A. Friendship and solidarity
More details have emerged regarding the Japan/Russia/USA/China mixed meet in Tokyo on November 8th—first and foremost that it’s definitely actually happening.
It will be known as the Friendship and Solidarity Competition—but we have to watch anyway. Instead of competing for their countries, the athletes will be split up into two teams, Team Friendship and Team Solidarity, competing in a battle royale to find out once and for all which is better, friendship or solidarity. COME ON SOLIDARITY. CRUSH FRIENDSHIP IN ITS STUPID FACE. The routines will be scored in cupcakes, the vault will be a physical unicorn, and a shooting star will escort the athletes from one apparatus to the next.
The US confirmed its six-member team to the Olympic Channel as Yul Moldauer, Shane Wiskus, Paul Juda, Shilese Jones, Sophia Buter, and eMjae Frazier, with selection based on…who exists and wants to do this? I wouldn’t really read anything more into it than that. These are the national team members who are available and feel ready to do competition routines.
The US men’s group is more Olympic-y, and for them in particular, there’s the added bonus of being able to match up directly against the best in the world, as Uchimura, Nagornyy, Dalaloyan, and Kaya are all on the list to compete. So the meet may be stupid…but also really good?
Speaking of the world of meets, the Bundesliga is back and running, with Sarah Voss recording the highest AA score, Kim Bui winning bars, and Dorien Motten winning floor. Meanwhile, Tonya Paulsson won the Swedish Championship by a cool million points, with Jonna Adlerteg scoring highest on bars.
B. Jane Allen retires
British Gymnastics head Jane Allen, who in recent months has revealed herself to be a catastrophe, announced her very coincidental retirement from the position yesterday, one that was totally planned all along and had nothing to do with the Gymnast Alliance. None at all. It’s a coincidence you guys! Get her some retirement presents!!
She actually emerged from her web for a “catch you donkeys on the flip side, no consequences for thissssss champion” interview with Dan Roan, in which she basically says exactly all the wrong things, including that she is personally devastated by the last few months because she spent so much time building the marketing profile of BG (Steve Penny, is that you?) and that “it’s not the Amanda Reddin I know.” Oh well that solves it then.
The continued stance of British Gymnastics has been
It’s…it’s almost hard to believe all these athletes have no faith in the organization…
C. Germany’s out
Germany has become the latest major nation to announce that it will not be competing at the European Championships in Mersin in December. This is particularly interesting because German gymnastics was willing to send athletes to the Szombathely world cup earlier this month, and has been comfortable doing Bundesliga on its own terms. A big European Championship in Turkey is a different proposition altogether.
Basically I would not be surprised at this point if it just ends up as Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary being like “ALL THE EUROPEAN TITLES FOR ME I GUESS.”
D. And you know who else is out…
Danell!
E. GymCastic
This week, a commissioned episode all about the epic 1991 VHS extravaganza, Gymnastics Greatest Stars.
American Gabby Douglas Classic – GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast
Super exited for the quad meet!
I think Shilese Jones was smart to go after this opportunity. She can challenge for the AA title against Melnikova, but will need a little luck on BB. She can certainly get herself off to a great start heading toward 2021 Olympic run with an excellent competition.
Hoping this friendship meet can go off without a hitch because it means that an Olympic Games is possible for many of the sports. It might mean that opening and closing ceremonies are eliminated or adjusted. But if NHL, MLB, NBA, and now NFL can have seasons, there is no reason a modified Olympics can’t happen.
Fingers Crossed!
NHL and NBA had a bubble (can’t happen for Olympics), MLB didn’t and was kind of a mess, and NFL is shaping up to be a BIG mess. I really want this meet to go off without a hitch, we all do, but I don’t think it serves as a harbinger of anything.
You can do bubbles for the Olympics. Easily. Especially since multiple sports have separate venues. Instead of living with athletes from your country in the Olympic village, have it be by sport instead. Some smaller events could even be move out of Tokyo to an alternate venue. It is not like Tokyo of Japan don’t have other facilities.
I hope Yul can pull off one of his 85 meets instead of an 82. He’s either on or off and needs to show that he can be on all the time.
Funny how Jane Allen cares so much about her athletes that she misremembers the medal Amy won in Rio—bronze, not silver (Aly Raisman was runner up).
She won silver in the Not-Simone division 😂
Yes, that was such a STUPID mistake–not that Allen isn’t stupid as well as an accomplice before and after the fact of all that abuse.
Anyone who had eyes could see that he wasn’t straight…
There’s a difference between someone announcing their orientation and you deciding it for them, no matter how great you are at guessing…
(the point of coming out isn’t to surprise you)
I love how Danell talks about how one of the challenges in figuring out his sexuality was that people always put their own expectations about his sexuality on him and now Daniel comes along and proves exactly his point.
🙄
What a weird coming out? So wait, he isnt into CIS men, so he is only into transmen and transwoman? Not those big bad evil CIS men? Reeks of NO HOMO, I only like transpeople! Oh okay! Still a bit of internalized homophobia going on! But hope he finds healing.
You “hope he finds healing”? What the hell are you talking about?
Surely you aren’t so ignorant of the rampant homophobia in the Black community that you do not even know: A) Black churches are virulent hatemongering homophobes and, with the Mormons, are the biggest theofascist donors to Brianna Brown, Tonette Perkins, and all the other hate groups B) stereotypes of ‘masculinity’ are so toxic in the Black community that until recently Black gay men only felt they could be drag queens since no ‘man’ would ever be GAY C) the ‘down-low’ lying, subterfuge, and closeted behavior in the Black community is ubiquitous. There’s much more. Do try to educate yourself.
When someone comes out and has to quanitfy WHO AND WHAT they are into… and make it clear THEY ARENT INTO THIS, yeah MORE HEALING IS NEEDED. Pretty easy to follow…
I have a feeling he is VERY confused about it all. However, like most men and women coming out of the closet, the beginning is challenging and quite confusing as you begin to figure yourself out and accept who you are. Even amongst gay men there is rampant homophobia and judgements. Masc for masc! No femmes, not fats, no Asians. Etc.
Based on his tweet, it appears that Danell has had struggles with this for some time now. Family and societal pressure can be hard to face and overcome. He had a gf for years, Giuliana Pino. Unsure if they are still together or not. They were pretty serious for a while.
Anon
OCTOBER 21, 2020 AT 8:31 AM
Surely you aren’t so ignorant of the rampant homophobia in the Black community that you do not even know: A) Black churches are virulent hatemongering homophobes and, with the Mormons, are the biggest theofascist donors to Brianna Brown, Tonette Perkins, and all the other hate groups B) stereotypes of ‘masculinity’ are so toxic in the Black community that until recently Black gay men only felt they could be drag queens since no ‘man’ would ever be GAY C) the ‘down-low’ lying, subterfuge, and closeted behavior in the Black community is ubiquitous. There’s much more. Do try to educate yourself.
Lol ooh chile… What does this have to do with anything? Leyva aint black sis! He aint afro cuban! He is cuban! But Im glad you took your Black Gay oppression course 101. I can’t wait for you to tell me the rapid evil White Fragility course you took so you can get your FACT hashtag quota from your echo chamber of woke aka annoyin morons! When someone says educate yourself, they mean BELIEVE WHAT I SAY AND NEVER QUESTION IT.
Bye!
I’d guess the choice of Shilese/Sophia/eMjae is basically “you’re national team veterans, but we don’t really expect you to be part of the realistic conversation for Olympics or Worlds in 2020, and we want you to have the opportunity to do something cool in Tokyo instead of just Jesolo, Classic and Nationals”. I could be completely wrong, though, maybe they’ve picked up some crazy new skills like everyone else in this post-quarantine boom…