Welcome to the fifth edition of You Asked, The Gymternet Answered! We apologize if we haven’t gotten to your question yet, but we are trying to answer them in order. Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through this contact form below! As always, if we’re wrong about something or if you have details to add, leave us a comment!

Is there going to be a Mediterranean Senior Championships?

I hope so! But nothing is on the schedule just yet.

Outside of the medalists, who from the Youth Olympic Games do you think we should keep an eye on?

Good one. Well, shockingly, Laura Jurca of Romania was not a medalist, so I’ll include her on here because she will be very big for Romania in the future. Now for the less obvious choices…Antonia Alicke of Germany wowed me, and she’s not even one of the top German juniors! I just love how tall she is and how she uses her height/long lines in her performance. She reminds me a lot of Georgia Simpson of Australia…lots of potential. Sae Miyakawa of Japan is excellent on floor. She just needs a bit more experience. Tutya Yilmaz of Turkey could be HUGE for her country. Her vault and floor are excellent…I can see her getting a lot of attention as a senior. Arailym Khanseiitova of Kazakhstan…I am OBSESSED with her artistry on beam and floor. She’d be my pick for Longines elegence here if they had that prize at YOGs…her full turn on beam was in scorpion, her mount was insanely beautiful, and her leaps are KILLER. So much love for her. Oh, and Camille Bahl of France will hopefully grow in her skills to become a strong competitor for them as a senior.

Which teams do you think will qualify for the team final after the Big 4? Japan, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia? Azerbaijan?

Definitely not Azerbaijan. I’m pretty sure they only have four seniors, and their best one will max out around 52 in the AA, so they don’t stand a chance just yet, but maybe in the future. I think Great Britain will definitely qualify…Germany, Japan, and Italy maybe? Australia could maybe do it if they hit but I think these are the strongest teams right now. Though honestly, Japan is the only one I’m not as familiar with in their current state.

Any thoughts on the Argentina team?

Not really anything major…I really enjoyed Ayelen Tarabini and Merlina Galera at Pan Ams and I think this team seems much stronger than what I remember from the last couple of quads.

What’s the status on Polina Shchennikova? I was really excited to see more from her this year.

Polina had issues with her back to the point of not being able to train at all. I know in June she got back on bars for the first time and wasn’t even able to do a kip due to the pain. I think she’s working on training once again but there was no way she was able to get anything done this year, sadly.

How well do you think Mustafina and the Russian team in general will do in Nanning?

I think Mustafina should do really well…I’m sure we’ll see her in all event finals but vault if she hits in qualifications, and she could definitely challenge for an all-around spot…bronze for sure, and possibly even silver if Kyla Ross has mistakes. Russia…eh. Maria Kharenkova has a heck of a beam routine and I hope both she and Larisa Iordache hit because they need to own the beam podium this year. Otherwise I’m underwhelmed…

What do you think about Agrapides’ future? How well do you think she can do?

I think she is incredible, especially knowing she has only been training for five years! She is actually lucky her birthday falls when it does, taking her out of consideration for 2016…it gives her time to get a better head for competition. I think if she keeps up as she’s doing now, she could be HUGE in 2020, and at that point, she’ll hopefully have so many World Championships under her belt, she’ll be in a prime leadership role as well as hopefully producing high scores on vault, beam, and floor. She has Alicia Sacramone potential, basically!

Do you think the NCAA will be changed having World champions competing? I.E. Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, etc.

NCAA already has world champions and Olympians competing! Bridget Sloan is a world champion and you see how well she does at Florida…and look at Sam Peszek at UCLA when she’s healthy. I think the elite girls are great to see in NCAA because it boosts the popularity of the sport, but at the same time, I think it’s great to see that L10s can hold their own against girls like Sloan and Peszek…and then Simone Biles and Kyla Ross in the future. Sometimes elites keep up bigger skills in NCAA – Peszek with her standing full on beam, Sloan with her Church on bars even though it only lasted a couple of weeks – but you see a ton of elite-level skills from L10 girls as well, so I don’t think the bigger elites necessarily stand out in a way that changes the NCAA. Though with Biles, I bet she’ll be doing full elite routines like it’s no big deal.

Do you know what’s up with Eythora Thorsdottir? I was so looking forward to seeing her as a senior – is she still injured?

I don’t know, unfortunately…just that she hasn’t been on any of the Dutch rosters. I think the last time I remember seeing her was at the European Youth Olympic Festival last year? I know we have lots of Dutch fans who read this site…if anyone else has an idea, please let us know in the comments!

Should Skinner ever take out her Moors, what good replacement skills would she have?

I’d like to see clean double layouts from her…the DDLO comes so quickly, you almost have to tuck it a bit to land it, but I’d like to see her doing a straight up double layout or maybe even the Biles or a full-in double layout just to see how she looks, form-wise. I’d like to see her bring the double arabian back…perhaps even turn it into the laid-out double arabian or maybe try a double arabian half-out. I’d also want to see what her front tumbling is like!

Who do you think is going to represent the USA at Glasgow and Stuttgart World Cups? I’d love to see Lexie Priessman and I hope for her!

I’m not sure! I’d like Priessman as well but I doubt she’ll be healthy enough by November/December. I could see Alyssa Baumann going…or Maggie Nichols if she’s healthy. Actually, it’d be cool to see Mykayla Skinner go as well, just to see how she holds up among the girls who typically do those events. Now that she’s had some AA success at Pan Ams, it would be cool to see how that boosts her confidence when competing.

Do you think Kyla Ross will get her 6.4 bars difficulty back before Worlds?

It depends on how her back is doing…I know she took out all of her inbar skills due to back pain. I think she said something about how piking down was her biggest issue, and that’s unfortunately where a good amount of her difficulty came from.

Does Larisa Iordache get a deduction for the step she takes out of her tucked full on beam? It always looks controlled but I don’t know if they still take some deduction.

I would think so, yes, because the landing on that is supposed to be performed with feet together, so even though it’s a controlled step back, I think she’s supposed to land it with her feet together…i.e. why there’s a difference between a layout-stepout and a layout to two feet. She’s essentially doing a tuck stepout, haha, so there is likely a landing deduction…though again, I’m not a judge, so if anyone else wants to weigh in here, that’d be appreciated!

Article by Lauren Hopkins