumping.) I ran down with more confidence than I had had in a few weeks time, jumped and had plenty of height over the bar! But my energy was a bit off center and my arm caught it on the way down. I missed my third attempt. I landed in the pit and was rolling out of the landing, simultaneously throwing my hands to my head in frustration, when I heard the announcer clearly state that I was one of the three on the team.

*Cue sigh of relief*, yet I couldn’t shake my extreme frustration so quickly. I had just had a bad day at the Olympic Trials. Needless to say, I was embarrassed. That’s not the feeling I wanted to have while qualifying for my second Games.

That night I experienced just about every emotion that exists. I went through sadness and disbelief, feelings of being lost and hopeless, then anger and rage at myself. I finally fell asleep at 3 am and woke up a few hours later to the videos of my jumps. My dad had texted them to me. I hadn’t wanted to even look at them after the meet because I was so angry and upset, but after I collected my mess of a brain, I took a solid look.

I found hope.

Seeing the videos helped me realize the reality - that my approach was better than it had been in weeks, and it really comes down to the fact that the poles were just too small. That’s it. I just needed to trust the feeling that my run was good and go up poles even in warm ups, but at the time I didn’t recognize that, and I didn’t go up. I started on my small pole.

So here I am three days later, and I feel like a completely different person than Saturday night. I have had time to process my emotions, endure the roller coaster, then watch my jumps with a technical eye. I am so close to being “myself” again, I just have to stay the course.

I am determined. I am going to pick up where I left off on that third and final attempt at the Olympic Trials. I am going to push forth and forge my own path. I had a bad day at the Olympic Trials, and I was still lucky enough to snag the 3rd spot to Tokyo. That was written in the stars, and I can’t help but feel it happened for a reason. I am meant to compete in Tokyo - even the stars believe it to be so, and I’m not about to waste this chance I was just handed.

Have you ever caught a shooting star? Me either. But I’m going to try. 💫

[inlimahq]

CHARACTER INFO:

Birthday: August 23, 1990

Family: Clarington

Gender/Pronouns: Non-binary & they/them or he/him

Sexuality: Demi-pansexual

Occupation: World class gymnast & model

Relation: Full-Sibling

Birth Order: Oldest

Secret: Leo is a virgin.  Between the time spent dedicated to gymnastics and their athletics and discovering that they are demi-sexual, Leo has never really gotten to that point where they, or their partner have taken that step physically.  When asked about their sexuality, Leo claims unless they’re fucking you, it’s not your business.   They are not embarrassed about being demi-sexual, but they know that there are certain expectations people have about them.

SOME THINGS ABOUT LEOPOLD:

Leo was an active child and was enrolled in many sports including gymnastics.  They loved running and tumbling as a child, but it was skills such as the rings, the pummel horse, and the high bar that cemented their fate as a world (and Olympic) level gymnast.  Leo still loves all sports. They play team and individual sports including baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, and swimming in addition to gymnastics.  Currently, Leo is deciding if they are going to actively compete towards the summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.  (We’re pretending the Tokyo 2020 games happened in 2020 and they were successful in their disciplines.)

The plan was for Leo to be a solider like the men in their family, however, they already knew they were very different than what their parents expected.  First of all, Leo knew they wanted to be an athlete, and they also suspected they were not exactly straight.  When Leo approached their parents in high school about becoming a professional gymnast, their parents dismissed the idea. Their father probably would have forbade Leo from continuing with gymnastics, but the high level of competition looked good for the West Point application.  Especially when Leo was being considered a contender for the Olympic team for Beijing. Leo was crushed, but cunning.  With the help of their coaches, they searched out scholarships and other routes to take other than West Point.  While they filled out the application, despite what the Clarington’s though, it was not the only school Leo applied to.  Leo was granted a full scholarship to Stanford, and when they announced their decision to pursue that, they were immediately cut off from the family.  Leo was hurt but not surprised at this point.  Still they persevered.   This was when they changed their name from Hugh, to Leopold, having a bit of a crush on Hugh Jackman’s character in Kate and Leopold.

Unsurprisingly, Leo came out as nonbinary and bisexual in college, and it wasn’t until later that they realized they were actually demi-pansexual.  

Leo is loyal but it can take them a while to warm up to people because sometimes they have to wonder if people are hanging around because of them, or because of who they are.  Leo can be sarcastic, which is a way of protecting themselves sometimes.  

Leo likes dad jokes, puns, and cheesy 80s-90s-2000′s rom coms and pop music.  They also have a guilty pleasure of country music and country line dancing.

Leo’s favorite drink is Tanqueray over ice, but anything with gin will satisfy.

They don’t drink coffee, opting to start their morning with a smoothie or a caffeinated black tea.    

Leo’s favorite color is green. Their favorite animal are bunnies.  Their lucky number is 8.

Leo’s most successful disciplines in gymnastics are the rings and the horizontal high bar. They have also done well on the pummel horse, and enjoys the vault but they often over vault on that event.  (Leo’s gymnastics aesthetic is modelled after Sam Mikulak)

Leo’s birthday is August 23rd, technically making them a Virgo (ironically the Virgin), but as a person born on the cusp, there are Leo the Lion characteristics that also fit Leopold.

Leo has a tattoo.

[thepapercutpost]

Women’s Gymnastics Reminds Me of Marvel's Black Widow. That's Not Okay.

July 2021 saw both the long-awaited release of Black Widow and the return of these young women to the Olympics.

“Scarlett Johansson by Gage Skidmore 2 (cropped)“ by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (left). "Nadia Comaneci #1" by eye2eye is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 (right).

Last summer, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic seemed to put everything on hold. With movie theaters shut down, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the midst of its longest pause in between theatrical releases, experienced the first of three eventual delays to the release of the film Black Widow, which was originally scheduled for May 2020.

Delays also found one of the biggest sporting events in the world. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games had to be postponed. Thousands of athletes who had spent their lives preparing to represent their countries at the Games were forced to put their plans on hold. Among them were several Team USA hopefuls for women’s gymnastics.

July 2021 saw both the long-awaited release of Black Widow and the return of these young women to the Olympics.

In 2016, the Larry Nassar scandal, in which Nassar, a doctor affiliated with USA Gymnastics, was accused and convicted of sexually abusing over 250 women and girls, pulled the curtain back on the realities of elite gymnastics. Soon after Nassar’s abuse came to light, it was revealed that USAG had covered up complaints of sex abuse from hundreds of gymnasts against coaches, gym owners, and staff.

When asked how they thought this behavior was allowed to occur for so long, gymnasts cited the culture of fear and toxicity that permeated the gymnastics community.

From one angle, Nassar was a friendly and trustworthy face in a sea of strict training and harsh discipline. When Béla and Márta Károlyi, husband and wife coaches who defected to the U.S. from Romania in 1981, took over USA Gymnastics, they brought with them a controlling and abusive method of training. In Athlete A, a Netflix documentary centered on the sex abuse scandal, Olympic gymnast Jamie Dantzscher recalls Nassar being “the only nice adult” and that he gave the girls food and candy in secret. Naturally, the gymnasts trusted him and his methods.

And from another angle, the athletes had been conditioned from a young age, in most cases, to doubt their own instincts about their bodies.

You think you’re hungry, you think your ankle hurts, you think that you’re working really hard. But you’re told and you’re screamed at that you’re lazy and you’re fat and there’s nothing wrong with your ankle. So, when a man puts his un-gloved hand into your vagina without asking you, I can only imagine that what you feel is, ‘He’s this great doctor, and I’m lucky to be here, so I’m not going to say anything.’

—Jennifer Sey, USA Gymnastics National Champion, 1986 (Athlete A)

Letting alone the ramifications of coming forward as a gymnast against a well-respected member of the community such as Nassar, many of his victims didn’t speak out because, as a result of being raised in an already abusive system, they were unable to identify his actions as abuse.

In a similar sense, Black Widow depicts a group of women and girls who have undergone rigorous training and have been brainwashed into carrying out the KGB’s missions. The fictional Red Room provides a mirror to the very real world of competitive Gymnastics.

Even before the recent film, Marvel fans were familiar with the Red Room as the program that trained Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and other Russian girls as Black Widows, an elite class of spies and assassins. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we see a flashback of Natasha’s time as a trainee. One memory is of an intensive ballet lesson, and the scene shows her looking on with her instructor at the studio of young women.

“You’ll break them,” Natasha says to the teacher.

“Only the breakable ones,” is her response.

Other allusions are made to the cruelty of the Widow program. When telling Natasha about the reincarnation of the Red Room, Yelena, her sister (Florence Pugh), says that only about one in twenty girls who Dreykov takes survives the initial stages. To Alexei, the girls’ father (David Harbour), Yelena elaborates on the “involuntary hysterectomy” given to them by the Red Room, a process which removes a woman’s reproductive organs and, as Natasha had mentioned in Age of Ultron, makes her unable to have children.

The brutal training process and forced assault upon women’s bodies, which they were made to believe was normal, should sound familiar.

Johansson said in an interview that the story for Black Widow began to take shape in 2017, when the #MeToo movement was rising to prominence, and is essentially a story about women supporting other women. She wasn’t shy to say the film was inspired by that moment in history, a movement that provided support to and was benefited by the USA Gymnastics scandal.

For Red Room graduates, training is followed by executing missions. The character of Dreykov (Ray Winstone) provides a face to the dark and secretive organization who gives the Widows orders. Although they are highly trained and skilled, they still face danger during these operations.

The same is true of gymnasts at their competitions. Gymnastics is one of the most dangerous sports, especially for girls and young women. Gymnasts experience both acute injuries, which occur after a single landing or other impact, and chronic injuries, which develops over time, usually during the course of frequent practice. They are often expected to compete with their injuries. In the 1996 Olympics, Kerri Strug, part of the American team known as the Magnificent Seven, won the gold for her team in the all-around by landing the final vault on one foot, as she had severely injured the other during her first attempt. The Peacock docuseries Golden: The Journey of USA's Elite Gymnasts reveals that gymnasts continue to compete with injuries today. Team USA’s 2021 all-around women’s gold medalist Suni Lee began the competition season with a broken foot while MyKayla Skinner, silver medalist on vault, began the season still fighting lingering COVID symptoms months after contracting the virus.

Injuries are one of several reasons elite gymnasts today are younger than they were 50 years ago. When Nadia Comaneci from Romania became the first gymnast to earn a perfect score at the Olympics in 1976, she was fourteen years old. From that point on, the standard for Olympic gymnasts became younger and younger. One advantage to training a younger gymnast is that the body is more resilient, and the part of the brain that recognizes the danger in the more difficult moves is not yet fully developed, which results in less of the hesitation that causes some injuries.

But with more malleability comes more potential for abuse. The younger a girl begins to learn gymnastics, the more susceptible she is to mental health issues such as anxiety and eating disorders, both common in athletes across the board, as we are learning during these 2021 Games. There is more opportunity to shape her thinking, and if she is told by coaches that she is not injured or should perform anyway when she is in severe pain, she will be less inclined to get help when something is severely wrong. Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug’s teammate in the 1996 Olympics, told BBC in a recent interview regarding being forced to compete with injuries, “I didn't even care about my well-being, to be honest, because no one cared about it ever.”

In Black Widow, Yelena is taken to the Red Room at only six years old, and it is later revealed that Natasha was identified and taken from her birth parents by a KGB program that measured the genetic potential in infants. Like the Károlyis, the Red Room discovered that getting to the girls at an early age made it easier to exploit and mistreat them without raising questions.

In 2016, when the film is set, Natasha and Yelena kill Dreykov and bring an end to the Black Widow program. Although the real-world events of 2016 in USA Gymnastics, and even the conviction of Larry Nassar, didn’t end with the toxic culture of U.S. gymnastics falling from the sky in flames, things are getting better. The 2021 Olympics are coming to a conclusion in Tokyo today, but if we are to learn and grow from recent horrifying history, we must not forget what these Games and decades of competitive gymnastics have taught us.

Among all the abominable similarities elite gymnastics and the Red Room share, there is one beautiful thing they have in common: sisterhood.

Natasha and Yelena set out to protect the young women and girls who have been captured and free them of Dreykov's mind control, having experienced that trauma themselves. In doing so, they revisit and repair their own relationship as sisters.

By all accounts, gymnasts feel a similar kinship with their peers. They bond over their shared experience: the stress of competing, the aches of injuries, long days and nights spent practicing their sport. They support each other, cheering each other on and celebrating each other's accomplishments. The women who came forward about their abuse did so not for themselves but for the sake of other gymnasts. The vulnerablities women face in this world mean that we are also tasked with the responsibility and the privilege of protecting each other.

[404fmdtaejin]

headcanon & aesthetics / olympics

summary: the olympics happen every four years and kim taejin is a 애국자 (patriot??) aka someone who loves his country very much to the point where he watches the olympics religiously. however, he only watches a subset of sports, and the olympics become the rare time periods where he uses his social media to shout out the athletes for their stride and true dedication representing the country. hc for elaboration. warnings: gun tw, weapon tw wc:  700ish

oddly enough, taejin is one who enjoys the summer olympics more than the winter olympics. though he does love short track skating in the winter — but aside from that his main enjoyment watching comes during the summer time

he’s been exposed to many athletes at a young age? only because he used to be taught one on one lessons by these national representatives — his parents come from money, thus the tutoring came from these people who excelled in their sports. so, from a young age he’s had an appreciation for the sports that south korea has excelled at

his focus on these specific sports come from the broadcasting stations — aka, sbs, kbs and mbc all air the olympics. yet, each time they only air the same sport at the same time. ex) taekwondo only gets broadcasted across all three, and there’s barely any variety lmao

the first sport that he loves watching is judo. judo and taekwondo, mainly because he feels some sense of pride that taekwondo originated in korea and for the past, korea has excelled at it. not to say, this year he’s felt like complete shit over how taekwondo’s happening in tokyo because korea can’t get their shit together. but in past years, he’s enjoyed watching korea do well. the barbaric nature? of body on body combat is fun to watch as a bystander, and taejin appreciates the worth ethic that goes into it.

fencing is more personal? because he did fence at a point in his childhood, and this ultimately made him know how the sports work / how meticulous each movement has to be. when he watches fencing, you can be he’s the type of viewer to yell “nice!” after each good play and maybe cuss when there becomes an evident bad play.

archery is something korea’s always excelled at? and they’re just so spot on all the time — this and shooting. these two with the precision becomes a fun thing to watch because taejin knows he could never do it and they make it look so easy. plus, it just feels really great basically watching knowing korea’s bound to win with how good they are. with tokyo and how judo / taekwondo is going, archery is his saving grace to watch and calm down

men’s artistic gymnastics — he enjoys because there’s an aspect of calisthenics he now recognizes after he’s started work out with. knows there’s a lot of strength that goes into it — plus, the one gold medal they’ve gotten from yang hak seon shows promising future for korea, even if it’s just vault. (taejin only watches the vault finals tbf lmao) 

swimming used to be fun because taejin also swam for a bit. plus, he used to work out and use swimming as cardio. however, it must be said that he’s stopped finding enjoyment once park taehwan started plummeting and losing his touch. though he’s still proud and has reached out to park taehwan personally because he’s in awe / respectful of what he’s done for swimming. HOWEVER, that being said, this year taejin’s gotten back into watching swimming because of hwang sun woo — there might be hope for south korea in the swimming races.

soccer is kind of self spoken? taejin’s an avid soccer watcher (chelsea fan for club team) but when it comes to olympics / world cup, he’s always rooting for korea and goes crazy. this is peak taejin in hyper focus, even when the younger generation represents the country. ofc, it’d be nice to see son heungmin play here, but son heungmin doesn’t need the olympics when he’s too busy being center star of tottenham <3 anyways, taejin never has high hopes for korea in the olympics knowing they always get beat, hence why he raises expectations for world cup (but that’s another hc in itself). 

basically the takeaway is that he has fun watching soccer > archery > taekwondo > judo > fencing > swimming > men’s vault

also a nice shout out to kim yeon kyeong and the korean women’s volleyball team!! taejin has kept up with that as of late and after that killer defeat against japan, he hopes at the very least they’ll medal.  

perhaps in another life he would’ve trained to become an athlete representative with how much fun he has watching these, and how giddy he gets cheering for korea.

total 애국자!! 

[musiccomicnerdperson]

Gymnast at the Olympics talking about Simone Biles: I think she made the right decision. Mental health should come first in this sport.

Like if I was an Olympic level athlete and was asked about Simone Biles, I would not even try to censor myself. I’d just speak my damn mind!!! But I’m not one so here is a fun little rant/fake interview I gave myself!!!

Interviewer: So what do you think of Simone Biles decision to pull out of the Olympics?

Me: Simone Biles absolutely made the right choice! If anyone disagrees, shut the fuck up, no one is talking to you!! No one asked for your opinion!!! You have lost your right to talk about gymnastics!!!! If you disagree with what Simone Biles did after all she has accomplished in this sport I will fuck you up, like how the USAG fucked over Aly Raisman and Allen Bower, on her behalf, even though she’d be able to take you on herself!!!!!

Interviewer: Okay, maybe we could….

Me: She did not devote her life to this sport and become the world’s greatest athlete just to be called weak by someone who doesn’t know shit about this sport!!!!!! She did not become a survivor of sexual assault for you, someone who hasn’t done a cartwheel, let alone touch a beam, run towards a stationary object and fly over it, or a set of uneven bars in there life, to call her weak!!!!!!! She did not learn how to do this sport, to focus on what she is doing while dealing with ADHD for you to call her weak because it’s hard tumbling when you’re mind is off somewhere else!!!!!!!!!

Interviewer (trying to ask a different question because I already answered): Can we…..

Me (expanding on my point because): Simone Biles is the greatest of all fucking time and I fucking dare you, I FUCKING DARE YOU, to say otherwise, because at the end of the day she will still prove you wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! She will still be able to do a triple twisting double tuck on floor, she’ll still be able to do a yurchenko double pike on vault, and she’ll still be able to kick your ass any day of the week in a 1v1 competition!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a lot of pressure on her right now being the face of gymnastics at the Olympics, and it must be difficult, but what makes it harder is people bashing on her saying that she is weak!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So how about, instead of being a little fucking dick and saying “How dare Simone Biles lose gold for the U.S.! How dare she…” you say “Simone Biles is being a responsible athlete, putting her health before competing and not risking injury! Simone Biles is still the greatest of all time! Simone Biles made a smart decision!” Because she is!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is being a responsible athlete thinking about her mental and physical health in a sport that is 60% mental 40% physical!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is still the greatest athlete of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She made a smart decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[freifraufischer]

A Gymnastics Mystery: Was the 1981 World Championship Stolen?  Part 1 - An Introduction

In 1981 Maxi Gnauck was the most dominant gymnast in the world when she pulled up short in the middle of her Team Optionals floor routine with an ankle injury.  Leaving the floor meant that she was effectively out of the all around competition in a year when she had dominated every competition she entered.  A few minutes later she would be seen sprinting down the vault runway in the back of the television shot as she continued to lead her team to medals throughout the rest of that World Championships.

With her out of the competition the Soviet Union would sweep the All Around podium at the 1981 World Championships in Moscow, with the gold going to an age falsified 12 year old Olga Bicherova.  Bicherova’s true age already taints this world championship but I’d like to walk you my reader through the events of that year and see what you think.  Fair warning... I can’t make up my mind if Gnauck was forced to throw the World Championship that year or if it was a true injury.

Because I’m going to show a lot of video this post will be broken up because tumblr limits how many videos you can embed in a single post and I think it’s important to actually see the competition routines.

First... let me tell you about probably the most dominant bar worker of all time... and how she was more than a bar worker.

Maxi Gnauck was born in Berlin in 1964, competing in her first international senior competitions at age 15 in 1979.  At her first European championship in Copenhagen in 1979 she would take a bronze medal on the uneven bars.  She would never walk away from another competition with less than a gold on bars for the rest of her career retiring in 1985.  A six year senior career, still competitive at age 21 in the 1980s is itself a remarkable feat in an age when the sport was progressively being seen as the domain of younger and younger girls.  A winning streak lasting that long would be remarkable in any age putting her in the ranks of legends of the sport.  

But she wasn’t just a bars worker.  She was a true all arounder.  To save time going through her medal record to establish that this is the graphic from wikipedia...

We remember her as a bars worker because that’s where her Olympic gold comes from, but she was a one who was challenging the Soviets for all around medals over a five year span coming in behind Kim, Davydova and Mostapenova.  But in particular I want you to look at 1981 in that record and you can begin to understand where this mystery starts.  

In my next post on this subject I’ll walk you through that 1981 season but for now I want to introduce you to the kind of gymnast Maxi Gnauck was when she stormed onto the scene in 1979.  The 1979 World Championships also has a cloud over it involving if the Romanian government sabotaged their own team by faking an infection in Nadia Comăneci’s wrist forcing her to withdraw from the competition (Nadia to this day insists the infection was real).  There generally isn’t a suggestion that there was any kind of deal made between the Romanians and the Soviets and the Romanians would win their first team championship in 1979 thanks to a non-hands beam routine from Nadia.  Whatever conspiracy there was seems to have been within the Romanian government and national team (read Bela Karolyi).

With Nadia out the All Around was open for Soviet Nellie Kim.  It’s worth remembering that during this time Kim had a reputation for being friendly and gracious.  Even in the west many considered her world championship not just deserved but satisfying after she had competed in the shadow of Nadia.  What no one expected was for the 1979 World Championship AA to be a fight.

Kim won that All Around by .275.

This is the ABC coverage of the 1979 World Championships AA.  

In the years leading up to this Nadia had been considered athletic but doing lower difficulty, clean gymnastics.  Nellie Kim was the difficulty chucker unrewarded by a code of points capped at 10.  So what is Gnauck.  Well, as you can see from her floor she was perhaps one of the greatest tumblers of her time.  Start at 9.36 for Gnauck’s floor.  And as you watch that remember... that is essentially a dead floor.  20.03 will show you her balance beam where she has a major balance check which like cost her the gold.

Most often the label put on Gnauck at the time was “elfin” and though I don’t think you would reach for balletic terms to describe her gymnastics I do want to show just how good her extension and mastery were.

Maxi Gnauck (GDR), Compulsory FX, 1980 Olympic Games

Again the controversy in 1980 would surround Romania and Nadia.  There is very little argument these days that Romanian judge Maria Simionescu attempted to steal the olympic gold for Nadia after the Romanian gymnastics legend had a less than legendary beam routine.  Here is a Sports Illustrated article about the incident (though be warned like most contemporary journalistic pieces dealing with Nadia it’s super weird).  But when you say that Nadia was still over scored (even as she didn’t get that AA) you often overlook that she tied for the silver.  With Gnauck.  Bela Karolyi was too busy throwing a fit to pay attention to the gymnast who now had to share a medal with Nadia that she should have held outright.  But Bela’s tantrum would focus on Gnauck a few days later in the bars final.

Maxi Gnauck (GDR), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

Emilia Eberle (ROM), UB, 1980 Olympic Games EF

Watching old school bars is not my favorite thing, I’ll admit, but I think even a modern viewer can understand why Bela’s screaming (literally) that Eberle should have won gold rings false.  Form matters and form was what Gnauck had on bars in spades. 

Gnauck’s bars are precise, relentless.  She never made a mistake.  She could be counted on to hit that set no matter what.  And coming out of 1980 into the next season she was maturing and growing more powerful.  She could only get better...

Next time:  1981 the nearly perfect year...

[huesofblue]

Moving to the Rhythm for a Sweet Victory (Pt. I)

When people come across the sport of gymnastics, the thing that would almost immediately enter their minds are the flips, cartwheels, twists, and turns. Granted that it is correct to some extent, avid gymnastics fans would tell you about the two subtypes of the sport: artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics. Where artistic gymnastics pertains to a number of events in a single competition that focus on technicalities – pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar, and floor for the men’s division; and floor exercise, uneven bars, balance beam, and vault for the women’s division – rhythmic gymnastics is only comprised of music-accompanied floor routines that focus mostly on presentation and style, and largely incorporate a variety of apparatuses like hula hoops or ribbons.

And for the last and final blog post of this sport review series, we will be reviewing the Individual Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics Match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil. But before we get right into the juicy portion of this review, i.e., the analysis of the game itself, we will first be flipping into the basic need-to-knows of the sport.

Court Dimensions

According to the MasterClass website (A Guide to Competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics, 2020), the floor area to be used in rhythmic gymnastics has to measure 13 meters by 13 meters in width and length. Moreover, as said by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries of Australia (2019), the height of the hall has to at least be 8 meters, although international halls would have to have a measurement between 10-12 meters.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Aphrodite Cup and Olympics]

Equipment

Like any other sport, rhythmic gymnastics also has a set of materials that are essential equipment in carrying out the beauty of the sport. This sport especially has 5 pieces of apparatus that are not only very important but are also basically the main pillar of the game: the rope, hoop, ball, ribbon and club (Gymnastics in Vernon). Starting with the rope, it is a string of the right length and width that is cut fit to the athlete using it; It may be made of hemp or a synthetic material that retains the qualities of lightness and suppleness. Its length, as previously stated, is in proportion to the size of the gymnast. When the middle of the rope is held down by the feet, both ends should reach the gymnasts' armpits. More often than not, electrical tape is placed either at the ends of the rope or in the middle in order to increase its visibility. The ends would also have to be well-taken care of because it may come undone or become frayed, even in the middle of a routine. Next, the hoop is a circular piece of apparatus, similar to a toy hula hoop, that is determined by level and by height. The interior diameter is from 51 to 90 cm and the hoop must weigh a minimum of 300g; it can also be made of plastic or wood, depending on the gymnast’s preference and its ability to retain its shape. When choosing out a hoop, it has to be made sure that the weight is just enough for the athlete to be utilizing it. Moreover, when it is being transported, the hoop should not in any way be bent nor melted (heat, metal and lights may melt it) or else it, obviously, cannot be used anymore.

After the hoop is the ball, and like the hoop, it is also a circular piece of apparatus. Senior and junior gymnasts use a ball that is 18 to 20 cm in diameter and must have a minimum weight of 400g. Starting out with it, the ball would have to be inflated properly before it reaches the hands of the gymnast, and from time to time, it would also have to be reinflated. One way to determine if the air inside is just enough, is to dig in one’s fingers into it and if the ball cannot be squished, then it is too inflated. That, or the gymnast can also bounce the ball and see if it does not bounce to know if it is too deflated. A common rule for the maintenance of the ball is: “not to use anything on your ball that you would not use on your face.”

The fourth apparatus is the clubs, and these are basically a pair of short bat-like equipment that must weigh a minimum of 150 grams per club. Though they are not as high maintenance as the other apparatuses, it should be still be well-taken care of because they can still break. Furthermore, the clubs can also be taped or not taped, depending on whether or not the gymnast needs the balance and grip more user friendly. The ribbon/sis the fifth apparatus of rhythmic gymnastics, and it comes in different lengths according to the different age levels. The ribbon itself must be at least 35 g (1.2 oz), 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4") in width and have a minimum length of 6m (20') for seniors and 5m (16.25') for juniors. The ribbon must be in one piece. The end that is attached to the stick is doubled for a maximum length of 1m (3'). They are basically thin strips of fabric that have to receive extra care because of its fragility – it frays, tears and catches on things easily, so the gymnast has to be extra careful in handling it before an important competition because once it tears, it can no longer be reused. Ribbons should also be ironed every 10-14 days and always before a competition. Accompanying the ribbons are the ribbon sticks, and these are the parts that gymnasts hold in order to twirl the ribbon around.

Aside from the 5 apparatus are minor, yet still important, equipment, that which are: toe socks/toe shoes (needed as appropriate competition footwear), thera bands (supports muscles and joints as rehabilitation), and a gym bad (used to store in the apparatuses safely.) The costume/outfit is also important in rhythmic gymnastics not only because they add to the artistry of the performance but also has to be freeing enough that it does not become a hindrance to movement.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Deposit Photos]

Basic Skills

Stated in a document entitled the Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics Coaching Guide (2008), there are about 4 categories of basic skills that a rhythmic gymnast needs to know in order to fully adopt the sport. Of those 4 categories are: jumps/leaps, pivots/turns, balances, and flexibilities.

JUMPS/LEAPS

This category requires good ankle strength as well as flexibility. Core strength is also necessary when executing one of the skills under this category in order to maintain a stable upper body position during jumps and leap, and have control of the arm position.

Cat leap

Chassé

Hitch kick

Leap

Step hop

Straight jump

PIVOTS/TURNS

Executing one of the skills under this category greatly necessitates good posture and body alignment, as well as core strength and balance.

Chainé turn

Passé pivot

Tiptoe turn

BALANCES

Arabesque (front and back)

Passé

Relevé

FLEXIBILITIES

Back arch on knees

Body waves (front, back and side)

Grand battement

Not only these, but as a fundamental, an upcoming rhythmic gymnast would also have to become familiar with the utilization of a rope (though, this one isn’t as commonly used as the other apparatuses,) a hula hoop, a club, ribbon/s, and/or a ball in their set routine for the floor.

Technical Skills

Because there are about five disciplines under rhythmic gymnastics itself, each discipline has its own set of technical skills. Attached to this post is a table of said skills, as per the international code of points, uploaded by Niki Tasika (2012) on ResearchGate as part of the research conducted by George Dallas et al. (2012):

For a more specific table of skills for each discipline, attached here is the figures presented in the document published by USA Gymnastics (Beginning Rhythmic Skill Lists and Instructor Tips):

Tactical Skills

A competing rhythmic gymnast’s opponents on the floor is only their own self and the judges scoring the routine. So, it is important that, in order to be awarded honors and win competitions, the gymnast must start with their own person in training, improving, and applying tactics on (GKD Gymnastics, 2019).

First, the gymnast has to be committed; they have to really exert their all in attaining a mastery of the sport, to make time for training and for the competitions, and to work hard and not give up when met with obstacles. Next, they have to take care of themselves, and this includes properly stretching the body before training/executing a routine, eating healthily, and also asking for help in some movements if they feel that they can’t do it on their own, lest they’ll injure themselves. And speaking of stretching, it is also recommended for gymnasts to stretch everyday in order to improve their body’s flexibility (Erika, 2020). Not only that but they also have to be positive and supportive to their own self because one of life’s greatest motivators is the self. If the gymnast would be crowded with negativity and refuses to be proud of how much they’ve progressed, then being able to use the sport’s required skills properly to attain a win would be fruitless.

Once the gymnast becomes comfortably in tune with their body and they’ve done the best they could to practice and gain a mastery of their routine, then winning the judges’ favor over the other athletes would be an easier task to do, especially if the routine was planned and choreographed meticulously in a way that would guarantee high points.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Gymnastics Australia]

Rules of the Game

Rhythmic gymnastics, like every other sport in the world, also has a set of rules that govern the smoothness of the games and make sure that fairness is always observed all throughout each competition. The following rules were taken from the respective sources to be mentioned:

(MasterClass, 2020)

Each rhythmic gymnastics routine must contain events that are ranked as being sufficiently difficult by the FIG. Apparatus manipulation is a key component in receiving a top score, with points deducted for technical faults. In the hoop, ball, and ribbon rhythmic events, one of these difficulties must be performed with the non-dominant hand.

Rhythmic gymnastics choreography must cover the entire floor. The choreography must feature a balanced choice of the groups of elements. This includes jumps, leaps, pivots, balances, and flexibility movements. Body movement should be fluid and musical, even displaying elements of ballet.

Each routine is scored by two panels of judges. The first panel judges the composition of the routine, where the overall array of rhythmic gymnastics events is scrutinized. The second panel judges the execution of these events.

Each individual exercise operates on a base score 9.60 points. Exceptional performances may receive bonus points, which vary between Junior Olympic and and standard Olympic (aka senior) gymnastics circuits. In the senior circuit, bonuses can reach 0.40 points, while in the junior circuit, bonuses can reach up to 0.20 points. Accordingly, senior competitors can max out at 10.00 points while juniors can max out at 9.80 points.

Group exercises have a base score of 19.20. Including potential bonus points, the maximum score for group exercise is 20.00.

(ActiveSG, n.d.)

During the individual programme, an athlete will manipulate only one of these five apparatuses at a time - rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. One apparatus is rotated out of contention every two years, with the gymnast required to compete on the remaining four events.

The group programme consists of five gymnasts competing in two different routines. In one routine, all of the athletes use the same apparatus. In the second routine, the gymnasts use two different pieces of equipment.

All routines must be performed with music, with only short pauses of music allowed. The choreography must centre around a theme that is developed from beginning to end using a variety of body movements and the handling of apparatuses.

The gymnast must keep the ribbon in motion throughout the entire routine.

All leaps and jumps must be of a good height, have a clear shape and good amplitude. All leaps with the back arched must have the head in contact with the leg.

All balances must be performed on the toes or the knee. These must be held clearly and have a good, fixed shape. All pivot combinations must be performed entirely on the toes without heel support.

(Grassie, 2016)

Individual routines are performed to music and last from 75 to 90 seconds.

A penalty of .05 points will be assessed for every second over or under the time allowed. The clock begins as soon as the gymnast begins moving and stops as soon as the gymnast is motionless.

The gymnast is required to be in contact with her apparatus before beginning her routine. She also is obliged to finish her exercise either holding her apparatus or having any part of her body in contact with it.

For small faults, .10 points are subtracted from a competitor's score.

For medium faults, .20 points are deducted.

For major faults, the penalty is .30 or greater.

COMMON PENALTIES:

If a gymnast drops the apparatus, she is penalized .30 points if she can retrieve it without any traveling, .50 points if the apparatus is retrieved after traveling 1-2 steps, .70 points if the apparatus is retrieved after more than 3 steps or outside the floor area.

If a gymnast crosses the boundary of the floor during an exercise, she is assessed a .30-point penalty.

If the apparatus breaks or is lost by a gymnast during an exercise, the gymnast is not permitted to restart the exercise. She may continue with a replacement apparatus, but will incur a 0.70-point penalty.

When performing jumping and balancing maneuvers, gymnasts can be penalized points for a lack of amplitude, a heavy landing or a lack of fixed or well-defined shape.

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Wikimedia Commons]

Who officiates the sport? And how do they do it?

In order to retain order and fairness through and within the sport, there are several people who are appointed as the officiating officials, in charge of upholding the rules of rhythmic gymnastics and of doing justice to the deserving winner of each competition. In total, there are about 3 kinds of officials for the sport.

The first kind of official is the referee, and according to the manual written by Rene Niccollai (1989), whoever is appointed to the position would bear the responsibility of checking the athletes’ apparatuses and making sure they fit the requirements and the regulations; enforcing the rules and regulations; penalizing any athlete or coach who will act in misconduct; and seeing through the smooth order of the match. The second kind of official are the timers, and they will operate the stopwatches to keep track of time for each routine, as well as enforce the time limitation, i.e., determining if the routine was under or over the required time.

Lastly, the third kind of official are the judges. As stated in Julie Grassie’s article (2016), “there are two juries; one with four judges and one with five. The jury with four judges determines the difficulty (D) score. They evaluate the routine's technical value, including body difficulty (jumps, leaps, balances), apparatus mastery and originality, dynamic elements (throws and rotations of apparatus) and dance steps combinations. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the middle two scores are averaged. The maximum D score is 10.0 points. On the other hand, the jury with five judges determines the execution (E) score. They evaluate the artistic components of the routine, the unity of composition, use of space, body movements, correlation between the music and movement, even use of right and left hands and any technical vaults. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the middle three scores are averaged. The maximum E score is 10.0 points.”

[all rights reserved to the original owner of the graphic: Vestnik Kavkaza]

Please head on to the second part of this blog to find the actual review. Thank you, and I'll see you there!

References

ActiveSG. (n.d.). Rhythmic gymnastics apparatuses and rules. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from ActiveSG: https://www.myactivesg.com/Sports/Gymnastics/How-To-Play/Gymnastics-for-Beginners/Rhythmic-gymnastics-apparatuses-and-rules#:~:text=The%20gymnast%20must%20keep%20the%20ribbon%20in%20motion%20throughout%20the%20entire%20routine.&text=All%20leaps%20and%20ju

Dallas, G., Tasika, N., Tsopani, D., & Tinto, A. (2012, January). The effect of different teaching systems in learning rhythmic gymnastics apparatus motor skills. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 4(1), 55-62. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259463453_The_effect_of_different_teaching_systems_in_learning_rhythmic_gymnastics_apparatus_motor_skills

Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Government of Western Australia. (2019, July 12). Gymnastics. Retrieved April 12, 2021, from Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/sport-and-recreation/sports-dimensions-guide/gymnastics

Erika. (2020, July). 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS AT HOME. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Balance Academy: http://www.balanceacademy.asia/education/5-ways-to-improve-rhythmic-gymnastics-at-home/

GKD Gymnastics. (2019, March 13). Want to be a great gymnast? Follow these tips.... Retrieved April 13, 2021, from GKD Gymnastics web site: https://www.gkdgymnastics.com/blog/want-to-be-a-great-gymnast-follow-these-tips/

Grassie, J. (2016, March 2). Rhythmic gymnastics 101: Scoring. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from NBC Universal Pyeongchang Olympics web site: http://archivepyc.nbcolympics.com/news/rhythmic-gymnastics-101-scoring

Gymnastics in Vernon. (n.d.). Okanagan Rhythmic Gymnastics Competitive Parent Handbook. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from http://www.gymnasticsinvernon.com/wp-content/uploads/Apparatus-and-Equipment.pdf

MasterClass. (2020, November 8). A Guide to Competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from MasterClass Articles: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-competitive-rhythmic-gymnastics#what-is-rhythmic-gymnastics

Niccollai, R. (1989, May). Gymnastics. Selected Coaching Articles. Officiating. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Eric Institute of Education Sciences: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED312217.pdf

Special Olympics. (2008, August). Special Olympics Rhythmic Gymnastics Coaching Guide. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from http://media.specialolympics.org/soi/files/sports/Gymnastics_Rhythmic/eyxkoe5y/Teaching.pdf

USA Gymnastics. (n.d.). Beginning Rhythmic Skill Lists and Instructor Tips. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://usagym.org/PDFs/Rhythmic/resources/beginningskilllists.pdf

Wikipedia. (2021, February 22). Rhythmic Gymnastics. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmic_gymnastics