It’s time for the 82nd 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.

How do athletes qualify for the Challenge division of the International Gymnix? How are the participating gyms selected?

Because it’s an invitational, the host invites those they would like to compete. For the Senior and Junior International Cups, invitations went to the national governing bodies and the individual federations decided who was to attend (so Gymnix sent an invite to the United States saying if you want to attend, send four gymnasts at the junior and/or senior level to compete as a team, and Martha Karolyi accepted the invite and then chose those four gymnasts herself).

The gymnasts for the Challenge were also invited through both their federation for the smaller programs as well as through their club gyms, with a total of 40 spots open. The only requirement was that gymnasts had to be at the elite level, which is why you see Lexy Ramler and Irina Alexeeva competing as U.S. elites despite not being sent by Karolyi – they’re sent by their club instead. Because it’s a very popular meet in Canada, priority is given to national team members and then also based on rank at last year’s Canadian Championships. For those outside of Canada, they had to secure their spots by registering early, as with any other invitational meet.

So long story short, there is no “qualification process” per se, but rather an invitation process. Those who get invites can choose whether to attend or not, but just have to make sure that if they do want to attend, they register early enough to make sure they get a spot before they fill up. For the Junior and Senior Cups, invitations went out to the top 16 countries at the 2014 and 2015 world championships, but for the Challenge I’m not sure how they determined which club gyms received invites…most likely gyms they’ve had relationships with in the past.

Why do you think gymnasts like Laurie Hernandez, Ragan Smith, Alyssa Baumann, etc., weren’t selected for the world cup over Amelia Hundley?

From what I’ve heard Martha Karolyi say in the past, she favors team events to test athletes she has an eye on for bigger meets like worlds or the Olympics, which is why she’s not super keen on any of the more prestigious world cup or challenge cup events and yet loves meets like Jesolo, Pac Rims, and Pan Ams. With Stuttgart held the same week as Jesolo, it seems clear to me that she wants her strongest gymnasts at the team event, which is why Amelia – who is great but not at the same level as gymnasts like Laurie, Alyssa, and Ragan – made more sense for that individual spot. She should do great at Stuttgart, though…her biggest competition will be Ellie Downie and they’re capable of similar scores so it’ll be fun to see how the two match up.

Will you be doing an American Cup live blog this year? Unfortunately I won’t be able to watch but I can keep up with your amazing live blogs without missing the action!

Yes I will! I’ll be at podium training on Thursday morning and at the competition on Saturday.

Why didn’t the U.S. send a senior team to Gymnix?

They have a lot on their plate this month with the three world cups and Jesolo, and then a national team camp smack in the middle. With two full teams going to Jesolo and four gymnasts going to the world cups, it would’ve been too difficult to send yet another team to a fifth international meet in the same month. They typically don’t send a junior team, so I’m happy that they were able to at least make this happen, given that it’s the 25th anniversary of the event.

Do you know if there is a website that explains with videos or gifs what elite-level gymnastics skills consist of?

I love the skill guides on the gymnastics wikia site. They have the skills for each event laid out by type of skill and then element level with gifs side-by-side so it’s easy to just scroll and see how everything looks. Here are the links for vault, bars, beam, and floor.

I just saw the registration for the Rio Test Event and saw that India is not sending anyone for WAG. Is this definite? And if so, how can they keep Dipa Karmakar out of Rio when she is currently one of the best vaulters in the world? The Dominican Republic is also not on the list. Does that mean Yamilet Pena is not capable of qualifying for Rio?

India and the Dominican Republic can’t send Dipa or Yami to the test event because they didn’t qualify. The test event spots are limited to only 40 individual qualifiers, and they had to earn these spots at worlds last year. At worlds, there were two qualification spots available for every nation that had a full team at Glasgow but didn’t qualify a full team to the test event, so Spain, Hungary, Poland, North Korea, Mexico, Sweden, Austria, and Greece each got two individual spots. Then there were 24 spots left over, so the top 24 gymnasts who weren’t part of full teams got those spots. These spots went to Venezuela, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Slovenia, Trinidad & Tobago, Peru, Guatemala, Jamaica, Turkey, Armenia, Malaysia, Algeria, New Zealand, Belarus, Argentina, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Ukraine, Chile, Ireland, Croatia, and Iceland. Dipa Karmakar finished close behind Iceland, and is the second reserve for the test event, meaning if two of the above countries withdraw, she could go.

Recently, some of the GB girls were at a training camp in Rio. Why do you think the new seniors weren’t invited, and similarly why don’t you think any of them have been chosen to get some senior experience at the world cups coming up?

I don’t know what their selection process was like for those going to the training camp, but I think their only new senior really in the mix for the Olympic team is Catherine Lyons and I know she was dealing with nagging injuries late last season so it’s possible she wasn’t back to full strength. The other first-year senior gymnasts – Georgia-Mae Fenton, Teal Grindle, Abigail Solari, and Phoebe Turner – were added to the senior squad in December, but they likely need to earn international spots by defeating other gymnasts, so the fact that they weren’t selected for world cups is simply just because they didn’t earn those spots. 

Aside from Lyons, none of these have really been top contenders, so my guess is that BG wants to send those who have the biggest shots at an Olympic berth to the competitions leading up. Grindle has been injured since 2014 and isn’t fully at her best yet, Fenton was getting all-around scores consistently in the 48-51 range last year, Solari is currently only competing bars and beam, and Turner did everything but vault at Welsh Championships but with low scores in the 12s on all, so when their competition for international spots is gymnasts like Amy Tinkler, Ellie Downie, and Claudia Fragapane – all of whom are capable of 56-57 range all-around scores on average – it’s pretty clear why they weren’t chosen.

What do you think about the Romanians’ chances in Rio? Do you think they will manage to win at least a medal?

I think they definitely are in the mix for individual medals, but as for a team medal, I’m not sure. I do think they are much better suited to a 5-4-3 qualifications competition format used at the Olympics as opposed to the 6-5-4 used at worlds due to a lack of depth. They do have five strong gymnasts that could make up an excellent team, so if they are all healthy and hit in qualifications, going into the 5-3-3 team finals format could definitely yield a team medal, especially given that Russia has been anything but consistent in a three-up three-count final this quad. Assuming they qualify from the test event, I think a team with gymnasts like Catalina Ponor, Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar, Ana Maria Ocolisan, and Laura Jurca could be stellar and would definitely threaten the current world order.

With the different U.S. women competing at different events this spring, it’s hard for fans to know how athletes compare to one another and what goes into team decisions. Does USA Gymnastics make national team camp scores public? Where can we see them? If not, what alternative information is available to fans?

National team camp scores are not made public. Even though the judging across different meets isn’t always easy to compare, for the most part it’s actually not that far off. Last year I made a list of the top scores earned at about 80 competitions – domestic and international – leading up to worlds and averaged the scores, and everything pretty much worked out the way I predicted using that guide. So if you’re trying to track the U.S. gymnasts across different meets, even though the scores aren’t exactly the same as they might get somewhere else, it’s not so far off that it makes it impossible to compare. Also, just watch the routines. Go beyond the scores and pay attention to how the athletes look. Scores aren’t everything.

I was watching Kentucky vs LSU and a girl did a front handspring onto the springboard. I’d never seen that done before. Is that type of vault in the code? Any idea if anyone is planning on busting it out in elite and having their own “Yurchenko”?

A front handspring springboard entry is actually banned in elite. Under section 10.4.3, the code of points awards 0 points for the performance of invalid vaults, and it includes “prohibited vaults” in this list, mentioning that the springboard entry is a prohibited “pre-element before the vaulting board.” The only pre-element allowed onto a springboard is a roundoff. I’m not sure why that is because I think the handspring springboard is quite cool, and several collegiate gymnasts and L10 gymnasts compete them, giving a bit of variety to an otherwise often boring group.

With elite qualifiers beginning now, I’ve noticed that in recent years there have been some girls who previously competed in college who are now trying to go elite. Do you think this is a reasonable goal? It seems they would have to put a lot of time into learning and perfecting new skills…but most gymnasts have peaked by then. Do you know of girls who have tried to or are still trying to qualify in that situation? Is anyone this year trying to qualify as a senior elite that has never done elite before?

It’s definitely a reasonable goal. Look at Anna Li in 2012! If her beam was stronger, she would’ve been serious competition for Kyla Ross, which is awesome given that only two years earlier she had been competing at UCLA. And for an even better example, Mohini Bhardwaj – another UCLA gymnast who went back to elite after college – made the 2004 Olympic team at age 26. Of course, not all of the gymnasts who have attempted elite after college have been able to put together strong enough programs, like Melissa Doucette, Casey Jo Magee, and Alyssa Pritchett, though it was still awesome seeing them attempt it. For them, the issue wasn’t necessarily not having difficult skills, but rather having enough difficult skills to put together a full elite-caliber routine. Magee had a Garrison mount on beam, for example, which was awesome! But because collegiate gymnasts are used to shorter routines, it can be hard to fulfill the requirements of the elite COP, which counts eight elements into the D score. Gymnasts coming out of NCAA might have two or three elements rated at a D or higher, but they’re up against elite gymnasts who have eight elements rated at a D or higher, so it’s definitely a challenge for them to stack routines with multiple high-level skills. Right now, Houry Gebeshian is an NCAA grad going to the test event for Armenia and Brittany Rogers is simultaneously competing at the NCAA level in the U.S. and at the elite level in Canada (she actually competes nearly her full elite programs in NCAA!), but I don’t know of any recent NCAA grads who are attempting to qualify elite in the U.S. system.

What are the rules about who is eligible for the Pac Rim Championships? I know in the past U.S. teams have been three seniors and three juniors, but New Zealand once brought all juniors. Is there a requirement? Who are the U.S. women aside from Simone that will make this year’s team?

The requirement is that a team must have at least three juniors…or at least that’s been the requirement in the past, it may have changed and I’m unaware! Most teams field three seniors and three juniors, since it fulfills the juniors requirement and also has the maximum number of more advanced seniors on the team, but in 2012, New Zealand basically only had juniors competing at that level which is why they brought a full team of juniors to the meet. Aside from Simone, the U.S. Pac Rims team hasn’t been named and probably won’t be until the conclusion of the selection camp to be held from March 31 through April 4 (which will also be the camp determining the two gymnasts the U.S. will send to the test event in Rio).

Have a question? Ask below! Remember that the form directly below this line is for questions; to comment, keep scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Article by Lauren Hopkins