THE 2020 STORY Over the last couple seasons, Michigan has enjoyed a sharp evolution from being a team that was talented but also probably going to miss on beam at a crucial moment to one that is increasingly dangerous against the very top schools. That continued in 2020 with another 5th-place finish (Michigan hasn’t done better than 5th in any season since Elise Ray was a freshman), which would have put Michigan right in contention to snatch a spot in the team final, at least if the semifinal draw turned out better than it did the year before.
THE 2020 STORY Utah will have been exceptionally pleased with how the 2020 season was playing out…until it wasn’t playing out any longer. Despite the team having to do without MyKayla Skinner, 2020 (if we count it as real) will go down as Utah’s best result since 2015 and second-best result of the last decade—thanks almost entirely to a beam resurgence. Utah would have entered the postseason as a comfortable favorite to make nationals and would have been in a fascinating fight with the likes of LSU to see who could make the team final.
THE 2020 STORY Alabama’s 2020 season wasn’t…as bad as 2019? It didn’t take nearly as long to get into 197 gear, and the team was probably on track for a surprisingly good ranking and a pretty cushy postseason draw following those last couple road meets that never happened.
To some extent, the artificial end of the season scuttled Alabama’s chance to change that DECLINE narrative, but still, 2020 did not represent a recovery to the Alabama of old, and this team wouldn’t have challenged for a title or (probably) made the team final.
The We’re Still Doing This? Championships are still doing this. Yesterday, the big news came that Larisa Iordache has indeed been added to Romania’s team for the European Championships following her performance at the national championships, a showing that clearly reinforced that she’s the best one. Just in life.
Iordache replaces Daniela Trica from the nominative team. I mayyy have previously described it as “obvious” that Romania would bump Maria Holbura to make room for Iordache, and……stand by it? It’s not a huge deal for the actual team prospects—if we’re being honest, Romania should just count Iordache, Sfiringu, and Stanciulescu on every event and could fill out the team with a Ponor leotard and Claudia Presacan’s candle cup—but that’s sort of why I favored keeping Trica. Not only did she earn the spot over Holbura at nationals, but she could use this somewhat low-stakes but still significant opportunity more, especially since Trica is more likely to hang around and be needed next quad when Romania will try to pull itself out of the ditch. At the same time, I understand the desire to keep Holbura at competition readiness given that she’s going to the Olympics.
The men’s competition gets started this week with the juniors kicking things off early on Wednesday. The whole competition for both men and women will be streamed, qualification on SmartScoring’s site and finals as a real broadcast.
