Category Archives: U.S. Championships

Live Blog, U.S. Championships

US Nationals – Senior Women Day 1 Live Blog

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7:00pm CT
NBCSN stream
International feed
Scores

If you’re looking at that start list and already getting heart palpitations about the routines you know won’t be shown on the broadcast even though they should be, then yes.

In the first rotation, of course we’ll have Simone Andromedon Biles likely unveiling the triple double opening pass. “And that right there. If she does that…what we call a skill…if she does that skill…just like that…at the world championships…that will become the Biles.”

But, we’ll also have some critical beam routines opening up that rotation as Wong and Lee try to make world championships cases. It’s tough to get into a beam picture with Biles, Eaker, McCusker, but you’ve got to start somewhere. We’ve also got a big moment for Skinner showing this floor routine. If it’s not vaguely close to 14ish, it will be a tough argument. The US has lots of high 13s on floor. Continue reading US Nationals – Senior Women Day 1 Live Blog →

Live Blog, U.S. Championships

US Nationals – Junior Women Day 1 Live Blog

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Here’s your start list for the junior women’s competition:

No taking it easy to begin the meet as we open with a couple significant routines. Barros is up first on floor—so it will just be downhill after that—and Greaves opens on vault with her new DTY, the landing of which will be fairly determinative for her AA hopes.

We’ll also have Konnor McClain third up on floor in the first group and a couple key beam sets from Pilgrim and Witte.

OK, the dude said it like “Kayla Di Sello.” Normally I would ignore, but after the Kara Eaker bombshell…

Anyway, if you weren’t on twitter this morning, apparently it’s pronounced like “Kara Acre” now. My world is shattered.

Looks like we have some more tying the warmup jacket around your neck like a cape action, and the mid-90s realness of this is making me very happy.

Yes, the stream is cutting in and out for everyone.

Anna Li is here judging.

Kittia Carpenter is also judging floor. In case you wanted more coaches here judging current/former athletes, which no one sees anything wrong with apparently because we live in a cyclone. Continue reading US Nationals – Junior Women Day 1 Live Blog →

U.S. Championships

US Nationals – Men’s Day 1 in Review

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Now that we’re done with the action, I’m updating this post with reflections on day 1 of senior men’s competition at US Nationals

  • Sam Mikulak hit (or “hit”) six events to go 86.750 and lead the competition by a dramatic margin of nearly three points. It was a good one, with serious highs like PB…and also whatever that vault was. He’s doing fine.
  • Yul Moldauer didn’t stick as many landings as we’ve come to expect, much to the chagrin of Tim Daggett, and his rings E score was obscenely low for reasons I’m not quite sure I understand yet. Still, he did just enough to place 2nd with 84.000. He did the job and remains essential on some key events, even while doing a KOHEI 2012 on his pommel horse dismount. In contrast to rings, that pommel horse score seemed obscenely high for reasons I’m not quite sure I understand yet.
  • After that, it’s tumbleweed time
  • It got exactly 0% easier to round out a world championships team with three final members because Colin van Wicklen withdrew from the day with a concussion (which would potentially bode well for his being able to return in time for selection camp), and we also had people like Alec Yoder falling on pommel horse and finishing 15th AA, which is not ideal, and Allan Bower falling on HB and finishing 10th AA.
  • I actually think Yoder’s potential worlds-team position didn’t take too much of a hit despite the fall because the upside of his pommel horse routine is still so appealing. If you try to put together the highest-scoring five-member team based on today’s results, it includes Steven Nedoroscik for his 14.950 on horse. Yoder can scores 15s while bringing other potential events, so as long as he hits…at least sometimes…his PH strength is still a major asset. He can afford a fall on the first day of nationals. Not sure he can afford a ton of falls throughout the process though.
  • Bower still did break 14 on PH and PB, which are useful events for him. Meanwhile, his all-around total took a hit mostly because of HB, which is not an event you’d expect from him.
  • There were some high profile falls today, but for the most part it was a day of “your hair looks…fine.” It was…OK. Which is to be expected. And I have to say there were as many under-the-radar impressive days as there were rough moments.
  • Those big, impressive days belonged to Shane Wiskus and Trevor Howard, who placed 3rd and 5th respectively. Wiskus recorded the highest vault score of the day (vault didn’t go great as a family, so a mid-14 counted as high), scored a massive 14.500 on PB, and went 14.250 on floor. He changed his narrative from being one of the rabble to a legitimate contender with that meet. But he’ll have to do it again on Saturday.
  • We know Trevor Howard has the rings routine—which he hit for 14.550 to place 2nd on the event—but he also delivered scores over 14 on both vault and PB to elevate his chances to make a true “team contribution” style argument. PBars looked really good today across the field. A lot of believable routines from a lot of people there. It was the highlight event.
  • Not to be overlooked in the “having a great day” conversation was Akash Modi, though it’s a little more expected that he’d be toward the top of the standings because he’s been there before. He’s level with Wiskus for 3rd place in the all-around, with a 14.500 on PB and right around a 14 on FX, PH, and SR. If he continues competing like this, he can fulfill the “gives you something on a bunch of events” role he played last year on the world’s team. (Though it looks like he has a rival for that role in Wiskus now.) None of the scores today were exceptionally high except for PB, but a lot of them are close enough, and that can make a difference.
  • Donnell Whittenburg took 7th all-around, which isn’t a shockingly high placement (HB had a lot to do with that) but did reflect a better day than I expected based on his comments coming into the competition. He’s not there yet, but he recorded a strong rings score of 14.500 and got to 14 on PB on the strength of his difficulty. If he continues doing this, he’ll at least be back in the national team mix, even if Trevor Howard is basically supplanting him in this year’s worlds team conversation. Or at least challenging him.
  • So where are we with respect to that worlds team? No different than we were to start the day. I’m not making any conclusions based on this. Why?
  • Well, your highest scoring team worlds team based only on today’s scores would be Mikulak, Moldauer, Whittenburg, Wiskus, and Nedoroscik…so that doesn’t help because it doesn’t seem too realistic to me.
  • Honestly, the Pan Am Games team has got to feel better about their chances than they were when they woke up this morning because even though they didn’t have an immensely solid meet themselves, they boast some routines that can be influential compared to the scores the guys put up today. I think Neff and Malone can look at what they’re capable of on HB (with a couple other supporting events) compared to the gymnasts today and think…I can add something to a team.
U.S. Championships

US Nationals Podium Training

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Simone’s Upgrades

OK, so we have to talk about this little nobody and her boring gymnastics. At the very end of podium training today, Biles busted out a double double beam dismount (she did it twice, actually). Which is kind of a big deal.

But this is a website for nerds, so we can skip past all the “WOW. LEGEND. HOW. NOT HUMAN” (yes, yes, we know) and get right to the fun stuff: D-scores. It’s going to be interesting to see how this element is evaluated because we don’t truly have a gauge for its rating since no beam skill has ever received more than a G before. And the full-in is already a G.

Only on floor has the WTC previously broken out of the G-cap and rated elements higher than that, adding H and I skills. It would seem that Simone is forcing them to break out of this mold on beam as well since it would be crazy to artificially cap this element at G.

But how much breaking out of the mold will happen? My instinct is that they might only be willing to go to H at this point, but you can certainly justify higher. The full-in beam dismount is worth three tenths more than the double tuck dismount. On floor, the double double tucked is worth three tenths more than the full twist. So basically, the code’s own precedent says that this dismount should be a J element (which has never happened before on any event), but when has the code ever cared about its own precedent?

We’ll just have to wait and see what these D scores look like. Even before submitting a skill for naming at worlds, you submit it for a provisional rating so that the judges at a competition like nationals are on the same page and know what to do with it.

“And, frankly, if you had asked me 10 years ago if it was even POSSIBLE for a HUMAN BEING to do this on a balance beam, I would have said NO WAY.” – Tim Daggett, two days from now. Mark it down.

Meanwhile, Simone also included the triple double as her opening floor pass (actually in the routine itself this time, not separate), which totally got overshadowed because we had already seen her do that skill at Classic podium training, so yawn.

The pass arrangement in her Nationals PT routine went as follows, compared to her US Classic routine:

Simone Biles – Floor
US Nationals PT
 US Classic
Triple double –
I (presumably)		 Double layout full + Split jump –
H + A – 0.1 CV
Double layout 1/2 + Stag jump – G + A – 0.1 CV Double layout 1/2 + Front layout – G + B – 0.2 CV
Switch leap full – D Switch leap full – D
Wolf turn double – D Wolf turn double – D
Front full through to full-twisting double tuck –
C + E – 0.2 CV		 Front full through to full-twisting double tuck –
C + E – 0.2 CV
Switch leap – B Switch leap – B
Split leap 1.5 – D Split leap 1.5 – D
Double-twisting double tuck – H Double double tucked – H
CR – 2.0 CR – 2.0
Acro – IHGEC – 3.2 Acro – HHGEC – 3.1
Dance – DDD – 1.2 Dance – DDD – 1.2
CV – 0.3 CV – 0.5
Total D – 6.7
 Total D – 6.8

She did a stag out of the Biles in podium training instead of the front layout, which would put her a tenth lower than her Classic routine, but that may also just be a placeholder. With the layout back in, she’d be at the same value as her Classic routine.

That Damn Barani was still gone from her beam routine. HOORAY!

You mean there were other people there?

  • We saw Jade Carey training both the Cheng and the Amanar, and hitting each at least once (she also over-rotated an Amanar at one point and fell forward on it). USAG uploaded video of her doing a Lopez as her second vault, but that was basically a timer that she followed with a Cheng. You kind of worry that they don’t have anyone left at USAG who can name a skill. They also uploaded Finnegan’s Omelianchik as her sole vault, but she did DTYs as well. You know, the main one.
  • Carey also added back the front tuck through to full-in as her final pass. She did it with a double tuck instead at Classic.
  • Skinner did not train Amanars. We saw her vaulting Chengs and DTYs. She actually struggled more with the DTY than the Cheng in terms of landing, though the form on the DTY is better than the Cheng. On floor, it looks like she’s planning to finish with a 2.5 now instead of the 1.5 through to something that we saw her start to attempt at Classic.
  • Morgan Hurd added the double double tucked back to her floor passes, so it looks like the intent is to go back to her 2018 worlds composition, which was a 5.5 routine. She got 5.1 at Classic and 5.2 at Pan Ams, so this is the kind of upgrade we’re looking for. She did not attempt to connect jumps out of her back full this time, so I guess Daggett wins.
  • Leanne Wong’s status on vault and floor was a question after she didn’t do them at Pan Ams, but her DTY looked as clean as usual and she was hitting her Dos Santos to stag on floor. I did not see the 3.5, but it may have been there.
  • Sunisa Lee did train the all-around. Early in the vault rotation she was really struggling with her DTY, but her last couple were hit a little bit more comfortably.
  • Grace McCallum is trying to connect a straddle jump 1/2 from side position into straight jump 1/1 from side position.