2009 American Cup champion Jordyn Wieber (USA) eked out a 59.899-59.831 win over the 2010 world all-around champ Aliya Mustafina (Russia) at the 2011 American Cup in Jacksonville, Florida.
Wieber, a last-minute addition to the roster due to an injury to British gymnast Nicole Hibbert, looked fantastic on three events, but fell on a Tkatchev on bars. It looked like Mustafina would win going into the last event, but she put her hands down on her third tumbling pass, giving the title to Wieber. American gymnast Alexandra Raisman was third, at 58.565.
On the men's side, American Jonathan Horton beat Ukrainian Mykola Kuksenkov by a little over a tenth of a point (90.198-90.032). Horton showed superhuman strength on rings (15.50) and vaulted a handspring double front (16.00). American Jake Dalton, also a last-minute addition, was third with an 88.497.
Pictured above: Jonathan Horton; © Chris McGrath / Getty Images
Comments
Hey, congratulations to Jordyn Wieber.
She did a great job on beam and floor.
I was rooting for her all day!
The Russian girl, Aliya Mustafina, COULD have won the event, if she hadn’t been so freakin’ stubborn by blowing off her coach’s orders to just do a basic floor routine. Instead, she went for the full Nelson (knock-out) on floor.
She’s lucky that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
Otherwise, she’d likely have been banished to Siberia for disobeying her superiors like that!
I wonder if Jordyn sent Mustafina a BIG box of chocolates afterward, as a ‘friendly gesture of gratitude’ (also hoping that she’d gain 40 lbs)?
I just wonder, do gymnasts really do things like that…you know…buy each other lots of sweets in order to “fatten up” their competition?
Just curious.