Gymnastics News #23: Defying Gravity

[Coco]

A Southern California friend from Irish music travels just posted vids from Simone's tour. Always nice when worlds overlap

She's a big Disney fan, so I'm wondering if they were targeted in the marketing of this tour.

 

[clairecloutier]

A candid interview with Simone Biles in New York magazine:

https://www.thecut.com/article/simone-biles-olympics-2021.html

 

[skatfan]

A candid interview with Simone Biles in New York magazine:

https://www.thecut.com/article/simone-biles-olympics-2021.html

This was a great article. I think it matters that the interviewer is also a black woman.

 

[skatfan]

Also, the last two episodes of Simone versus herself are going on Facebook watch today and tomorrow.

 

[Jayar]

I attended to the GOAT tour last night in San Jose. It was very loud, there was a lot of dancing and a lot of walking the runway . I enjoyed seeing Chelsea Memmell and Ellie Black-- they were fun. I LOVED Nia Dennis-- everything she did was spectacular, and it was also good to see Shilese Jones. Laurie Hernandez did a lot of the emcee work, Morgan Hurd has magenta hair, and I think Jade Carey must be injured because she did very little.

 

[haribobo]

There was a training camp in Indy this past weekend. Seniors in attendance were Leanne Wong, Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely, Ciena Alipio, Amari Drayton, Addison Fatta, EmJae Frazier, Olivia Greaves, and Ava Siegfeldt. Selection camp is in a couple weeks.

 

[skatfan]

Here’s an eye-popping interview with Marta Karoyli

In Translation: “The Karolyi Ranch Was Not Dracula’s Cellar Prison”

A translation of a Hungarian interview with Marta Karolyi, the first time she’s really spoken her mind since Rio 2016.

thegymter.net

 

[dramagrrl]

Marta is very, um... selective in the "facts" she presents in the interview above. Her main point seems to be that she shouldn't be held responsible because she was not the personal coach of any of the gymnasts who were abused by Nassar, but then ends by saying that "none" of the gymnasts that she and Bela personally trained pre-1996 have ever spoken out against them (and names Nadia, Mary Lou and Kerri specifically). Uh... there are many other gymnasts that they personally trained that have spoken out against them quite vehemently. Dominique Moceanu definitely comes to mind right away, but there are quite a few other lesser-known elites trained personally by the Karolyis who have spoken out about their abusive methods.

 

[clairecloutier]

Yet another Simone article, which says she's not ruling out 2024 Olympics:

Simone Biles Might Be Returning for the Paris 2024 Olympics

Simone Biles might not be done with the Paris 2024 Olympics despite the gymnast previously saying she should have "quit long before Tokyo."

remezcla.com

Let the speculation begin ....

 

[MacMadame]

Yet another Simone article, which says she's not ruling out 2024 Olympics:

Simone Biles Might Be Returning for the Paris 2024 Olympics

Simone Biles might not be done with the Paris 2024 Olympics despite the gymnast previously saying she should have "quit long before Tokyo."

remezcla.com

Let the speculation begin ....

That's interesting given she just told The Cut that she thinks she shouldn't have stayed in for Tokyo.

 

[skatfan]

I think if Simone decides to shoot for Paris (NOT Tokyo) it will be for an event or two - beam perhaps, since the teams go back to five person. I can’t imagine she’ll want to do all around.

Hopefully she just takes a good amount of time off and then figures out whether any of it makes sense with her life goals.

 

[dramagrrl]

At the end of the last episode of the webseries Simone vs. Herself, there was a bonus clip after the final credits where Cecile Landi talked about how Simone had recently sent her a text saying (something along the lines of) "Am I crazy to be thinking of 2024??" Cecile said she replied with a "Hmmm..." gif and Simone texted back "Haha!" When Cecile replied, "Unfinished business?", Simone texted back "Maybe!"... so she is definitely at least keeping it in the back of her mind.

(ETA: I see that this clip was covered in the article above - I hadn't read the article before I posted!)

 

[VGThuy]

I think Simone can be right in that she should have taken a break and not gone for Tokyo if she realized there were a lot of unresolved issues she was dealing with, but since she did and the worst thing (for her) that could happen ended up did happening to her in the middle of the Olympics, I can see that reigniting the competitive fire in her and wanting to finish the sport on her own terms.

 

[skatingguy]

I think if Simone decides to shoot for Tokyo it will be for an event or two - beam perhaps, since the teams go back to five person. I can’t imagine she’ll want to do all around.

Hopefully she just takes a good amount of time off and then figures out whether any of it makes sense with her life goals.

Paris

 

[skatfan]

Paris

Oops! thanks for catching!

 

[pollyanna]

I attended to the GOAT tour last night in San Jose. It was very loud, there was a lot of dancing and a lot of walking the runway . I enjoyed seeing Chelsea Memmell and Ellie Black-- they were fun. I LOVED Nia Dennis-- everything she did was spectacular, and it was also good to see Shilese Jones. Laurie Hernandez did a lot of the emcee work, Morgan Hurd has magenta hair, and I think Jade Carey must be injured because she did very little.

We'll be attending in late October. I hope Jade's not injured, would love to see a couple of her killer tumbling passes in person. Was Katelyn Ohashi there?

We are sitting up high in a section where no one else has bought tickets. I hope it stays that way!

 

[Jayar]

We'll be attending in late October. I hope Jade's not injured, would love to see a couple of her killer tumbling passes in person. Was Katelyn Ohashi there?

We are sitting up high in a section where no one else has bought tickets. I hope it stays that way!

Ohashi was there. She does a spoken word poem but is mostly underutilized.

 

[Mozart]

According to her IG, Oksana Chusovitina has decided to train for the 2022 Asian Games. I guess she just can't leave gymnastics lol

 

[millyskate]

According to her IG, Oksana Chusovitina has decided to train for the 2022 Asian Games. I guess she just can't leave gymnastics lol

Thought so! Judging by her facebook these past few weeks she's never stopped training.

 

[semillon27]

Ohashi was there. She does a spoken word poem but is mostly underutilized.

Apparently she's injured.

 

[Aceon6]

Apparently she's injured.

And I am hearing that there is 0 pressure to perform on this tour. The contracts seem to be “Do what your body lets you do. You will get paid.”

 

[millyskate]

Suni Lee’s dancing with the stars efforts are appearing on my Facebook and I’m impressed. What she can do wearing heels is amazing and her charisma is off the charts. Best amateur dancer I’ve seen on my me of these shows.

 

[semillon27]

U.S. Worlds Trials All-Around Results:
1. Kayla DiCello 55.350
2. eMjae Frazier 54.050
3. Leanne Wong 53.400
4. Konnor McClain 52.000
5. Olivia Greaves 51.850
6. Ciena Alipio 51.450

DiCello was apparently very solid in the all-around and gets the automatic spot for the team. Frazier went four-for-four but has lower difficulty than the others, but she hit and the remaining four didn't. Wong fell on her van Leeuwen on bars. McClain fell twice on beam (acro series and a switch ring), and once on floor (double pike). Greaves had a disastrous vault (maybe fall), and fell on floor (full-in). Alipio had a disaster on bars and lower difficulty on the other events.

They have a Day 2 tomorrow where each will do 2 events. Not sure if/how those scores will count. The team is almost certainly DiCello and Wong, probably Frazier due to AA finish despite any likelihood of any event finals, and then ... hard to say between McClain and Greaves.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

Women's world team has been posted: https://twitter.com/USAGym/status/1446937863292063748?s=20

Kayla DiCello
eMjae Frazier
Konnor McClain
Leanne Wong

Wong and DiCello should have a shot at medals at least and hopefully the experience will be good for the other two.

 

[semillon27]

Women's world team has been posted: https://twitter.com/USAGym/status/1446937863292063748?s=20

On the one hand, I'm rolling my eyes into the ceiling that TF went with AA rank order for an individual worlds. On the other hand, there aren't really many other options. Though I do think I'd have put Greaves on the team for bars.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

On the one hand, I'm rolling my eyes into the ceiling that TF went with AA rank order for an individual worlds. On the other hand, there aren't really many other options. Though I do think I'd have put Greaves on the team for bars.

Greaves scored 13.90 on bars at the selection camp, so I'm not sure why? That's not a competitive bars score.

But yeah, they need to get right over this AA rank order thing. They are going to cost the US medals with this soon.

 

[her grace]

The big problem with AA rank order selection is not only that they may not select the best athletes for the team, it's that they won't develop the best athletes to select because no one is rewarded for specializing.

 

[semillon27]

Greaves scored 13.90 on bars at the selection camp, so I'm not sure why? That's not a competitive bars score.

But yeah, they need to get right over this AA rank order thing. They are going to cost the US medals with this soon.

Greaves has the highest bars D score of the six who competed and she had the second highest overall bars score. The team of four they are taking has both Frazier and McClain, neither of which is worth putting up on bars in prelims. (Unless Frazier ends up doing AA… which she shouldn’t over Wong based on overall scoring potential, but I wouldn’t put it past TF to do just that…) Though I realize there is no good answer here with Frazier ending up second AA. You kind of have you take her after that. It would’ve made more sense to take Greaves, but I guess she didn’t “earn” it.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

Greaves has the highest bars D score of the six who competed and she had the second highest overall bars score. The team of four they are taking has both Frazier and McClain, neither of which is worth putting up on bars in prelims. (Unless Frazier ends up doing AA… which she shouldn’t over Wong based on overall scoring potential, but I wouldn’t put it past TF to do just that…) Though I realize there is no good answer here with Frazier ending up second AA. You kind of have you take her after that. It would’ve made more sense to take Greaves, but I guess she didn’t “earn” it.

There's no team competition. We don't really HAVE to put anyone but AAers on bars if no one has medal potential, and Greaves doesn't. I don't see going with the top 4 AA as a great strategy, but there's nothing really wrong with their team either. No one but Wong an DiCello has ANY medal potential, so it's kind of a crapshoot? But yes, it does seem like Greaves actually had the better meet than McClain and would probably deserve to go a bit more. Mostly the two that aren't Leanne and Kayla are just there for the experience.

 

[Coco]

Only three can go on any apparatus at this championship, because God forbid we get too much gymnastics.