Following two days of competition at their Olympic Trials in Gatineau, Gymnastics Canada has named the five gymnasts who will represent the country at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this August.
20-year-old Ellie Black and her 2012 Olympic Games teammate Brittany Rogers, 23, will lead a team that also includes 18-year-old Isabela Onyshko, 16-year-old Rose-Kaying Woo, and Shallon Olsen, who turns 16 next week. In addition to these, Madison Copiak and Megan Roberts have been named as alternates.
The federation named Black, Rogers, and Onyshko to the team yesterday afternoon following the second day of competition. Black and Onyshko, who have put up aggressive routines and solid performances all season, were exempt from yesterday’s competition while Rogers, who won the all-around with her especially strong work on vault and bars, received the third automatic spot.
Though Olsen wasn’t named until today, she was all but a lock for the team thanks to her powerful vaults and consistently placing in the top three on floor. The first-year senior first came onto the scene to impress with her DTY when she was only 11, and could very well challenge for a spot in the vault final in Rio.
Woo, meanwhile, has been dealing with a back injury all year and hasn’t been at full strength until now. While she dominated as a junior last year, her injury and inconsistency raised questions as to whether she’d be included this year, but at both nationals and trials she showed that she was the best option for the spot, with an ability to compete well on bars, beam, and floor.
Both Copiak and Roberts also would’ve fit into that spot, with Copiak one of the team’s most consistent gymnasts this year and Roberts capable of great work on bars and beam, the perfect counterpart to Olsen on vault and floor. Roberts has been dealing with consistency issues of her own this year, however, and while Copiak has been showing especially excellent work on bars, her difficulty on beam and floor is a bit weak.
With Black and Onyshko in the all-around, Olsen on vault and floor, and Rogers on vault, bars, and beam, the fifth and final team member’s role would be to fill the holds on bars, beam, and floor, and Woo has proven that she has the strongest potential to make this particular combination happen.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
The Gymternet 
Do you think they will use Brit or Rose on floor in qualification? It would give Britt an AA shot if Ellie or Bela had a slight mistake. But Rose usually scores higher then Brit here .
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I’d been assuming all along that Brittany would do all-around, but that is a good point that Woo has been out scoring her on floor. I think I would still go with Rogers on floor, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Canada to have a third all-arounder and after Woo’s injury this year, I feel like it’s probably good to keep her focused on bars and beam.
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Do you think Rose’s inconsistency could affect their chances to make TF?
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It could if she ends up not hitting because it’s a really close field this year, BUT qualifications are four up three count so if she does fall they’d just have to hope they wouldn’t count other falls.
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Wouldn’t Megan Roberts have made a better choice for 5 the spot, she seems to be more consist than Rose this year?
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If you assume that Shallon Olsen was getting the fourth spot (and she probably was), then the 5th spot has to go to someone strong on bars and beam, which I wouldn’t consider to be where Roberts shines. She might be more consistent than Woo but I think I would go with the potential for Woo to put up big scores on those two events. And hope that if Woo misses, then Rogers/Black/Onyshko hit and you can drop Woo’s score. I’d say Woo is the high risk/high reward pick.
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