you are not talking to an idiot, I was a gymnastics judge.
It doesn’t matter what country you are talking about - that was a PITIFUL routine performed by a CHILD who had very little dance training.
Judges are supposed to deduct EVERY TIME a gymnast WALKS around the floor.
She did it repeatedly.
Gymnasts at the very beginning level of gymnastics do not make that mistake.
That this was supposed to be an olympic level performance is laughable.
“Our concepts of grace and dance just didn’t exist there.”
You are full of it.
I have seen many beautiful chinese floor routines.
“It doesn’t matter what country you are talking about - that was a PITIFUL routine performed by a CHILD who had very little dance training.”
That just shows that she had very little dance training.
“Gymnasts at the very beginning level of gymnastics do not make that mistake.”
Then this would not distinguish between a Chinese 13-year-old and a Chinese 16-year-old, as it is certain that neither would be a novice. Most likely she was not trained in this because this was not part of her training, which in some cases is probably skewed in ways that are not typical of American/European practice.
“You are full of it.
I have seen many beautiful chinese floor routines.”
And I am sure you have also seen many beautiful floor routines by girls who are underage for Olympic competition. Having a lousy routine doesn’t seem to imply age.
I have seen plenty of traditional Chinese dance, and it has little relation to the rather athletic and physical activity that we are used to, either as a social practice or a performing art.
Perhaps you are not away of the changes made to the code of points in the last few years.
Due to the structuring of scoring and the way technical difficulty points are awarded, gymnasts are packing in as many tumbling passes as possible into a routine to increase "A" scores, leaving very little time for non-technical artistic elements which do not contribute to the score. There is very little artistry in either Johnson's or Izbasa's floor routines. Complain about the lack of dance all you want, but everyone is guilty of it and it is because of the way the scoring no works.
Second, American judges routinely overscore everyone at U.S. nationals because quite frankly, they aren't very critical. They consistently overlook minor errors such as cowboyed legs or failure to make a complete turn in the popa 1/2 or switch 1/2 or the tour jette full that the international judges will deduct on.