Pan American Games - Women's All Around Finals

(Photo Property of Grace Chiu, USA Gymnastics) 

In this afternoon's All Around Final, American Bridgette Caquatto took the gold medal to continue on the umpteen year streak of Americans winning the All Around. Ana Sofia Gomez took the Silver, Kristina Vaculik the bronze. What I really enjoyed about this all around was the vast variety of strengths amongst the leaders. First Place Caquatto lead on Bars while Gomez's struggled on bars and hit beam.

(Grace Chiu)

Peng Peng Lee caused a little bit of an upset when botched her full twisting Pak Salto, smacked her foot and only got a 12.9 on bars (vs. 14.275 in Prelims). Her prelims bars score in finals would have earned her the gold by less than a tenth.

Most importantly, I LOVED the wonderful sportsmanship that the competitors showed. I adored everything from US Coach Jiani Wu congratulating Peng Peng on a strong floor routine to all 3 of the girls on the podium smiling (isn't it sad when that's an accomplishment?).