It’s time for the 76th 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 do you think some gym fans are stuck in the past? By this I mean comparing every gymnast to Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut, even though gym was so much different. Will people be that way about this quad’s generation later?

I think it’s just that those gymnasts set a standard and even though so many changes have happened since that make their standard obsolete, some people get stuck in that period and want to relive those glory days forever and ever because it can be difficult to get used to change. It’s funny because it’s already happening a bit with the current generation…with the new Olympic rules in 2020, teams in team finals are going to be comprised almost fully of all-arounders and people are very upset about the lack of the specialist, though the role of the specialist is actually somewhat new in gymnastics…obviously there’s always been event finals allowing gymnasts truly stellar on a given event to stand out, but it’s only been in the past decade or so since the end of the perfect 10 that true specialists training only a handful of events have begun to pop up and make teams…and yet people are mourning the role of the specialist on a team as if it’s always been around and life can’t ever be different! I think it’s easy to get used to things, whether that’s stylistic trends or skills or competition formats or whatever. With every little minor change in the code of points, people want to start a revolution, but the code of points has never ever been stagnant, and the sport is way more fun if you roll with the times. Sometimes the changes end up being terrible but other times they’re great and really benefit the sport, even if we whined about them at the beginning.

Do you have an injury update for Giulia Steingruber?

As of last week, she was casually throwing double doubles off the tumble track so I think she’s okay! 🙂 She definitely looks fit and healthy and ready to take on 2016.

I  heard a Universal Sports commentator say that the floor is more springy when it’s on a podium. Why is that?

Podiums have more give than solid floors because they’re raised up like stages and don’t have anything solid underneath…picture a bunch of little folding tables all lined up together and attached to make one big stage. There’s a lot of room and air under the podium, and because they’re held up by a bunch of table legs basically, there’s a lot of give to them…not that they’re swaying all over the place or anything, but they just have a bit more flexibility to them with the air underneath than a solid concrete foundational floor does. So when you put a competition floor with springs on a concrete floor, you still get a good bounce, but when you put a springy floor on a podium, you can get just a little more air. The same is true for any event, actually, not just floor…and that’s why they have podium training at competitions that happen on a podium. It allows gymnasts to get a feel of the physics of their routine with a little more bounce. I believe it also makes the bars feel a little less steady and the beam also has a little more give.

Could Yao Jinnan come back this year and surprise the world? She’s been out for a while and I feel like we should be scared about her threatening a Team USA 1-2 finish in the all-around.

I think she can definitely come back and surprise the world. I don’t know if she could threaten a 1-2 finish for the U.S. having never been the most consistent gymnast and then spending over a year out of competition due to serious shoulder surgery – which has limited her training on bars, her best event more than anything – but I do think she can come back to be a big help to her team in keeping them in a silver medal position over Russia or anyone else who wants to challenge.

If Norah Flatley were to make the Olympic team, do you think Chow would be the Olympic team coach again since he’s already done it? Or would it maybe be Brestyan (if Aly Raisman makes it) since he’s also been there before?

I’d like to think it’ll be Aimee Boorman, since she’s been leading the team for three seasons now, first as second-in-command to Jenny Zhang but this year, she led the team and I think it would be awesome to have a woman leading the crew at the Olympic Games so I hope it ends up being her even though Chow and Brestyan both have Olympic experience.

Who has the best shot at beating Team USA this summer? Russia already announced four of their members, which can change, but I don’t really feel the four they announced have a shot at beating the United States. I feel like the Chinese have improved so much this quad, and it kind of scares me.

China is the only one, for sure. I think the U.S. is still quite a bit ahead, because while the Chinese can beat them on bars, the U.S. easily manage to outscore them on the other three events and I think even if the Chinese women get three beam and floor routines that give them scores of 43.5 or so on both of those events in a team final, the U.S. women are still averaging about the same plus they have vault and decent enough bars to get them by. It might be closer than the U.S. lead was this year, but I think the U.S. also have the fact that they’re super consistent working for them, whereas the Chinese tend to always have at least one minor drama, at least in the past two quads. But yes, I really don’t think Russia can do it…they have four super talented athletes on their roster at the moment, but each has a really strong specialty and then either pales on the other events or doesn’t train all four, so it’s kind of hard. I wish they had a better developmental program in place so they wouldn’t have to beat their old war horses into the ground, but I hope Viktoria Komova gets her all-around set back…if she did even the most basic floor routine at worlds, like the one she competed at Euro Games this summer, she would’ve qualified second in the all-around, which is incredible…so I really hope she’s able to get that back, not only for herself, but to help Russia put up more of a fight…because at the moment they’re a bit weak.

Why don’t more gymnasts compete the Onodi on beam? Who do you think will bring out the most surprises next season? As in upgrades, execution, and everything.

Well, this is my opinion, but it can be hard to keep the rhythm with the half twist involved so considering it’s rated the same as some elements that aren’t as risky, gymnasts tend to make those elements more popular. Aerials are worth the same – front aerials, side aerials, and Onodis are all D elements – so I think for most it’s just easier to stick with single-direction skills that don’t disorient them. I’ve seen plenty of gorgeous Onodis, like Nastia Liukin’s super quickly-twisted ones, but there are more that exist that look jerky and like you can see the effort behind them. People – and judges – like when skills look effortless. No one needs to see how hard you’re working, but Onodis are one of those skills where you can really tell someone struggling because it has to be so perfected and there is very little room to cover up mistakes.

Did you see Skinner’s floor/bars at all from her gym’s invitational? Asking in the off chance you saw it and had thoughts? Love the blog!

Yup, I enjoyed it. I think it’s going to be an excellent routine when she adds the Moors back in at the beginning and then each of the other passes (the double double, the full-in to back tuck, and the 1.5 to triple) gets bumped down. I’m glad she’s finally working on adding the 1.5 to triple, as it’s been on her list of things to do for a couple of years now, though it obviously still needs more work before she competes it at the elite level. Most of her choreo has been the same for the past couple of years but I think this music is her best this quad and she sells it really well.

What happened to Flavia Saraiva during the all-around final at worlds? It seems she didn’t have a good worlds overall, and she finished last in the all-around when she’s capable of much better.

I think people had almost ridiculous expectations for her…some were saying she would threaten for a medal, but if you had watched her all season, that clearly wasn’t going to happen. Still, top ten was a realistic goal and it was disappointing to not see her reach it. I didn’t see all of her all-around performances, and still can’t find video from them, but based on her scores it looks like she fell on beam twice and then once on floor. I guess we can be happy her issues came in finals and not qualifications, because then she wouldn’t have made it to finals at all, but it’s definitely a bummer she finished last. On a more positive note, however, her FTY was gorgeous and she had one of her best bars performances ever in the all-around! Just a shame she happened to fall apart on her two best events.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins