This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Ashley Postell blazes down the vault runway and propels herself through a series of flips, twists and turns. She lands with a bang, like she has been dropped out of the sky, as coach Greg Marsden says.
Postell does it so well so frequently she averages a 9.965 on the event - best in the nation. But because it happens so fast, it's hard to appreciate the intricate skills that make up Postell's Yurchenko vault.
The Salt Lake Tribune documented Postell's March 7 vault against Oregon State. She received a 9.95 score, a combination of two judges' scores - a 9.9 and a perfect 10.0.
We asked Charity Greene, who awarded the 10.0, to analyze the pictures and explain what judges look for when making deductions.
Even in still photography it was hard to find any flaws in Postell's performance. This time Greene gets the luxury of critiquing images in as much time as she wants. Normally she gets about two seconds to judge a gymnast from the time she makes her entry into the vault to the time she lands.
"When you judge you have to take a mental picture and go backwards in your head to remember deductions," she said. "All I know is if I blink I'll miss it."
Blink all you'd and click on accompanying pdf to read Greene's comments on the sequence of Postell's vault.