This is a place of honesty, so let’s be real. We’re coming up on one of the two weeks every year when you decide to start paying attention to men’s gymnastics again and suddenly have very strong opinions about it that are based on a whole lot.

It’s a gymternet tradition.

So, to get you up to speed after 12 months of not watching very much of the boys doing all the strongies and the flippies or whatever they do, here’s a little primer. We’ll all just pretend I’m not in the exact same situation as you. Suspension of disbelief!

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All-around champion

Here’s the most important thing to know: Moldauer/Modi is the new Shawn/Nastia. Everyone will need to pick a favorite right this minute and then make a screen name about it and have internet fights.

Yul Moldauer has developed into a fairly obsession-worthy character because of execution. Be fully prepared for Moldauer to show up with a D-Score total that is not only well behind Modi’s but that gives away a solid 2 points to the best AAers in the world. Moldauer is nonetheless the tentative favorite to become national champion next weekend because he can make up difficulty gaps through execution and is a plausible bet to hit a 9.0 E, even on non-vault events.

On rings, for instance, Moldauer has managed to defy the odds and become quite the competitive scorer despite not looking like Bebop and Rocksteady, because he’s just so precise.

This shouldn’t necessarily be constructed as purely a battle of execution versus difficulty, however, because it’s not like Akash Modi is some D-chucking garbage monster. Still, Modi’s best opportunities to cultivate an advantage on Moldauer will come because of D and will come on the events where he begins with a significant advantage, like pommel horse.

Continue reading P&G Championship Preview – Gentleman Times →

The men’s trials probably should have been the culmination of this competition since nothing will match the tension and anticipation of last night, what with the women still in the larval stage of selecting a team and having an overall less controversial and fraught process than the men.

In further knife-made-of-lemon-juice news, the men’s alternates have been announced as Whittenburg, Leyva, and Modi, while Paul Ruggeri was given a sack of old rags and Mattie Larson’s phone number. It’s probably the right choice for alternates because someone needed to be pommel horse. Otherwise, if Naddour goes down…what would you even do? Put a basket of wishes first up in the team final? Because of pommel horse, Modi may actually be the most likely to go in if there’s an injury in a Sasha Artemev-type situation. Whittenburg is the backup for Dalton and Leyva is the backup for Brooks, but if anyone else goes down, horse may be the biggest worry.

The junior women also finished up competition today with Maile O’Keefe remaining the one who hits her routines for the win. McCusker held on for second in spite of a bars hrmmm, and Perea improved on her day 1 beam to claim third. Morgan Hurd had a bad one on beam and floor to drop to fifth, but impressing were both of the Buckeyes, Shania Adams on bars and Shilese Jones on vault and floor, and Trinity Thomas, who is going to be a thing in a couple years. Watching Thomas in this meet felt like watching the part of the fluff piece where they show old footage of the star gymnast back when she was young. This is the meet they’ll use.

Now, it’s time for the senior women. There’s not a ton of urgency in today’s performances. There’s the continuing Koclear battle of course, and Douglas probably needs a comeback score just to get the vultures off her back (though I maintain she didn’t really do anything to jeopardize her place on night one), but Biles, Raisman, and Hernandez look right on track and Nichols’ routines of consequence will be vault and floor at trials, not bars and beam here.

Still, national championship. Olympic year. Crazy-ass Trautwig comments. There’s a lot to play for. Get ready.

Continue reading Women’s Day 2 Live Blog: Watchful Eyes Are Watchful →