Chris Brooks High Bar 2010 Worlds Team Finals

Absolutely love that routine!  He has some of the best looking releases in the world, including some of the best flight on that Yamawaki of anyone in the world.  I’m sure he’s capable of connecting the Tcatchevs together…a combination of the Takamoto-half to laid out Tcatchev to Tcatchev half-turn would be fantastic.

Jonathan Horton High Bar 2010 Worlds Team Finals

I don’t believe this routine was shown on Universal Sports, but this was definitely Horton’s best routine of the entire world championships…shades of Beijing in fact.  It’s important to note that he’s now become consistent with the Cassina, a skill we first saw him do in the event finals in Beijing, where he won the Olympic silver medal.  I do miss the triple-double dismount and wish he would at least do a double-double, as the full-out just doesn’t fit well with the rest of the routine.  But it’s hard to complain about anything when his routine is that loaded – awesome job.

You can hear the yelling in the background from teammate Brooks, who actually got quite a bit of criticism from some folks for this college-like cheering at the world championships.  Personally, I think it’s awesome.  Chris and Jon were both part of one of the best teams in NCAA history (University of Oklahoma), and if there’s one thing that Team USA needs more of, it’s that exact type of fire and team energy level during world competition.  I fully encourage that and hope that Chris’s enthusiasm for his teammates doesn’t ever get squelched.  If Jon had fallen amidst those yells that would be one thing, but I find it hard to criticize when he nailed the routine to the best of his ability.  Team energy can be magic, and we need more of it!

Danell Leyva High Bar 2010 Worlds Team Finals

Danell consistently nailed this routine in Rotterdam and made his second straight world high bar final.  The trio of Leyva, Brooks, and Horton are officially the best high bar team in the world, as they had the top high bar total in the team finals.  With these three stunning sets, I think you can see why.

Steven Legendre Floor 2010 Worlds Team Finals

This was the final routine for Team USA in the team finals.  Although they may have been a little disappointed to finish 4th behind Germany, they had a whole lot to be proud of.  Like Horton, Legendre represents some of the best talent we’ve ever had in the United States, and it’s been really cool to seem him start to gain more consistency on the world stage.  Incredible routine, hard to even fully appreciate since Legendre makes it look so easy.

Chris Cameron Pommel Horse 2010 Worlds Team Finals

I know it wasn’t quite the routine he was hoping for (essentially missed that Wu travel), but I actually thought that score was too harsh (13.1).  I’m not sure what D-score they gave him because of that Wu, but other than that the rest of the routine was very clean and aggressive.  That score did hurt the American effort right from the get-go, and I thought the way they fought back from that first event was absolutely awesome.  I hope the selection committee doesn’t lose hope in Cameron, because he has so much potential and could still be a factor for Team USA because of his strength on this event.  He was swinging very aggressively here and really just had one error that he fought through and stayed on the horse.  I can’t imagine what it must feel like to compete on pommel horse in team finals at your first world championships…probably a level of pressure that hardly any of us have ever felt before.