Longines Prizes for other things

Since 1997, watchmaker Longines has awarded the "Longines Prize for Elegance" to a male and female gymnast at the World Gymnastics Championships. "Elegance" can be interpreted in several ways: a spirited comeback after not being given an Olympic wildcard (see: Elsa Garcia, 2009) to sportsmanship (Shawn Johnson, 2007) to having a historic performance for your country (Monette Russo, 2005).

I don't mean to bash Longines; their prizewinners are usually among the most artistic and inspirational at the World Championships, and the company did reporters a big favor by handling the realtime results available in London. But I do wish they gave prizes for things other than elegance. Here are a few prizes that they might have considered for the 2009 Worlds:

The Longines Prize for Difficulty: To the entire North Korean team for pushing the envelope on vault, uneven bars and beam. Ri Se Gwang, who debuted an extraordinarily hard vault in training at the World University Games this summer, was the only man in the vault final to attempt a piked Dragulescu. Cha Yong Hwa did a hop full to immediate Def on uneven bars, and Un Hyang Kim performed a roundoff, full-twisting back layout on balance beam. Mistakes kept all three from medaling, but if North Korean gymnasts can harness their superb difficulty, they will contend for World and Olympic titles in the future.

The Longines Prize for Embarrassing Fall: To Great Britain's Becky Downie, who literally rolled off the podium after falling on her double pike dismount off beam during women's prelims. Falling off the podium in any meet is embarrassing. More so when that meet is the World Championships, it's in your home country and you're being held up as a darkhorse medal contender. For her laugh-it-off reaction to the fall, Downie is also nominated for The Longines Prize for Graceful Acceptance of Things That Cannot Be Changed.

The Longines Prize for Graceful Acceptance of Things That Cannot Be Changed: To Rebecca Bross, who would have been the 2009 World all-around champion had she stood up her final tumbling pass on floor during the women's all-around final. But she didn't and wasn't. To her credit, Bross seemed to be over the fall from the minute she stood up. "There's nothing I can do to change it" was her mantra throughout the post-meet press conference, and she did seem genuinely happy with her all-around silver. After all, London was really only her second major international competition. Honorable mention: Mexico's Garcia, winner of the real Longines Prize for Elegance, who cheerfully shrugged off sitting down her second vault in event finals.

The Longines Prize for Longevity: To 36-year-old Jordan Jovtchev, the oldest competitor in London, who placed second on rings behind China's Yan Mingyong. It was the 13th World medal for Jovtchev, who finds time to be President of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation in between training sessions. Honorable mention: To Slovenia's Aljaz Pegan, 35, who made finals on his specialty, high bar, and might have medaled had he not hopped out of his triple back dismount.

The Longines Prize for Promise: To 15-year-old Ana Porgras, who had a fabulous competition on the first day, followed by falls on beam during both the all-around and event finals. When she stays on, Porgras's beam routine is one of the best in the world, and she is being touted as one of the most graceful and artistic gymnasts competing right now, words that haven't been used to describe a Romanian gymnast in about 20 years.

The Longines Prize for Jubilation: To Yin Alvarez, Danell Leyva's coach and stepfather, for his exuberant reaction to Leyva's hit high bar performance in event finals.

The Longines Prize for Improvement: To France's Youna Dufournet, who looked powerful and in command of her gymnastics in London. It was the opposite of what she displayed at the 2009 European Championships this spring.

The Longines Prize for Eye-Catching Fashion Statement: To Tina Erceg of Croatia (who else?) for getting everybody's attention with her "suit" leotard worn in prelims, which came complete with high white collar and cuffs.

The Longines Prize for Themed Sports Attire: To Ariella Kaeslin of Switzerland, who sported three different "butterfly" leotards throughout the competition.

The Longines Prize for Specialization: To China's He Kexin, Yan Mingyong, Zhang Hongtao, Wang Guanyin and Zou Kai, all of whom took home gold on their best events.

The Longines Prize for Eye-Catching Tumbling Run: To Japan's Makoto Okiguchi for his Lou Yun immediate punch front one and three quarter opener on floor exercise. Great stuff.

The Longines Prize for Breakout Performance: To Japan's Koko Tsurumi, who won the all-around bronze and silver on uneven bars. If she hadn't botched her flight series on beam during event finals, she would have been a medal threat there, too. Honorable mention: Australia's Lauren Mitchell, who won silvers on beam and floor in event finals, becoming only the second Aussie woman to win a World medal and the only Aussie woman to have won two.

The Longines Prize for Perseverance: To North Korea's Hong Un Jong, who didn't let sitting down an Amanar in vault finals keep her from attempting a Cheng right afterward.

The Longines Prize for Calmness: To Mitchell, who nailed her beam routine in event finals to give the Australian women it's first ever World individual event medal, a silver. Not fazed by her success -- or by Jessica Gil's fall on floor, which stopped competition for 15 minutes -- Mitchell, who performed after Gil was taken off the mat on a stretcher, won the silver on floor as well.

The Longines Prize for National Satisfaction: To Beth Tweddle, who gave the Brits an 11th hour world title on floor to close out the women's competition in London. Honorable mention: To Romanians Marian Dragulescu and Flavius Koczi, also winners of the Longines Prize for Coolest Post-Win Celebration, which happened on top of the vaulting horse after they went 1-2 in event finals.