Men’s Olympic Trials Day 1 – Live Blog

Trials. It’s happening.

For the first day of men’s competition, I’d say the most important performance belongs to Shane Wiskus. He was on all the prospective teams before nationals, but his performance at that meet left other options looking at least as viable. A real hit on high bar as well as improvements on vault would do wonders for his chances.

So in the first rotation, seeing if Wiskus can come up with better vault landings than he had at nationals will be significant, as will Brody Malone on high bar, who needs to produce another hit there to be like, “I’m obviously on the team.”

Leading off the first rotation will be Donnell Whittenburg attempting a Ri Se Gwang I, so…it won’t be boring.

Also we’re starting with the three rotation groups on vault, PBars, and HBar for some reason. You know, like the order you have. And then on day 2, they’re starting on floor, rings, and Pbars. There must be a reason for this madness…but what?

NBCSN is the TV broadcast, and the apparatus stream is here.

Oooh, Nedoroscik got the coveted “third person we cut to” role, following Malone and Mikulak. Big upset.

Nastia is going as Rita Skeeter for men’s.

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Olympic Trials – Broadcast Schedule and Links

Thursday, June 24
Scores Stream
6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT – Men’s Trials Day 1 LINK NBCSN

Events

Friday, June 25
Scores Stream

7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT – Women’s Trials Day 1
(First half of rotation 1)

LINK OLY

NBC stream

Events

8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Women’s Trials Day 1
(Remainder of competition)
LINK NBC

Events

Saturday, June 26
Scores Stream
3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT – Men’s Trials Day 2
(Rotation 1)
LINK OLY

NBC stream

Events

4:00pm ET/1:00pm PT  – Men’s Trials Day 2
(Remainder of competition)
LINK NBC

Events

Sunday, June 27
Scores Stream
8:00pm ET/5:00pm PT – Women’s Trials Day 2
(First half of rotation 1)
LINK OLY

NBC stream

Events

8:30pm ET/5:30pm PT – Women’s Trials Day 2
(Remainder of competition)
LINK NBC

Events

All of this requires a US-based cable log-in, so don’t ask.

The 10 Most Important Routines at Olympic Trials

By way of a preview of the Olympic Trials—which start tomorrow, as in actually tomorrow—I’m dispensing with some of the headlines we’ve played into the ground and instead running through what I view as the actual most important routines in the competition for defining what the Olympic squads will look like.

So, no, Simone’s routines aren’t that important. She could vape right into a baby’s crib as her beam mount and still make the team.

1. Grace McCallum’s Bars

Much attention will be on Grace McCallum at trials because she has recently found herself only a few tenths shy of a place on the highest-scoring potential teams—all while competing below the level we’ve seen from her in the past. Progressing back up to her 2019 quality could very well get McCallum a top-4 all-around placement and a spot on the team.

I was tempted to say floor is the most important for McCallum because that’s somewhere she could add a tenth or so to the team score by stepping up some of the tumbling and give herself another compelling event, but the real appeal of McCallum is her “all-arounder you could use anywhere” status. Her best Olympic case is that she gives you anything and everything. A tenth over here, a tenth over there, a backup routine over there.

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