In Rhythmic gymnastics, two of our fantasy competitors drafted a pair of twin Russian sisters widely anticipated to win gold and silver - Dina (Wasabi Warriors) and Arina (Kara-Oke) Averina of the ROC. However, as the ribbons flew through the air and the judges tallied their scores, there wasn't a Russian on the top of the podium. Averina was off the podium and looked fairly stoic, but Dina was noticeably distraught as the tears flowed creating a river of muddy mascara as the Israel contingent celebrated the unexpected Gold - even more unexpected because the medalist DROPPED the ribbon in the routine. Immediately the ROC coaches filed for an inquiry, the judges re-reviewed and decided to not make any modifications to the scores.
From an article on the event:
"Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation president Irina Viner described the result as 'egregiously unjust' on state media. “Dina didn’t lose, she won. But unfortunately the judging was egregiously unjust,” she told the Kremlin-supported RT channel. “It was simply a disgrace to rhythmic gymnastics." “Enough, they got tired of Russia. And the judges decided to support this Israeli woman.”
Outside of our games, but more drama in the modern pentathlon, as a German competitor, Annika Schleu, was leading the event by a wide margin heading into the horse jumping portion of the competition, but the horses are randomly assigned to the riders. This horse, named Saint Boy, was anything but saintly. The competitors get 20 min to try and bond with their horse and prepare but it was not going well. Schleu's coach became so frustrated that she punched the horse. As a result, the coach was banned from the Oympics. Schleu attempted to ride and jump but ol' Saint Boy said nope - more tears flowed and Schleu did not medal:
Thankfully, we did not draft modern pentathletes, but here's the scoreboard update for all we did select:
The picture of Saint Boy above could also represent either SamuRyan or Fire Dragons as they have each frozen in place and been jumped over - falling off the medal stand with a challenging road ahead. In one of the big comeback stories of the games, Ra-men+women, Kara-oke, and TokYoMama have had stellar team performances lead the way to an incredible day of jumping up to possible podium position.
Wasabi Warriors may have a strangehold on the gold, but it's going to come down to the last few events overnight to see who will come away with the remaining podium places. I am sad that my team could not find their kick in the final turn of the race, but still thankful to have had a strong performance at the Games.
Too much to recap at the moment but we'll see how it all shakes out with the final events finishing in the next few hours!
