It’s time for the 44th edition of You Asked, The Gymternet Answered! We apologize if we haven’t gotten to your question yet, but we try to answer in the order in which they were received. Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through the contact form at the bottom of the page.

So McKayla Maroney won’t be at Classics or Championships. She could petition to Worlds trials though? One of my biggest (and selfish) hopes is for her to return and the world to get the chance to see her compete again. She also has shown the ability to return quickly. What does your gut (or sources) say about a Maroney comeback?

She could petition to the Worlds selection camp, but being that she hasn’t been training at the elite level for quite some time my guess is that this won’t happen. I’d love to see her return next year when she is healthy, however! It takes a lot to come back to elite level gymnastics when you’ve been out for nearly two years at this point, and even more difficult if you’ve been injured or sick…and she’s been both. I hope she comes back even if it’s just on vault to finish up her career in the Olympic year but I’m sure the expectations on her would be immense which could be potentially really hard on a gymnast, so I’m sure whatever she decides to do, it’ll be the right decision for her.

Could you explain how the Pacific Rim Championships work? Does the all-around competition take place during the team final? If so, how did Lexie Priessman come in second AA in 2012 when she didn’t compete every event? Also are there a certain number of juniors you have to put up on each event in TF?

The rule for Pac Rims is that all teams have to have at least three juniors, but there’s no rule about which score actually counts for the team…there’s no three-up, three-count or whatever, it’s just whatever the four highest scores are, that’s what they count for the team total (same as with Jesolo). But yes, also like at Jesolo and other similar competitions, the team final, all-around final, and event qualifications are all the same thing. In 2012, Lexie Priessman did compete all four events on that one day, but what’s likely is that not all of her scores counted for every event in the team final. Like, if she competed on beam but fell, and four other girls had higher scores than she did, then her beam score wouldn’t count even though she competed it.

What are the chances of next year’s new seniors making the U.S. Olympic team given the great depth among the current seniors? So many potential medalists are bound to be left at home with only five spots available. Do you think Marta and the selection committee will mainly rely on all-around gymnasts or do you think they’ll bring specialists? Do you think it’s likely that a one-event specialist will be brought to Rio?

Based on what we’ve seen from the current crop of 2000 babies thus far, I don’t think any would factor highly into the picture for Rio, with the exception of Norah Flatley especially if Chow brings her to the next level in 2016 (i.e. possible Amanar, upgrades on bars, more consistent on beam, etc). I think for the most part, all-arounders will be selected. Marta has said time and again that she prefers all-arounders because they’re able to cover on any event if needed. With such a small team, you really need gymnasts who are strong everywhere, though there is definitely room for one or two gymnasts who may not be top all-arounders but who may be specialists who excel on two or three events but also can do the all-around if necessary. You do not want to bring a gymnast who trains only one or two events because if someone is injured, it’s going to be really difficult to fill their spot.

Also, with the current depth of the U.S. in terms of gymnasts who can do all four events really well, I don’t think specialists are really necessary at all. If the decision came down to it this year and it was between Skinner and Locklear, for example, I’d honestly rather take Skinner (or someone like her with one or two strong events but who can do all four). It doesn’t matter where the tenths are coming from as long as they’re getting them…so I’d rather have Skinner getting the extra tenths out of her Cheng and then being able to sub in elsewhere if needed than take Locklear and then start sweating if an all-arounder gets hurt but Locklear can’t do vault or floor. In 2012, Maroney technically went as an all-arounder but was injured and was relegated only to vault so that’s kind of a special circumstance…I do think she likely could have competed on floor at least in qualifications if she wasn’t injured, and then she also had bars and beam as backup, so it wasn’t the same taking her as it would be taking someone like Alicia Sacramone or Ashton Locklear, aka girls who only train a handful of events.

Yesenia Ferrera got injured during vault finals at Anadia. Any idea how bad it was? She may have had a pre-existing injury. I’m just curious if you know what’s going on, but I’m sure there isn’t much news out of Cuba. I really hope to see her and some of her teammates at Worlds.

A shame…I’m not sure what happened and haven’t seen any video, and you’re right, news from Cuba is pretty much nonexistent. But I hope she’s able to come back strong and be at Worlds because she and a couple of her teammates (Marcia Videaux and Dovelis Torres most notably) could definitely challenge for individual medals and they’d easily qualify a gymnast to the Olympics next year even if Cuba is out as a team at this point (because they didn’t compete in 2014). This would be incredible for a program that hasn’t done much beyond Pan Ams and a few other more local South or Central American meets.

Do you think anyone will ever compete the front handspring double twist vault that Alicia Sacramone was training?

I hope so! There’s definitely someone out there who has the power to get it around – ahem, Simone – but who may be focused on other elements of her gymnastics and can’t afford to risk injury on a vault that difficult. That’s probably why we also haven’t seen the TTY or Yurchenko double back in competition…there are definitely gymnasts capable of them, but it would take so much effort to compete them without risking injury. I’d really like to see Giulia Steingruber go for it, since she’s getting so good at her Rudi…I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wang Yan or Marcia Videaux go for it as well. Especially Videaux…she’s got so much power, I can see her upgrading to like a tsuk 2.5 and the handspring double full!

Do you believe that China has 8 athletes that can perform double doubles after winter training?

I’m not so sure. I have heard that they have been landing them in training, so I don’t think the program is lying about what their athletes are doing them in the gym, but whether 8 Chinese gymnasts can compete double doubles…that’s another story. Based on their lack of ability on floor on much more basic skills, I wouldn’t get too excited about suddenly seeing double doubles all over the place, though I don’t doubt they are trying to grow on floor and want to eventually introduce bigger tumbling into some of their routines.

Why is there an E skill cap on jumps and turns? Why is it that five acro elements and four dance elements are counted, instead of four acro and four dance? Don’t you think adding additional dance elements to the required amount and removing the cap on dance skills would help the FIG problem with artistry?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – dance elements are not artistry. Artistry is the emotional interpretation of a piece of music and the ability to convey that emotion through choreography and presentation to an audience. You want to make them feel what you’re feeling, whether that’s joy or sadness or insanity or whatever it is that your piece is about. Dance elements are simply jumps and turns. Whether someone can compete a pretty leap or turn has nothing to do with her ability to show artistry in her routine, so no, adding more dance element requirements would have nothing to do with the ‘artistry problem.’ Some gymnasts who are really good at dance elements have heinous artistry, and other gymnasts who aren’t great at leaps or turns have fantastic performance ability. Some have both, others have neither! The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

I’m not sure why the skills are capped at E, and that’s definitely not something I agree with. There are definitely some really difficult leaps and turns being done, especially on beam, and they certainly deserve more credit. But ultimately, I think acro is a bit more difficult to hit…I think about it like, I am not a gymnast and yet I can do a turn on beam and a double pirouette on floor, but I can’t even do a front tuck, so I understand why acro elements are overall more difficult than dance elements, but I do think that the really inventive or difficult dance elements shouldn’t be stopped at E. It provides no incentive to try for more difficult elements…like, there might be someone out there who wants to try a quintuple turn on floor but why bother because the quad is already an E?

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Article by Lauren Hopkins