Things Are Happening – November 12, 2020

A. European Championships…still a go?

Despite a flurry of withdrawals, the nominative rosters have been released for December’s European Championships in Turkey. That’s still, we guess, going to be a thing.

Of note, exactly 8 women’s teams have entered a sufficient number senior athletes to get a team score, meaning all of them would advance to the WAG team final. That’s Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Czech Republic, Latvia, Croatia, and Luxembourg. Yes, Luxembourg has entered 3 seniors. It’s the only thing keeping me going. This seems like a wildly ill-advised and preposterous championship that I am growing more excited about by the minute.

The juniors will have an all-around but no team competition this year, and since there are only 20 athletes eligible for the AA final (after 2-per-country), those countries sending full teams will just have an intrasquad in qualification to see who gets Wiebered, and those with two or fewer will be automatically in.

On the senior men’s side, there are 11 senior teams with at least three athletes: Turkey, Ukraine, Israel, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, and Lithuania. Though, some of these teams like Lithuania and Croatia are only maybes in terms of being able to cobble together three routines on each event. I hope Croatia tries again. My sole dream on the men’s side is for Croatia to default into the team final and have everyone vault handspring timers like at 2018 worlds. There’s definitely something wrong with me!

B. Gymnast alliance

Today, we learned that Riley McCusker is suing Maggie Haney for all of the…all of it—bullying, body shaming, unhealthy diet, period prevention, and strenuous training on injuries including 2019’s exercise-induced rhabdomyolysis.

The litany of injuries is really quite the read. Wrist in April 2017, hamstring in summer 2017, fractured pelvis in fall 2017, foot fractures in January 2018, shoulder in early 2019, rhabdo in summer 2019…all of which she says were exacerbated by being made to train on them by Haney and Victoria Levine.

Coaches can’t do anything these days amiright?!?!?! I mean, you force an athlete to train with a life-threatening illness while making her life miserable for years and years and suddenly YOU’RE the bad guy?!?!?! How about a simple, “thank you for my rhabdo” is that too much to ask?

C. College news

The list of signings for the 2022 college season is quickly filling up—with one of the fun surprises being the announcement that Latvian elite Elina Vihrova (and future European team champion the way things are going at this point…) will be going to Penn State. We also got confirmation of Sunisa Lee’s commitment to Auburn, Grace McCallum and Kara Eaker to Utah, and Aleah Finnegan to LSU, among many others.

In other developments, Jade Carey confirmed that she will not be competing in the upcoming NCAA season and is planning to start gymnastics at Oregon State in 2022. She is currently listed on the roster because she has started academically while continuing to train for the Olympics. The article also included this from Brian Carey about Olympic qualification.

Here’s what’s really happening. No one can catch Jade on either vault or floor. On floor, Jade is at 90 points, and no one else can get there. On vault, Jade is at 90 points, and Yu Linmin is also capable of getting to 90 points, but even if she did, Yu would lose the tiebreak to Jade. (YLM would have to win Doha with an impossible score to pass Jade.) Jade is going to win both the vault and floor apparatus qualification series. The tiebreak to see which spot she gets is the better average points over all events attended, which she has on vault. So, we do already know that she’s getting the spot for vault, not floor. Go ahead and put that in pen.

D. GymCastic

Our latest episodes concern Russian Nationals, where Tatiana Nabieva won the national vault title and there’s nothing else nearly as important as that, except for this image.

Also Italian Nationals, where Giorgia Villa and Asia D’Amato tied for the AA title.

And the Friendship and Solidarity competition, won by Team Solidarity in non-dramatic fashion, and that result is very very important.

So there’s a flurry of talking to listen to.

SafeSport Bans, Investigations & an Interview with the New CEO – GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

SafeSport permanently banned Al Fong and Armine Barutyan-Fong; Arthur Akopian and Galina Marinova are facing yet another investigation; plus World Championships roster shockers and federation drama heading into Rotterdam. We also sit down with new U.S. Center for SafeSport CEO and Olympic gold medalist Benita Fitzgerald Mosley to discuss regaining trust, data privacy, case timelines, reporting, resources and what she wants to change. WIN A FULL COMMISSIONED EPISODE You pick the topic. We record a full episode about it. This is currently the ONLY way to commission a full episode. Enter the raffle by October 9. We'll draw the winner at Worlds in Rotterdam! HEADLINES • Arthur Akopian and Galina Marinova are under investigation by SafeSport AGAIN, years after the Washington Post investigation. • Al Fong and Armine Barutyan-Fong have been permanently banned by SafeSport. • Ana Barbosu speaks out about leaving Romania, the Paris medal controversy and finding a healthier training environment in the U.S. • Oksana Chusovitina declines her Worlds vault spot. • North Korea declines its Worlds team spot; Malaysia takes its place. • Taiwan's federation faces a government investigation after allegedly rejecting Worlds invitations for apparatus specialists. • Yang Fanyuwei is left off China's Worlds team despite having one of the world's top bars scores. • Georgia Godwin is not on Australia's Worlds team. • Alice Kinsella returns to the all-around with a 53.900. INTERVIEW: SAFESPORT CEO BENITA FITZGERALD MOSLEY We discuss SafeSport's  data security, case timelines, investigations, reporting, prevention and the future of the Center. SAFESPORT RESOURCES • In-Person Training Resources • Abuse Prevention Resources • Centralized Disciplinary Database Update • Extended SafeSport Hotline Hours • SafeSport Investigator Fired After Arrest GYMTERNET NEWS • Nadia Comăneci joins the judging panel of "Românii au talent." • The U.S. Classic returns to Hoffman Estates in July 2027. • Virgin Atlantic becomes Team GB's official airline for LA28. WHAT MEETS ARE ON? • Szombathely World Cup — Sept. 18–20 • Asian Games — Sept. 21–24 • Paris World Cup — Sept. 26–27, the final FIG competition before Worlds. CHAPTERS 00:00 – SafeSport Breaking News 01:40 – Akopian & Marinova Under Investigation Again 04:13 – Al Fong & Armine Barutyan-Fong Permanently Banned 07:00 – Ana Barbosu Speaks Out 09:50 – World Championships Drama 13:01 – Taiwan Federation Scandal 19:00 – China & Australia Worlds Roster Shockers 25:40 – Alice Kinsella's All-Around Return 31:39 – Full Commission Raffle & Club Gym Nerd 36:04 – SafeSport CEO Benita Fitzgerald Mosley 37:51 – Interview: The Future of SafeSport 01:29:00 – SafeSport Data Security Follow-Up 01:29:40 – gymternet News 01:34:47 – Upcoming Meets SUPPORT OUR WORK • Join Club Gym Nerd for ad-free episodes, weekly Behind the Scenes, our complete members-only archive, games, score tools, forum and live-show discounts. • Shop GymCastic. HUEL Make healthy eating simple. Get 15% OFF online with code GYMCASTIC at huel.com/GYMCASTIC. New customers only. Thank you to Huel for partnering with and supporting our show! GYMCASTIC TOOLS & RESOURCES • LA 2028 Roster Lab • Elite Score Explorer • International Gymnastics Calendar • GymCastic Games • GymCastic Newsletters • Resistance Resources

1. SafeSport Bans, Investigations & an Interview with the New CEO 01:41:00
2. Adult Gymnastics Revolution with Andrew Chupp 01:02:22
3. The History of the Gymnastics Gossip Message Board (GGMB) 01:28:44
4. Flashdance: Welding, Wigs and The Gayest Welding Burlesque Bar (COMMISSIONED) 01:31:47
5. The Robbery & The Ongoing Romanian Soap Opera: European Championships 2026 01:15:57

Basically, things are looking quite positive for Italy even with the injuries to Carofiglio and Iorio, with Villa, the D’Amatos, and Maggio excelling right now. Maggio upgraded bars and won beam, while the D’Amatos are picking thing up on floor, and Villa remains Villa.

No one who competed at Russian Nationals is going to be in the running for the Olympic team (with the possible exception of Iliankova), but Melnikova did look in stellar form at Friendship and Solidarity, the highlight of an overall rusty competition.