It’s time for the 29th 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!

Do you think Canada has a shot at qualifying a full team to Rio? I feel like they have no chance unless Moors comes back…solely because Ellie Black can’t carry the entire team on her back.

Ugh, poor Canada. They’ve had a lot of promising juniors over the years but they seem to get injured or lose momentum once they become seniors. Like Aleeza Yu, who was doing so well until she got injured on vault at nationals and then seemed timid in competitions following. That one was a heartbreaker. They do have quite a few promising brand new seniors this year, so I wouldn’t count them out just yet for a team spot in Rio just yet, and then if they don’t qualify at Worlds, there’s always the test event, where they’ll be able to use some of their talented 2000 babies – like Rose-Kaying Woo and Shallon Olsen, both of whom just did very well at Elite Canada – as well. They were 12th at Worlds with a somewhat weak team this year, so I don’t think all hope is lost. While they might not be in a place to make team finals in 2016, I don’t doubt they can at least get there as a team.

What do you think about Vanessa Ferrari’s reaction about the floor final at Worlds? It seems to me that she is always claiming that she is being wronged and the judges already decide who they want to win before the competition starts. And she seems to always blame Mustafina. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ferrari, but do you think comments like hers are poor sportsmanship or is there any truth to it?

I don’t think she blames Mustafina as much as she blames the judges, and I definitely think you’re right in that she seems to think the judges have it in for her. First of all, in addition to there being a lot lost in translation, the Italian federation tends to like publishing things that are meant to be innocent and objective yet when out of context and a bit embellished, look like they’re really inflammatory. It’s refreshing to hear Ferrari talk about not being happy with how she did, and I like hearing that she doesn’t think the judging was accurate (frankly, a lot of fans agreed with her). However, I don’t think she actually said anything mean-spirited about Mustafina, despite the federation’s best work to make it look as though Ferrari completely blamed her for what had happened. Ferrari never really mentioned anything about Mustafina, whereas the article talked about their ‘ongoing rivalry’ probably because it makes the story more interesting. I think it’s fair for a gymnast to say something along the lines of ‘I didn’t think that routine was deserving of a medal’ which is also something we heard from Becky Downie about the uneven bars rotation. The difference is that the British federation/press didn’t throw her words into an article about how she is rivals with the Chinese and Russians, making it look less offensive and more respectful even though she was just as annoyed about not medaling as Ferrari was.

I was wondering about Steve Rybacki and Terin Humphrey. Are they still involved with the women’s team?

Yes, they’re both still involved. The women’s international elite committee currently includes Mihai Brestyan as chairman, Mary Lee Tracy, Liang Qiao, and Kim Zmeskal Burdette as the coach representatives, Martha Karolyi as national team coordinator, Steve Rybacki as director of the elite program, Terin Humphrey as athlete representative, Valeri Liukin as developmental team coordinator, and Luan Peszek as vice president of the program.

Is there a special reason a few of the gymnasts from Britain were training at Twistars in November? Or are training trips like that common?

You’ll often see gym visits from international teams in the U.S., mostly because it gives other countries a look into how the U.S. gymnasts train which can be helpful in their own development, and it’s also a nice way to foster international friendships between different gyms. I know CGA has hosted British team members in the past, WOGA hosted Brittany Robertson of New Zealand for about six months, and I believe Brestyan’s has also been a welcome environment for international guests. Some U.S. club gyms do visits like that abroad, and various teams around the world visit other teams as well.

First of all, I really love the blog! Thank you for the time you put into writing interesting, informative, and high quality articles! My question is pretty simple. Where do you think Great Britain stands in the Rio equation? Given the Russian ‘situation’ and the strong up-and-coming GB seniors, will we see GB on the podium as a team? How about individuals?

Thank you very much! 🙂 I think GB has a very strong chance at least of breaking into the top four at some point in this quad, especially considering they have some insanely talented new seniors this year and Glasgow is hosting Worlds – the host teams always seem to manage a great performance, like the Dutch did in Rotterdam a few years back. There’s also the Russian ‘situation’ to consider as well as the problems the Romanians are having, and though I think both will improve quite a bit this year due to recovery from injuries and the aging up of last year’s juniors, I think the British team is looking incredibly strong in terms of who they have now. Of course, it’s not going to be easy, but I don’t think it will look as clear cut as “the big four” automatically taking the top four spots. The British team could have had the opportunity to move up in 2014, but they had consistency issues of their own, so that’s something they’ll really need to work on if they want to actually challenge for the podium. But even two years ago, I didn’t think it’d be possible for the Brits to break into the big four this quickly and so much has happened since, I think this quad is their best chance at making it.

Who or how is it decided whether the athletes receive their medals in the track suits versus just in their leotards (at the Olympics)?

I believe it’s the country’s Olympic committee that decides. Like, USA Gymnastics might say “accept your medals in your leotards!” at Worlds, but at the Olympics I think the USOC can step in and tell them to wear their track suits, both because they want all Olympic medalists to look uniform across all sports, as well as because they’re being sponsored. Nike sponsored the U.S. team in 2012 and so they probably had a contract with the USOC stating that all athletes had to be photographed on the podium in their Nike apparel as opposed to their GK leos. I remember John Geddert blogged about how the male coaches for the U.S. WAG team all had Adidas gear for when they were on the floor, and they had to frantically find clothing or cover up their logos because the Adidas insignia couldn’t be shown on television without pissing Nike off.

I think you said that the USA doesn’t send athletes to most World Cup events because they are not enough of a challenge. What was the reasoning behind sending Elizabeth Price in 2012/2013 and how was that different from 2014?

I believe my ‘not enough of a challenge’ line had to do with the decision to not send Bailie Key or Nia Dennis (or another high level U.S. junior last summer) to the Youth Olympic Games. The number one reason an athlete wasn’t sent to Nanjing was because it overlapped with U.S. Championships, so Martha Karolyi had to make the decision of sending a top junior to YOGs or to nationals.

When taking the two into consideration, one of the biggest questions is where she will face the most difficult challenge, and last year the answer was clearly at nationals. The top three or four performers at YOGs maxed out in the 54-55 range in the all-around, while the U.S. alone had 18 juniors who reached those scores at nationals in 2014. Nia Dennis was probably the strongest junior with Bailie injured, earning a massive score even with multiple falls. At YOGs, she would have won the title with multiple falls without giving it a second thought! But in the U.S. she actually had to fight hard, and though she almost did it, she ended up finishing off the top of the podium.

The World Cups are definitely a challenge for seniors, which is why Elizabeth Price was sent in the past, and why they continued to offer spots to gymnasts after Price retired. Maggie Nichols was sent to the World Cup in Tokyo in spring 2014 and earned bronze in a pretty difficult all-around field, and then Larisa Iordache and other top international elites were all in attendance at Stuttgart and Glasgow, so there was definitely a top group to contend with. The U.S. actually did name an athlete to attend the latter two World Cups at the end of 2014, but she turned it down due to a conflict with school.

For juniors on the national team who are turning senior in January, like Nia Dennis, do they automatically get moved to the senior team so there appears to be an extra-large senior team and small junior team?

It used to be that all juniors were automatically bumped up, though I’m not sure if this is the case anymore. I think last year they had to verify routines at least once before officially being moved to the senior national team (either that or it was at Martha Karolyi’s discretion). I know Nica Hults was on the junior national team for 2013-2014, and though she became a senior in 2014, she was not moved up to the senior national team.

Want a question answered? Ask us using the contact form below! Just want to comment? Keep scrolling for the site comment box…the contact box below is for questions only!

Article by Lauren Hopkins