Transfixed by Aly’s Roller-Coaster Ride
Image by getty images
I sort of felt like a schizophrenic, jumping between screens on my 15-inch screen computer, from word document to word document, from news website to low-quality live-streaming of Aly Raisman wobbling on the balance beam.
The video kept freezing. The loading button wouldn’t move from the middle of the screen. The commentary was in French. The screen was barely five inches big. Yet, I stayed glued to it, despite all the other word documents screaming for my attention.
Why was I so entranced? Because it’s the Olympic gymnastics, man!
Sixteen year olds swinging from metal poles. Glittering leotards streaking with shiny distractions. A Polish girl with her country’s flag colors spray-painted onto her cornrows. Almost everyone was wearing some form of purpley-pink skin tight “leotard” (seriously, what material is that?! How does it possibly stick so tightly to those inanely sculpted bodies? Gymnasts give swimmers a run for their money).
And of course, our own little Cold-War-Competition: the four leading gymnasts, all stacked with the possibility of a place on the medal stand hailed from Russia and the United States.
Even more than that, we had a star in the rise, our little-engine-that-could, chugging along with her excitable parents and megawatt smile.
Raisman, the 18-year-old super gymnast from Needham, Mass., who did her floor dance to Hava Nagila and proudly talked to the Yahoo sports channel about drinking chocolate milk after her workouts.
The last compeition had been spoiled for me by time zones and work hours, and I promised myself that this time around, as Aly competed for an individual gold medal, I would be watching it in real time. Anxiety-induced fist clenching and all.
What a ride it was. Starting neck-and-neck with fellow American Gabby Douglas (who went on to win the gold) on the vault, with a mere .06 differential, Aly’s ranking began to slowly decrease as the Russians took to the mat.
Their vaults were beautiful, their landings perfectly stuck. The uneven bars further cemented their lead, and both Aly and Gabby floated lower down the totem pole. Aly, who had been at third, was now trailing in fourth place. Commentators pondered whether she would make it to a medal.
Then, in a twist of events, Russia’s perfectly poised armor began to crack. Viktoria Komova, who was predicted to win gold, given that she had gotten the highest all-around score in last Sunday’s preliminaries, slipped twice on the beam had a wobbly landing. When Aliya Mustafina was up, she actually fell off the beam.
Suddenly Aly’s gold (or at least silver) medal dream seemed like a viable reality.
Unfortunately, Aly was unable to keep her nerves in check. She had to raise her foot up to steady her balance twice during her routine, and didn’t get her landing perfect. The low score shot her back to fifth place, and a Chinese competitor slipped in ahead of her at fourth.
Gearing up to the floor routine, it seemed like all hope was lost.
And then, my little Hava Nagila gymnast, twisted and twirled her way to 15.13, the highest floor exercise score of the day. Her name shot onto the score board. She was tied for third with little Mustafina. She had made her come back! The little engine that could.
And then the dreadful words “Oh, Wait.” Plastered across my screen.
Oh. Wait.
In Olympic gymnastics there can be no ties. So, when two competitors have exactly the same score—down to that last thousandth decimal, the judges turn to the ‘execution score,’ in order to determine who should be kicked down.
After that inscrutable explanation, Mustafina got the bronze. Aly got pushed to fourth. My schizophrenic roller coaster ride was over. The little engine that could … well, this time she couldn’t.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
