It’s time for the 106th 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 did Aly Raisman only get a 6.3 D score on beam in qualifications and the team final?

Her layout in her flight series was credited as a D element rather than an E element because of how it looks in the air with legs apart, taking a tenth off of the element value. Then, because she’s connecting a B+D instead of a B+E, she loses another tenth from the series bonus, as only a B+E gets a tenth bonus (a B+D gets nothing in terms of bonus). Most gymnasts don’t get the full E credit for layouts on beam…I think at worlds one year the judges said they only credited one layout as an E because most gymnasts do them with their legs separated, making it more like a layout stepout. They don’t go all the way down and give it a C because it’s still landed on two feet, so they kind of split the difference between a LOSO and a layout by giving it a D. So instead of the 6.5 she’s shooting for, Raisman typically will only get a 6.3 internationally for that routine because judges are super strict about what actually constitutes a layout.

Why did Deanne Soza move to Texas Dreams?

Speculating but I’m guessing because she has struggled with mental blocks while competing during her entire elite career. She has some of the best technique for a gymnast, but I don’t think she’s ever had a meet that she’s gotten through without a major mistake. Her meltdown at nationals this summer had to be the last straw…that was truly heartbreaking to watch especially knowing what a strong gymnast she is. At that point you have to wonder if maybe you need a change of scenery, so I assumed she moved in order to work with coaches who have more experience coaching elites to high levels. Something similar happened with Nia Dennis this quad, where she was really struggling with consistency at her old gym and then was at her new gym for literally a week and doing ten million times better. Soza had great coaches at Arete, but maybe she just needed something new if she wanted to get past her block.

Why is Vanessa Atler credited as the first American woman to do the Rudi? What non-American woman did it first?

Vanessa Atler was the first female gymnast to compete the Rudi at a major international competition, which she managed at the American Cup in 1999. The first woman to compete the Rudi at a naming-eligible meet, however, was Oksana Chusovitina at 2002 worlds. Because the American Cup isn’t a competition where gymnasts can submit skills to get them named, Atler never got it named for her and Chusovitina did.

Why weren’t Ragan Smith and Laura Zheng at the Olympic tour?

They both have done various stops of the tour. Not every gymnast does every stop due to personal schedules. The big names typically go to every stop, but some of the others might miss certain days. In 2012 Kyla Ross only did the first couple of weeks of the tour and then a couple of other performances, and other girls only did it when it was within the vicinity of their hometowns.

Why was beam the last event final in Beijing instead of floor, as this didn’t follow the Olympic order?

I actually have no idea…they actually did vault and floor on the first day, bars on the second, and beam on the third, and I was never able to figure out why they changed it up like that. The men did go in competition order, so maybe the reasoning for putting floor on the first day of event finals was so that men and women could both do floor on the first day so the organizers could get the equipment out of the way and put the rhythmic floor in early since rhythmic started immediately after event finals and they had to get in the arena for podium training? That’s the only reasoning I could come up with. It seems like a logistic kind of decision that made sense for them!

I noticed that some French gymnasts announce their retirement but continue competing afterwards. Why is that?

I think many continue competing for their clubs at a lower level. I know when Marine Brevet retired after the Olympics, she said something along the lines of “you’ll definitely see me at competitions with my club” so maybe “retirement” just means from elite gymnastics and they may continue to compete just for fun.

When did Russia stop participating at the City of Jesolo Trophy?

Italy invites different countries to participate each year. Russia always has their national championships around the same time so it’s possible Italy has invited them and they’ve declined due to scheduling conflicts.

When are we expecting to see Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian compete in NCAA?

They both came to UCLA as freshmen for the start of the fall semester and will begin competing when the upcoming season starts in January 2017!

Why didn’t Aly Raisman make the vault finals at the Olympics? Didn’t she score a 15+ in qualifications?

In order to make vault finals, gymnasts have to compete two different vaults from two different families. In Rio, of the 98 women who competed, only 19 opted to perform two vaults which meant there were only 19 women contending for spots in the final. Many gymnasts don’t train a second vault because they’re too focused on the all-around to get a second high enough level vault that would make them competitive in the vault final. Raisman had hoped to add a second vault during some point in her comeback but in the end didn’t have enough time because her focus was on the all-around medal.

What is the tumbling pass that Morgan Hurd does that has a twist and then a double pike? Is it in the code of points? Does anyone else do it?

This is called a piked full-in, which is a double back pike with a full twist in the first pike. A ton of gymnasts have competed it going back to the 80s! Because it’s difficult to twist in a pike position, some gymnasts end up looking pretty much laid-out in the first pike while they’re twisting, or they twist a little bit early and have basically completed the twist as they’re still finishing up their first pike in the skill. Because of these little differences it can sometimes be difficult to recognize…I remember the first time I saw someone with a really laid-out first pike, I was like “WHAT is this skill?!” and thought someone was legitimately attempting a layout full-in back pike-out, haha.

How do skills get named in WAG?

Gymnasts have to submit new skills to the FIG technical committee by a deadline before major competitions like worlds or the Olympics. The technical committee decides whether they’ll accept the skill, and if they do accept it, they give it an element rating from A to I or if it’s a vault, they give it a start value. Then the gymnast has to actually compete it successfully at one of these meets for it to get named. So this summer, Hong Un Jong submitted the triple-twisting Yurchenko to compete in Rio and the technical committee accepted it and gave it a 6.8 start value. But because Hong didn’t land the vault successfully in competition, she didn’t get it named.

What happened to Nastia Liukin’s Shine Agency?

I have no idea. I know the only clients she really had were a couple of young kids, and they mostly did modeling for GK ads and things like that, so I can’t imagine this was a legitimate thriving business. I don’t know if she meant it to be an agency for athletes or a child model agency, but it turned into the latter. The website now says it’s a consulting firm, but it hasn’t been updated in forever and their twitter is now set to private so I’m guessing this project is on hold for the time being.

What happened to coach Natasha Boyarskaya at WOGA? She’s credited as a coach of many WOGA athletes but she’s no longer there.

I can’t find any info…maybe she retired? I know she started working with Madison Kocian back when Kocian was a little kid, and she coached her right up until the Olympics. She’s been around for a long time, so it could just be that she finished up her career once Kocian got to the Olympics? But there’s nothing concrete out there about it.

Different gyms focus different amounts on dance. What are some gyms with current/recent elites that are at the two ends of the spectrum? Where does Simone Biles’ training fit?

Hmm…it’s hard to say. I think it sometimes is just an athlete to athlete basis rather than on a gym to gym basis. I’ve seen some girls with excellent artistic expression from gyms not known for that at all, and vice versa. At the elite level, that’s probably because most choreographers aren’t in-house. When you have someone like Dominic Zito traveling around the country to most major elite gyms, it’s not really the gym that’s responsible, and in terms of being expressive, that usually is something that comes naturally. You can teach dance skills and technique, but you can’t teach a kid how to feel her performance (I mean, you can make it BETTER, but teaching it is a different story).

That said, I’m generally impressed with the floor routines that come out of Parkettes. Even if some aren’t my cup of tea, I think for the most part the kids there — especially the juniors! — get routines that are well-suited to their personalities and they typically perform them very well. Texas Dreams too. I think Kim Zmeskal is great at helping her girls reach another level of performance, and at a mass level. Simone Biles is a fantastic artistic gymnast, very musically-inclined, and totally gets how to interact with the audience more than most, but I don’t think it’s necessarily due to anything that has been coached into her. She just happens to be naturally expressive and a great performer.

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. Keep in mind, we sometimes get about 50 questions a day and can only answer usually around 30 or so a week, so don’t be discouraged if we don’t get to you right away. We do not answer questions about team predictions nor questions that say “what do you think of [insert gymnast here].”

Article by Lauren Hopkins