Today, as we hurtle ever closer to worlds, I’m checking in on the best scores on each apparatus recorded in 2022*. Across all four of these top-10 lists, China owns 14 scores, the US has 13 scores, Gadirova Britain has 6 scores, Brazil has 4 scores, Italy has 3, and Hungary has 1.

*Only worlds-eligible gymnasts are included.

VAULT (2 VT AVERAGE)
1.	Jade Carey	14.650	US Nationals Day 1
2.	Jade Carey	14.567	US September Camp
3.	Jade Carey	14.475	US Nationals Day 2
4.	Jessica Gadirova	14.150	English Championship
5.	Jordan Chiles	14.117	US September Camp
6.	Asia D’Amato	13.967	Jesolo Qualification
7.	Zsofia Kovacs	13.933	European Event Final
8.	Leanne Wong	13.900	US Classic
8.	Jessica Gadirova	13.900	British Nationals Event Final
10.	Asia D’Amato	13.875	Mediterranean Games

BARS
1.	Wei Xiaoyuan	15.000	Asian Championship Qualification
2.	Rebeca Andrade	14.967	Pan American AA/Event Final
2.	Rebeca Andrade	14.967	Brazilian Nationals Day 2
2.	Luo Rui	14.967	Chinese Nationals Event Final
2.	Wei Xiaoyuan	14.967	Chinese Nationals Event Final
6.	Wei Xiaoyuan	14.900	Chinese Nationals Team Final
7.	Shilese Jones	14.850	US Nationals Day 1
7.	Luo Rui	14.850	Chinese Nationals Team Final
9.	Alice D’Amato	14.800	Serie A Final
10.	Shilese Jones	14.767	US September Camp
10.	Wei Xiaoyuan	14.767	Asian Championship Event Final

BEAM
1.	Sun Xinyi	14.850	Chinese Nationals Team Final
2.	Konnor McClain	14.800	US Nationals Day 1
2.	Zhou Yaqin	14.800	Chinese Nationals Team Final
4.	Tang Xijing	14.767	Asian Championship Trial
5.	Luo Rui	14.650	Chinese Nationals Team Final
6.	Sun Xinyi	14.633	Asian Championship Trial
6.	Wu Ran	14.633	Asian Championship Qualification
6.	Wu Ran	14.633	Asian Championship Event Final
9.	Konnor McClain	14.600	Winter Cup
10.	Wu Ran	14.533	Asian Championship Trial

FLOOR
1.	Jessica Gadirova	14.600	British Nationals Event Final
2.	Shilese Jones	14.250	US Nationals Day 2
3.	Flavia Saraiva	14.133	Brazilian Nationals Day 2
4.	Shilese Jones	14.100	US Nationals Day 1
5.	Jade Carey	14.050	US Nationals Day 1
5.	Jessica Gadirova	14.050	British Nationals Day 1
5.	Jessica Gadirova	14.050	English Championship
8.	Jordan Chiles	14.000	US September Camp
8.	Jessica Gadirova	14.000	European Event Final
8.	Rebeca Andrade	14.000	Brazilian Nationals Day 2

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Armed and not to be trusted with this information, it’s time to play a little game called What Is the Best Possible Worlds Team You Could Pick Using Anyone From Any Country? We’re still workshopping the title. Seems long-ish.

The highest-scoring team one could come up with is this one (using single-vault scores because that’s what team is):

Rebeca Andrade	14.700	14.967	14.433	14.000
Shilese Jones	14.550	14.850		14.250
Konnor McClain	14.400		14.800
Luo Rui		14.967	14.650
Jessica Gadirova				14.600
	43.650	44.784	43.883	42.850	175.167

Now, if this were real life, I’m not sure that I would trust that Gadirova 14.600 from British as real and would also consider Jade Carey for that position on the team to deliver a floor score and improve the vault total by several tenths. A team with Carey in place of Gadirova also goes into the 175s.

In fact, a “light a candle and hold on for dear life” team with Jade Carey and Sun Xinyi joining Andrade, Jones, and Luo comes in only a tenth behind the previous team.

Rebeca Andrade	14.700	14.967	14.433	14.000
Shilese Jones	14.550	14.850		14.250
Sun Xinyi			14.850
Luo Rui		14.967	14.650
Jade Carey	14.800			14.050
	44.050	44.784	43.933	42.300	175.067

Luo Rui delivers the best combination of bars and beam scores, though by only a little more than a tenth over Tang Xijing, whom you might also consider for having more realistic events, even though her floor wouldn’t be used on a best-in-the-world team.

Wei Xiaoyuan’s world-leading bars score doesn’t really get her into these five because the bars scores from Andrade, Jones, and Luo are very close to her, and they all have at least one other event.

For reference, the highest-scoring team you can come up with that doesn’t include Rebeca Andrade would be at 174.682, which would include Jones, McClain, Tang, Luo, and either Carey or Gadirova (both the same score). The top team that doesn’t include Shilese Jones would be at 174.882 and would include Andrade, Gadirova, Carey, Luo, and Tang.

So anyway, this was a very productive use of time and I’m pretty much the same as a doctor.

The time has come for the post-Classic score update where all our questions can finally be answered. Now, because of how light the senior field was at Classic, “all our questions” amounts to exactly one question: where does Leanne Wong fit in the current team conversation after this meet?

Using everyone’s top score recorded in 2022, the highest-scoring US team remains unchanged, largely because the 13.7 that eMjae Frazier scored on beam at Winter Cup and the 13.85 she scored on floor at Jesolo remain ahead of the 13.5 and 13.6 that Wong got on beam and floor at Classic.

	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor
Konnor McClain	14.400	13.933	14.600	13.900
Skye Blakely	14.266	13.933	14.300	13.550
Shilese Jones	14.400	14.500	13.550	13.700
Zoe Miller	13.650	14.633	12.133	12.650
eMjae Frazier	14.133	13.400	13.700	13.850
	43.066	43.066	42.600	41.450	170.182

But it’s possible to take a slightly more nuanced approach to things than just the single highest score on each event over a 7-month period, and methods where we start to use averages do indeed put Wong on the highest-scoring team of five solely because of her Classic results.

Basing the team on straight average score for the whole year, Wong would move onto the above team to create the highest score along with a couple other shifts that are…interesting and probably unrealistic in the bars department. But that’s where we are right now.

	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor
Konnor McClain	14.200	13.404	14.022	13.242
Kayla DiCello	12.8585	13.758	12.1665	13.556
Shilese Jones	14.244	14.271	12.729	13.150
Ashlee Sullivan	14.061	12.750	13.500	13.078
Leanne Wong	14.400	12.850	13.550	13.600
	42.844	41.433	41.072	40.397	165.7465

Alternately, we could take the current Japanese approach to determining the highest-scoring team—the average of your top two scores on each apparatus (at least, for those who have two).

	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor
Konnor McClain	14.300	13.833	14.3165	13.733
Skye Blakely	14.133	13.9165	13.900	13.458
Shilese Jones	14.350	14.400	13.5085	13.675
Zoe Miller	13.525	14.550	12.0415	12.500
Leanne Wong	14.400	12.850	13.550	13.600
	43.050	42.8665	41.7665	41.008	168.691

Essentially, you can cherry pick whatever variation on the method gets you the team you want (shhh, don’t tell the others), i.e. if you take this method and use only scores from public competitions and eliminate closed-door camps, you would see Frazier replace Blakely on this team. But the headline is that after one competition composed of two good events, one medium event, and a miss, Wong already is—or is at least very close to—making up the best US worlds team, which bodes very well for her chances as we progress.

From the performances over the first 7 months of the year, this third team seems a pretty reasonable estimate of what the best US team looks like, but there’s so much more action to come. DiCello appeared on the average-score team instead of Blakely, which seems quite realistic if she hits beam and gets her DTY back. Plus, of course, there’s the Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey factors, which are still TBD.

Of entirely pointless but also interesting nature: If I give Carey and Chiles what I think would be realistic scores for their previous routines under the new code’s vault values and CV changes—very rough, very guessy, but you know—that would have them replace Wong and Blakely on the above team, leaving Miller. That speaks to how challenging it may end up being to shift Miller off a highest-scoring team in a non-Suni year, despite the fact that she’s contributing only one event. Miller and Jones having mid-14s on bars while most other people are in the 13.9s is a huge asset that’s difficult to make up with an event like beam that’s all…beam.

Basically, regardless of what method you decide to use right now (best score, average score, average of international meets, yada yada yada), Konnor McClain and Shilese Jones are all the teams. I couldn’t find a method that didn’t include them, which means they’re currently most impervious to Olympian comebacks. Everyone else shifts in and out depending on what you decide to look at, but the next most frequent team member after those two is Zoe Miller. I’ll be keeping an eye on whether that remains the case after nationals, especially if we see Jordan Chiles compete, someone who should be going over 14 with a hit bars, or if we see a hit and fully connected bars from Wong, which could disrupt what currently looks valuable.

It’s time for a little score check-in. Now that we have a few more numbers for everyone, it’s a little easier to see where we are now and what people need to do at nationals in a week’s time (!) to save their team-selection narratives.

These scores take into account every meet so far in 2021 for those who have qualified to nationals, along with the associated/presumed petition people. (I think. We’ll know whenever USAG announces the roster.)

I’ll start with what happens when taking everyone’s best score on each event from any competition in 2021.

Best Score All-Around

So, no surprise that Simone is on top with two falls. The thing I didn’t expect before hitting “sort” was Leanne Wong up there tied with DiCello in third place. That’s largely thanks to her vault and floor scores from the March camp, which were quite a bit higher than we saw from her at the Classic meets on those events. Whether that’s a realistic representation of what we might see at nationals/trials, who can say, but it’s worth keeping in mind that her apparent peak is right up there for now.

Continue reading US Scores, Post-Classic →

At regionals, 41 routines were deemed perfect by at least one judge. The four-judge splits are included here.

The 10.000s

Ona Loper – Vault – Minnesota – Regional Semifinal
(10.000/10.000/10.000/10.000)

Trinity Thomas – Bars – Florida – Regional Semifinal
(10.000/10.000/10.000/10.000)

Anastasia Webb – Bars – Oklahoma – Regional Semifinal
(10.000/10.000/10.000/9.950)

Makarri Doggette – Bars – Alabama – Regional Semifinal
(10.000/10.000/10.000/9.950)

Luisa Blanco – Beam – Alabama – Regional Semifinal
(10.000/10.000/10.000/10.000)

Lynnzee Brown – Bars – Denver – Regional Final
(10.000/10.000/10.000/9.950)

Lynnzee Brown – Floor – Denver – Regional Final
(10.000/10.000/10.000/10.000)

Olivia Trautman – Vault – Oklahoma – Regional Final
(10.000/10.000/10.000/9.950)

Haleigh Bryant – Vault – LSU – Regional Final
(10.000/10.000/10.000/9.950)

Continue reading Top Scores of Regional Championships →