The cost of risk: how Nagorny was left without medals on the carpet, and Ilyankova took silver on the uneven bars

Was it worth the risk Nagorny, demonstrating on the Olympic platform a unique inscribed element - a triple bent back somersault?

If we talk about this, analyzing the previous results of the gymnast in this form, the answer seems to be obvious: it was not worth it.

In qualifying, Nikita earned 15.066 on the carpet, yielding only to the Israeli Artyom Dolgopyat, in the team and absolute all-around the score was lower, but it was the first performance that clearly demonstrated the level at which the Olympic champion and absolute world champion is ready to fight without any complication of his combination.

Going on a triple somersault, Nikita made a mistake on landing - he could not completely extinguish the crazy inertia of rotation, as a result of which the gymnast thoroughly stepped beyond the mat on landing and remained seventh (13.066).

But it makes sense to look at the situation from a different angle.

Named gymnastic elements are the privilege of the elite.

A clear confirmation that an athlete is the elite of his kind of sport moves this very species into history and itself remains there for centuries.

In all fairness, such things should necessarily be reflected in the rating system: the author of this or that ultra-si came to the platform - please, give him additional bonuses to the rating.

It would be not only beautiful, but also very pragmatic from the point of view of further gymnastic progress.

And so, having taken an outrageous risk, the Russian athlete added only 0.2 to the basic difficulty, which did not at all reflect either the uniqueness of the element added to the program, nor the degree of risk.

Going to the Nagorny somersault, Nikita actually made a very important step into his own future. This is not a pretty phrase at all. The stability of any difficult jump, be it gymnastics, diving or figure skating, is developed not only in training, but also in the number of successful competitive repetitions. So in this regard, the opportunity to perform three turns bent over on the Olympic carpet and perform it perfectly perfectly with a slight blot on landing was perhaps even more expensive than the award missed in the end. It is clear that not everyone will agree with these words, but let's admit: to put a possible gold medal on the line, you need a steely character.

The absence of four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles in individual finals (at the start of Sunday's competitions, the American had already given up three finals) so much equalized the chances of gold for most of the finalists that it was just right to consider this loss a blessing. Another question is that the female vault was difficult to consider as a Russian species: in order to fight for the podium on this projectile, Angelina Melnikova and Lilia Akhaimova lacked difficulty. Accordingly, they finished this final with the fifth and sixth results (Brazilian Rebeca Andrade won, ahead of the American).

And for the girls it was much less offensive than for the fourth place of David Belyavsky, who perfectly worked out on a horse. The reason why the vice-champion of the world in this type of program was not among the prize-winners rested on the same difficulty: with the leaders' virtually error-free work, the base score began to determine the arrangement in the protocol. And it turned out to be the weakest for Belyavsky - 0.6 lower than that of the Olympic champion Rio Max Whitlock, who added another gold medal to his sports chest.

The only hope remained the women's uneven bars, where our country won at the last two Olympics through the efforts of Aliya Mustafina, and Angelina Melnikova, who is now performing, won the European Championship in May.

But Melnikova fell.

Because of this, the basic complexity of the program dropped sharply, and coupled with a deduction for a gross mistake, this sent the leader of the Russian national team to an unusual eighth place for her.

But Ilyankova, a 20-year-old girl from the famous gymnastic school of Leninsk-Kuznetsky, just made her own combination.

Clean, easy and very confident, no matter how trite it may sound.

In the same way as at her debut adult European Championship 2019 in Szczecin, where she unexpectedly outstripped Melnikova for everyone.

Then it looked like an accident.

Now it has become a miracle.

But this is no less pleasant.