There are lots of great beam workers but Catalina is much more than that. Most gymnasts, even some of the best of the world seem to be nervous or even scared when they get on that beam. She doesn't, she owns the beam, she doesn't wobble, she doesn't hesitate, it really looks like she was born to do this, that the beam is where she belongs. And that's somenthing that no coach can't teach, it comes naturally.
Catalina is such a natural talent for gymnastics. Considering that after 5-6 years of retirement she returned to win 2 more medals in Olympics (I think her case is unique in history) make us to think that she is a gymnastics animal. She was born to do this. Look at that beam exercise, she's beyond the unbelievable.
I'm in love with this routine!! She totally dominated balance beam at these Olympics, without so much as even a slight balance check. Absolutely incredible.
What the hell? 9.787? That's just sad. One of the most solid and amazing routines I've seen for a long while. She was so steady. Steady and beautiful to watch.
This is literally my favorite routine forever and ever😍🤩 everything she does leaves me in awe and honestly I see no mistakes😍🤍 WOW!!!! I love you Catalina Ponor😍🤩😍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
Out of all the Olympic Beam Champions, this is my favourite routine. Everything is connected and it's perfect and clean besides a slightly low landing on the dismount. I really wish she had performed this routine at the Olympics, it would of given her bronze or silver.
the difference in between shannon miller dismount on beam and ponor is that catalina does it in a pike position. that is actually more difficult, that is why she landed a little low, but shannon used to land low too
The last of the great Romanian beam specialists? Closest I saw to this level in '08 was from Johnson and Liukin. She deserves a place with Comaneci and Szabo, for sure.
Shannon Miller will always be my favorite gymnast, but Catalina Ponor's beam work is a thing of beauty. She seems to float above the beam, effortlessly and gracefully executing EVERYTHING. Goddess.
Alucinante la seguridad, limpieza y ritmo con los que realizó Catalina este ejercicio, de esos momentos antológicos que se ven en unas olimpiadas. 👏👏👏💯
@jamesbug2002 - It was the Soviet gymnast Elena Naimushina (late 70's) who first performed one handed back-springs on beam, one with the left arm, changing to the right for the next one !
It was a WELL deserved WIN in those olympics. No one came even close. this gymnast works with amazing confidence and precision - absolutely no balance checks. Not QUITE as fluid as Nadia but given the skill level I'd say it was justified.
I'm so glad she's making a comeback! We might see some actual routines as opposed to the rat race that is beam. It seems like beam has become packing as many skills as possible in 90 seconds.
Yep she's doing pretty well she qualified for event finals for beam (7th) and Floor (7th) finishing ahead of Mustafina on both events so I think she's established her validity as an ever present elite gymnast...
actually they were the same dismount yes and the funny thing is ,,, if you go and look at "Shannon Miller 1996 olympic gold balance beam",,, in atlanta her dismount is so much like Ponars in terms of execution,, go back and look at shannons and then ponars its cool
Okay, excuse me. I love Catalina Ponor. This beam routine was maybe on of the best beam routines I've ever seen. And in the 2012 Olympics, her floor routine was way underscored but her beam wasn't. People need to shut the fuck up about Raisman robbing Ponor of her medal because A) Look at Aly's routine, and tell me that it doesn't deserve something 15 or above? B) Catalina made some mistakes. Had she not stumbled on her turns so much, she could have beaten Aly, But she didn't. so stfu
@abrahamnextel yes she come back and she wants to partecipate at london olympic games . 201..:)so happy for her. if u wanna see the video where she speack about her comeback in gymnastic digit: ,,Catalina Ponor comeback to gymnastic ,,
Agreed, she scored about the same score in TF with a tiny wobble and a little hop in the landing, here the only mistake I see is the bend knees in the full in.
@NYCBlonde I like Ponor's style much better even though I can't say that Carly wasn't talented. Fine, I will praise Ponor without tearing Carly down... It's a shame Catalina only got a few tenths higher than Carly. Her comeback will be epic.
@tiashe1 You're not imagining things. Ponor is somewhat notorious for "pucking" her skills-meaning that, as a general rule, it's hard to tell whether her skills are tucked or piked. I'm not sure anyone knows which she was intending for this dismount, but for the sake of less deductions, let's go with tucked. ;)
As far as 2012, connection and execution are what helped her. Besides the dismount the difficulty is not the best. She had to execute perfectly to win and I hate that it didn't happen.
i like the routine overall but quick question - what was the dismount? i dunno if it looks funny bc of the angle but it's like she was doing a full twisting double tuck but missed her legs for the tuck or opened up or something. anyone else see that?
the first time i saw it, it was done by Yang Bo in 1992 Barcelona..but I'm sure it wasn't her who first did it..and if it was her, again, it wouldn't be named because it's a B element..
i dont know what beam routine you where watching to say she should have gotten a 10.0, but i think the score she recieved was very generous. she had a few balance checks in there but over all the routine was very good.
her & pavlova were freakin brilliant in this olympics... & Ponor came back to own once again in 2012. Still sad Raisman bronze'd on beam over her though... bummmeerrrrrr
that landing should have been a much larger deduction, considering that her face was in her knees i also would have taken off for lack of extension in her switch leap
I still don't understand the dismount difficulty is Ponor's harder than Patterson's dismount? Also compared to Ponor's 2012 beam routine which was more difficult of the 2?
