#stacked up

This is the first post in a series I’ve decided to start that explores just how stacked the Olympic and World event finals have been in the past (I may extend it to all-around finals later, but that requires a TON more work). I won’t be doing them in order, but if there’s one you would like me to do, request it and I’ll bump it up!

NB: This will ignore team results, as much more goes into a team placing than what one can achieve on a floor routine.

To start off, we’ll have a look at the 2012 Olympic floor final, probably one of the most stacked event finals in recent years. Our top eight finalists, in order of qualifying, were:

1. Aly Raisman (USA) 2. Sandra Izbasa (ROU) 3. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) 4. Ksenia Afanasyeva (RUS) 5. Lauren Mitchell (AUS) 6. Jordyn Wieber (USA) 7. Catalina Ponor (ROU) 8. Aliya Mustafina (RUS)

Looking at titles, it’s already clear this final was incredibly masterful and competitive on this apparatus. We had:

- The last two Olympic Champions; Ponor (2004 Athens), and Izbasa (2008 Beijing) - The last two World Champions; Mitchell (2010 Rotterdam), and Afanasyeva (2011 Tokyo) - Two former World all-around champions; Ferrari (2006 Aarhus), and Mustafina (2010 Rotterdam) - The current reigning World all-around champion; Wieber (2011 Tokyo)

The only gymnast who had never held a major title on floor or in the all-around was Aly Raisman, who inevitably went on to win the Olympic title and add her name to the glowing list of finalists.

Titles aside, these eight girls had other pretty impressive credentials coming into the final. Let’s take a look:

Aly Raisman - World bronze medallist on floor, 2011 Tokyo.

Sandra Izbasa - World bronze medallist in the all-around, 2006 Aarhus - Three time European floor champion, 2006 Volos, 2008 Clermont, 2011 Berlin

Vanessa Ferrari - World bronze medallist on floor, 2006 Aarhus (she would also win a silver the year following the Olympics at the Worlds in Antwerp, Belgium) - European floor champion, as well as all-around champion, 2007 Amsterdam (she would also win the European floor title in 2014, in Sofia) - Two European silver medals on floor, 2006 Volos, 2009 Milan

Ksenia Afanasyeva - European silver medallist in the all-around, 2009 Milan With the exception of her world title and European silver medal, all of Ksenia’s greatest achievements involving her masterful floor routines would come in the years following the London Olympics, with two European titles in 2013 and 2015, as well as a World silver medal in 2015

Lauren Mitchell - World silver medallist on floor, 2009 London - Commonwealth Games all-around champion and floor silver medallist, 2010 Delhi

Jordyn Wieber As far as floor exercise was concerned, Jordyn’s only major achievement was winning the World AA title the year preceding the Olympics. However, Jordyn was the American Cup champion in 2009, 2011, and 2012.

Catalina Ponor - World silver medallist on floor, 2003 Anaheim - European Champion on floor, 2004 Amsterdam - European silver medallist on floor, 2012 Brussels - European bronze medallist on floor, 2006 Volos

Aliya Mustafina - World silver medallist on floor, 2010 Rotterdam - Olympic bronze medallist in the all-around, 2012 London Like her teammate, Afanasyeva, many of Mustafina’s biggest achievements concerning floor would come after the Olympic Games.

Next on Stacked Up; the 2012 Olympic bars final!

While not near as competitive as the 2012 Olympic floor final, the bars final from the same Games was still a hotly anticipated battle at the top. Let’s look at our top eight qualifiers:

1. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 2. He Kexin (CHN) 3. Viktoria Komova (RUS) 4. Yao Jinnan (CHN) 5. Aliya Mustafina (RUS) 6. Gabby Douglas (USA) 7. Elisabeth Seitz (GER) 8. Koko Tsurumi (JPN)

The battle for the medals in this final was always expected to concentrated around the top five finalists. While strong bar workers, the last three qualifiers would have had to see a few mistakes at the top as well as being absolutely on top of their game to challenge for a medal.

Let’s have a look at the accolades in this final. We had:

- The reigning Olympic champion and former World champion; He (2008 Beijing; 2009 London) - The reigning World and European champion; Komova (2011 Tokyo; 2012 Brussels) - A former two time World champion; Tweddle (2006 Aarhus, 2010 Rotterdam) - The reigning Olympic all-around champion; Douglas (2012 London) - A former World all-around champion; Mustafina (2010 Rotterdam)

With the exception of Jinnan and Douglas, you can see the top half or so of the final was basically reserved for title holders, and these were the girls who were wholly expected to challenge. Let’s dig a little deeper into accolades that weren’t titles:

Beth Tweddle - Two World bronze medals on bars, 2003 Anaheim and 2005 Melbourne - Four time European champion on bars, 2006 Volos, 2009 Milan, 2010 Birmingham, and 2011 Berlin - European silver medalist on bars, 2004 Amsterdam - European bronze medalist on bars, 2002 Patras

He Kexin Major titles aside, He had little to no other accolades on the uneven bars, aside from her World Cup Final win in Madrid in 2008.

Viktoria Komova - All-around World silver medalist, 2011 Tokyo - Youth Olympic Games all-around and uneven bars gold medalist, 2010 Singapore

Yao Jinnan - All-around World bronze medalist, 2011 Tokyo

Aliya Mustafina - All-around Olympic bronze medalist, 2012 London - World silver medallist on bars, 2010 Rotterdam - European silver medalist on bars, 2010 Birmingham NB: Mustafina would go on to win numerous other medals in both the all-around and bars events, but in the years following the Olympics.

Gabby Douglas Individually, Gabby Douglas’ only major achievement was winning the Olympic all-around just a few days prior to the bars final.

Elisabeth Seitz - European all-around silver medalist, 2011 Berlin

Koko Tsurumi - World silver medalist on bars, 2009 London - World bronze medalist in the all-around, 2009 London Koko also won a bronze medal in the 2008 World Cup Final