Live Blog

Live from Worlds – US Women’s Podium Training

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For the sake of ease, I’m putting the final podium training session in its own post.

I love that suddenly for the US women’s podium training, they have all the big-screen graphics and the fancy lighting working, which they’ve been testing here and there during the other sessions.

So, apparently “Set New Signs” is also a song. We’re going to hear it a lot. It’s very 19-year-old nonsense about like “hope” and “you can do everything” and whatnot.

Intros done. US women going with your traditional wave.

The sheer number of cameras around the floor for the US. What was a clear view for the last two days is…not anymore.

Simone warms up the 3-2 and gets a huge round of applause. “History has been made, the first triple double at women’s podium training.” LOL. Carol Angela is a true gem, which I have learned this week. She’s just the NICEST possible person you guys.

Kara Eaker will lead off for the US. Good landing on front lay to front 2/1 – 3/1, only a small slide – gorgeous Memmel to double turn of course, just a little leaning out of it – some tucking on 2.5 to front full, kept it in – double pike was really deep with a lunge forward. Otherwise strong.

Up 2nd on floor is Grace McCallum. Double double, bounce back, a little awkward but not the short landing we had seen during the summer. Her full in was very strong, nice secure landing, bounce on doubel pike. Serviceable, a bit better than at nationals and camp.

Up 3rd on floor is Skinner. Moors is controlled into the corner, lots of hip piking – front tuck through to full in, slide back – double double, slight jarred landing back – 3/1, a bit under rotated, bounces back out of it – Laurent hands up to make sure she doesn’t go OOB but she didn’t need it.

Up 4th on floor is Lee. double double, stagger landing and a bit of chest position but good control – DLO, same chest position and same control, only the smallest slide – has to readjust her position before her wolf turn party, but the turns are fine – 1.5 to front full – double tuck, bit of a slide back. Solid routine. She’s ready.

So, does Tom know there are only five members on a team? After reading the selection committee report with those 6/7 member “highest team scores” I’m unsure.

Carey is up 5th – Moors, the knees but well controlled – double L turn borderline – DLO 1/1 with a bounce back and OOB, that’s usually her best controlled landing – double double, fine, bounce back – fornt tuck through to double tuck, bounce. Not bad, some OOB risk, very similar to her selection camp routine.

Simone is 6th – triple full, obvi too easy for her with a bounce back – QUAD DOUBL EOR I’M UNIMPRESSED – Biles is strong – front full to full in, bounce – good split leap 1.5 – double double, bounce back, keeps it int he corner. Normal Simone. She’s ready.

A good floor rotation for the US, only small errors anywhere, really. But no insight into the team, the alternate, or the order. I hope the athletes have been given some kind of indication because it would be very MARTHA HUNGER GAMES DIE FOR YOUR SPOT I WILL ANNOUNCE IT NEVER to keep it up in the air still.

Brazil went on vault, and of course there was always something I needed to write about going on with floor when the good stuff was happening over there. I saw Thais do a full. If that helps. Which it doesn’t.

Anna Li is here on the floor coaching Tan Sze En.

This may be the most intense podium training session I’ve ever seen. There are seven cameras filming the US women sitting around right now. At podium training.

The US is one of the only teams of the two days that just did it’s floor routines and peaced out, not going back up to work individual passes after the full run-throughs.

Rotation to apparatus the 2nd.

Interested to see how Skinner looks here because her vaults in their first training session on the 29th were baaaaaaad. Simone’s Lopez timer is actually hilarious in its ease.

Kara Eaker worked a Y1.5, lunge forward, knees – Lee DTY, steps back. These aren’t their “official” attempts I guess, so they’re not really trying to land. Except for McCallum who nearly sticks. Simone’s now like, “why is this Cheng so easy?”

Thais falls on a Jaeger on her bars.

Real attempts for US now.

Eaker – Y1.5, knees, hop forward, very similar to her previous attempt

Lee – DTY – a bit deep, not too bad, hop back

McCallum – DTY, near stick, good control

Jade Barbosa is on bars – connects a Shap to a bit of a low tkatchev, close catch on Ricna but fine – DLO with hop back. Nice one.

Skinner – 1 – one-arm Cheng and basically stuck. So that works. Honestly one of her best ever.

Skinner – 2 – Amanar, the landing is out of control with a lunge off the mat but still sooo much better than we saw on the 29th.

Flavia hit bars (Flavia style, but hit) while that was happening.

Carey 1 – Her Cheng is also quite strong, small slide –

Carey 2 – large lunge forward on Amanar. The Cheng should be the counting vault for both her and Skinner.

Hit bars for Oliveira. Lots of safe catching-close moments for Brazil in that rotation but a good one overall. Hit routines.

Biles 1 – Cheng with a bounce back, actually the least controlled Cheng of the three, but of course she more than makes it up with amplitude and form.

Biles 2 – Amanar, glorius medium hop forward.

So, um, they’re doing fine. Seems obvious to me that McCallum should be the alternate because she’s not top 3 on vault or floor despite a good performance on both events here, but we shall see.

Simone’s hanging around like she’s going to work on another vault…

She does the Biles! Lands a little short with a slide back, but successful. So are we thinking that means Cheng for qualification/AA/team and then Biles for EF?

Lots of withdrawals in this subdivision, so the mixed groups are going through super quickly.

On to rotation 3,

After the little warmup, we’re onto the “official routines”

Skinner and Carey went (I thought these were still their little warmups, the distinction is minimal in podium training, but Carey and Skinner went and hit with theri usual formies).

Eaker – Church to Pak, laurent spots – large arch on handstand on low bar and has to add an extra swing – Shap 1/2 with some legs – clear hip full – toe 1/2 and can’t get over the bar, hops off. First fall of the day for the US.

McCallum – Weiler 1/2 to Shap to tkatchev, close but hit – Downie to a straddled Pak – toe shap 1/2 – toe on and misses her toes and has to extra swing – and….now the exact same problem as Eaker, tries her toe on, can’t get over the bar, and falls.

Biles – weiler 1/2 to toe shap to tkatchev – full to piked jaeger to pak – van leeuwen – double double tuck, she’s not happy with the landing, a little out of control with a lunge off the mat.

Lee – Nabieva to pak to Maloney to bhardwaj, just a little close on the bhardwaj but no real trouble – van leeauwen – 1.5 to piked jaeger – very short on final cast handstand and decides to bail out of her dismount and not do it.

Next time through the order:

Skinner – weiler 1/2 to toe shap to tkatchev, knees, but caught, short hs – Ray was super close caught which meant the pak was a little more ragged than usual, straddles van leeuwen – double double dismount was the best we’ve seen it from her, landed upright, just a hop to the side.

Jade just saluted the wrong direction before this routine.

Carey – Ray, caught close – Yezhova, pretty clean you know, toe shap to bhardwaj, leg breaks on that and van leeuwen – very short vertical – giant full – FTDT, good dismount, hop on landing

Eaker – Church to pak is better this time, clean – Van leeuwen, only a bit of feet – clear hip full toe 1/2 to piked jaeger, nice – DLO, short with a hop back, but that was the good one. That’s the one she wants.

McCallum – weiler 1/2 to Maloney to tkatchev, hip angle but caught – Downie to pak is better on both counts this time – nice legs together on van leeuwen – FTDT, hop back.

Eaker and McCallum saved it with their second routines.

Biles – weiler 1/2 to Maloney to tkatchev, solid – toe full to piked tkatchev to pak, legs togehter throughout – van leeuwen, just a touch of foot form – double double was a ton better this time, small hop.

Lee – nabieva (better feet) to pak – Maloney to bhardwaj, pretty – van leeuwen with a bit of leg break – she doesn’t do the 1.5 this time, giant full and then blind change into the piked jaeger -FTDT this time, good landing.

Asked Jessica for the review on Brazil’s beam: “Everyone hit but Jade.” Yeah. Not a new story. Crying emoji.

Rotation 4

Jade Carey comes off on her layout-pike, well off line and no chance to save. Another fall right after. Double tuck dismount was nice.

Jade Barbosa falls on double pike final pass on

Skinner – totally missed on her back tuck full, barely anything touches the beam, scrapes her leg along the side of the beam on her way down – split jump 1/2 from side position is well short of position – full in dismount is fantastic though. Just a small hop.

Sorry about the weird formatting and missing a little for a second. I met Olly for the first time and got distracted, you know. Priorities.

McCallum – hits her wolves – just a check on her loso loso series – aerial, solid – double pike, hop back.

Flavia does indeed show her upgraded whip to DLO on floor. Full in is landed, a bit of an awkward stagger. really nice split leap 1.5

Lee – aerial, pretty – bhs bhs layout, right on – switch to switch 1/2, check, back tuck, another check – side aerial to one loso, check – double tuck, hop

Eaker – switch mount to split ring – Y spin, overturned a little – aerial to split ring to back handspring, very smooth – everything is lovely and no checks at all so far, one of her routines where you’re just like, “Oh, she’s perfect”…until her switch side which was a little off this time, short of split and a check, 2.5 dismount, hop back.

Biles – aerial to split to straddle – bhs loso loso, super secure – switch to switch 1/2 to back pike, strong – side aerial, hit – split jump 1/2 from side position with a big wobble, bend at the hips – double double dismount was fab, just a little hop.

A thing here and there, but a good day for Simone. She loked really strong. The US had some really rough moments on bars and beam, but the key routines were well hit. We knew this was a team that left no room for error, where the three routines (or two in the case of bars) have to be THE routines.

Carey and Skinner both go up again after their trouble sets and fix the problems from the first time around.

McCallum had the third-best day of the US athletes here overall, but as I said before, she’d be my alternate because I don’t see where she fits in the 3-count lineups. The only complication would be Tom’s AA fetish, because she had a super clean and confident day today.

And if you’re dropping Skinner instead, then this team really doesn’t make sense because the whole argument for this team was that you’re making up for what you lose on bars without Hurd (or beam without Wong) because you have Skinner’s vault to lift the team score (nearly) equivalently.

The US not finishing early in this rotation, using all the time to go back and work individual elements. Simone is working on her combinations and the rhythm in them and redoing the side jump a few times. It’s causing her some trouble but the third one was good. The double double dismount is getting better and better.

110 thoughts on “Live from Worlds – US Women’s Podium Training”

    1. Lol, okay, tell me what team “makes sense”, seeing as ANY combination of senior elite gymnasts from the USA could make sense?!

    2. I like Morgan but she hasn’t looked good this year – to have put her on the Worlds team would be Maggie Haney levels of insanity.

    1. Right? Usually USA gym streams it but it doesn’t look like that’s happening?

  3. NBC Sports App has it. I got there through a link on USA Gymnastics FB page. Think you need a cable login though.

  4. Nbc is airing it, if you go to usa gymnastics on facebook they have a link there

    1. It may or may not work – mine is stuck on “initializing” and I do have a cable login.

    1. BBS covers everything, but it is an American based site that will focus on the US Athletes and then provide commentary on others. I’m not sure if there are great sites or twitter feeds for the Brazilian team, but I suspect you should be able to find something more on twitter or YouTube.

  10. Why do we think there is so much attention to US podium training right now? Is it exclusively “Simone doing historic skills in pre-Olympic year,” or can we read this as evidence that the sport is getting more traction outside of the Olympics?

  11. Ah, wouldn’t it be nice if they showed the other countries on their podium training a bit more when the US isn’t actually doing anything but sitting down…

    1. Two things I’m hoping for.
      One-to see other routines instead of the Simone cam. Let her have her downtime in between events.
      Let us see the competition. I LOVE SIMONE AND GYMNASTICS. I’d love to see both.
      Two-I’d love yo see Skinner finally hit a split. I am so psyched that she left NCAA and made it here, but I’m feeling her E scores may not get the love that the US judges have given her.

      1. Yes, seeing the competition would be awesome! I love watching the US team but admit I get very excited with even just the small glimpses of the NZ athletes training because we don’t have anyone broadcasting Worlds here. I’d love to see some of the minor countries during quals in the USA downtime… Though our Nationals over the next few days and they are actually live streaming it 🤸🏻‍♀️!

  12. I can only imagine that they have a judge scoring the U.S. team’s podium training and the top 5 AA will be the team.

  13. My guess is if we see the Biles vault anywhere it will be AA, unless they’ve changes the one-touch format of EF.

  14. Too early to comment on the alternate situation until McCallum’s bars. Don’t forget that. I wouldn’t discard her so quickly.

  15. Eaker going first on two events makes me think that she may be the alternate, which makes…not a lot of sense? I mean, unless they’re thinking Lee/Biles for beam EFs. But still…seems pointless to bring Eaker and make her an alternate…

    1. My reasoning for above is based on that the last four/three gymnasts seem like the best candidates for qualifications/team finals.

    2. But she’s up first on the two events she’s least likely to do, so I wouldn’t read into that.

    3. There was a photo on social media Sept. 30 of the US team (minus Simone who was doing interviews) and everyone had RED sneakers on except Grace who was wearing WHITE. So maybe the alternate is dependent on shoe colour…

      🙂

  16. I don’t understand the McCallum alternate analysis. Several of them are not top 3 on two events?

    1. Top 3 on vault: Biles, Carey, Skinner
      Top 3 on bars: Lee, Biles, Eacker
      Top 3 on beam: Biles, Eacker, Lee
      Top 3 on floor: Biles and 2 from [Lee, Eacker, Carey, Skinner]

      Very little doubt McCallum is going to be the alternate

      1. Grace beat Kara on bars at Classic (by a lot), one day of Nationals (by a lot), virtually tied her in the other day of Nats, and on day 2 of camp. Not saying Kara should be the alternate but I disagree with your list.

      2. In what world is Eaker top 3 bars over McCallum? McCallum is def top 3 bars in this group of six, the only doubt is whether they think they win more from Skinner VT + Eaker UB than from McCallum VT + UB.

      3. Yeah… Eaker only tops McCallum on bars when McCallum falls, and they have similar hit rates for the season. McCallum also has beaten Skinner on FX.

        I’d probably put Skinner on the team and McCallum as alt but I don’t think it’s any more clear cut than any of this Worlds selection has been.

      6. After dropping highs and lows, here are the rankings of their average scores from 2019 (in order, 1st-6th):

        VAULT: Simone, Jade, MyKayla, Grace, Sunisa, Kara
        (JC & MS were 0.11pts apart, MS & GM were 0.12pts apart, SL & KE a mere 0.032pts difference)

        BARS: Sunisa, Simone, Grace, Kara, MyKayla, Jade
        (SB & GM actually only 0.383 apart, while GM & KE 0.16pts apart. Four tenths behind them are MS & JC, with less than 0.11pts difference)

        BEAM: Kara, Simone, Sunisa, Grace, MyKayla, Jade
        (KE & SB only 0.011pts apart, which is literally nothing!; approx 0.55 behind SB, there’s SL & GM only 0.085pts apart!)

        FLOOR: Simone, Jade, Sunisa, Grace, MyKayla, Kara
        (JC & SL only 0.069pts apart!, with SL less than 0.3 ahead of GM, and GM less than 0.1 ahead of MS, meaning everyone is strong here!!).

        My thoughts, seeing how podium training basically went well for everyone and therefore looking mostly at the averages:
        **Sunisa is top 3 everything but vault. Given how she has been on the rise and was 2nd AA in the trials, she’s definitely gonna be doing Quals AA, which means she’s gonna do Vault in quals. Therefore, either GM, MS, or JC will not be doing Vault. That leads me to first to Kara, who will definitely not be doing vault… however…
        **Kara contributes hugely on beam – the equivalent of a vault from MS or JC. She should be in over the two of them being in. In addition, she makes a nice 4th person for bars in qualifications. On to the third bars person, Grace….
        **Grace is top 3 or 4 in all four events. I don’t understand why everyone thinks that she’s going to be the alternate, and if that’s what Tom decides, well, I don’t understand him either. Grace contributes decently on bars and pretty well on beam, plus is super close to matching vault scores with MS or JC. She’s also almost evenly matched with MyKayla on the floor.
        So what about Jade and MyKayla?…
        **IMO we should not have both MyKayla and Jade on the team. If we do, we have to use one of them on bars in quals, and while it won’t absolutely suck, it isn’t a good thing either. Since Grace can come within a few tenths of their vault scores, but is 0.3-0.5 higher than their bars scores, it’s worth dropping either MyKayla or Jade.

        IMO:

      7. IMO, I’d drop Jade to alternate and keep MyKayla, but I can see going the other way, too. Either way, I’d say keep Grace and Kara. And of course, Sunisa and Simone are locks.

      8. Christina I have written on here numerous times that you cannot look at season averages when evaluating Skinner’s vault potential for following reasons:

        1. Until section camp she was doing her Amanar first which scores worse than her Cheng.
        2. Skinner’s first three scores of the season were when she had been training for two months. In general taking season averages is appropriate for baseball not gymnastics where so much of everything is about peaking. For Skinner it would be asinine to do so.
        3. Skinner historically has scored far better on vault internationally than domestically on vault. For better or worse, FIG does not have a wide e score distribution on vault when you get to 5.8 vaults and above. Everyone but Simone seems to get a 9.3-9.4 minus hops unless they fall. Realistically, Skinner will our score Grace on vault by at least .4 and more likely .5 or .6 even if domestically their averages are only .1 or .2 apart.

    2. Yep, those would be my lineups too, based on what we’ve seen today. I think you get more from MyKayla on VT than you do from Grace on UB. Kara looked good on UB today, or during her second attempt at least, she’s really improved there… I just worry about her hitting.

      Now, who else is there in the US who could have provided a solid third UB routine? 🤔

  17. I think they’re going in order of scoring potential today – ie they expect Grace’s FX to be stronger than Kara’s, MyKayla’s to be stronger than Grace’s, etc. Nothing to read into there re: the alternate. Now, the quality of the routines they actually deliver might give us more insight….

  18. Things looking a little hairy there for US on UB… it’ll probably be fine, but you’re depending on at least one person to hit who does not consistently hit bars.

    I know, I know… the US will win anyway… Sigh.

    2. One missed bar routine- Ever and shes off for someone who….also missed their bar routine. Great strategy lol

      1. I know, during the entire UB and BB rotations I was like, “When is it Morgan’s turn?”

        I mean, I love everyone on this team, but it just feels like something’s missing…

      2. She missed a lot more than 1 bar routine this season. She’s been very inconsistent this year.

  20. MCCallum is 3rd best on UB. And she’s is 3rd best on vt after Skinner is dropped. And 4th best on fx and beam.

    1. But don’t you get a higher team total with MyKayla on VT than you do with Grace on UB?

      1. Grace got 14.4 at 2nd day camp, Eaker a 13.4. There will never be that much difference between McCallum and Skinner’s vt. McCallum’s vt/ub is more easily counted on, and will score higher, than Eaker ub/skinner vt.

  21. Everyone gets obsessed with talking about who gives the team a few tenths but this is so entirely irrelevant. The US will win with any of the girls here unless something crazy happens. They should try to maximize their medal potential.

    1. Yeah but neither Skinner nor McCallum will win an individual medal anyway, so it’s a moot point. McCallum isn’t a threat for EFs and Skinner will likely be two-perred out of the VT EF.

      At this point I say pick McCallum just on the off chance the worlds judges actually take the 2 points off Skinner’s Cheng for being done with one arm. Very very unlikely, but there’s really nothing else that could possibly bother Team USA lol.

      1. The difference is that the main obstacle standing between Skinner and an EF medal is Jade, and the main obstacle in Grace’s way is…multiple people. Neither has much of a chance, but I like Skinner’s odds better.

      2. McCallum is a medal contender in the AA. If she were to make it to finals she would def. win either silver or bronze.
        Suni Lee will likely be 2nd AA due to her UB strength, but it is her first Worlds, she is still returning from injury, and has fallen a few times this year. AA is not automatic for her. If she has a poor TQ and McCallum rocks TQ McCallum could make it into AA.

        Skinner making it to VT seems highly unlikely as Carey and Biles are too dominate and consistent on VT.
        Skinner also would not win an AA medal.

  22. I’m sure Tom and company aren’t thinking this way, but I would pick the alternate based on event finals. MyKayla could potentially upset Jade to make floor or vault finals whereas Grace doesn’t seem likely to make any event finals. I’d rather let Jade and MyKayla duke it out and let the judges decide who’s going to finals rather than choose that myself by putting Grace on the team.

    1. Agree with this entirely. It’s such a wonky team anyway in terms of distribution; you might as well lean into what you’ve got, which is… two VT/FX specialists, plus Simone.

      The one thing in Grace’s favor is that she has a stronger AA set, usually, than Kara, and actually outscored Suni Day 2 of Nationals. So in theory, while MyKayla could upset Jade on VT, Grace could upset Suni in the AA. I’d still go with MyKayla, but… I mean at this point 🤷🏻‍♀️

    2. I don’t agree. I think Grace is more likely to beat Sunisa in quals for the AA than Mykayla is to beat Jade in quals for VT. Grace beat Suni day 2 of nationals – Mykayla has yet to beat Jade on vault this season.

      I really don’t understand how Kara beat Grace one time in the AA this year and now suddenly everyone thinks she’s the better AAer. It makes no sense.

    3. Mykala is a non-issue on floor. She’s not upsetting anyone. She has yet to break 14.0. Her highest score is 13.85. Every other team member has scored a 14 or higher this year.

  23. It probably won’t happen, but I would make Jade the alternate. She’s already going to Tokyo and I want to see how international judges evaluate Skinner and I want to see how everyone (minus Simone because we know she can compete) does under pressure in a team competition.

    VT: McCallum, Lee, Skinner, Biles
    UB: Eaker, McCallum, Biles, Lee
    BB: McCallum, Lee, Eaker, Biles
    FX: McCallum or Eaker, Skinner, Lee, and Biles

    1. You hit the nail, I hope Jade is alternate. She is going to cottbus, Melbourne which ever one she chooses. I want to see how skinner scores because she can make the Olympic team. I think Grace has been given lots of gifts domestically so I want to see if there is a difference in scores internationally. I will take grace excellent dty and bars over Jade’s vault. Myk international scores are always higher.

  24. I think given beams and bars just risky events with no stand out completely consistent third or fourth score options , they are likely to concentrate on maximizing less risky events like vt and fx which the US is pretty much untouchable and seems to be more consistent… Which mean jade and skinner will prob get to go…

  25. Grace fell again today on bars. When you have a heightened risk of falling on the only event you would compete on, that’s problematic. Further, maximizing medals is indeed the goal. Grace has no chance to medal. Skinner could and probably would medal on vault if she scores higher than Jade in qualifying. She usually doesn’t but if Jade has an off day on vault we still get the 2nd medal with Skinner.

    1. Eaker also fell in the first routine- so Skinner is doing UB in team finals now?
      McCallum would compete on VT in team finals as well and she stuck both her DTY.
      Additionally,
      The first UB routines were not counting as they were just to get a feel for the apparatus and podium. The second UB routine is what counted and Both Eaker and McCallum hit their sets.
      If you are going for fall, Skinner had a disaster of a BB set her first run through. We don’t want her leading off TQ BB with that fall in mind.

      The only event that USA did only one set was on FX and all 6 nailed their sets.

  26. I am baffled by the notion that Skinner in any way “maximizes” USA’s floor. She finished 5th/5th/14th this season when competing against team USA.

    2. Same. She throws the big tumbling, but does not put together a well scoring routine. Sometimes chucking the biggest skills just isn’t enough. I think she is actually the lowest scoring on floor of the whole team.

      Maybe it is *her event,* but she isn’t there yet with it. And unless she puts some work into dance skills she can get credit for, she will stay ranked down around 5th in the US on the event.

  27. Simone looks like she was ready to destroy the competition yesterday. Every routine looked medal-worthy.

    Suni looked great on FX and VT, though a little nervy on UB and BB, which is where she’s needed most. That said, she seems ready.

    Jade’s routines are basically there but could use a little more polishing before QX, especially on FX if she wants to get into the EF ahead of Suni.

    Despite some PT wobbles here and there Kara’s beam looked ready to go. She also looks pretty nice on UB but I’m not sure I trust her to hit in TF. Shame she’s on the deepest FX team in the world… her routine there is great.

    Grace is such a rock. Really a jack of all trades gymnast. Her DTY looked fierce and I have to imagine the Amanar is coming. MyKayla also looked good today but I think Jade looked better overall on FX/VT, so I think she is likely to be the alternate.

  28. I worry about Flavia’s floor endurance with that whip to DLO. Shes one of the world’s top floor workers, and needs to make that EF.

  29. If all 3 girls fall on UB AND BB in team finals….the US still gets gold with points to spare. Just stop already. It’s about medal count and everyone at home would earn none individually.

    Seriously the grief about team final +0.1-0.4 pts if actually hit their routine at worlds is absurd.

    2. Exactly. So might as well have Grace do AA in TQ (she’s earned it based on her meets this year American Cup 2nd, US Classic 3rd, US Nationals 3rd. I am impressed with Skinner’s comeback but she needs more time to polish up, unfortunately she returned to elite and is pushing herself so hard that it is at the expense of her execution. She is loading up on difficulty so that it carries her through the AA ranking. She’s lucky so many athletes fell at World Trials or couldn’t compete due to injury because had they all been there and hit their sets, Skinner drops down the list considerably.

      1. Even if Hurd and wong had hit their sets at camp it would have been jade an d grace out. They were further down than skinner.

    2. Good for Simone.

      I have to think that the explanation here is (1) Nellie/FIG have it out for Simone specifically or (2) they want to discourage use of this skill in general. Anyone have thoughts?

      Or I guess maybe it’s (3) Nellie is hoping Simone will decide this skill isn’t worth doing and then Nellie can name it after herself instead.

      1. I just saw the list of the 10 new WAG skills and I’m shocked by a few of them:

        1st – the double-double off beam should be at least an I, probably a J.

        2nd – the WAG code of points explicitly said basic turns on floor were capped at 4/1 rotations. Yet we see a 5/1 was successfully submitted… and it’s only an E…

        3rd – Laney Madsen’s turn in scale is more difficult than the other B turns (L-turn, Y-turn, illusion, scorpion, back attitude). This is a case where the single should be a C and the double an E.

        4th – The 5/2 turn on beam is undervalued. I know the wolf 5/2 was downgraded to a D, but they are not equivalent skills.

        Good points:

        1st – Petz’s dismount – Very nice to see new dismounts like this still being invented. It’s likely undervalued, but at least they didn’t slap it with a C like the toe on front full.

        2nd – Triple-double on floor – Appropriately valued. Why they decided this got a 0.2 bump from the double-double yet the double-double on beam didn’t get a 0.2 bump just shows how unaware and arbitrary the WAG committee is when valuing skills.

      2. I love your option 3, but I think it’s really something much simpler than anything you put forward. FIG doesn’t “skip” skill values. There are currently no skills on beam higher than a G, so they won’t go straight to I and instead have undervalued the double double at an H. It’s stupid and arbitrary and doesn’t actually reflect the difficulty of the skill, but none of this is exactly new from FIG.

    4. Smelly Scrim, still screwing over gymnastics though she was suspended for her utter corruption IN THE SOVIET ERA!!!!!

  31. I don’t get the heartache people have with this team. This team, with Jade and McKayla, will be untouchable on VT and FX. It’s a good beam team too. Who cares if this team is a few tenths below what could be possible with Morgan. The US should never, ever have to count a DTY on vault. That’s a huge step backwards and total junior varsity. A 5.8 D score should be a minimum requirement to make a US team for WC or Olympics.

    1. Mykayla on floor?????
      The only person on this team she out scores on floor is Eaker.
      Everyone else scores higher than her on floor.
      Other than vault, she brings nothing and is a liability every where else.
      Again, she is 5th out of a 6 member team on floor.
      Also, she has yet to beat jade on vault. She certainly didn’t out perform jade on vault during podium training.
      She should be the alternate.

      1. Better than Grace who brings…nothing to the team. It’s fine. Y’all can gnash your teeth when Grace doesn’t show up to the competition floor on qualification day.

      2. That’s when the American judges in charge. Internationally skinner has scored well. Her floor at camp should hve beaten Jade. Both her and jade are messy and chuck difficult skills. On vault skinner has better landings than Jade. Jade has amputude. These judges care abt landings e.g. Paseka with all the star legs scores high so skinner will score well.

    2. I would rather a well-controlled and cleanly executed DTY than a sloppy Amanar.

      That mentality is backwards since it encourages gymnasts to throw skills when they’re not ready. Plus there are only three American gymnasts who have a 5.8 vault.

  32. Do you think it would be crazy for the US to make grace the alternate and only have 2 do the AA? Is it possible the QF would be Simone Suni Jade and Mykayla on vault and then maybe a different line up for team finals based on how they all score? It would leave Kara as BB and UB . Although I’d love to see Kara get some redemption I could see them doing those 4 on vault and FX and whoever scores top 2 makes the finals. Thoughts ?

  33. Kara Eaker is going to fall in qualifications in Tokyo and be two-per-countried out of the beam final – calling it now.

    1. Such a weird comment to make. And Chen Yiles stop and go beam routine isnt that amazing.

      1. I agree that it’s a weird comment to make (and probably wrong) but – when she hits – Chen Yile‘s Routine is IMMENSELY better than Eaker‘s because Chen actually performs the skills she’s getting credit for.

        Boggles my mind how much extra credit Eaker gets for sashaying around between skills when the actual skills sometimes aren’t even, you know, done. (I guess at the same time, it also boggles my mind that China hasn’t noticed this and started coaching their gymnasts to do more sashaying).

  34. I know that people really don’t like Grace, but I like her, and I love that she comes from the same gym as Maggie Nichols, who was one of my faves. I do think her Amanar will come and she’ll need it if she wants to make it to Tokyo. I think it’s smart for her and her coaches to pace herself and not debut it until it’s ready, so she doesn’t injure herself as Maggie did.

    1. Grace needs a consistent stand out event. I like her too, but right now shes just steady on every event but out scored everywhere. Whoever can get a solid 3rd score on bars or beam will get in. There’s plenty of vault and floor To go around, the USA still remains untouchable in each so an Amanar although would get her in the AA maybe…. she needs to get a suni level bar routine or A Kara level beam routine to seal herself a spot

      1. No, this is not true. Between Sunisa and Simone, you already have 2/3 TF bars, beam, and floor routines. The only event you aren’t going to use Sunisa on is vault. So in the final 2 spots, we need 2 counting vaults, 1 bar, 1 beam, and 1 floor.

        Looking at US contenders, I would set the replacement value at 14.5 for vault, 14 for bars, beam, and floor. Just about everyone hits 14 on floor, and unless Skinner’s form suddenly gets way better, I don’t see much opportunity for anyone else to separate herself meaningfully on that apparatus. Realistically, to make the team, the contenders must be able to hit 15 on one of the three apparatuses, or 14.5 on both bars and beam. I say that because, while 14.5 vault/bars would theoretically score the same as 15 vault/14 bars, in practice, the vault score is more secure and less likely to result in a fall, so, all things being equal, you still should take the stronger vaulter over the stronger bars worker.

        In that framework, upgrading to the Amanar becomes the easiest way to make the team. I would say, if Grace can hit a reliable Amanar, she goes from being unlikely to make the team to being almost a lock. I would say the same thing about Leann Wong. I cannot imagine that the USA would leave behind reliable all around gymnasts who vault Amanars. I may be proven wrong, but if I were a gymnast, I would be working my vault above all else right now.

      2. Agreed. If kara upgardes to a reliable 14.5 dty and grace can upgrade to a reliable 15+ amanar thet will have real good chance make the team as long as they dont deteriorate on what they have currently on evrything else.

  35. From a USA Gymnastics press release posted 2 hours ago:

    “Skinner, a 2014 World team champion and alternate to the 2015 team, brings the wisdom that comes with maturity — not to mention three years of NCAA competition experience at the University of Utah.

    “It kind of feels like I never stopped doing it,” said the 22-year-old, who returned to elite competition this summer for the first time since 2016. “The energy and even having some fans there supporting us made it feel like a real meet, but it was just so great to be back out there and to help represent Team USA. I’m just kind of going out there and having fun with it, and kind of bringing back the good times, so it was really good.”

    Eaker and McCallum both also have individual goals they’d like to check off their lists. McCallum hopes to qualify for the all-around final, while Eaker, seventh on beam in last year’s event finals, has high hopes of making the event final once more.”

    Source: https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=24608

    Sounds to me like no one knows or has been told yet who the alternate is.

      1. He probably hasnt picked them himself… At 23 hr a hat with carey grace and skinner name will be used with two names picked out..

        Or maybe he ll put all 6 names in and randomly draw 5…. Lol.. Or draw 1 for alternate

  37. One thing that is still unknown is what the scoring climate will be like. Are the judges primed to throw out 9.4 Es for any decent Cheng or will they be more discerning? Will they cap floor Es at 8.5 or finally allow for some more separation? Will we see Raisman-like bar routines get 8.7 Es like at the Rio Olympics? Will beam scoring return to 2017 draconian levels where breaking a 14 is a minor miracle?

    I wonder if there’s anyway to get a pulse on the scoring climate before the 1st subdivision?

    1. Well you can assume that the Chinese gymnasts get an 0.3 – 0.5 ND for being small because somewhere someone in FIG is still mad about them winning in Beijing 11 years ago.

  38. USAGymnastics tweet
    As predicted Skinner is the alternate

    USA Gymnastics
    @USAGym
    The five-woman U.S. team for the 2019 World Championships has been finalized. MyKayla Skinner is the alternate. The line-up for qualifications will be determined prior to the deadline for submission.

    1. As much as I wish Skinner had a chance, I think this was the best decision given bars and beam and still floor to an extent are a work in progress. Still, making it to worlds on the US team after just a few months of elite training is unbelievable.

      Unfairly or not, there will be massive pressure on Grace to hit a 14.3/14.4 bars routine.

    2. So…I guess Kara can do AA in qualifications now along with Simone and Sunisa?

      VT: Simone, Sunisa, (Kara), Jade
      FX: Simone, Sunisa, (Kara), Jade
      BB: Simone, Sunisa, Kara, (Grace)
      UB: Simone, Sunisa, (Kara), Grace

      Or is Grace doing AA? What a mess.

      1. So Grace is on the team to do bars in EF. 🤷🏻‍♀️
        I guess Tom really doesn’t like rewarding specialists. Like Spencer keeps saying, if you need a bars, it should be Hurd (or Wong)

  39. It’s been posted Simone Suni and Grace will do AA. Kara is bars/beam and Jade is floor/vault

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