Nastia Liukin, He Kexin, and Yang Yilin Battle for Gold in Uneven Bars Final

The women's uneven bars final was met with three strong contenders: Nastia Liukin, He Kexin, and Yang Yilin. These three competitors equaled each other in strength, power, and difficulty; the other competitors could not match these three. With a bit of drama over who should win the tie breaker between He and Luikin, the Gold was given to He. However, I believe that Yang Yilin should have come out on top based on her stunning performance.

He Kexin was first; again, she was caught in a whirlwind of scandal over her age. He came in a bit short in some of her handstands. She was also slighty rough on her transitions from the low to the high bars. She consistently gets great height on all of her releases, which is great to see. Her dismount included a bit of a step to the side. Her score was a 16.725, which was a great start to this competition. However, based on the dismount and the lack of perfectly straight handstands, this seems a bit high. He really set the standard for the rest of the competition.

The second competitor, Nastia Liukin, began with a great handstand, along with some flashy spins. She does a fantastic job at keeping her body straight, though she did slightly separate her legs at one point in her routine. Her dismount was steady, without any steps. This performance was solid, but it didn't seem as flawless as her previous performances on this event. Nastia came in with the final score of 16.725, which tied with He Kexin.

With the tie, an Olympic program placed He Kexin in first with Nastia Liukin in second. I didn't realize that athletes could not tie in an event; the competitors seemed surprised as well. This tiebreaker gave He Kexin the gold and Nastia the silver. Nastia was none too pleased about this.

I was surprised that Yang Yilin came in third after her stunning routine. Yang had lovely spins; her handstands are completely straight. Her dismount was the best of all of the competitors, and the difficulty of her routine was on par with Liukin and He. However, her final score was 16.650, which gave her the Bronze medal.

The other competitors in this event varied from sloppy to decent. Dariya Zgoba fell off the bars, which definitely did not help her routine.

Steliana Nistor looked a bit sloppy. She didn't complete full handstands and had her feet come apart, though she did land her discount. This routine doesn't compare with the difficulty levels of the other competitors in this event. She ended with a score of 15.575.

Anastasia Koval's difficulty did not seem as high as the others; she's the perfect example of an athlete who played it safe. She had lovely form and kept her feet together quite nicely, so 16.375 seems like a fair score.

Beth Tweddle was competing in her last Olympic games. She had lovely releases on the high bar, which were very powerful and daring. Her routine seemed on par with the other strong competitors, as noted through her difficult routine. However, she did take a step in her landing, which landed her a 16.625.

KSenia Semenova was solid but dull. She was a bit tilted on her handstands. Overall, her routine well executed and performed, with a final ranking of 16.325.

I do not agree with He Kexin's first place win, as I felt that Yang Yilin had a better routine and performance. Liukin's second place finish due to the tiebreaker will be talked about as well. In the uneven bars final, the strong competitors separated themselves easily from the pack, though I was surprised with the results.