Gymnastics News #21 - Tumbling on to Tokyo

[FiveRinger]

Yep Plus three broken toes to boot (although Simone also competed with broken toes...and I hope she is taking some time off herself now)

That’s just horrible. It’s a wonder Ragan can walk at all. I wonder if she hurt her toes trying to protect that ankle. That explains all of the limping. I really hope she’s at home with her feet up.

 

[ilovepaydays]

So.......is John Orozco correct here about how USA Gymnastics was wrong about leaving Donnell Whittenburg off the team?

 

[Willin]

@ilovepaydays John Orozco just sounds bitter. USAG is leaving injured athletes off teams unless they're truly able to be healthy by worlds. With only five spots on each team they need everyone on that team as healthy and prepared as possible. Whittenburg only competed on 2/6 events, getting 5th on rings and 9th on parallel bars. It seems reasonable to me to leave him off based on his health and results.

If he can take time off and get healthy I'm sure he'll have a better shot at 2020, just like Ragan Smith.

 

[ilovepaydays]

@ilovepaydays John Orozco just sounds bitter. USAG is leaving injured athletes off teams unless they're truly able to be healthy by worlds. With only five spots on each team they need everyone on that team as healthy and prepared as possible. Whittenburg only competed on 2/6 events, getting 5th on rings and 9th on parallel bars. It seems reasonable to me to leave him off based on his health and results.

If he can take time off and get healthy I'm sure he'll have a better shot at 2020, just like Ragan Smith.

Agreed. I also doubt if Orozco realizes that you could have made a very good case for Leyva to have been initially selected for the Rio team over him.

 

[Erin]

I think there was an argument to include Whittenburg in the camp but it wasn't a slam dunk. It's perhaps too bad that the men's process was an inflexible 8 people invited to camp, as I think it was a tossup between Whittenburg and Van Wicklen for the last spot. If the process was more flexible on the number at camp, both could have been invited and they could have had a better idea how Whittenburg's recovery was by the camp.

 

[Aceon6]

Whittenburg practically told USAG to skip him. He said he'd be fine if they did, so they did. Van Wicklen's healthy and had a great meet.

 

[haribobo]

OMG that Orozco tweet is ridiculous. Plenty of world medalists have been left off the next year because of injuries or whatever. His results at Nationals were not impressive... he shouldn't just get shuffled along to Trials for the heck of it. Its honestly really disrespectful to Colin, Alec, Donothan, Akash, and Allan, as 3 will likely join Yul and Sam at Worlds. All had better results than Don Don at Worlds. And he infers that its a race problem that both John and Don were left off the team after their medals, but that doesn't make any sense because Marvin and Donothan made the Worlds camp thingy and could have been left off. Just a really crazy post.

 

[Erin]

I did see a point made on twitter that since Whittenburg trains at the OTC, McClure should know where Whittenburg is at with recovery so his performance probably didn’t come as a surprise. If McClure didn’t think Whittenburg was far enough along to take to camp, perhaps Whittenburg should have been encouraged to take this year off and rehab rather than compete at Nationals. Although that doesn’t seem to be the point Orozco is making.

 

[Rob]

Went back and watched some routines I missed, and I think Shania Adams is the only person who should be allowed to do wolf turns on beam.

 

[SpeedySucks]

I think there was an argument to include Whittenburg in the camp but it wasn't a slam dunk. It's perhaps too bad that the men's process was an inflexible 8 people invited to camp, as I think it was a tossup between Whittenburg and Van Wicklen for the last spot. If the process was more flexible on the number at camp, both could have been invited and they could have had a better idea how Whittenburg's recovery was by the camp.

It’s worth noting that because of VanWicklen’s contributions on high bar, the highest scoring team using scores from this year is Mikulak, Moldauer, Bower, Kimble, and VanWicklen. Kimble being healthy is really the key to this U.S. team having any chance at a medal.

 

[dramagrrl]

Went back and watched some routines I missed, and I think Shania Adams is the only person who should be allowed to do wolf turns on beam.

I would rather have no one do them, but if someone has to, I would choose Riley McCusker.

Also, I don't have any inside sources in the gymnastics world, nor do I follow gymnastics gossip, so I have a question for anyone here who might - is the OMG SUPERBFF FOREVERness between Nastia and Shawn Johnson actually real?? They are BFFing all over social media and Shawn even made a point of inserting "I'm best friends with Nastia!" into her two-second interview during the Nationals Day 2 broadcast. They have made social media videos with them hanging out together with Shawn's husband and Nastia's fiancée, and they've definitely done a very good job of making the friendship seem real if it isn't. The reason why I ask is because I remember all the talk of "We are roomies and totally BFF even though we both want to win AA gold" talk during the 2008 Olympics and I definitely did not buy that they were really best friends or even genuine friends at all during that time period. I want to believe they overcame all that and the friendship is real now because it is, I have to admit, pretty darn cute, but something in me is still a bit skeptical. (Also perhaps because Nastia is my favourite gymnast, possibly of all time, but her social media presence is definitely extremely calculated. It almost seems as if her social media team literally follows her around all the time to take pictures of her life for Instagram. None of her social media photos are casual selfies; they are all professionally-shot photographs and she often tags her social media team in her posts. It's all very pretty and positive and fun to follow, but if she wants people to think that's her "real life", she should think again.)

 

[honey]

@dramagrrl I believe them when they say they’re super close now. I think they even share a house in LA? I read a couple of quotes from them during nationals where they said they drifted apart for years but reconnected at Shawn’s wedding and put the past in the past.

Kinda sounds like any beef between them was more a result of other people pitting them against each other over the years then any real issue they had.

I also kinda believe that they were friends back in 2008. Just because that person happens to be your competitor, she is also the only one who understands exactly what you’re going through. Maybe not BFFs, but I think genuine friendship and respect back then.

Anyway, my general thoughts on nationals are:

- Simone is on another planet. Mad respect and I love watching her. But I cannot stand her floor and beam “choreo” (if you can call it that). She looks disinterested on floor, there’s bizarre arm/hand flicks and don’t even get me started on the sound effects. It wasn’t necessary in Rio and it’s even worse now. Really? Kissing noise to end? She’s better than this.

- Ragan, please let your ankle heal.

- Riley is a beautiful gymnast and looks much stronger than in the past. I know we’re supposed to hate her coach, but she’s producing gymnasts with very pleasing style.

- I continue to love Morgan.

Very enjoyable meet all around. And props to all of them especially given the unstable environment with USAG right now.

 

[Rob]

I would rather have no one do them, but if someone has to, I would choose Riley McCusker.

Riley has those lines, but Shania is the only one who really spins without any gyrations.

 

[jeffisjeff]

Chusovitina won the silver in vault at the Asian Games at age 43.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chusovitina-gets-asian-games-silver-vault-age-43-125649313.html

 

[rhapsody]

@ilovepaydays John Orozco just sounds bitter. USAG is leaving injured athletes off teams unless they're truly able to be healthy by worlds. With only five spots on each team they need everyone on that team as healthy and prepared as possible. Whittenburg only competed on 2/6 events, getting 5th on rings and 9th on parallel bars. It seems reasonable to me to leave him off based on his health and results.

If he can take time off and get healthy I'm sure he'll have a better shot at 2020, just like Ragan Smith.

Agreed. I also doubt if Orozco realizes that you could have made a very good case for Leyva to have been initially selected for the Rio team over him.

I think there was an argument to include Whittenburg in the camp but it wasn't a slam dunk. It's perhaps too bad that the men's process was an inflexible 8 people invited to camp, as I think it was a tossup between Whittenburg and Van Wicklen for the last spot. If the process was more flexible on the number at camp, both could have been invited and they could have had a better idea how Whittenburg's recovery was by the camp.

You're all pretty confused on why John is angry; Donnell was not selected to be part of the national team which is different than the world selection team. It basically means no funding for him. Orozco's anger is justified when you see that Eddie Penev was placed on the national team even though he wasn't at nationals because he tore his ACL and will be out of commission for a couple of months. Donnell is injured at the moment and people are wondering why it seems USAG is punishing him for trying to compete instead of withdrawing and petitioning onto the national team like Eddie.

Again, being on the national team does not mean you'll be at the world selection camp. And the anger is directed at Donnell not being chosen for the national team, not because he won't be at the world selection camp.

 

[Erin]

You're all pretty confused on why John is angry; Donnell was not selected to be part of the national team which is different than the world selection team.

John’s tweet isn’t super clear as to what he is angry about so I can see why we are confused. But I agree that Donnell should be on the National team and if that’s what John is riled up about, I think his position is a lot stronger and I agree with your points. Donnell can be added to the team later (and I hope he will be) but it seems like a slap in the face to not put him on now when Penev was added immediately.

 

[her grace]

Ashton Locklear and others have accused coach Qi Han of emotional and physical abuse. The NY Times published the piece Gymnasts Describe Emotional and Physical Abuse by a Prominent Coach. Reported incidents include the coach hitting, kicking, and throwing a cell phone at gymnasts.

Interestingly, Everest Gymnastics' statement says anyone who has a concern about his coaching should contact USA gymnastics. From the above linked article:

“If any credible abuse allegations exist,’’ the statement said, “Everest Gymnastics encourages those parties to contact U.S.A. Gymnastics.”

And of course, we all know that USAG takes abuse allegations seriously.

Other parents at Everest defend the coach. The local Fox affiliate reported,

"It was something that isn't even an issue because it was more of a misunderstanding," said parent Linda Robinson. Robinson sent her daughter to Everest for 9 years and first heard about the allegations about 6 years ago. She says her daughter was there for some of the physical abuse allegations published by the New York Times. "All of the parents signed a letter claiming this did not happen and this is a sour grapes issue," said Robinson.

How exactly can one's daughter have been a witness to something that did not happen?

 

[Aceon6]

How exactly can one's daughter have been a witness to something that did not happen?

Methinks the mother meant to say that her daughter witnessed interactions that were later reported, but the daughter didn’t think the interactions were that bad at the time. Kids exposed to a lot of verbal bullying and worse by adults come to think of it as “normal”, so the daughter may not have seen it as something that crossed a boundary.

 

[haribobo]

Aren't gymnasts added and subtracted from national team at all different times? I can never follow it and it seems kinda random at times and crazy. I'm sure he will be re-added the next time he has good results. If Donnell got added with those middling results from nationals then they'd have to include many more people with similar results. whatevs

 

[ilovepaydays]

Also, I don't have any inside sources in the gymnastics world, nor do I follow gymnastics gossip, so I have a question for anyone here who might - is the OMG SUPERBFF FOREVERness between Nastia and Shawn Johnson actually real?? They are BFFing all over social media and Shawn even made a point of inserting "I'm best friends with Nastia!" into her two-second interview during the Nationals Day 2 broadcast. They have made social media videos with them hanging out together with Shawn's husband and Nastia's fiancée, and they've definitely done a very good job of making the friendship seem real if it isn't. The reason why I ask is because I remember all the talk of "We are roomies and totally BFF even though we both want to win AA gold" talk during the 2008 Olympics and I definitely did not buy that they were really best friends or even genuine friends at all during that time period. I want to believe they overcame all that and the friendship is real now because it is, I have to admit, pretty darn cute, but something in me is still a bit skeptical. (Also perhaps because Nastia is my favourite gymnast, possibly of all time, but her social media presence is definitely extremely calculated. It almost seems as if her social media team literally follows her around all the time to take pictures of her life for Instagram. None of her social media photos are casual selfies; they are all professionally-shot photographs and she often tags her social media team in her posts. It's all very pretty and positive and fun to follow, but if she wants people to think that's her "real life", she should think again.)

Shawn Johnson East just posted on her YouTube: WE DIDN’T TALK FOR 8 YEARS AND NOW WE ARE BFFs.

Pretty interesting stuff from both Shawn and Nastia about their Olympic and competitive experiences and their relationship now.

 

[dramagrrl]

Shawn Johnson East just posted on her YouTube: WE DIDN’T TALK FOR 8 YEARS AND NOW WE ARE BFFs.

Pretty interesting stuff from both Shawn and Nastia about their Olympic and competitive experiences and their relationship now.

Hilarious that they posted that so soon after I asked about it!

 

[mjb52]

Chusovitina won the silver in vault at the Asian Games at age 43.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chusovitina-gets-asian-games-silver-vault-age-43-125649313.html

What an incredible person she is

 

[bardtoob]

Oksana Chusovitina 2016 Olympics QF BB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBtGpemyHSk

CoP 2017-20: Oksana Chusovitina BB 2018 Baku (BRONZE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecV8VU25bDo

 

[Rob]

I won’t be surprised if I see Chussy vaulting at age 50.

 

[bardtoob]

Chusovitina in 2016 doing all four events in the Olympic Test Event to qualify.

https://youtu.be/wfYZ5SNGZL0

https://youtu.be/sc__nPXVon0

https://youtu.be/xAqXJmI7WKU

https://youtu.be/cixyeGTlN24

 

[Garden Kitty]

So I read that Mary Lee Tracy was appointed the elite developmment coordinator for the women's team. Is that the role Tom Forster held at Nationals and did he leave? Or is he still around but in a different role and Mary Lee is filling his old role?

 

[Aceon6]

If I interpret his job description correctly, it seems that he’s responsible for the overall, and Mary Lee is handling the elites. Here is his announcement with the responsibilities listed in the 4th paragraph. https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=22145

 

[DimaToe]

The position that MLT was appointed was what Forster had. Tom is still the the new Valeri. MLT would be working with the younger gymnasts, hence the use of word developmental. I’m not a fan of this choice honestly.

 

[Erin]

It’s the role that Forster left open when he got the job of National team coordinator.

I think it’s a terrible choice. MLT’s gymnasts have a bad history with injuries and there are horror stories floating around about food restrictions. And if that weren’t enough, her public response to still support Nassar after over 50 victims came forward is galling.

 

[savchenkoboss]

MLT is a wonderful person, an amazing coach, a great motivator, and a wonderful choice as we all move forward in the new age of U.S gymnastics.