Increased depth in US women's gymnastics has meant that the level of the gymnast who was available for college teams is higher than in the past. Built in fan base because they cheer for a school team rather than relying on individual athletes to be always be the draw. Regularly scheduled competitions that are relatively easy to access both tickets for live events, and television coverage. Social media engagement, and a few viral moments that increased the visibility of the sport.
NCAA women's gymnastics still uses the perfect 10 score, not the open-ended score used in elite. The only thing that kept a lot of elite gymnasts from doing college gymnastics in the past was the rule that once they accepted endorsement money, they were not eligible for NCAA athletics. Jordyn Weiber was very sad she could not do NCAA gymnastics because of that. Now that that rule has gone by the wayside, many elites are doing NCAA simultaneously. What also helps is the US women gymnasts have been on top at the Olympics, finishing on the medal stand in the team event and winning many singles medals, including the last 5 AA golds, for decades now. People follow these elites to the college scene to keep watching them. Contrast that with women figure skaters, who have not won Olympic gold in more than two decades or medaled at all at the Olympics in nearly 2 decades, and you have an out-of-sight, out-of-mind sport.
It is not really about not being "good enough" for elite. You need to remember that only about a dozen AT MOST gymnasts make the US national team (elite athletes) each year. There are hundreds of gymnasts in collegiate, but even that is a TINY fraction of the number of girls who take gymnastics through HS. Those who make a college team are VERY GOOD. Many of them were elites who did not make the Olympic team. Please remember that only 5 women make the Olympic team every 4 years.
I have seen some great programs by US college gymnasts that have gone viral.
I did not diss anything in your post. You again just said that "they weren't considered good enough." Another reminder, only FIVE gymnasts from the US can make the Olympic team once every 4 years. Many of those NCAA gymnasts ARE "good enough," they just did not have the luck of timing. Literally, the US could field THREE teams of 5 gymnasts and sweep the team podium if that was allowed. The US gymnastics team is the hardest team in the world to make. At this point, countless US women with passports from other countries are qualifying spots to the Olympics for other countries/ will be competing in the Olympics for those countries because they ARE "good enough." As you said, you don't follow gymnastics closely. I do. Just giving some background and education.
Or FS Xwitter tries to cancel someone for daring to express an opinion they don't agree with or they are offended about - Ilia Malinin last summer having to apologize for a flippant comment on an IG live - he hasn't done an IG live since then and do you blame him? Who wants to have to be constantly on guard and carefully watching what they say so that no one can find any offense in anything? Who wants to be that devoid of any personality?. Heck, even the federations will cut you out (eg - Meagan Duhamel) if you speak too candidly about anything.
You can and it's funny that people pretend you can't.
I never said you can't. You most certainly can - before that positive doping test, Kamila Valieva was absolutely going viral - for all the right reasons in the sport. My point is that just because someone says something even mildly controversial maybe the collective "we" (the federations, the fans, those already involved with the sport) should refrain from shutting it down and issuing an apology. Even bad publicity can turn out okay in the long term. We don't need to be so sanitized as to have no personality.
) have something in common - both collaborated with Vera Wang for costumes. The question/observation was raised - why are we not working harder to make connections with high-end fashion designers for costumes? That's a natural, additional type of cross-promotion that expands awareness of the sport to more people. Skatewear designers are some of the best but can you imagine a collaboration with Valentino for Guignard/Fabbri or Stella McCartney for Fear/Gibson or Dior for Adam Siao Him Fa, etc? If the ISU could find a way to collaborate with the top fashion houses across the world for costume designs for the Worlds, Euros, and 4CCs medalists - and some high-end fashion shoots - plus maybe even promoting an annual design contest for rising designers to collaborate with maybe the Jr Worlds medalists - the promotional and advertising opportunity is better than their cheesy ISU Awards "Best Costume" contest by a long shot.
lol that wasn't even directed at you really it was more a general thing that I read a lot in places and it bugs
Maybe trash-talking will work well in the USA, but I don't know if people would appreciate it internationally. Rivalries, sure, but you know the deal with Yuna/Mao. It can easily go out of control. The Hanyu/Fernandez rivalry worked but only because people knew they were friends - although I don't know how much it made the sport popular as much as it did those skaters, and mostly just one of them.
In the 2007-08 season, the edge calls/warnings (can't recall which) were introduced for Lutz/Flip.
Oh, please, somebody give Adam Siao something to wear. His costumes after the Olympics are either WTFwhyWTF or cringey - not the 90s cringey, but still. The guy did quite the work to draw young boys to the sport, he deserves at least one good costume. There are so many french designers, at least one of them could come up with something that isn't mesh.I never said you can't. You most certainly can - before that positive doping test, Kamila Valieva was absolutely going viral - for all the right reasons in the sport. My point is that just because someone says something even mildly controversial maybe the collective "we" (the federations, the fans, those already involved with the sport) should refrain from shutting it down and issuing an apology. Even bad publicity can turn out okay in the long term. We don't need to be so sanitized as to have no personality.
One other thought from this morning's Vision 2030 presentation, specifically related to FS - it was pointed out that Michelle Kwan and Nathan Chen (but not Evan Lysacek
Tuesday's session 1 is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjayZKutScc
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speaketh for thineself
Oh, once we get past the first three items/reports, things are likely to get interesting.aka thesession
you won't believe how many classes i nearly failed because of the first three items/reports
