It’s time for the 69th 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.

What are Laurie Hernandez’s chances of making it to Rio? Do you think she has peaked yet?

I think Laurie definitely has a strong chance at Rio. However, so do a lot of girls. If she’s not one of the top three all-arounders, she’s going to need to fill a hole left by one of the top three all-arounders. For example, if the top three are Gabby Douglas, Simone Biles, and Aly Raisman, bars is going to be a big factor. If the top three are Gabby Douglas, Maggie Nichols, and Madison Kocian, beam is going to be a huge factor. So basically she could very well go but so could many girls. There’s so much depth, it’s just all going to come down to who best fits in the puzzle.

Laurie is excellent on bars and floor but isn’t yet one of the top three among current and upcoming seniors on either event, and she is not upgrading to an Amanar on vault, so if it comes down to, like, her and Maggie because they have that similar bars/floor skillset, I could see Maggie getting the nod for her Amanar and then Laurie left behind because you don’t really need two girls to come for the same bars/floor spot. But again, it’ll depend on what the needs of the team are, and what holes need to be filled, unless she solidifies herself as a top three all-arounder and there’s no way they can leave her behind.

Regarding proposed code changes for 2017, how much of these do you think will stick? With bars, it especially seems like construction will be critically different, and even though composition requirements dropped from 2.5 to 2.0 on three events, they didn’t lower the vault d-scores to match.

I think many will stick…I actually kind of like that the FIG is excited to change so many things and I think while some will be weird to get used to, others will be awesome to see. There was another proposed change coming up before the vote comes in 2016, and they actually did end up lowering all of the vault d-scores so that you won’t see people getting like, a 15.8 for a hit Amanar and then like a 14.3 for a hit bars set. It’s a little more even now, which makes way more sense. The bars construction excites me a little, so it’ll be cool to see how coaches deal with all of this. Eventually I’ll put together a guide with everything that’s changed and what it all means, but for right now I’ll just say I’m excited to see what changes end up happening. It keeps us on our toes!

Any idea what happened with Ragan Smith and Jordan Chiles being pulled from the Top Gym meet?

Several countries traveling by plane, including the U.S., ended up backing out of the competition because of the terrorist attack in Paris that happened earlier in the month. Belgium ended up being under high alert because several people linked to the attack were expected to be in the Molenbeek area of Brussels and there was a massive manhunt. Because Charleroi is outside of Brussels, those coming from outside of Europe would have to fly into the Brussels airport and I think many – including the U.S. girls, the Canadian girls, and FloGymnastics, who were supposed to live stream the event – ended up backing out for their own safety.

I was just watching the worlds qualification videos and came across this one. Do you know what skill she was attempting and how this happened?

I believe she was just going for her dismount, a double tuck, but let go of the bar a little too late and rotated straight up over the bar instead of up and forward. If you watch, you can see after she completes the first tuck (which goes over the bar instead of forward onto the landing mat) she is still holding her legs in the tuck position to attempt the second tuck, so that’s definitely what the aim was. Good thing she was okay!

Edit: In the comments, it was confirmed that this was her dismount, and that her grip got caught, which is why she wasn’t able to let go of the bar.

For 2020, could you clarify whether an individual gymnast counts as one of a country’s spots under the two-per-country rule?

Yes, whether a gymnast is part of the team competing in qualifications with the actual team for a team finals spot or just competing as an individual, she is still a representative of her country, so it won’t be two from the actual team and two who aren’t from the team. It’s going to be literally two per country no matter what your role is.

What’s your opinion on two-pass routines that are heavy on dance skills?

I love them, honestly. When I first saw Lieke Wevers’ routine earlier this year, during the trials for the Dutch Euro Games team, I basically died at how beautiful it was and didn’t even notice it only had two passes until someone pointed it out. I think if you can get away with it because of how the code is set up, why not go for it? Sure, the best gymnasts on floor will have a combination of great acro, great dance, and great expression, but the fact is that some gymnasts are stronger at some things and weaker at others, and they shouldn’t be penalized for working the code to their advantage. If you can’t tumble as well because you don’t have that power, why not just throw together a million difficult turns and leaps? And if you have poor flexibility and zero sense of awareness, why not tumble your butt off? Take advantage of the loopholes in the code if they benefit you.

I love Lieke’s routine despite her tumbling being easier than most level 10 routines, and I also loved Mykayla Skinner’s routine back in 2013 when she first debuted her crazy tumbling even though her leaps weren’t great. They’re at opposite ends of the spectrum but I think why not show off what you’re good at? The thing is, routines like these likely won’t win anything because there are girls who can put both together – like Simone Biles and Ksenia Afanasyeva – and have total package routines. But overall I’d rather see Lieke and her teammate Eythora Thorsdottir shine in their two-pass routines than muddle through three or four low-difficulty tumbling passes they can’t hit well.

I’ve heard a lot about “going pro” but what does it actually mean? I don’t think there’s a “pro league” so does it have something to do with NCAA?

Yes. When you go pro, it means you accept endorsement money and become a professional athlete, thus forfeiting your NCAA eligibility because only amateur athletes can participate in collegiate athletics. So Simone Biles initially committed to UCLA, but then when she decided to go pro, she had to give up her scholarship.

What happened to Kayla Williams? World champ on vault one year and then she disappeared until the Nastia Liukin Cup and started collegiate gymnastics. Injury or coaching issues?

I think after the drama of changing gyms and moving to Ohio and with 2010 being a much deeper field than 2009, I think she just decided she’d rather stick with level 10 and not stress about trying to keep up elite routines knowing worlds likely wasn’t going to be an option with Alicia Sacramone back. In 2010, she was just kind of low key training, not with plans to return right away, though she was actually at nationals with her new coach, Mary Lee Tracy, working side-by-side with her as like, a little assistant coach, which was awesome to see.

By 2011, she had fully dropped down to level 10 again and focused on preparing for college. I don’t remember her having any real injury issues, aside from a foot injury in 2010, but honestly looking at the field in 2010 and beyond, it was clear she wasn’t going to really contribute in elite more than she already had. She was actually smart to realize that and to just have fun training rather than struggling to train for high-pressure elite competition. Her story is kind of remarkable…she finishes her J.O. season, decides to try out the whole elite thing, is a world champion six months later, and then is like “cool, that was fun” and then gets to go on and have a chill finish to her high school years before going on and having a killer collegiate career. Everything worked out perfectly for her!

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Article by Lauren Hopkins