And so we gather for one final day of podium training before the real things with the numbers parts begin. This one doesn’t start slowly, with both the US and Japan, as well as the representatives of Ol’ Canadia, in the first subdivision of the day.
Subdivision 5
Modi is leading off for the US on floor – a little bouncy on his landings but not too bad, solid routine, no major deductions.
Wiskus is 2nd – comes up a little short on a double double – also a little more bouncy than he would like but nothing individually major, like a little hop on a 2/1 and things like that he’ll want to cut out
Yul a little bouncy on his punch randi but a lovely stick on his second pass and double front 1/2 out, and the next pass, and the next pass -3/1 final pass, just a little down with a shuffle, but the middle of that routine was vintage Yul
Meanwhile Kaya hit a lovely PH routine and Japan is working through without error there.
Mikulak going 4th – double front pike, stuck – combo double front, also stuck – stuck third pass – 1.5 to front full, stuck – hop back on 3/1, oooooh he was so close to a full stuck routine, but that was effing stellar. Don’t waste it.
Howard going up 5th so he won’t work in competition it looks like – sticks his double front pike – small shuffle on double front 1/2 out – double tuck 1.5 with a lunge forward – a couple sticks but also issues like not sticking his 2/1, but sticking his double Arabian dismount. You know, US MAG things.
Bower up 6th for the US as the alternate – didn’t have his sticking shoes on this one, but Sam is yelling “Show it off” a lot, which helps. Really struggled on 3/1 with lunges.
Kaya is going up for Japan again just to play around with bits and pieces and how to pommel. Mostly Japan just went up 5-and-done and hit all of them, and now they’re just perfecting their indentical hairstyles. And also pommel horse.
Far away so struggling to differentiate the Tanigawas from this distance, but one of them (I believe Kakeru) just did another lovely PH set. No falls in full routines in that entire rotation, just intentional hop offs when working pieces.
In rotation 2, Akash Modi will start it off dor the US on PH – really efficient routine until the dismount, where he dropped a leg awkwardly but pulled it out. Akash feet and hip angle, but good.
They have Wiskus up second on PH before Moldauer and Mikulak – so does that mean Wiskus is in line for the third TF spot over Modi? – Hit from him as well.
Moldauer up third was lovely on the horse, he got a little sluggish at the very end and muscles up a final handstand, but hey, through two events he’s looking much more comfortable than at selection camp
First fall of the rotation comes from Sam, who gets off line on his handstand pirouette and has to hop off. Yeah, now he keeps getting up, doing like one circle, and hopping off. He doesn’t seem comfortable with it.
Behind PH, a member of the Japanese team just did the most fantastic stuck double double rings dismount.
Sam tries to go again on PH and gets a lot farther but falls again toward the end after getting sluggish on some Russians and losing his leg shape –
Sam gets up a third time, does a few circles and then hops off. So no complete hit routines for him in this rotation.
Save for Sam having some problems on PH, the US has looked good through two events, and Japan looks very comfortable.
Interested to see the status of Japan’s vault here in the third rotation. They’ll really want a good double pike out of Wataru and Kas 2/1s out of Hashimoto and Kakeru to have that competitive slate of 5.6 starts.
They started playing around with the rotation lights as one of the Slovenian athletes was trying to work a pass on floor and he’s PISSED.
So far for Japan we’ve seen one splatted double front pike and a few solid Kas 1.5s, with steps forward ranging between small and medium.
Nice stuck rings dismount from Modi. Moldauer to follow, then it will be Mikulak and Howard. Moldauer works through cleanly, just didn’t get the dismount landing he would want, Tim would have a shit fit about it.
Daiki Hashimoto hit his Kas 2/1, just a little forward and a lunge to the side.
Good rings from Mikulak, stuck.
Crap. We saw an attempted handspring pike double front 1/2 from Japan on vault – not close – crashed to hands and knees.
Trevor Howard very smooth in his rings routine until the end when it all fell apart, really struggled to hold his final handstand position and then sat his dismount. Well, that was unexpected.
So Wiskus won’t compete on rings as he went up after the main four, not much surprise there. Solid routine though, near stick on his 1.5-twisting double tuck, step back. Bower also gets his chance, goes over on a handstand back-to-back times and has to swing back up and then is like…um, I’m done and rings is stupid bye.
Hashimoto went back up for another Kas 2/1 toward the end of the rotation and sat it down.
Howard went back for an isolated dismount and hit it.
Internet out in the arena, just to warn you.
Slovenia is like BYE TIME FOR TEAM PICTURES during this, the fourth rotation of 6.
So, US to vault, Modi with a good Kas 1.5. Sam follows with a near stick. Wiskus gets great distance on his but lands short with a large bounce back.
Well hello Trevor Howard with a Kas 1.5 instead of the Roche.
Bower sits a Kas 1.5. Not sure what’s up with him, but he’s not have a great time in podium training here.
Moldauer finishes the run with a beautiful stuck Kas 1.5.
Mikulak sticks a Kas 1.5 on his second attempt, while Wiskus sits his down. You know, the things that happen. Bower does pull around his second attempt.
Howard is putting on his PBars pants now, so looks like no double front?
Kamoto is going on PBars for Japan – he has some handsand problems on a stutz but the tippelt to healy is lovely and the double front 1/2 out was nearly stuck.
Now everyone’s going up and sticking double front 1/2 outs. Like one after another.
LOL. Kakeru just got up on the Pbars looking so serious like, “this is going to be the best routine anyone has ever done” and then immediately hopped off like “OK good that was all I needed.”
Word is that Wataru didn’t get up for PBars after that vault landing in the previous rotation. Potentially huge development.
On to rotation 5, good PBars set from Yul
Also, Akash got a haircut and it’s really short and freaking me out.
Kaya catches his Yam 1/2 on HB well – he had a close catch on a tkatchev to mixed grip but otherwise a good one.
We’ve seen PBars from Moldauer and Wiskus, both hit – and now it’s Akash – stuck full-twisting double back dismount. Well now.
Sam is after Akash, and it was brilliant, including another stuck dismount. One of his good ones. So also looks like Howard is the one who will not go on PB as he is competing 5th.
Howard struggled on a peach to one rail attempt and ended up at horinzontal and was nearly able to push himself back up because rings. But alas no.
Kakeru just did this fun thing in the floor warmup where he almost landed on his head.
Yul did a clean opening HB routine for the US – no Kovacs I believe – hop forward on dismount.
Wiskus caught his Cassina with two hands and everything – but he did fall on his regular Kovacs after doing the harder ones successfully.
Wiskus resumed and the rest was very nice, including a stuck double double layout.
Hashimoto stuck a 3/1 at the end of his floor.
Akash with the crazy legs here and there but not extreme – struggles mightily on his double double layout, large lunge.
And as he does that Kazuma Kaya is like “HOLD MY LANDING” and nearly gets sucked into a tornado on one of his passes.
Sam – Cassina is caught just a little close, good Kolman – layout tkatchev – tkatchev – tkatchev 1/2 – no Liukin in his main runthrough routine. We’ll see if he goes back and works it later in the rotation. Great except for hop on DLO 2/1.
Kakeru double front pike 1/2 out is still triangle shaped on landing but he didn’t come as close to hitting his head this time.
We have another ankle stinger of a landing for Japan with Yamoto on FX but he’s able to keep going.
Sam went back up and did the Kolman, but no Liukin and now he’s taking his grips off.
So, subdivision done, I think the US will be pleased. They had two struggles on key routines – Sam having issues on PH and Trevor on SR – but as long as those things were flukes, then this group looks like it can fulfill its potential because the supporting routines were largely secure.
After the first couple rotations I would have said that everything was just ducky for Japan, but that Wataru vault situation concerns me. We saw some more troubling moments in the later events. He’s out here on the floor just sitting in his warmups now. Daggett is lurking around him like Mrs. Kravitz trying to figure out what’s going on.
Subdivision 6
It’s China time in this session. Comparison time with Russia.
Sun Wei has come out in a full winter coat and gloves. It is 900 degrees in this arena.
Sun Wei startings things off for China and is a little bouncy but fine and his haircut s not working for him. Xiao goes 2nd, very strong landings -stuck 3/1 to finish. Good.
Lin is 3rd – a little hoppy, some corkscrew legs in twisting – but solid routine. Deng goes 4th – similar to Lin, an awkward landing here and there, a bounce on the double double – a little deep on a front 2/1 – but good. Would like a few more sticks in competition, but China will be relatively happy with those four routines.
Sun Wei is really Jessica Yamzoning it up and leading off on PH as well for China, and aside from leaning tower of Pisaing through his dismount pirouette, it was a good set.
As has been established, Zou Jingyuan isn’t just PB. He puts up a strong PH in the second spot, especially impressive are his quick hand placements on Russians and the fact that he doesn’t suddenly look like he’s working through pea soup on that.
Well Xiao got a flat tire almost immediately on his set in the third spot and came off. I hadn’t even looked up from updating the post yet. He comes off again on resuming.
Haven’t seen Lin up on the podium to work horse. Yeah, now Deng is taking his turn. it gets a little crazy in the leg tucking in the middle but he endures. Lin has spent this rotation on the bench.
Anyway, China is on rings, and it’s rings. Xiao hit. Deng Shudi did a nice set. They’re allowing You Hao to go up and be like, “Me rings.” Although he had a very weak dismount on his set.
Get ready for some Chinese Kas 2/1s! Lin just attempted one that was…not great. Xiao’s is solid, hop to the side. Deng lands super deep on his attempt with a lunge to the side. Sun Wei’s form was the best of the bunch, but he sat it down.
Lin’s 2nd one was better, landed with a large lunge back though. Xiao stuck his 2nd attempt. Very good. Deng barely pulls out his 2nd, lunges back and a little “I meant to not land it” dance. Sun’s 2nd one is lovely, great form and direction and a small hop back.
I’m concerned about exactly half of the Chinese vaults, so nothing new there.
Emil Soravuo is up for Finland now on floor – really nice double double, love watching him on floor.
China has been alternating Lin and Zou as to who sits off events so far, so it will be interesting to see what happens with PBars and the lineup. Probably no answer there today since it looks like all five are going to warm it up.
Some nice landings fro Marios Georgiou warming up floor. Annnnd he did a 3/1 so short that he ended up with his head on the floor and just stayed there for a while.
Deng is starting on PBars and from our angle his hands look so crazy when he catches his arm skills, like they’re octopus tentacles about to be jettisoned. He nearly sits on the PBars on a Tippelt but toherwise good.
Sun Wei up second with a very clean routine, including a stuck double front 1/2 out. Looks like Xiao will be next, then Zou of course, so Lin would seem to be the odd one out again. Honestly, at this point, do you swap him out for You to at least give you a rings?
Guess what happened next? Zou did a literally perfect PBars routine. Try to act surprised.
Oooooh news. Paseka has been determined as the alternate for Russia, which makes no sense to me, especially with how little Spiridonova did yesterday and how solid Paseka’s vaults looked.
Nice stuck double double dismount from Xiao in the final rotation on high bar.
Lin sits down his HB dismount.
Subdivision 7
Let’s get to this British team, shall we?
Giarnni vaulted an excellnet handspring randi – nearly stuck.
Very nice Kas 1.5 from Fraser, good distance nad direction, controlled landing.
Cunningham hasn’t been attempting real landings on his vaults yet, rolling out of them.
Oleg in his leg warmers just survived a solid floor routine, good twisting form. Endurance was fine. Although now he’s pulling down his pants with his hands on his knees, so you know. Oleg stuff.
Fraser sits down his second vault attempt.
Cunningham does his first real attempt at the Man-Biles, lunge forward, a little less control than he would like.
Ukraine’s done with floor after just 15 minutes, which is probably for the best. Although Igor is popping around getting ready for vault while he has a chance. Only Tulloch getting up to do some vault work for GB now.
In rotation 2 – we have Oleg going on PH – who goes through his routine cleanly and successfully, just got a little slow here and there in a somewhat un-Oleg fashion, but good.
Carlos Yulo is doing floor PT with a full shirt and shorts on, and he’s my hero. Very clean work, and of course that fast twisting we know him for – only small hops on his landings – double front pike 1/2 out is so good.
On and yes, Skinner is the alternate. It’s not where I would have gone with these six, but you can see it, especially if Skinner was struggling as much in training as when I saw her vault that first day. But again, now you have a situation where Grace McCallum is on the team to do VT/UB, and Leanne Wong is at home. It continues feeling like this team wasn’t really thought through – i.e., the ramifications of including Skinner in the 6 and then not using her. Handcuffed your options there. So now you’re using a gymnast as a vault/bars person, despite her not being the best vault/bars person in your options.
Oh and Scheder is out and Schaefer is in. TWIST.
In rotation 3, we have Yang Hak Seon vaulting. We have the Brits on HB, where they are making Giarnni do it and he already peeled off on a Kovacs. Pretty piked Kovacs though, but he’s having a time trying to stay on.
We’ve also had a hilarious rings dismount fall from one of the non-famous Ukrainians.
Whitlock’s return to high bar is successful, some deduction trap late pirouettes and he’s like “releases can eat my butt” a little short on double double layout dismount with a lunge.
Igor playing around with a hit.
Excellent handspring 3/1 from Yang Hak seon. He was sitting down the entirety of the rotation and then got up to do that.
Someone for Korea is rocking back and forth in the fetal position.
Haven’t seen a full second vault for Yang, but I didn’t see all of his runs. I’ve just seen Tsuk timers. Now he’s having a long coach chat and is sitting down again. This is like a whole soap opera of a vault PT.
We have a replacement mat being carted in for rings as it appears the previous mat has been broken. I don’t KNOW it was Igor, but also…
Yang does a Kas double and sits it and then stays there in a heap of depression.
Whitlock is sitting in the chairs as GB gets up to warm up floor.
Cunningham follows Hall on FX – very good double double layout – a couple small landing troubles but also a couple sticks – nearly holds the stick on his 3/1, good.
Giarnni follows – stuck double front pike 1/2 out – stuck double double tuck also – short on double front pike with a hop back – double arabian 1/2 out with a little step – hand down on 3/1 final pass. It was going so well until there.
Oleg landed a dragulescu in a little ball.
Igor just working double fronts right now.
Oleg literally just tiptoed backward out of his last Dragulescu attempt. After that he tried a…something…and just kind of died in a heap on the mat.
Igor hit a double front pike with a hop –
Koudinov on HB in this rotation, but he didn’t do anything crazy.
Dom Cunningham is now going up and introducing himself to all the floor judges and shaking hands with them. LOLOLOL.
Tin is next on HB – Stakder tkatchev and tkatchev, layout tkatchev and tkatchev 1/2 – good finish position on tak 1/2, layout tkatchev 1/2 – DLO 1/1, stuck. Pretty. Stellar.
In rotation 5, we have the Ukrainians on PBars and Brits on PH. Fraser has a fall on his first horse attempt.
Max is up on the podium by pommel horse but is currently sitting on the grouo Wicked Witch of the Westing it behind the scoreboard.
He went through his routine very cleanly and normally and has continued working parts since then.
Oleg hit PBars but did land very short on his dismount with a large lunge.
Petro Pakhniuk has sure been doing a lot of one giant swing and then squatting on the PBars for a while.
Subdivision 8
It’s time for the Netherlands men to show up. They did not do any kind of dance, and Bart and Casimir’s hair colors are both normal. Hrmph. Someone is starting slowly. Michel Bletterman obviously the alternate due to no tattoos.
Bartitude fell on his first pass of his floor turn, obviously. The rest was strong once he got that out of his system. He’s not happy with most things, I think he’s saying he can’t see and also his kneecap is coming off and also he’s dead.
Switzerland having a good time on HB – Yusof Braegger and Hegi all went through with hits.
Casimir was a little short on his front double pike with a bounce back, having a few iffy passes but a fine hit.
Very nice Dragulescu from Davtyan in the second rotation.
We also saw Bart sucessfully survive a PH routine, although he took two steps on dismount.
Davtyan attempted a nonspecific Kas vault as his second and landed exactly sideways on the mat.
I don’t mean to alarm you, but Ri Se Gwang has exactly no tape on either leg. Where am I?
Ri keeps inviting everyone in his vault rotation to go before him. Like, get out of here peasants so I have room to do real vaults and probably die.
Ri keeps sitting down double front pikes, which is interesting. I’ve been watching this rotation for 19 minutes now, and I haven’t seen him hit a vault. Which probably means nothing becasue Ri.
Filling in the end: Epke is in the group for PBars and just hit a fine set, a few leg things.
Finishing off podium training – Bart was looking great on HB but decided not to dismount, followed by Epke, who did his big-boy routine and it was excellent, save for a lunge back on landing.
Is anyone getting the live stream on NBC? Mine is just stuck initializing
Using NBC sports live app, it’s fine
When will they say which female gymnast is the alternate ??
24 before competition. Quals start tomorrow, but the US doesn’t go until Saturday, so I’m not sure if they will announce today or tomorrow.
As soon as Forster is done polling all the coaches about it and figuring out what the ~least controversial~ decision would be.
I don’t totally blame him – it’s especially important to not be Karolyi these days if you want to keep your job, and it should be. “Fairness”/”transparency” at the expense of good team strategy/ winning gold with a slightly higher margin makes some sense to me, even if I’d have rather had a slightly different Worlds team.
Also personally, I don’t care whether the US wins team gold medals every single year post-Simone or not – I would love it if the competition was closer. I don’t understand how people can get excited about cheering for a team that wins EVERY time. I want at least a bit of suspense.
Bitch bye! Go watch a Novella or some cheesy WB drama, if you want suspense read a book! If training, and a gymnasts skills, etc are that far ahead of other countries, IT IS WHAT IT IS. I dont understand how people can get excited… Gurl bye! Needing suspense like its some ‘storyline’ to appease you, like its some reality show. THen take your dumb ass to other countries and whip them into shape so you can have your “suspense”
dumb
I can’t believe I am about to somewhat agree with Worst Commenter Of BBS History above but yeah, it’s not hard to understand why people can stay excited for a team that stays winning. People do it in other sports all the time just fine. I do wish things were closer, but that’s because I don’t really root for Team USA. If I did, the appeal of seeing them win every year would be unquestionable.
If Simone were injured this team would still win Gold with room to spare. But, it wouldn’t be a 10 point lead. I’d rather see everyone do their best, because it’s the competition that elevates the sport. It’s why Simone’s insane talent has forced the field to step up their game so quickly. We benefit by seeing more difficult skills. It’s one thing to have pride in your country, it’s a toxic side when nationalism trumps camaraderie.
Any comments on Canada?
@gymcoaching on twitter has some posts about Canada. Main comments were that Jackson Payne had a scary fall on p-bars where he hit his head and was checked for concussion but was cleared to come back for high bar, played it safe with no release moves and no dismount. Canada looked good on high bar and floor. Cory Patterson and Rene Cornoyer are doing the AA for Canada. I think that’s about it for details.
Sorry Cournoyer. Wish I could edit posts on here!
Hahahahaha I LOVE the haircut reports, please go on with them
I will be so sad if Sam doesn’t make the PB final. Really happy Yul is back in form though.
I hate Sam for getting my hopes up…
I will be sad if he kills it in TQ and then flops in AA, multiple EFs and goes home with no medals. You know, the usual Sam story.
I think he has a better chance than he’s had in a long time to get medals in PB, HB and AA. Granted, bronze in all of them, but still, medals.
i hope arthur wins the battle of the russian hunks.
Can someone post a direct link to the stream? I just downloaded the NBC Sports app and the Olympic Channel app and can’t seem to find the podium training on either of them.
Same goes for quals – do we know yet exactly where we can watch them? I want to get everything set up for tomorrow but I use all these features like twice a year and am terrible at navigating them.
Nothing Russia does MAKES ANY SENSE.
Is someone injured again now? Who on earth is supposed to vault in TF??
Also I’m personally bummed bc Paseka v Skinner and/or Carey would’ve surely involved some fun yelling.
Skinner is alternate
Russia should be okay on vault, actually! They have a rudi from Akhaimova, a DTY from Melnikova, and Schekoldina actually landed a few DTYs in PT! I mean, yes, it might be a little testy in competition, but what about Russian gymnastics isn’t a little testy?
“Daggett is lurking around him like Mrs. Kravitz trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Dying.
If you look at the worlds selection report, Leanne appears to have fallen on bars day 2. So she, Grace, and Morgan all had a fall on bars (different days), and for their 3 hit bar routines, Grace’s scored highest. Leanne also fell on vault the only time she competed it at selection camp. So I think it’s hard to argue that Leanne should have been here over Grace. She may have been struggling. I think what happened is Grace just won out the spot that everyone thought was Morgan’s.
Grace definitely made her case on Day 2 at camp and it was right to take her. What still doesn’t fully make sense to me, especially now that we know the alternate situation, was the decision to take MyKayla Skinner instead of Morgan. Skinner had a better camp overall, but Morgan’s UB/BB combo would have been really useful to this team, even as an alternate (also, she, Suni and Grace had virtually the same combined two-event score on Day 2, second only to Simone). This isn’t to say that MyKayla didn’t “deserve” to go to Worlds; of course she did. It’s more about what team permutation would have been the smartest given the particular strengths and weaknesses of each gymnast and the data points available.
Lee, McCallum, Eaker, and Biles are all strong AAers.
Essentially they have built in alternates between them.
Carey was going for VT silver. If Carey or Biles got injured then Skinner made the most sense because she could make VT finals and also try to match as much as Carey could bring for VT/FX and try to add a VT score that wasn’t so far behind what Biles brought.
Eaker, Lee, McCallum other than Eaker on VT. These three could do UB/BB without Biles if they had to.
Hurd brought nothing to the team when her UB was eclipsed by McCallum. Her VT was weaker than the entire team sans Eaker. Her FX was weaker than the 6. BB is where she brought a good score but BB is more than covered by Lee, McCallum, Eaker, and Biles. Even Skinner got a 14.400 day 2. BB is the USA team’s strongest event next to VT and FX.
I wish Tom would have had Leanne do vault on day 2 so she could show she could hit it.
But why though? Skinner, Biles, and Carey were all scoring higher than her. McCallum is equal to Wong on VT and Lee wasn’t that far behind. Wong’s BB and FX were useless to the team and her UB was a low score on Day 2.
Leanne, Morgan and Grace wouldn’t even be in the conversation for UB/BB if Riley hadn’t withdrawn for Worlds. Get real.
But unfortunately, she did withdraw, so this is the conversation we are having. Riley isn’t helpful to the team when she isn’t there.
Leanne, Morgan and Grace wouldn’t even be in contention if Riley hadn’t withdrawn. Get real.
How do we know McCusker wouldn’t have fallen? She is just as inconsistent as the others. Get real.
She’d make finals in both if other Americans falter and could actually medal, none of the others could.
So with the team being Simone, Suni, Kara, Jade and Grace, are these your lineups?
Quals:
VT: Suni, Grace, Jade, Simone
UB: Kara, Grace, Simone, Suni
BB: Grace, Suni, Simone, Kara
FX: Grace, Suni, Jade, Simone
TF:
VT: Grace, Jade, Simone
UB: Grace, Simone, Suni
BB: Suni, Simone, Kara
FX: Suni, Jade, Simone
i believe in podium training, simone was last on beam, kara went before simone
Now that skinner is officially the alternate, yeah i think that should be the line up for qual. same for TF unless there’s any surprise in qual.
Agree, with the exception is that they will probably put Kara up on beam before Simone. There’s also an outside chance they would have Grace do beam in TF instead of Suni, if she’s is looking a little tentative in training, but I think they would prefer Suni there.
I’m pretty sure Grace is just UB, Jade doing VT/FX in TF, and Simone, Sunisa and Kara are doing AA in TQ.
Eaker is 99% not doing the AA lol
Biles will go last on BB, Eaker before her.
I don’t think Suni will do FX in TF and McCallum will compete.
That will depend on who qualifies to the AA finals. If Lee gets into AA and I were Tom I would put Lee up only on UB and have McCallum do AA in TF like Nichols did so that Lee can save herself for AA finals and UB finals.
VT McCallum, Carey, Biles
UB McCallum, Biles, Lee
BB McCallum, Eaker, Biles
FX McCallum, Carey, Biles
This would allow Suni as much rest as possible for AA.
Also, if I were Tom I would sub Biles out from FX and insert Kara Eaker.
VT McCallum, Carey, Biles
UB McCallum, Biles, Lee
BB McCallum, Eaker, Biles
FX McCallum, Carey, Eaker
At this point, the US will have clinched the gold as long as Eaker scores a 10.000 on FX which she can easily do. This would also allow Biles to rest. Granted this year she isn’t hampered by a kidney stone. But last year in the AA she looked exhausted.
So you’re willing to throw away points, not tenths, so gymnasts can be spared 1 routine? The same person that can’t spare tenths for people to try to get AA? Hypocrisy much? Favoritism? Absurdity.
shamrockstar81 swapping out people for them to rest in TF is not going to happen. The only reason they would do that is if something was wrong with the athlete. It’s expected for gymnasts to hit all their routines in a competition, even if that means doing 4 routines 4 times because you’re needed in TQ, TF, AA, all 4 EFs.
I don’t think USAG would risk letting an athlete do anything at all if there’s something wrong considering the amount of pressure they are getting about safety.
What happened to Simone last year, I don’t think they’d even allow her to compete given the same situation despite the amount of influence Simone has.
I didn’t get to watch, but are all the men really struggling with Vault? Do they need Simone to come do a clinic?
lol. simone should petition to compete in the men vt and fx events after she’s done with tokyo. i think she can definitely put up some good score and finally get some real challenge..
I would enjoy watching her stick a bunch of landings (which I believe she can do but doesn’t have enough incentive to in women’s where it’s not as big a part of the score)
Just give Simone a fake moustache and send her to quals. “And now on VT for the US men – Simon Biles!”
will this be the year that US will place better than 4th or 5th in TF?
No, not even a chance.
4th – 7th. If Sam hurt himself, they’d be a bubble team for top 12 to even qualify for Olympics.
Slight exaggeration there! There’s a huge drop in total score after 11th, even with disasters and using Allan instead of Sam, there’s no way they’d not be 9-11th. I agree that they wouldn’t make the team final competition though and that would be a huge embarrassment.
Maybe that’s what needs to happen for USAG to get their men’s program together. Next quad is looking pretty dismal for them and I can totally see them not qualifying a team to 2024 Olympics at their current pace.
Wow, Skinner is the alternate. We kinda see it and we kinda also think that she could’ve also been on the team too? i guess they do want a balanced team after all?
https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=24640
Well, she came so far in just 5 months back. I wouldn’t even call this a setback.
Oh wow…i knew it woukd be between Grace and Skinner. Skinner should be happy for coming so far in such a short time. Happy for Grace..she balances the team out perfectly. Her bars and beam score higher than Skinner and they were lacking on bars. Very happy for Grace, bummed for Skinner but she should be pleased with her progress. Bring on the triple double on floor and Skinner’s worth goes way up. Next year should be interesting.
Carey not being on the 4-person Olympic team means Skinner has less competition for the vault/floor specialist role as long as she keeps bringing her floor score up. I could also see Skinner bringing a reliable beam score if she keeps up the pace with that event.
I think Grace having a solid podium training is what pushed her over the edge. If she was struggling on bars, I think Skinner would have been in for vault and Eaker for bars.
It also gives Grace a chance to go for the All Around. She is fully capable of surpassing Sunisa and snatching the AA silver.
Agree with Anonymous here… Grace is very capable of competing with Suni in the AA.
Some interesting numbers from Nationals –
Suni Lee AA Day 1 – 56.900
Suni Lee AA Day 2 – 56.650
Grace McCallum AA Day 1 – 54.900
Grace McCallum AA Day 2 – 56.900
A good day from Grace can match a good day from Suni. My money would be on Suni to come out on top because I think Grace is a tad overscored domestically, but it could be much closer than people expect.
(FWIW, the only other person to break into the 56s at Nationals, besides Simone, was Morgan Hurd, who also scored a 56.650 on the second day of Nationals – tying Suni. Competition for the Olympic spots is going to be intense!).
In what world should Skinner be happy with not making the team of 5?! She’s handling it well based on social media, and yes, she has come a long way, but no way is she going to be OK or satisfied with just being there to watch. It’s not in her blood, and I for one find that to be one of her best characteristics.
She should – and appears to – be happy because it’s a major and unexpected accomplishment to make a team after being back in elite for a short period of time with so much competition. No one thinks she’s going to go home and stop training because she’s just so satisfied.
Why are Skinner fans so exhausting sheesh.
SMH – being pleased with her progress in the last 5 months and being satisfied with being an alternate (or happy not to make the team) are not necessarily the same thing. She can (and should) be insanely proud of what she’s accomplished while also being hungry for more, and maybe even disappointed at being put on the final team. And she can also do all of that while being a gracious, supportive teammate (which she appears to be doing). Her fans can do the same.
Kara has hit 57.0 and 57.1 as recently as selection camp so … I can’t imagine them choosing Grace for AA in Q.
Grace only hit over 57 once at Classic. Suni has hit 58, so there’s no question for her doing AA in Q with Simone.
I love Kara but Grace has been a more consistent AAer than her. Anyway, we don’t know what has been happening in training, and it’s possible that Grace just looks a little better overall.
It is obvious that Grace is the better AAer. Absolute scores mean relatively little. Kara only beats Grace when Grace falls AND Kara hits.
Absolute scores determines medals. Considering recent hit rates, sorry but I’d put Kara up above Grace for AA. Although both are behind Simone and Sunisa so it doesn’t matter much.
Let’s be real.
Skinner only got to this team because she hit 4 for 4 at World Camp, several others fell, or were injured and Tom went by AA rankings.
She was extremely lucky because had Hurd, McCallum, Wong, Chiles all hit 4 for 4 at camp she wouldn’t have even travelled to Stuttgart. Had Jones and McCusker competed she wouldn’t even have made home bound alternate.
since when is hitting 4 for 4 not important on the day it counts the most? Sure, everyone could ve hit 4 for 4 but a lot didn’t. Everyone that hits 4 for 4 was invited onto the team except grace but she did well enough to earn it the 2nd day, even if it’s just by possibly a hair.
you can say the same if everyone else hits, jade would not make the top 5 either or that mccusker would probably beat grace or that hurd could have beat everyone in bars except suni or biles.
You’re assuming Mykayla made it by AA alone.
If that’s so, Wong, Hurd, Chiles and Jones couldn’t have beat her AA if they had hit 4 for 4 at camp, so, I disagree. Look at their recent scores on each event compared to MyKayla. But, you’re right about McCusker, if she hit 4 for 4, none of the ones you just named would have even been in the picture. It would have been McCusker on team and McCallum as alt. Assuming we’re talking AA, of course. Which I highly doubt is the primary criteria for this team.
hahaha all you people who cried over Skinner being on the team with your lists, and starting lists, and your tears…. hahahahahah! Dorks and she is the alternate…. lmao! The outrage, the pain, the sadness, the confusion, then the OH she alternate…
I think you might be projecting a little bit.
You are laughing at the people who didn’t wanr her on the team because… she is not on the team?
Do you even know how bullying is supposed to work? Reach for more perfection.
Yep sure am! I’m laughing at the PEOPLE who thought she was on the team, and were CRYING about it! Capeche? With their lists, and all the reasons, and their fact sheets. Such as yourself! Dork! So again HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA to all the people who THOUGHT she was on the team, and were CRYING about like Beamwhoring, with their dumbass profile ( who gets profile pics to post comments on a blog) DORK. lol Reach for more perfection!
even skinner fans, like me, i knew that it would come down between her and grace. Even if you don’t like skinner gymnastics, i don’t think anyone can disagree that she made crazy amount of progress in 5 months.
Having said that, it’s probably kind of what i thought they would do since, you do have a weakness in ub/bb otherwise without grace.
Without carey in the mix next year, skinner chance would be better as long as she can improve on her ub/bb and fx some more. Also if grace can show that amanar next year, it would help her a lot too.
For the final spot:
It was never Skinner vs McCallum. It was Skinner vs Carey. You can’t have Skinner and Carey on the same team with Biles competing.
Just like in 2016 it was never Skinner vs Douglas. It was Douglas vs Locklear.
I want to be like obviously Kara is not doing AA over Grace but everything I thought i knew about team selection is clearly irrelevant in the era of Tom so who knows man
I am sorry but at the World Championships you would want Eaker doing essentially a tucked Yurchenko 1 1/2 over a clean and almost nearly stuck DTY from McCallum?
Ok…
I think you make incredibly small sacrifices on certain apparatuses to give people a chance at AA. If you didn’t, then we’d only have Simone doing AA.
But anyway, Kara hitting a higher AA score than Grace is more likely if you consider the most recent performances. The Team Q score isn’t going to break over it. Whatever though, Grace cant medal anywhere except AA so might as well give her the shot, despite Kara proving her case.
I can see why someone called “shamrock” would heart “McCallum” over Eaker.
Tom needs to be very clear in his messaging. Is it about the highest TQ and TF scores? Is it about the most medals we can bring home and giving the athletes with the strongest chances to win the best medal that opportunity? Where’s the line? 1 point sacrifice in TQ or TF for an extra individual medal opportunity? Does most recent competitions count more than those from months ago? What about consistency? How is all this determined?
Transparency is key and people are jumping to all sorts of conclusions with his vague explanations. His condescension when interviewed by Jessica both showed his lack of patience for Gymcastic and this blog has become. Let’s be honest, it is millennials acting like 14 year old girls at this point. Someone needs to pretend the grownup though.