Gymnastic news #22 - Tokyo or bust

[just tuned in]

Athlete interviews are almost never enjoyable to watch. Under no circumstances (IMO) should Jordan be asked questions about her mother.

 

[Aceon6]

Reporters are free to ask. Athletes, in my eyes, are free to give the death stare and say "next question, please".

 

[Doggygirl]

Article about Allan Bower being named an alternate to the Olympic team, yet getting no funding and not being invited to the National Team Camp. What???? Seems USAG continues giving everyone good reason to question them....

Alternate Reality | Inside Gymnastics

Just days after being named to the Olympic team as an alternate, Allan Bower came to find out indirectly that he was the only one of the five named alternates not to receive USA Gymnastics national team funding to continue to support his journey in the sport. “I felt like I was finally happy with be

www.insidegymnastics.com

 

[annie720]

Article about Allan Bower being named an alternate to the Olympic team, yet getting no funding and not being invited to the National Team Camp. What???? Seems USAG continues giving everyone good reason to question them....

Alternate Reality | Inside Gymnastics

Just days after being named to the Olympic team as an alternate, Allan Bower came to find out indirectly that he was the only one of the five named alternates not to receive USA Gymnastics national team funding to continue to support his journey in the sport. “I felt like I was finally happy with be

www.insidegymnastics.com

And good for Oklahoma coach Mark Williams standing up for him and putting this all out there!

 

[danafan]

Late late year people noticed that Oleg Verniaiev was listed as "suspended" on FIG's athlete database. Finally he has released a statement and per Google translate he tested positive for meldonium and is facing a four year ban. Seems he is appealing but he is out of the Olympics.

Oleg Verniaiev on Instagram: "В жизни случаются такие ситуации, которые словно тестируют тебя на прочность. В моей жизни сейчас именно такая ситуация. Арбитраж GEF принял решение о том, что концентрация мельдония, которую нашли у меня в организме,

7,258 likes, 447 comments - verniaiev13July 12, 2021 on : "В жизни случаются такие ситуации, которые словно тестируют тебя на прочнос..."

www.instagram.com

 

[Karina1974]

I feel like coverage of anyone is fair as long as it's fact-based. The article about Jordan's mom had no personal attacks against Jordan herself, just coverage of her mom's crimes.

What is not fair is judgment-based coverage. An egregious example was Al Trautwig making the comment about how Simone's parents weren't her parents.

Thankfully Al won't be in Tokyo! He always has a penchant for making stupid comments about the athletes' personal situations.

 

[Garden Kitty]

Very nice article about Simone Biles in the Wall Street Journal. It touches on a lot of issues including her start in the sport, the Nasser scandal, her complicated relationship with USAG, social activism, her brother's trial and her motivation for continuing in gymnastics. It's behind a pay wall, but here are a few quotes:

To keep things interesting, the Landis threw in skills that nobody had attempted in competition. The idea was that playing around with, say, a triple-twisting double somersault on the floor would make refining a double-twisting double somersault less rote.
What they found out: Biles could actually do the triple-double. And a double-double off a beam. And the Yurchenko double pike, which also started off as a training exercise.

Biles has excoriated USA Gymnastics on the competition floor, with the then-spokeswoman of the organization standing beside her. “Did you guys really not like us that much that you couldn’t just do your job?” she said at the 2019 national championships, going on to cry. “You literally had one job, and you couldn’t protect us.” Soon afterward, she debuted the triple-double on the floor and double-double off the beam.

 

[skatfan]

Chellsie Memmel is now "playing around" with the Yurchenko double pike into the pit:

106K views · 15K likes | Chellsie Memmel on Instagram: "Friday Funday 🙃 #chellsiesadultgymnasticsjourney #fridayfunday"

16K likes, 340 comments - cmemmel23July 9, 2021 on : "Friday Funday 🙃 #chellsiesadultgymnasticsjourney #fridayfunday"

www.instagram.com

Marta must be dying at all these gymnasts upping their difficulty that she would never let them do.

 

[Hedwig]

Chellsie Memmel is now "playing around" with the Yurchenko double pike into the pit:

106K views · 15K likes | Chellsie Memmel on Instagram: "Friday Funday 🙃 #chellsiesadultgymnasticsjourney #fridayfunday"

16K likes, 340 comments - cmemmel23July 9, 2021 on : "Friday Funday 🙃 #chellsiesadultgymnasticsjourney #fridayfunday"

www.instagram.com

Marta must be dying at all these gymnasts upping their difficulty that she would never let them do.

She forbade it?

i am glad to hear Memmel is still training!

 

[Hedwig]

Btw- I watched Golden now as well and while I did not really care before I really did not want Skinner on the team now. She seems very spoiled and unpleasent to me. Her half arsed apology about maybe having offended Gabby alone made me not like her.
But I am a new fan of Hurd now.

 

[pollyanna]

Olympic women's gymnastics median age in 20s for first time in decades

A decades-long trend in women's artistic gymnastics will hit a milestone at the Tokyo Olympics.

olympics.nbcsports.com

Interesting stats, and a nice photo of the beloved Chuso and Biles getting ready to hug.

 

[FiveRinger]

Btw- I watched Golden now as well and while I did not really care before I really did not want Skinner on the team now. She seems very spoiled and unpleasent to me. Her half arsed apology about maybe having offended Gabby alone made me not like her.
But I am a new fan of Hurd now.

I was thinking about going to see the Athleta tour. When Skinner announced she was going to be on the tour I told my sister that we weren't going. I love Simone, but I can't support Mykayla.

 

[skatfan]

She forbade it?

i am glad to hear Memmel is still training!

Marta didn’t want gymnasts attempting new difficult skills when they already were going to win.

 

[FiveRinger]

She forbade it?

i am glad to hear Memmel is still training!

Marta and Bela had a history of putting together consistent routines that the girls had the highest probability of hitting while training at the highest level. Their gymnasts were injured most of the time not because they were doing the hardest tricks, but because they were severely overtrained. It's one of the most frustrating things about them. They did safe routines and still had a huge amount of injuries.

 

[Hedwig]

that sounds very illogical and stupid - at first I thought that it makes sense to do it like this to protect the gymnasts but if they are still overtraining them - what a stupid concept.

 

[FiveRinger]

BTW, I just watched the last episode of Golden. Episode 5 was released this morning. There are answers to what happened to Konnor, why she left her coach and why she wasn't at Nationals. I won't spoil because I know people here are watching, but I'm glad she left. I'll wait until people have seen it before relaying my full feelings.

ETA: Konnor apparently posted on Instagram stories that she didn't want to go into details about the specific incident that triggered her leaving to protect her old coach, but based on what the airs in the episode, that's like trying to shovel the sh*t back up a cow's ass. Too late for that.

 

[skatfan]

Their gymnasts were injured most of the time not because they were doing the hardest tricks, but because they were severely overtrained. It's one of the most frustrating things about them. They did safe routines and still had a huge amount of injuries.

And those injuries gave Nassar the opportunity to be the “good guy” to those injured athletes and do what he did.

 

[VGThuy]

Marta and Bela had a history of putting together consistent routines that the girls had the highest probability of hitting while training at the highest level. Their gymnasts were injured most of the time not because they were doing the hardest tricks, but because they were severely overtrained. It's one of the most frustrating things about them. They did safe routines and still had a huge amount of injuries.

that sounds very illogical and stupid - at first I thought that it makes sense to do it like this to protect the gymnasts but if they are still overtraining them - what a stupid concept.

Marta really got lucky in 2012 where McKayla Maroney was the only one who ended up injured but not in the way that affected her highest scoring event.

In 2004, many of the best gymnasts ended up injured by the time post-Trials camp happened and in Athens, McCool ended up having a huge wrist injury and Kupets hurt her knee mid-competition. The team was broken in Athens and you could tell they were kind of fatigued physically and mentally (a lot of mind games during this period...that NBC was sort of celebrating thinking it created mentally tough athletes).

2008, boy...Sacramone looked like a shell of her usual effervescent, sassy self and of course her major beam fall in Team finals where she mounted the beam with a front somersault and then connected it with a I think was a gienger (correct me if I'm wrong) made fans afraid that Marta would feel vindicated in discouraging risky mounts on beam. Sam Peszek injured herself to the point where she couldn't compete on anything (did do bars in Team Preliminaries) and Memmel was also dealing with nagging injuries due to overtraining and wasn't the third AA support she could have been. It seemed Nastia and Shawn were both more nervous too and didn't feel as free until their individual events.

I think by 2016, the individual coaches, for the most part, felt a bit more empowered to tell Marta "no" when it came to dictating training. Of course she still had power, but I felt the coaches seemed more protective (maybe not Haney). It also helped that the international competition wasn't so strong so there was less pressure all-around.

 

[FiveRinger]

Actually, in 2012 Jordyn Wieber had a stress fracture in her foot that she kept quiet for a bunch of reasons, one of them being she didn't want Marta to know. I'm not about to say that she would definitely have made AA finals had she been healthy (I'll never try to guess if she would have beat Gabby or Aly), but I'm sure it played a role in her subpar (for her) performance.

 

[Coco]

The double salto Yurchenko vault is incredibly dangerous. Martha told Maroney that it was too dangerous and she should stop working on it.

This is one time I think she was right. Maroney, at the time, and most of the National team were minors. An unnecessary (for winning) skill that had a significantly increased risk of paralysis was not right for teenagers.

 

[danafan]

Someone tweeted this clip from “Golden” with Konnor’s former coach. You can’t see the flags she’s referring to but replies are saying she had Trump flags in the gym.

https://twitter.com/adex2491/status/1415347959772979205?s=21

 

[skatfan]

The double salto Yurchenko vault is incredibly dangerous. Martha told Maroney that it was too dangerous and she should stop working on it.

This is one time I think she was right. Maroney, at the time, and most of the National team were minors. An unnecessary (for winning) skill that had a significantly increased risk of paralysis was not right for teenagers.

It is always a risk/reward balancing act. I really really doubt that them being minors had anything to do with it - this was an organization that left these same teenagers vulnerable to sexual abuse, and underfed and overtrained them.

 

[FiveRinger]

Someone tweeted this clip from “Golden” with Konnor’s former coach. You can’t see the flags she’s referring to but replies are saying she had Trump flags in the gym.

https://twitter.com/adex2491/status/1415347959772979205?s=21

Well, I think the coach's husband had something to do with it. Did you hear him mouthing off in the background? He admitted that Konnor all but stopped speaking to him.

ETA: Your political affiliation doesn't have anything to do with elite gymnastics. Why is anyone discussing that in the gym with a bunch of minors who can't vote?

ETA again: Yeah, Konnor, I see why you need a barf bag.

 

[annie720]

Well, I think the coach's husband had something to do with it. Did you hear him mouthing off in the background? He admitted that Konnor all but stopped speaking to him.

ETA: Your political affiliation doesn't have anything to do with elite gymnastics. Why is anyone discussing that in the gym with a bunch of minors who can't vote?

The husband, Randy, said that he was he one speaking politics most of the time around the gym, not the coach, and he's not Konnor's coach.

 

[Coco]

The interaction between the Browns made me uncomfortable.

 

[FiveRinger]

The husband, Randy, said that he was he one speaking politics most of the time around the gym, not the coach, and he's not Konnor's coach.

You're right. Let's give everyone proper credit It's the coach that had the Trump flags up in the gym. She's a sad sack too.

And what's his old ass doing in a gym with a bunch of little girls anyway? He isn't coaching. So much of this is just dead wrong.

 

[Hedwig]

me too. but I think in the interview Susan handled it as good as possible at that moment. That could have been a lot worse.

And Konnor's parents give me bad vibes as well sometimes... Not like Laurie's parents who seem to be true treasures.

And can I just say that I am in awe of Dominique Dawes? She looks fabulous and what she is saying is always thoughtful and to the point. I still remember her as this tiny bubbly 14 year old with the two back to back tumbling passes in Barcelona!

 

[Garden Kitty]

San Francisco International Airport tweeted a clip of the US women boarding the flight to Tokyo. At least I think it's the women's team, with everyone in masks, it was hard to recognize for sure who everyone was and who might be mssing (Simone was there). There appeared to be some employees behind a rope cheering with flags and signs and other people who looked somewhat interested, but more like they wanted to board their plane.

 

[ptvvibezz]

Simone and Mykayla together in the cockpit

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[Lara]

And can I just say that I am in awe of Dominique Dawes? She looks fabulous and what she is saying is always thoughtful and to the point. I still remember her as this tiny bubbly 14 year old with the two back to back tumbling passes in Barcelona!

My grandmother happened to be visiting during Barcelona, and I remember her saying Dawes was gravity-defying after seeing the back-to-back tumbling pass.