A. Simone’s triple double: beam edition
With the opening salvo of “gymnastics is back” season (?)—at least for a couple months before “oh wait never mind no it’s not” season—Simone posted a video of herself doing a triple double beam dismount into a pit.
On the scale of realism, this is certainly in the “just crashing into the pit because gymnastics is supposed to be fun” category (Morgan Hurd countered with a similar double double of her own), but it’s also Simone, so who knows.
Because the double double was given just an H, Simone ditched it immediately after getting it named for herself at worlds because the potential for deductions essentially makes it not worth the single tenth gained over the full-in, a very comfortable skill for her. But if she flexed and went up to a triple double (which at this point would presumably be I-value—what we thought the double double would be), I’m saying I wouldn’t be mad about it.
“I will use this extra year to invent ONE HUNDRED new Bileseses.”
Meanwhile, we need a better system for awarding values of provisional skills. You shouldn’t have to wait until worlds to discover the official value of the thing you’re planning to do. You know we have the internet now, right?
B. Another one down
Seattle Pacific announced this week that the gymnastics program would be terminated immediately. Which, per my analysis, sucks and is also bad.
A DII team, SPU finished the 2020 “season” ranked 62nd nationally and made waves with the floor performance of senior Darian Burns, who scored as high as 9.925 for this excellence.
So while we thought that the advent of LIU’s program would get us back to 82 teams, it’s really going to be getting us back to 81. For now.
Speaking of LIU, your weekly update on who is joining the team for next season features Australia’s Talia Folino and Britain’s Izzy Hilliard (training video), the latest two to join the party. You’ll be more familiar with Folino, a member of Australia’s worlds team in 2017 and 2019, whose most impressive event is floor but has the elite-level skill set to be a critical four-event contributor. Folino would be a get for most programs, let alone a new one.
In other news, Kenadi Brown is transferring from Alaska to New Hampshire, Gracie Kramer will continue the UCLA-to-USU pipeline in becoming a volunteer assistant at Utah State, and the contact period has now begun for those athletes who would join NCAA programs for the 2022-2023 competitive season. LOL. Like any of us will still be alive in 2023.
C. Garbage fire updates
While USAG and the USOPC ooze their way through USAG’s bankruptcy proceedings largely unnoticed because it’s way too complicated and I, for one, definitely don’t understand a word of it, a judge did rule this week that the lawyers for the survivors can depose some USOPC officials—but have to choose only two in addition to the CFO.
I’d imagine Scott Blackmun will be one of the two lucky winners.
The survivors have also demanded that the justice department release the findings of its investigation into how badly the FBI swamp-farted its own investigation of That Guy. So basically we have to investigate the investigation of the investigation into Nassar. Everything’s going great. IT ALL WORKS FINE.
D. John Orozco
Our interview with John Orozco, in which be basically confirms everything you’ve ever suspected about the US men’s program but didn’t have any actual information to back up, is now available for all listeners.
Been rewatching old US National Championships and was curious on some your guys favorite US gymnasts? I’ve been watching 2000-present and I’d say mine are Courtney Kupets, Alicia Sacramone, Shawn Johnson, Simone, and Aly Raisman.
McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, Shawn Johnson, Morgan Hurd
Gymnastically, I liked Ashton, as a person… you know.
I’m an old but: Elise Ray, Jamie Dantzscher, Alyssa Beckerman, Tabitha Yim, Terin Humphrey (her GYMNASTICS), Ashley Postell, Liz Tricase, Chellsie Memmel, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Simone (obvi)
Tabitha Yim!!! Had forgot about her! Triple twisting right into my heart. Gonna rewatch her 2001 nationals.
Is Liz Tricase the girl with the fabulous double layout 1/1?
One of mine all time favs is Courtney McCool, stunned she wasn’t used in Athens.
She wasn’t used in Athens because she was a complete headcase.
Kathy Johnson, Shannon Miller, Amy Chow, Ebee Price, Riley McCusker.
Liz Reid. Huge giant gap. Julianne McNamara.
Nastia Liukin, Rebecca Bross, Aly Raisman. At their peak in a three up-three count I think they would be unstoppable.
LMAo Raisman? ugh!
LMAO at YOUR comment.
Jah’Liyah Bedminister just announced she will also be going to LIU. She was a previous walk on Georgia commit.
You know based on the commits and transfers LIU is getting I think they might actually have a shot at making regionals next season. Providing that there is one of course.
Speaking as a New Yorker, no sane person would choose to live in Long Island.
Why? What’s so bad about it? (just wondering)
Brooklyn is a very popular and hip place to live at the current moment, which is where the main campus is located. I can see the allure of living in Brooklyn and being super close to Manhattan.
Long Island is basically Jersey. It’s a land of Karens, just with scary fingernails and chunky jewelry. Guys are wannabe Guidos. It’s basically the world’s largest suburb with around 7 million people give or take.
Brooklyn has been very trendy of late for sure.
Suni Lee has a boot on…
No she doesn’t.
If you are talking about the training videos of her, she was wearing weighted boots on UB, which are frequently used during UB training. Her BB training shows her without the boots.
uh… yeah, she does 🙄
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/hbgjdv/why_is_suni_in_a_boot/
Calm the fuck down, Bad Girls Club applicant. Nobody cares for your attitude.
Next time it might be helpful for you to have provided the photo to begin with. A vague post doesn’t help. Considering a week ago she was fine in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-TtrmyeoeQ&t (in which she is wearing boots on UB). I do apologize as I hadn’t seen the pic which was just uploaded yesterday.
Shamrock YOU WAS WRONG… own it! A week ago? Gurl bye. With them training now social media uploads are daily. Try again. Might be helpful to hold your hand and make sure you know before you THINK YOU KNOW. A simple search would have sufficed. You was wrong. you looked dumb trying to be a know it all, response trigger happy. Got clocked… log off.
I meant to answer to the comment above lol. Anyway shut up troll.
I (provided the pic) am not the same as the original anon – no one’s trying to catch you out here.
I just didn’t understand why you couldn’t be like “I haven’t seen this, are you sure you didn’t mean her UB boots which are for a different purpose?” instead of making a big confident declaration like you’re Sunisa’s personal coach and treating the first poster like they are an idiot.
Not sure why it triggered the (other) troll. I agree with you it doesn’t sound like anything too serious.
Fractured foot, out two weeks
Two weeks is nothing. She will be fine come spring when it matters. Good luck for her that the Olympics aren’t next month.
lmao oh no more long posts about gymnasts wearing boots for training , how common it is… know it all? lmao.
Yep, much better to have a bone injury than a muscle injury.
Sincerely,
Broke my foot three times.
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing Darian Burns/ floor! I have never seen it before and I am now a happier person. Loved it!
I could see that routine in a lot of strong team’s lineups
“shamclocked”…what a creative troll. “You was wrong”. LOLLLLLLLLLLL. You look dumb with your poor grammar.
I did make a mistake though and for that I apologize to the original poster.
Ondine Achampong has verbally committed to Cal.
Unless she has a big uptick I’m skills before she arrives I’m not seeing why she was recruited (and verballed) From the UK … there are plenty of kids here with similar or better skill sets that Cal could have signed. She’s not the new Danusia…
She’s UK junior AA champion, isn’t she…? Who are the plenty of other UK kids?
Who said she’s the new Danusia? Huh, what a strange thing to say! And why not recruit from overseas?
Of course there are thousands of amazing gymnasts here in the US. But Cal-Berkeley is very hard to get into (a very great academic university), so not even close to all of those eligible gymnasts in the US could get in there.
I honestly think it’s amazing to bring in people from different countries (yes, I realize it’s another majority white, English-speaking country she will be coming from). Diversity of countries brings in new ideas, new perspectives, and new opportunities for people to learn from others.
Also, she isn’t white, & I think right now, more than ever (except it should’ve been an always thing), it should be celebrated to bring on people of different races.
That’s my opinion, though, & I’m sure I’ll get some backlash from others. While I will think that’s shitty, to receive backlash for this opinion, I’m a-okay with what I said because I fully stand behind it.
& uh, one more thing…
Yes, she is the current Junior English AND British AA Champion, & she has many other accolades! I mean, geeze, in her first Senior WAG competition, the Melbourne World Cup in February of this year, she placed 2nd on the balance beam! She also placed 4th in the FX EF behind Jade Carey, Vanessa Ferrari, & Lara Mori… I’d have to say that’s a pretty damn good start to her Senior career!
It seems like the original poster may not know of Ondine’s many high level accomplishments, so if that is the case, here ya go, check her out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondine_Achampong?wprov=sfti1
ahhh this has been another lovely instance of “come for spencer’s sarcasm – stay for the comments” <3
I just read an article on ESPN about the Patriot League (don’t think there are any Patriot League schools with gymnastics teams) and its decision to prohibit air travel for fall sports.
If other conferences/schools join in, this could have very interesting (in a bad way) implications for NCAA gymnastics. The schools that fly private will probably be fine, but programs that (1) fly commercial and (2) aren’t located near a lot of other gymnastics teams could have some really significant scheduling challenges. I’m thinking specifically of Alaska but there are probably others.
I did see Odine ‘s list of accomplishments and watched her videos on line and I wasn’t impressed to the point that I would think she’d be signed by Cal . I just think Cal has plenty of time to look at other prospects before they commit to anyone.
Well, you are wrong, so
I haven’t heard of anyone else from the UK ranks who’d be a better choice at this point (and as mentioned Cal does have a fairly high standard for athlete admission that other schools – except Stanford – do not have).
I feel like Achampong is a good option to be verballed since it’s not binding and she does show potential, but it’s fair to be skeptical. It’s still early and I feel like a pretty beamer isn’t quite as rare in NCAA as a really strong vaulter and thus doesn’t need to get snapped up quickly.
Are you her mother ? Seem a little too peeved for a stranger’s opinion on a recruit …. plenty of people voice opinions on recruits just so you know …
I haven’t posted on this topic before and am most definitely not Ondine’s mother but I thought the criticism was weird. Ondine is more accomplished than most of the level 10s who get scholarships, so it seems like an odd thing to criticize.