It’s time for the 25th 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 the contact form at the bottom of the page!

Why don’t we see many/any air flares in WAG? The only instance I could think of was Peng Peng’s beam mount. I think they would look really cool in some of the more powerful floor routines and could add some artistry. Are they not worth performing because of the COP? Thanks!

I would have to say it’s likely because the level of difficulty and risk factor isn’t worth the reward. Often, some of the coolest or prettiest or most unique skills aren’t given the time of day because they take up too much time and effort, which is why you’ll see a quick hop-on mount instead of something more elaborate, and the air flairs fit that description.

Like, remember when Nastia did her gorgeous front aerial mount at American Cup in 2006 but was unable to grasp the beam and promptly fell off? That’s what you want to limit, so even though air flairs or other more interesting or artistic skills are lovely, a lot of gymnasts and coaches don’t want to risk it when they can get equal points for doing something a billion times simpler.

Has Larisa Iordache been training the Amanar?

To our knowledge, she has not been training it with the hopes of competing it anytime soon, or at least this was the case during Worlds. She might be considering it for the future to make herself more competitive, but it’s possible she hasn’t put it into rotation yet because she doesn’t hit it well and would likely get better execution on her DTY.

Who decides how many gymnasts (teams/individuals) are allowed at the Olympics? And why is there a limit? I’m rather confused because if I remember correctly, team size was cut to make room for T&T, whereas to me it makes sense to just let in a new discipline of a sport without sacrificing others.

It’s the International Olympic Committee with the most power, and they have created caps which trickle down and affect gymnastics. In years past, there was a 28 sport limit at the Olympic Games, and now the limit going forward will be 10,500 athletes participating in 310 events. In both scenarios, in an effort to keep the overhead low, each sport has to have an athlete limit and the sport of gymnastics with multiple disciplines is affected when adding in additional disciplines because ‘gymnastics’ is seen as one sport.

If the sport of gymnastics is given an athlete cap of say 300 (hypothetically), they would have 150 spots in each discipline if it was just MAG and WAG, but the only 100 in each for MAG, WAG, and rhythmic, and then with the addition of T&T, it gets cut down even further because the FIG has to follow an overall athlete cap set by the IOC. So the IOC technically decides how many gymnasts get to compete overall, and then the FIG makes decisions on how to split them up.

I believe there were 98 spots for WAG athletes in 2012, so rather than having 12 teams with six athletes apiece and then just 26 individuals from countries that didn’t qualify full teams, they chose to have 12 teams with five athletes apiece so they could have 38 individuals from non-qualifying teams. I believe that decision was made in an effort to involve more nations to make it more inclusive following the ideals of international community and fair play.

Kyla used to compete an Amanar, didn’t she? Could she not get it back?

She did, and last competed it on the first day of Olympic Trials, when she unfortunately sat it before going back and just competing a DTY on day two. She downgraded to the DTY because it was a safer and more consistent option for her, especially as she grew taller.

The CGA girls just seem to be leaving one after another. What is your opinion? I get the feeling it is something in the CGA culture and perhaps something about MLT’s (although I like her) 90’s era style/intensity that is pretty hard to handle.

I think it takes a certain athlete to be able to work with the intense coaches like MLT. I think often, many younger athletes don’t succeed with her because they take her criticism personally when it’s meant to help them. I think it takes a great deal of maturity to actually listen to your coach objectively without getting mad or taking every comment to heart. Amelia Hundley has been that gymnast since she was a kid, which is why I think she and MLT make a great team. I’ve also noticed that MLT has been a good option for older gymnasts attempting comebacks. Both Dominique Moceanu and Kim Zmeskal went to MLT for their comebacks, and got along with her really well…and back when Kayla Williams switched gyms, I remember it being a bit shocking that she chose Cincinnati, but she and MLT always looked like the best of friends whether they were at a J.O. meet or when Kayla showed up to nationals in 2010 basically as MLT’s assistant.

Not knowing MLT personally but having watched her in podium training and at meets, I think she’s a smart and sassy lady with a great sense of humor but she’s also someone who wants her kids to succeed and that means having to use an iron hand on occasion, which doesn’t always sit well with some athletes. She sees things realistically and if she doesn’t think you’re fulfilling your potential or that your skills are strong enough to qualify for a certain level, she’s not going to skirt around the issue. It hurts to hear the cold, hard truth, but I think it’s part of the package if you want to be a high level athlete. There are definitely ‘fluffier’ ways of getting your point across without hurting feelings (especially since you’re dealing with emotionally immature children for the most part), but I think if I had the Olympics at stake or was attempting to qualify for elite, I’d want someone to be totally and completely honest with me at every step of the game. But at the same time, I understand why young athletes would want someone a little warmer and fuzzier and not so intense.

When a country fails to qualify a full team to the next World Championships, what’s the max number of athletes they can send next year?

It depends on the year. If they failed to send a full team to 2015 World Championships, they can send up to three athletes next year, and then if they fail to qualify a full team to the Olympic Games, they can send 1 if she qualifies in the top allotted spots (it was 38 spots in 2012, and of those 38 spots, I believe two had to be set aside for each continent, so if you were 38th and from a European country when there was a girl in 50th from an African country, she’d get the spot over you since Africa is usually heavily underrepresented in gymnastics and likely wouldn’t have qualified someone higher whereas European nations quickly eat up those qualification spots.

Why was Jordyn Wieber allowed to compete at the 2009 American Cup if she was 13?

Back in 2009, the American Cup wasn’t an FIG World Cup event. It was an annual meet hosted by USA Gymnastics with invited international guests, but it didn’t have to abide by the World Cup rules. With lots of retirements (or extended breaks) from seniors who participated in the 2005-2008 quad, and with the senior field relatively weak at the start of 2009, Wieber was the best gymnast in the United States and at the ranch, likely showed in verification that she would be strongest at the American Cup. So she was sent regardless of age because she was the best!

Why do you think NCAA girls don’t usually compete elite at nationals? Boys do it all the time and quite successfully (i.e. Sam Mikulak, who was NCAA champion and national champion at the same time).

The MAG elites who compete in NCAA continue to train and compete at a very high difficulty. MAG athletes don’t become seniors – aka eligible for Worlds or the Olympics – until they’re about college-aged, so a vast majority of them will simultaneously do elite and NCAA, unless they’ve already graduated from college or went pro instead of going to college.

Also, you should know that MAG NCAA is judged based on the elite scoring system so that gymnasts can do both with little confusion if they so choose, whereas WAG NCAA is based off the JO 10.0 scoring system as every gymnast has come up through the J.O. program regardless of their elite status, and by the time they reach 18, they’re unlikely to be simultaneously competing elite – or thinking about it for the future – because they’re past their peak age.

You really have to factor in the biology of men vs women. As gymnasts, women peak at younger ages than men. High difficulty like that for women in their early 20s can be very strenuous on the body, and not necessarily as strenuous for MAG gymnasts who are at peak age to be successful at Worlds or the Olympic Games. Women competing at the NCAA level compete a lower level of difficulty, fulfilling the NCAA code requirements which don’t come close to elite routine requirements. It’s very difficult to transition between the two, whereas MAG is more uniform and the routines you train and compete in college are essentially what you would do at the elite level.

Occasionally, you will see an NCAA gymnast attempt elite either again or for the first time after finishing college, but the only gymnast I can think of who did both simultaneously in recent years was Mackenzie Caquatto. Caquatto competed at World Championships in 2010, joined Florida for the spring semester in 2011, and then competed at the elite level in the summer of 2011 with a strong shot at the Worlds team again, though an ankle injury on her double pike beam dismount at the selection camp ended her chances.

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Article by Sarah Chrane and Lauren Hopkins