It’s time for the 77th 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 would the score be for the Romanian team at European Games if Larisa Iordache at her best was on the team along with Laura Jurca and Catalina Ponor?

I mean, it’s impossible to say for sure because we don’t know how either would’ve looked back in June, but let’s use Larisa’s all-around from worlds and Catalina’s from the friendly meet she participated in. I’ll keep Laura’s scores from the Games. Using the 3-3-2 format used at Euro Games, their team score would look like this…

This score of 113.240 would’ve had them in second place behind Russia by about 3.5 points. Had Jurca hit bars, they could’ve contended with the Russians for the team gold.

Is a Deltchev just a straddle Jaeger? Or is there something else to it that I’m missing?

A Jaeger is a front flip coming from a front giant whereas a Deltchev is from a regular giant and there’s a half twist before the flip. The Deltchev is actually more similar to a Gienger, which is also a regular giant into a flip with a half twist. Distinguishing between a Jaeger and a Deltchev is quite easy if you just watch the giant into it, and an easy way to distinguish between a Deltchev and a Gienger is to think of the Deltchev as more like an arabian skill with the half twist before the flip, turning it into more of a front flip (like the Jaeger). A Gienger, in comparison, has the back flip with the twist coming during the flip instead of before (and for further help, Giengers tend to be piked or laid out whereas Deltchevs are usually straddled, though this isn’t always the case).

Some gifs to help you out…

Jaeger: front giant, front flip, no twist.

Gienger: regular giant, back flip, half twist during the flip.

Deltchev: regular giant, Arabian-style half twist before a front flip.

Is USA Gymnastics going to send an exhibition gymnast to the American Cup, as they did with Gabby Douglas in 2012?

A gymnast has been named alternate, though I can’t say who it is because it’s unofficial, though at this time there are no plans to have her compete in an exhibition style during the competition. I could see her competing an event or two, more similar to Kyla Ross’ exhibition in 2013, but we probably won’t know until they gauge her readiness at the February camp.

If you had to pick three U.S. gymnasts that would be stiff competition for Simone Biles, who would they be and why?

Gabby Douglas, because she’s gotten the closest internationally and has shocked everyone before, and I can’t think of two others who would be legitimate threats so I’m just going to go with Maggie Nichols, since she’s also gotten relatively close internationally and you never know – if Simone has a bad meet, Maggie could definitely get in there, and Norah Flatley, because Chow is a magician and I fully expect him to do with Norah this year what he did with Gabby in 2012.

What are some of the big international competitions coming up in the Olympic year?

The big ones are the World Cup all-around meets and Challenge Cup event final meets…there are eleven between the two circuits. There’s also European Championships, Pacific Rim Championships, and the Olympic Test Event.

I was watching Nina Derwael’s bar routine and noticed she counts nine skills. All of them are D or higher and one is a Jaeger not connected to anything. Why would she bother to do it if it’s not giving her any difficulty or connection bonus?

I just pulled up her routine from Massilia, which I believe is the one you’re talking about and it’s here if you’re at all interested (slash watch it, she’s gorgeous, I refuse to shut up about her):

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So she has a stalder full + Chow + Bhardwaj, Chow half, straddle Jaeger, Ricna + pak, van Leeuwen, and full-out dismount…so you’re correct, nine skills. But the Bhardwaj was a new skill for her at this meet, creating an additional transition that also required a transition back up to the high bar. Prior to that, her opening combo was a stalder full + Chow half, and then she went into the Jaeger and so on until the end, but with adding a Bhardwaj, she changed the opening to stalder full + Chow + Bhardwaj and then used her Chow half to get back up to finish. Because she was shifting the routine around, she probably has the extra element until she decides what to do for her Olympic routine, and she was likely using the Massilia meet to test it all out and play with her options. Given that she has other bars upgrades in the works, this probably wasn’t her final routine and wasn’t normally what she would compete, so while the Jaeger looked excessive, it’s most likely a skill she plans to either upgrade or swap as she continues to work on the routine construction.

Do you know why Ana Porgras of Romania ended up retiring as early as she did? I heard rumors about bullying from other gymnasts. Is that true?

I heard similar rumors but have no way of verifying if they were true or not. Either way, she was often dealing with injuries and mentally just didn’t seem to love the sport by the time worlds rolled around in 2011. After worlds, she injured her elbow at a training camp, so it would’ve taken a lot of mental stamina to push through yet another injury in the Olympic year. If you’re physically falling apart but are still mentally gung-ho and passionate about something, it makes dealing with injuries worth it…but if you are mentally done, it’s hard to keep going. That’s kind of what I saw from her and what I’d heard. Perhaps bullying or issues with teammates contributed to her being mentally done, but either way she just didn’t seem to love it anymore which made it not worth putting her body through such difficult physical stress.

Where’s Yao Jinnan?

Yao Jinnan had shoulder surgery about a year ago, in Texas, actually! It was a successful surgery and she is back to training, though is still a bit limited on bars, as she hasn’t fully healed yet. She has some of her skills back, including her pirouettes, Tkachev, and double layout on bars. Her transitions still need work, and she isn’t connecting any skills yet, but it’s a promising start. She’s working on vault difficulty, has a full beam set back, and can do individual tumbling passes on floor, though doesn’t have the stamina yet for a full routine. She and her coaches are optimistic about what she can do, but she’ll still have to contend for a spot with her younger teammates who haven’t been dealing with injury, so whether or not she’ll make it to Rio is up in the air.

If Ashton Locklear didn’t make the national team, does that mean she won’t be competing internationally this spring and at nationals or Olympic Trials?

She can still contend for the Olympic team and receive international assignments this spring even without making the national team last summer. Gymnasts are added to the team all the time…Brenna Dowell didn’t make the national team last summer and yet made the worlds team and was added to the national team when that happened. If Martha Karolyi wants to send her to an international meet, she will add her back on. And gymnasts don’t need to be on the national team to make it to national championships or Olympic Trials. They make it to nationals by receiving qualification scores either at the ranch or at the U.S. Classic, and they make it to Trials by earning a spot with their finish at nationals.

Are inbar stalders deducted if they aren’t piked enough?

As long as they reach the pike position with the feet off the bar to differentiate between a toe-on and an inbar, they aren’t deducted for not being too piked. Technically, a toe-on is a correct piked position (the phrase “toe-on” is actually a colloquial one, with “pike sole circle” the official name), so a gymnast will be credited for reaching a correct piked position in an inbar even if she’s barely past a toe-on with her pike. Aesthetically, I prefer really piked inbars because it’s just really pretty to watch, and I’d imagine that judges sometimes will downgrade inbars to toe-ons if they can’t tell the difference…like at Jesolo last year, I remember making a video of one of Emily Schild’s inbars in super slow motion because I knew it was supposed to be an inbar but her feet were absolutely grazing the bar making it look like a toe-on. So if your feet on your inbars are a hair away from touching the bar, it’s possible judges won’t credit them because they simply don’t know you’re doing them. That would be my biggest concern for a less-piked inbar.

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Article by Lauren Hopkins