Who Has the Best Form?
Athletes with great form seem to be a dying breed in gymnastics. Why? Because the current scoring system doesn't penalize bad form severely enough to make it worth worrying about.
Instead, gymnasts are going after high difficulty levels, often at the expense of doing the skills well. So far, it seems to be a smart strategy if you'd like to win big: 2006 Women's World Champion Vanessa Ferrari, 2006 & 2007 Men's World Champion Yang Wei, and 2006 Women's World Silver Medalist Jana Bieger all won their medals, arguably, by going for big difficulty scores -- and with comparatively weak marks in the execution department.
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Since gymnastics at its best should be as beautiful as it
is acrobatic, it's important to acknowledge the gymnasts with great form and style to match their tricks.
Alexei Nemov, Samantha Shapiro, Hollie Dykes, Kyle Shewfelt, and many others all exemplify beautifully-done gymnastics.
Because, thankfully, there are still quite a few gymnasts who could be included, I've limited the poll to this: Which 2007 World Medalist has the best form? Tell us what you think.
Watch each gymnast:
Cheng Fei (Gold - Vault; Silver - Team)
Cheng Yibin (Gold - Rings)
Ivana Hong (Gold - Team)
Li Shanshan (Silver - Team, Beam)
Nastia Liukin (Gold - Team, Beam; Silver - Bars)
Aljaž Pegan (Silver - High Bar)
Mitja Petkovsek (Gold - Parallel Bars)
Qin Xiao (Gold - Team; Pommel Horse)
Hiroyuki Tomita (Silver - Team)
Check out this gallery of photographs showing off good form -- and poor form.
Comments
I like the good form/poor form pics. You really capture the concept – and make it clear how difficult ir is to keep perfect form! I agree that beautiful form elevates the sport.
Best form of 07 medalists is an oxymoron. They all have bad form including Nastia who can’t keep her feet together on floor or bars.