It’s the 11th edition of You Asked, The Gymternet Answered! Now that World Championships are over and our lives are getting back to normal, we’re going to try to knock out roughly a billion questions we received before, during, and after Nanning. 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!

When do you think we will get clips of Gabby Douglas training in Ohio?

As much as we all want to know exactly what is going on the gym at all times, that’s not how it works. We’ll see training footage when she wants to show us training footage, so when she feels like releasing them, we’ll see them! I know Shawn Johnson was very eager to show everyone how she was doing, and released videos whenever she threw a skill she got back into the pit. Cool to see, but I think it gave people high expectations because she had really nice skills into the pit, but then when it came time to compete them for the first time, she was good but people reacted like “well she was doing a really nice Gienger a year ago, and she’s only made this much progress since then?!” So I think it’s almost better to have low or literally no expectations, because then you get surprises like Alicia Sacramone at Classics in 2010 and Nastia Liukin’s beam at Classics in 2012. I think coaches know this – keep expectations low just in case, don’t tease people with videos of an Amanar into the pit, and then when you do show up and compete for the first time, it’s a pleasant surprise instead of a letdown. That’s likely why nothing’s been released yet, and I don’t think footage will be released unless she’s hitting full routines regularly and consistently.

Will Aliya Mustafina keep her triple Y spin on floor for Worlds?

Well, this one’s outdated, but WHY YES, YES I DO! Really, coming into Worlds I did think it’d happen, because she’s tried it every year for about four years but was best at it this year and I’m really glad she competed it the way she did in qualifications. Unfortunately, the skill was also successfully competed this year by Asal Saparbaeva (both at the Asian Games and at Worlds), so it won’t be named for either, unless the FIG takes a hint from MAG and begins hyphenating skills, in which case we’ll have the Mustafina-Saparbaeva, or as I like to call it, the Mustarbaeva.

Do you think anyone will ever compete the front handspring double twist?

I hope so. This is my biggest disappointment of Alicia Sacramone’s injury in 2011. Probably the biggest disappointment OF MY LIFE, honestly. I would imagine anyone consistently hitting a Rudi on vault has probably thrown it into the pit on occasion – i.e. Giulia Steingruber or maybe Alexa Moreno. Unfortunately, American gymnasts tend not to do handspring vaults, and stick to the Yurchenko half-on family when they’re not doing Yurchenos, so I’m not sure we’ll see it from someone like Simone Biles or Mykayla Skinner, even though I’d love to. Actually, Aly Raisman reportedly was training handspring front layout fulls…if true, it’s because she likely wants to add a second vault to her repertoire, which would make her more competitive in her comeback. She has the power…if her comeback goes well, I could see her at least training it.

Why doesn’t Kyla Ross upgrade to the pak to Chow half?

She downgraded this year – not upgraded – because of injuries. I think it was smart of her to not add any upgrades, because 2014 in the grand scheme of things doesn’t matter – 2016 does. And yet she still won an individual medal and made an individual final. WITH DOWNGRADED ROUTINES! She’ll upgrade when she really needs to and when it really matters. People who judge Kyla for not upgrading don’t seem to understand that this girl has competed at pretty much every major competition she’s been eligible for since 2009. NONSTOP. Two Pac Rims, a thousand Jesolos, junior Pan Ams, every single Classics and Nationals, two Worlds, the Olympics, and a bunch of little competitions in between, she’s been there. For SIX FULL ELITE SEASONS. It’s actually insane that she’s still functioning at her level, let alone able to surpass it when healthy. It’s basically unheard of to go that long at the very top without a major career-ending injury, and she’s done it.

If all of the US team members at the 2008 Olympics were at full health what do you think the team final lineups would have been?

I probably would have had Sam Peszek, Shawn Johnson, and Alicia Sacramone on vault, Chellsie Memmel, Nastia Liukin, and either Johnson or Bridget Sloan on bars, Memmel, Liukin, and Johnson on beam, and definitely Johnson on floor with some combination of Memmel, Peszek, or Sacramone in the other two spots…probably Sacramone for sure, but then either Memmel or Peszek depending on how they were training. My gut is with Memmel just because of her Olympic Trials day two routine.

With Skinner’s poor form, will her lower international scores be a detriment to the team? (If she gets on)

I took out a lot of pre-Worlds questions that I missed, but I’m leaving this one in because it’s hilarious how people are so blind to a gymnast like Skinner simply because she’s not the cleanest gymnast. Who else but Skinner would have been named to the team!? By the end of nationals, she was one of the three locks alongside Kyla Ross and Simone Biles. She hit every single routine she performed from the start of nationals through the end of Pan Ams (and then later, Worlds). Aside from Biles, she was the only other gymnast performing two vaults. BAM, easy vault final. She and Biles were the only two with floor routines that could realistically hit around 15 while everyone else was in the low 14s. Again, WHO could have replaced her!? Even if McKayla Maroney was around this year, she would have had a difficult time justifying herself over Skinner because Skinner’s floor is so much stronger and they REALLY needed a solid floor routine this year because Biles couldn’t do it all by herself. In terms of international scoring, Skinner was actually scored BETTER internationally than domestically on vault, bars, and beam. Her floor took a few more deductions – like 2-3 tenths more – but her Cheng got like four tenths higher. She contributed the second highest scores in team finals on both vault and floor. Need I say more!?

What are your thoughts on Victoria Nguyen? I know she fell on beam at Classics and Day 1 at P&G’s but it didn’t seem to affect her head and then she hit  on day 2 for the highest score of the meet…also, I know Chow’s is probably the best place for needing to peak years after you’ve been a senior, but how likely do you think it is that she could make 2020? She’s a senior in 2017, but i think maybe for her a lot of experience could be good, like Ari Agrapides.

I think Nguyen has a ton of untapped potential. Her beam was probably the best U.S. beam routine this summer, but she just needs to work on getting it consistent. She’s what, 13? Consistency will come with age. If she keeps training at her current level and builds her mental game over the years, she can be unstoppable and will definitely be a huge threat for Worlds teams once she’s a senior. It’s hard to say anything about 2020 because you never know how long gymnasts last…like, in 2010 I thought Katelyn Ohashi – also someone who turned 16 in the post-Olympic year – would be a huge threat for her first senior quad. I thought she’d definitely go all the way to 2016. But she didn’t unfortunately didn’t last longer than two months into her first senior year, so I hate saying someone could make an Olympic team six years before the Olympics happen.

Do you think that WAG should raise the age limit to 18 yrs old? I’m pointing that perhaps making the girls peak at an older age would prevent injuries early in their careers? I know this is a tough one to answer and needs scientific studies, but a more mature body seems to cope better with a hard load of training.

I definitely don’t think the limit should be raised to 18. I think plenty of girls under 18 have shown that they can handle the mental and physical stress of training at the Olympic level, and that includes 4/5 of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. You can’t really “make” girls in general peak at an older age…I think you can train girls to peak for a certain year or competition, but you can’t really say “we’re going to train all girls to peak at 18” because there’s a lot that goes into a competitor beyond age.

Alicia Sacramone, for example, was training to make the 2004 Olympic team at 16 and though her body was in good shape, she needed help with her form and mental game. She got better as she aged, and probably would still be in her peak if she was still competing. But that had a lot to do with Sacramone’s physical makeup, not just how she trained. No two gymnasts are built exactly the same, so while 16 for Sacramone wasn’t good timing, for other girls it’s perfect timing. Look at Katelyn Ohashi as another example…she peaked when she was about 14.5. She did come back and have one really good competition at 16, but by that point her body/mind were just so over it, you couldn’t really hold on for her to peak at 18 even if you wanted to.

I think 16 is a good age because by that point, a good majority of gymnasts have reached physical maturity, and most have reached mental maturity as well. And though I do think 14 and 15-year-olds are a bit young (especially after seeing the hysterics some flew into at the Youth Olympic Games this year), there are definitely some in that age group who would show incredible physical and mental strength in major international competition – I still wish Katelyn Ohashi had been allowed to compete at 2011 World Championships, and think it’s a huge shame her age limited her because 2011 was basically her year.

By taking the 16 and 17-year-olds out of the picture, you’d be decreasing the chances of international success for a lot of girls who naturally peak at younger ages…probably the majority of girls. I think 16-18 are the prime gymnastics years for the majority, and don’t think there’s any reason in the current gymnastics trend to suggest that they’re not mature enough for high-stress competitions.

Which is easier and SAFER: TTY or Double back tucked Yurchenko? What do you think would be their D-score?

It is different for every gymnast, so it’s impossible to say which is easier or safer. A TTY typically receives a 6.8 when submitted as a potential skill at Worlds, whereas a Yurchenko double back has been rumored to be around a 7.0.

Regarding to floor music, in London we saw more rock and very British-inspired songs, for obvious reasons. I feel like lately a lot of routines are very latin. Do you think we will be seeing song selections like this in Rio 2016, or its this trend is something from my mind?

Gymnasts sometimes change their floor music every year, so I’m sure as we get closer to Rio, we’ll begin to hear more music inspired by Brazilian culture. But latin-infused floor routines have been super popular for awhile (SO MUCH SPANISH GUITAR!), so it could just be that they’re continuing in their popularity with no relation. There were definitely British rock routines in 2012, but I don’t think there were a ton…I can only recall Beth Tweddle’s and Viktoria Komova’s being outwardly rock-y.

Questions answered by Sarah Chrane, Lauren Hopkins, and Jackie Klein