It’s time for the 47th 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.

What happened to Sabrina Vega? Is she still competing or has she retired fully?

She went to the ranch several times over the past year but had to have another surgery so her training time was somewhat limited. However, she was just added to the start list for the Secret U.S. Classic next wee so we will see her back in competition then! She said she will not be competing on all four events because she’s still coming back slowly from her most recent injury, but she will be there, competing for the first time in over three years.

Do you think international competitions will ever go back to 7-6-5 format? I miss when teams were predominantly made up of all around gymnasts. The competitions were longer and allowed more competitiveness amongst other countries. In my opinion the 5-3-3 format only favors the Big 4.

This is an interesting question because it was received far before the news of the new format came out, and yet it both favors (the predominantly all-arounders aspect) and discredits (the larger teams aspect) the new format, which is kind of funny in a way. You’re right in that the 5-3-3 format definitely favors the Big 4, but now that it’s going back to a format that favors all-arounders but in a 4-3-3 format, will that help or hurt countries outside of the Big 4?

In a way, I feel it will help, because some countries with less total depth now only have to find four gymnasts to fit into their team puzzle instead of five, which could make it much easier to come up with a stronger team. Like, Romania in 2014 was a million times stronger in the 6-3-3 team final format than they were in the 6-5-4 qualifications format, because they had a lot of ‘excesses’ on their team last year who were forced to compete in qualifications and contribute lower scores that brought the team score way down. But when they could just put up three strong athletes in finals, it was like, suddenly they’re jumping up from 7th to 4th and challenging strongly for bronze.

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens in terms of countries breaking into the Big 4 with this new 4-3-3 team finals format. I think countries that really push the all-around (like Japan) could potentially see a huge rise, whereas those who survive thanks to specialists (like Russia did last year) might be getting a bit nervous.

Do you know what’s going on with Katelyn Ohashi? I know she’s competing and it looks like she’s almost back in shape and looks pretty solid on beam and floor. Do you know if she’s thinking of going for elite again?

Katelyn had no plans of doing elite again as of this year. She competed in the elite session at the WOGA Classic because it was hosted by her gym, but she did her level 10 routines and hasn’t been training any routines at the elite level. Last I heard, she is still planning on going to UCLA for the 2015-2016 season.

Do you know Jade Barbosa’s floor music from 2014? The one she used at nationals?

Her floor music from 2014 is called “Child of Nazareth.”

What would the difficulty be of the quad twist on floor? It’s logical that it would be a G but it looks so much harder and more unique than the Biles or even the double double!

Well I wouldn’t call it “unique” because a layout with twists isn’t really “unique” because it’s not like anyone’s a creative genius for being like “hey let’s add another twist to this!” haha, though it would be very difficult…if they go via progression, then yes, G, would be accurate. I honestly think a 3.5 should be a G because no one does it…and then a quad could be an H. Like, there are double layouts in tons of routines and that’s worth an F and we’ve seen only a handful of people do 3.5s in the last five years, so you’d think they’d bump it up!

How do you feel about Gabby’s new reality TV show? I would think Marta is totally against it, especially in the year leading up to Rio. I still haven’t bought into the fact that she might be in Rio and I’m not sure having a show will help her cause at all.

I think it won’t really affect her all that much. Think about it…most elite gymnasts are in school (or are homeschooled), which eats up about 4-6 hours a day ten months out of the year depending on how they’ve worked it out. Reality shows can film entire seasons in a couple of weeks doing just a few hours a day at a time. The series sounds like it’s going to be focused mainly on her mom, so I’d imagine the cameras will follow Gabby at practice and then in her regular life for a few days, spend a couple of hours with her doing interviews probably, and bam, that’s it. Filming a reality show like this is going to take probably 10% (or less!) of the time it takes for elites to go to school, so I doubt it’ll be that much of a distraction for her. Martha doesn’t love the girls doing tons of press, it’s true, but Gabby has gotten used to that part of her life by this point and was able to begin a successful elite comeback over the past year despite finishing high school and doing appearances, so I’d say she’s a smart girl who knows her limitations outside of training.

Has there ever been any thought given to increasing the size of the floor? Would this help taller gymnasts achieve some of the higher-rated skills that seem to be required by this new code? And would this help at all with safety in the sense that it would give gymnasts the opportunity to build up more momentum going into the more complex skills?

I don’t think there’s been any thought to this…at least none that I’ve heard. I know a few years back someone – maybe at Janssen Fritsen if I’m remembering correctly? – proposed an idea for a slightly wider beam because it would encourage even bigger skills (or would make difficult skills a bit easier increasing everyone’s ability on the event). It was quickly shot down and wasn’t ever brought up for discussion again, but it’s interesting because it’s kind of like…it would even the playing field a bit and I don’t think most people want that? Like a wider beam would probably make it possible for way more gymnasts to do standing fulls, but then that lowers the difficulty rating and you stop having really strong standout routines I guess. For floor, I think taller gymnasts just adapt to the size the way smaller gymnasts adapt to the vault table or the width of the uneven bars. But yeah, I don’t know, I’m kind of erring toward the side of not changing anything to make things ‘easier’ because it separates the good from the incredible, and plenty of taller gymnasts are doing big skills on floor (i.e. Giulia Steingruber) so I don’t think the size is that limiting.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins