The selection camp to determine the U.S. teams for the Jesolo Trophy, to be held March 28-29 in Italy, is underway at the ranch in Huntsville, Texas.

According to USA Gymnastics, “athletes vying to represent the United States in Italy will be demonstrating full-routine readiness to [Martha] Karolyi and the rest of the selection committee, along with participating in physical abilities testing, which is part of every national team camp.”

Here’s the full list of those in attendance.

Seniors

Alyssa Baumann, WOGA
Simone Biles, World Champions
Madison Desch, GAGE
Gabby Douglas, Buckeye
Rachel Gowey, Chow’s
Felicia Hano, Gym-Max
Amelia Hundley, Cincinnati
Bailie Key, Texas Dreams
Madison Kocian, WOGA
Maggie Nichols, Twin City Twisters
Aly Raisman, Brestyan’s
Kyla Ross, Gym-Max
Emily Schild, Everest
Polina Shchennikova, TIGAR
Megan Skaggs, Gym Academy of Atlanta
Mykayla Skinner, Desert Lights

Juniors

Jordan Chiles, Naydenov
Christina Desiderio, Parkettes
Norah Flatley, Chow’s
Jazmyn Foberg, MG Elite
Margzetta Frazier, Parkettes
Laurie Hernandez, MG Elite
Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Brandy Johnson
Lauren Navarro, Gliders
Victoria Nguyen, Chow’s
Abby Paulson, Twin City Twisters
Grace Quinn, Texas Dreams
Ragan Smith, Texas Dreams
Deanne Soza, Arete
Olivia Trautman, Twin City Twisters

Nia Dennis and Ashton Locklear are out with injuries. Alexis Vasquez’s status is unknown.

On the nominative roster sent earlier this month, both Raisman and Douglas were listed as part of the senior team that also included Biles, Baumann, Desch, Key, Ross, Schild, and Skinner. This would be the return to competition for the Olympic gold medalists since their performance in London almost three years ago, and in video updates released by USA Gymnastics, they’re both looking up to the task.

Here’s the look at Raisman’s comeback. She shows great tumbling on floor, which looks like it has a few cleanup spots on landings but is otherwise great, she’s working very quick combos on beam, and on vault she shows a pretty sweet Amanar, an especially great thing to get back considering it’s been so long since last competing it.

I think I was most impressed with her improvement on bars, however. Raisman was determined to come back as an all-around gymnast, and even though she was never the strongest bar worker, she clearly has worked very hard on not only getting her skills back there, but also on trying to make them cleaner and better. She placed 3rd in the all-around at the ranch during the last camp, so I think it’s safe to say we should expect big things from her this year.

Ross is also featured in the video, and I was most excited about her new combination on bars – a toe full to Maloney to pak salto to van Leeuwen. It definitely needs a little work in terms of form, but combining a million skills on this apparatus is definitely a smart trend, allowing the gymnast to add huge difficulty through the connection bonuses instead of by throwing harder skills on their own.

And here’s Douglas’ video. Though she was sick during the training camp when videos were shot, she brought USA Gymnastics into her gym, Buckeye, for a glimpse into her training. She seems to be in fantastic physical shape, even though she looks about two feet taller than when we last saw her compete. Getting skills back after so much time out of the gym is hard on its own…add a growth spurt to the mix? It’s something very few can do, and yet Douglas is killing it.

Her most complete routine looks like bars, where she’s doing an inbar half + Endo half + Chow to start, an inbar full + huge piked Tkachev + pak salto, a Ray, and a double layout dismount, all great and I can’t wait to see it as part of a full routine. Her work on beam is mostly polished, if not super difficult, and though it seems when this was filmed she was still working on getting some of her tumbling back, she’s definitely off to a good start on her comeback journey. Most importantly, she looks happy and relaxed at Buckeye, and seems like a great fit for her.

What about the rest?

With Dennis and Vasquez out, Key is the one new senior on everyone’s minds. In January, she looked pretty good…I loved her Downie and Ricna to pak salto on bars, her switch half to back pike on beam, and the glimpses into her tumbling on floor, including a double layout and arabian double pike. She reportedly had a rough meet at the February camp, not placing very high in the all-around, but she’s grown a lot and it was early in the season…there’s still time for her to work out these kinks.

Going off of how both Biles and Skinner performed at the American Cup, I think it’s pretty clear how they could help the team in Jesolo. With Biles, I mean…come on. Do I even need to bring her up? Excellence is her middle name and if she doesn’t walk out of the arena with six gold medals around her neck, I’d be very surprised. Okay, maybe she won’t get the top spot on the podium for bars, but if she hits with no problems, she’ll definitely be close.

Skinner had her struggles in Arlington two weeks ago, and we don’t really know if she’s up to competing the Cheng again, which lowers her all-around scoring potential a tiny bit. But at the American Cup, she hit the best bar routine of her life and with a little less pressure on her at Jesolo, she should be fine on beam and floor. She always looked a little burned out at the start of a year, but we can’t forget that in 2014, she’s the only U.S. gymnast who hit every single routine at U.S. Championships, Pan Ams, and all the way through to Worlds.

I’m really excited to see Baumann and Desch. Baumann had that terrifying bars performance at the WOGA Classic a month ago, but then at the February camp she placed 2nd in the all-around right behind Biles, and it’s apparently because she threw her brand new Amanar on vault for the very first time. Bars is always something of a struggle for Baumann, but with the extra half point of difficulty on vault and her generally solid – and lovely – beam, it’ll be great to see how much her all-around abilities have grown.

After training with gymnasts like Biles and Ross day in and day out during her stint as alternate for the Worlds team, Desch seemed to get a ton of fire in her eyes. I think her renewed passion has made her a secret threat…though she’s always been great, it’s her consistency that was a bit lacking last year after she had surgery, and that’s where I think we’ll see the most improvement from her. I love her bars, and she showed some great tumbling at the ranch in January, including an arabian double front, a 1.5 to 2.5, and a triple full, all very clean.

We haven’t seen much of Schild, who missed her first senior year in 2014 due to injury. I do remember her as a junior, showing tremendous power on vault and floor, so I’m assuming she’s gotten even better here if Karolyi wants her on the team over some others who have a longer history with the national team and have been on international assignments – notably Hundley, Gowey, Kocian, Nichols, and Hano.

Kocian has missed several camps after Worlds, but is easily a threat for one of the spots. Gowey and Nichols are both returning from injury, so it’s possible neither is ready, but if they’re at a selection camp I’d say they’re definitely looking to go. Hano has done a lot of work in the past year and has a great DTY and a double pike off beam in addition to some big tumbling on floor, including a Biles, so she could be competitive enough for a spot now. Hundley is the question mark…she looked low difficulty and a bit inconsistent last summer due to surgery the year before, so I only see her taking over a spot if a lot has changed.

Pretty much every national team junior was on the nominative roster, including Chiles, Flatley, Foberg, Hernandez, and Nguyen. Interestingly, Trautman was on over national team member Smith, but there’s room for one more on the trip to Italy and I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to her.

Smith looked superb at the ranch in January, showing improvement on bars but beam and floor are what you need to pay attention to. There’s the piked standing full on beam, first of all…and because twisting in the piked position is nearly impossible, it’s mostly a standing layout with a slight pike at the end. She otherwise looked steady on her skills there, and on floor is working a double layout, piked double arabian, and triple full, very difficult for someone her size, but she just has so much power.

I almost wonder if not initially putting her on the nominative roster was a tough love power play on Karolyi’s part. Maybe I’m grasping, but I think not naming her to the national team last summer despite finishing 7th in the all-around and winning silver on beam and floor was a way to kick her butt into gear. When she showed up in November looking fabulous, Karolyi was quick to add her back. Perhaps she had a rough camp last month and the threat of not making the Italy team is all it’ll take to get her back on track? I’d love to see her big skills as part of full routines, so my fingers are crossed in the hopes she’ll be there.

The U.S. will compete in team and all-around finals on March 28 in addition to event finals on March 29 in Jesolo. The competition officially begins with qualifications for the Canadian, Australian, and French teams on March 25.

Keep an eye out for the official naming of the Jesolo team this weekend!

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo thanks to USA Gymnastics