Gymnastics News #21 - Tumbling on to Tokyo

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Erin

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Courtney Kupets was expected to deliver. She was supposed to do beam. She didn't. Even Carly didn't deliver as much as she could have for the team. Courtney McCool came off the beam, when it was supposed to be her best event and she was expected to be a rock.

McCool didn’t come off the beam, she had a wobble on her Onodi but otherwise did basically the same routine she did at Nationals and Trials but the Olympic judges weren’t as generous with crediting skills that weren’t all the way around and slow connections. (Also the wobble on the Onodi meant no sheep jump after.)

It would be interesting if Patterson had hit beam at Trials and had one of the two automatic spots rather than McCool, whether McCool would have been selected for the team at camp or whether a bars-beam specialist like Memmel would have been chosen instead (I assume it would have been Memmel over Vise since Memmel got the alternate spot.)

And Kupets had what turned out to be a torn hamstring so it’s not like she didn’t do beam because she didn’t perform in prelims or because she didn’t feel like it. They downplayed the injury at the time and just called it a strain because that’s what you do with the Karolyis but in later articles she said it turned out to be torn.
 

VGThuy

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That whole Kupets injury thing was confusing at the time because she ended up doing floor after the beam rotation. It's amazing she was able to do what she did on a torn hamstring because her tumbling looked really beautiful that night I have to say. It was that double turn to double tuck jump combo (or she changed it to a Popa in the opposite direction?) that she stumbled on causing deductions and a lower start value than she planned resulting in a FX score of a 9.1 something that was so costly in a 3 up 3 count set up.

I do wonder if McCool would have made the team as well had she not received one of the top two trial spots. I was rooting for Tabitha Yim and Tasha at the time because she and Tasha were the ones I remembered from 2001 and 2002 Nationals (for some reason I didn't watch 2003 as I was only an occasional watcher at the time). I think one thing I learned from the 2001-2004 quad was that the Rybeckis knew how to teach dance jumps judging from Yim and Atler's ability to hit those jumps and rotate them, and that I'm glad there are no longer any connection bonuses given for dance elements on FX and that those elements were downgraded a bit.

Speaking of dance elements on FX, in Athens, it seemed like the Romanians were the only team that really drilled those leaps and tuck jumps and constructed their FXs so that they weren't too reliant on those dance elements (though obvs still had to hit some). Even Cheng Fei had trouble with some dance elements and IMO she had the FX of those games and it was ridic that a routine with a double/double, piked full-in, and ended with a triple twist with brilliant form scored lower than Ponor's pretty basic tumbling with horrific form. But Ponor hit those dance jumps so...
 

Dobre

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And Kupets had what turned out to be a torn hamstring so it’s not like she didn’t do beam because she didn’t perform in prelims or because she didn’t feel like it.

She did beam in the all-around afterward, and she did the beam prelims. My guess is that she was coming off the beam in the warm-up gym. They don't just pull you off beam one day because of a longterm injury in the middle of the Olympic Games. Not when your next athlete has an uncompetitive base value. But whatever happened, they were counting on having the beam lineup; and they didn't have it.
 
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Erin

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She did beam in the all-around afterward, and she did the beam prelims. My guess is that she was coming off the beam in the warm-up gym. They don't just pull you off beam one day because of a longterm injury in the middle of the Olympic Games. Not when your next athlete has an uncompetitive base value. But whatever happened, they were counting on having the beam lineup; and they didn't have it.

Well it was clear from her performance on beam in the AA and event finals (and floor in both AA and team finals) that the injury was limiting her. Also, the injury was made worse between prelims and team finals so it’s not that it was a long-term injury that was just hanging around and she just mentally couldn’t hack it.
 

Rob

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wrong thread.
I assumed MyKayla Skinner would try again for an Olympic team. Her form is actually a bit better now than it was then.
 
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Rob

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Nastia and Sam announced that the 2020 Trials are June 25-28 in St. Louis. Looked like about 5 other people were in attendance. Zzzzz.
 

BaileyCatts

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I still don't understand that whole 'decertification' or removal of USA Gymnastics as an organization from the USOC. If there is no 'organization' to run the Gymnastics program, how are they going to stage events and such and send a Team to the Olympics? Don't you need a Federation/organization or something in order to do that?
 

VGThuy

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I still don't understand that whole 'decertification' or removal of USA Gymnastics as an organization from the USOC. If there is no 'organization' to run the Gymnastics program, how are they going to stage events and such and send a Team to the Olympics? Don't you need a Federation/organization or something in order to do that?

Maybe one consequence of decertification is that we simply don't send any gymnasts to international meets until a new org with new people certify to take over.
 

MacMadame

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I still don't understand that whole 'decertification' or removal of USA Gymnastics as an organization from the USOC. If there is no 'organization' to run the Gymnastics program, how are they going to stage events and such and send a Team to the Olympics? Don't you need a Federation/organization or something in order to do that?
That's the whole point. Decertification means the org can no longer send athletes to certain competitions but especially the Olympics.

Generally, when an Org gets decertified, another org takes its place. It's a big step. I think it happened in amateur wrestling or maybe boxing once? USOC is also threatening to certify USA Badminton, btw.

I know that WSF was created with the idea that they'd convince the IOC to let them take over figure skating from the ISU. That never happened.
 

Sylvia

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Why do they want to decertify US Badminton?
https://www.ocregister.com/2019/04/18/usoc-threatens-usa-badminton-with-decertification/
The U.S. Olympic Committee in a thorough and damning rebuke of USA Badminton’s operations and culture said it would be appropriate to decertify the Anaheim-based national governing body because of the “severity” of its continued deficiencies regarding athlete safety, financial and accounting practices and governance, according to a letter obtained by the Orange County Register.
Instead, USOC has given USA Badminton until July 15, 2019 to make a series of wide ranging reforms or the USOC will begin proceedings to strip USA Badminton of its NGB status, C. Onye Ikwuakor, the USOC’s associate general counsel wrote in an April 15 letter to USA Badminton chief executive officer Jeff Dyrek and Ben Lee, chairman of the NGB’s board of directors.
Those reforms must include “significant” changes in USA Badminton’s staff and board of directors, Ikwuakor said.

Editorial today about USA Gymnastics' Li Li Leung: http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/ar...ht-again-enter-li-li-leung-unthinkable-answer
For a moment, it felt like gymnastics was turning a corner. After three years of turmoil, and hundreds of accusers detailing Nassar's sexual assaults, the sport and its amazing athletes were finally starting to be back in focus.

But then USAG's new president and CEO had to remind everyone just how much work there is left to do to save the sport in this country.
 

Erin

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Meanwhile, look at who’s coming back to elite!

:watch: I’d say her 2020 chance are better than Laurie’s. Not sure if that’s means she has a realistic chance.

I think it’s a pretty long shot. Skinner doesn’t currently meet the criteria to be sent out to the world cups and if Carey locks up a nominative spot (which I’m putting at a minimum of 80% chance of happening now), they wouldn’t select Skinner for one of the other spots. Skinner would have to make the national team, get sent to worlds, win a world medal and then she would meet the criteria to be sent to World Cups and she would have to beat Jade on one of the events to get a nominative spot. Also seems a tough road at this point.

Laurie’s road actually could be (hypothetically) easier. With her 2016 beam medal, she would meet the criteria to be sent to world cups if she were to be added to the national team. The beam nominative spot is still wide open. If she were sent to three world cups and won them and Jade were to also lead an event, it would be a FIG tiebreaker between her and Jade. I’m still not sure what what we have seen from Laurie is enough to do all that and I’m still not taking her comeback all that seriously, but it’s an easier path in theory.
 

Lucy25

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I am thrilled about MyKayla! I am sure she knows just what she has in front of her, and what she doesn’t know she will figure out at the team camp in June.
 

VGThuy

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Wait, Laurie and Mykayla are going for the individual spots and not trying to make the team?
 

Erin

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Wait, Laurie and Mykayla are going for the individual spots and not trying to make the team?

Oh I’m sure they would try to make the team too. But the team is much more competitive and will likely go to top all-arounders especially with only four spots. I don’t think either of them are really in contention but maybe one will prove me wrong.
 

VGThuy

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Oh I’m sure they would try to make the team too. But the team is much more competitive and will likely go to top all-arounders especially with only four spots. I don’t think either of them are really in contention but maybe one will prove me wrong.

Ah that makes sense. I honestly don’t even know how this works. Like is it committing to one track or the other or can gymnasts try for both?
 

Rob

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I keep reading about this, and I have no idea if I am getting it right so feel free to correct. I think that they couldn't have represented the US at 2018 Worlds because they would be ineligible for the "nominative" track (where they get an individual berth for themselves only) if they helped qualify a team to 2020 at the 2018 Worlds. I thought that was weird. I don't think participation in 2019 Worlds will give anyone any problems since US already qualified.
 
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