It’s time for the 67th 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 (unless they are super relevant and need to be answered in a timely manner). Something you want to know? Ask us anonymously by going through the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Why isn’t Kamerin Moore on Nebraska’s 2015-2016 roster?

I believe it could be due to medical reasons…her twitter bio still lists her as a Nebraska gymnast and she’s still attending classes at Nebraska, so I don’t think she has retired. It’s possible they just removed her from the roster this year if she’s not competing due to injury. I’ve looked into this before and didn’t get an answer so I’ll keep trying, but the fact that she’s still at Nebraska and listing herself as a gymnast on the team suggests that it’s just an injury and not more.

Your thoughts on Skinnergate? What should USA Gym do? What should Mykayla do?

Without going into too much detail because I want to keep my site’s focus on gymnastics, not what happens outside of competitions and training, I’ll say that any athlete at the national level who makes offensive comments on social media when they’re expected to be an ambassador for the sport and a role model for young athletes should have to face some sort of official suspension or fine. I also think she should have to apologize out of respect for those who may have been offended by her comment.

I don’t think she should have her medals stripped, lose her place on the national team, or lose her scholarship as some have demanded, only because that would be quite extreme considering there are other high-level athletes who have committed actual crimes and are still allowed to return to their sports, and what she did wasn’t close to that level. For example, Paul Hamm punched his cab driver in 2012 and was arrested and charged with assault, and he’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame next year.

So really, losing everything she worked for would be a bit extreme. However, I do think she needs some sort of formal education when it comes to making racist or homophobic or otherwise discriminatory comments because she’s done it before and clearly hasn’t learned yet. Maybe she’ll only learn if she has something taken away from her, so perhaps some sort of punishment is in order, but at the same time I do believe there is a double standard because she seems to have made the comment quite naively (slash ignorantly), quoting someone else, which is something several others have done quite recently with the same word and there hasn’t been close to the level of backlash Skinner has faced.

Did Ashton Locklear make the national team this year?

No, she did not.

I didn’t even know I liked the Netherlands until this year and now I can’t stop wondering how much it would cost us to band together and get that Lotto logo off their leos?

Mostly choosing this question because it made me giggle, but if there’s anyone out there who can financially sponsor the Dutch women’s program without requiring a huge logo plastered on an otherwise gorgeous leo, please make yourself known!

I was wondering about Simone Biles’ potential d-scores for next year. I don’t expect her to be doing the TTY but based on her videos I reckon it will be 6.3 on vault, 6.3 on bars, 7.0 on beam, and 7.0 on floor. How much do you think she will upgrade?

These sound about right, though it does seem like she is going to compete the Cheng next year based on what she has said (though I’d imagine she’d keep the Amanar for her all-around competition and the Cheng would be her second vault). Someone recently calculated her beam potential to be at about a 7.1 if she can hit every skill she’s capable of (and make all connections), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her add an extra tenth or two on bars either. I think Simone right now looks like she can’t possibly add anything else because her routines are already SO incredibly difficult, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she’s going to prove me wrong and whip out unprecedented upgrades in 2016.

Let’s suppose McKayla Maroney makes it back to Olympic shape in 2016. Do you think she’d have a chance at making the team? Does Simone Biles’ vaulting ability already fill the need of a top vaulter, taking away the spot of a specialist? Would coming back as an all-arounder increase her chances or do you think she should focus on a couple of events?

I honestly don’t think she has a chance, even in a hypothetical world where she’s in 2012 shape. I honestly think she was lucky to make the team in 2012, because it almost looked like she wasn’t going to (especially with Martha Karolyi stating multiple times that anyone on the team would have to contribute on more than one event in the team final), and the depth then pales in comparison to the depth now. At her best she would’ve been lucky to get around a 58 in the all-around internationally and next year you’ll have at least six U.S. gymnasts who can get around a 59 or better.

So in that case, it would make the most sense for her to really focus on vault and floor, but honestly, she’d have to outscore three floor workers who can all get a 15 or better, which I don’t think she could do even at her prime, and so she’s really only contributing on vault, which would only add a couple of tenths over other weaker Amanars. Basically, this team will not take someone just for vault next year because it’s one of the last things they need. Beam is going to be a major focus, so if she had her perfect Amanar and a consistent 15 on beam, then sure. But based on her beam history, I’d say no.

What’s the story behind Oksana Chusovitina competing for a Japanese club at the 69th All-Japan Team Gymnastics Championships on November 28?

She was just competing as a guest! Occasionally some countries do this to flesh out teams for little domestic meets, like the Italians at the Serie A meets. We know Chuso has quite the history of team swapping in her 20+ years in the sport but fear not, she is not adopting Japan as her newest home country. 🙂 She was planning on traveling to Japan for the Toyota International competition so maybe she decided to go a bit early.

What do you think about the minimum age requirement for eligibility to compete at the Olympics? Do you think it is a fair rule? Nadia Comaneci was only 14 when she took gold. It seems like a useless rule that wastes great talent, like Katelyn Ohashi, who could’ve made the team in 2012. I know it’s probably politically correct to have a minimum age rule but they should lower it so early talent can shine.

I don’t see why 14 or 15 would be a problem. I think there are definitely 14-year-old gymnasts who have proven to be more mature than their 16-year-old (or older) counterparts, and I do agree that if Katelyn Ohashi had been paced for 2012, she likely could have been named to that team. It’s a shame a few months stood between her and that chance, and she’s one who probably could’ve handled major international competition at 13! She was always very mature even as a young junior. I don’t see how the difference between Katelyn and Kyla Ross – only six months apart in age – meant one was magically more mature than the other.

Should those under 16 be looked at on a case-by-case basis? How would “maturity” be defined? What if they did lower it, even to 15, and found that those on the younger side couldn’t handle the pressure? I will say, back when the age limit was 14, there were many problems within the sport because you had lots of tiny young girls who hadn’t gone through puberty who could flip higher and faster than older girls, which caused lots of older teenage gymnasts to starve themselves in order to achieve bodies they would’ve had pre-puberty. Since raising the age limit to 16 – an age at which a majority of gymnasts have reached puberty and are more developed – there hasn’t been that pressure to be smaller to match the younger girls and overall, the sport has changed for the better in that regard, becoming more open to gymnasts of a wider variety of ages and body types.

The rule is in place primarily to protect younger athletes from the pressure of international competition, but I do think it is a bit unfair to limit those who are truly capable of performing brilliantly at 14 or 15 just because others aren’t emotionally or mentally mature enough to handle it. The only compromise would be a case-by-case kind of thing as I said, but that comes inherent with a million problems of its own so for the benefit of the majority of young athletes, the superstar prodigies have to suffer.

Do you know what is the story with the Downie sisters, since their coach Claire Starkey was dismissed from Notts? Who is coaching them now? And have you heard what happened leading to Claire’s dismissal?

She was “forced out” of Notts after opening a satellite gym – called Robin Hood Gymnastics Club – also in Nottingham. The club was “intended to support Notts and the hundreds of children” who were on waiting lists to join the famed Notts club but couldn’t due to its high membership numbers, but I think Notts ownership saw it as competition and therefore a conflict of interest. I believe the Downies are working with Jo Miller now as their main coach, and then also with Jemma Wilson. I haven’t heard anything about the Downie girls’ reactions, but it must have been hard to have such a major change leading up to Glasgow.

I have been rewatching many old U.S. Championships and am up to 2002. I was wondering how the worlds team was chosen that year? It seems only one of the gymnasts from the top six at nationals actually went to worlds (Ashley Postell). Even if they were chosen at camp this seems highly unusual. Were there injury issues?

I believe because it was an event finals only competition – no team or all-around – they went with the gymnasts best able to win individual event medals, so that’s part of it, and why someone like Sam Sheehan in 11th all-around would go over someone like Nina Kim in 6th. In addition, there were injuries to the two best at nationals that year, Tasha Schwikert and Tabitha Yim, as well as to Liz Tricase, who was 5th but won vault and had one of the best floor routines. Annia Hatch, who placed fourth, could’ve definitely gone for vault and floor especially but Cuba refused to release her so she could compete internationally for the U.S. It was a whole big international mess and Jimmy Carter got involved.

So, Ashley Postell went as the strongest vaulter, but I think she would’ve gone even had Hatch been eligible or Tricase not injured, because she had the strongest beam in the country when hit…and, as it turned out, the best beam in the world in event finals.

Sam Sheehan got a bit lucky with all of the injuries to the strong vault and floor gymnasts. She placed 11th all-around at nationals but without Schwikert, Yim, Hatch, and Tricase, she had the best floor in the country and ended up winning bronze there.

From what I remember, Courtney Kupets and Terin Humphrey had disastrous nationals competitions that weren’t actual indicators of their talents. Kupets was second at the American Cup earlier in the year, but was a mess at nationals and it was definitely shocking when she was named to the worlds team…though clearly it was for good reason, and I think even with her mistakes at nationals, she still made the most sense for bars.

Humphrey was also a surprise, but had the whole vault thing going on so I suppose that was the reasoning for her inclusion…that, and again, literally everyone was injured or held hostage by Cuba.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins