Around the Gymternet: Vote for Pedro

/ September 23, 2019

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“sometimes i think the gymternet knows more about gymnastics than i know about gymnastics…” -Aleah Finnegan knows we know something she doesn’t

Simone won

U.S. women’s worlds trials happened. Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Kara Eaker, Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum, and MyKayla Skinner (the top six all-around on day one of worlds trials) were named to the 2019 U.S. women’s world championships team on Monday, with Morgan Hurd and Leanne Wong as non-traveling alternates. The traveling alternate will be named later.

On day one (which, unlike day two, was streamed), Simone won with a 58.550 (including a bars fall), followed closely by Sunisa Lee with a 58.200, only .35 back. Kara Eaker had a great day for third, with her 14.000 on floor actually outscoring some of our floor specialists. MyKayla Skinner killed it, bringing back her triple full on floor and placing fourth. Jade Carey did well for fifth, and Grace McCallum placed sixth with bars issues.

Faith Torrez, Leanne Wong, Morgan Hurd, Emily Lee, Jordan Chiles, Trinity Thomas, and Aleah Finnegan rounded out the competition. Hurd had issues on bars and maybe with the jacked up floor? Also, at one point we thought she threw an Amanar (she didn’t, though Chiles did!).

Riley McCusker and Shilese Jones withdrew before the start of competition, Jones with an injury and McCusker with mild rhabdomyolysis, according to USA Gymnastics. Rhabdomyolysis (I’m told) is a serious condition where muscle tissue breaks down, and it can cause kidney damage. Strenuous exercise is one of its known causes. We’re sending good vibes to Riley and hope she gets well soon (live blog).

Other meets happened. Mexico’s women and Japan’s men dominated at the Guimaraes World Challenge Cup, which Alexa Moreno ended up skipping due to leg pain. Emily Thomas of Wales won the all-around title at Northern Euros, plus the floor and bars titles. Georgia Godwin won the Australian Classic all-around. Spain’s men won a friendly meet against the Netherlands, Australia, and Guatemala, with Nestor Abad taking the all-around title.

Worlds rosters are trickling in. The women’s and men’s worlds rosters are being updated with changes as they come in. Notably, Dipa Karmakar’s not going, and neither is Marcel Nguyen, but Epke Zonderland is in. 

Oh, and here’s the final post in Lauren’s New Senior Impact series. 

…And we have a schedule. Here’s the worlds competition schedule for you to forward along to your therapist.

Wut happened

SafeSport needs money. The U.S. Center for SafeSport has a much larger caseload than it can handle, leading to a debate over who should be funding it.

McKenzie said #MeToo. McKenzie Wofford came forward as a survivor of Larry Nassar on Wednesday. Thank you for sharing your story, McKenzie; the gymternet is with you.

Judge okays late claim. A judge said on Tuesday that a survivor’s claim against USA Gymnastics can move forward even though it was filed after the deadline.

Olympics in jeopardy for Russia. Russian officials are afraid that new doping allegations could threaten its participation in the 2020 Olympics. 

Required Reading

  • All Around Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (Olympic Channel/Lucasfilm)
  • Rachael Denhollander’s Witness (Slate)
  • What happens when it is too expensive to protect athletes from sexual predators? (Forbes)

NCAA corner

Preseason shenanigans. The “first day of practice” videos are trickling in, including this one of Coach Jo in action at Arkansas. 

Commits. Ira Alexeeva is going to Stanford. Also, Lucy Stanhope had a commit change; she’s now going to Utah.

Like Mags. Maggie Nichols has something in common with one of the greats, and as a native Chicagoan I can tell you it’s a compliment of the highest order.

Star status

Retirements. Lynn Genhart of Switzerland has retired, saying “my goals have changed over the past few months.”

Upgrades. Not really an upgrade, but Rhys McClenaghan posted his pommels routine and wants your feedback, so get those pencils out, nerds!

Staying social

Priorities. Apparently Simone doesn’t think about her beauty routine when she’s competing, which yeah I’d hope so? 

Russia is crazy. When worlds are just a couple weeks away, do you a) wrap your gymnasts in bubble wrap, or b) do this?

We have a new person. Lilia Podkopayeva had a baby. Congrats, Lilia!

Same. Pauline Schaefer, 2017 world beam champion, says she doesn’t even like it. 

She wasn’t already? Nastia Liukin will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame. Congrats, Nastia!

Last words

How do you feel about this worlds tea—okay you don’t have to yell.

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38 thoughts on “Around the Gymternet: Vote for Pedro”

  1. No Morgan. No Leanne. No Mai. No Rebeca. No Larisa. No Aliya. No Last minute resurrection of Komova that we got 2011 and 2015. No Tabea. Pretty much all my faves have been injured or not made the team. These worlds already suck ass and it hasn’t even started.

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    • Then with Coline Devillard out from France I’m even saltier. If one more prominent gymnast drops of out of this year’s Worlds then I will reset my calendars to 2020 and cancel the rest of 2019.

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  2. I have to be honest. I love your blog, and I appreciate the knowledge and entertainment you provide. However, I have to say that it’s glaringly obvious that you dislike Jade’s gymnastics and it’s getting a bit irritating. You have literally talked up every other gymnast, specifically Skinner (who did awesome), and post small comments like “Jade did well for 5th”, or forgot her all together yesterday when posting the AA results half way through your blog – mainly just disregarding or not mentioning her successes. We are aware that you were advocating for Skinner over Jade, which is totally fine; we all have our favourites. I just wish you’d make it a little less obvious that you’re not a fan – I’m beginning to feel for the poor girl.

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    • Gurl bye! cue the eye roll. I didn’t get that impression at all. LIKE AT ALL! Reading into it way way too much! It’s her site. Not a non biased news source. She is allowed to feel how she feels… But AGAIN I didnt get that impression at all. But newsflash, there are a lot of people who feel a certain way about Jades gymnastics… as well as every other gymnast… So… yeah.

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    • Hey B–I see what you mean that I didn’t go into how great Jade’s day was and just said “she did well.” I actually am probably a fan of both Skinner and Carey equally; I’m a fan of both gymnastics-wise and I’m loving that Skinner has the guts to make this comeback and that Carey has the guts to go her own way for an Olympic ticket. But for a short blurb like that I just point out things that stood out to me during the comp, like that Skinner has had such an upward trajectory this season. I guess that means sometimes athletes who consistently do well don’t get elaborated on, which is kind of funny (notice I didn’t say much about Simone either), but I see what you mean. BTW I always appreciate feedback here. TL;DR: Didn’t mean to show any sort of bias.

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      • Thanks for replying! Maybe it was my super-sensitive post-selection meet brain. I didn’t pick up on the lack of Simone comments, either. It could also be that I really like Jade. Either way, thanks for always writing great posts and entertaining Gymternet content. I love the blog and follow it way too often! TL;DR: Thanks for replying and clarifying! Did not mean to be cranky gymnternet fan.

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    • As someone said previously, I didn’t write this, nor is this a full recap of how trials went…this is a brief recap that mentioned the standings with a few words about everyone in the top six, so to insinuate “you don’t like Jade” from that is…confusing. What I actually said about Jade in my actual recap yesterday just prior to this weekly news recap was “Jade Carey was superb yesterday, hitting all four events and crushing it on her key events to finish fifth all-around. I’m keeping her as ‘borderline’ [for making the team] because we still don’t know Tom Forster’s thoughts as to whether she’d go to worlds AND the world cups, but she’s more than earned a spot at worlds.”

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  3. I think the world team is fine, but was strategized wrong. Someone called out the Tom and the selection committee saying they were lazy for picking the top 6 aa (waste of a 2 day competition) and Tom’s wife got all mad saying how “it was so hard to choose” the top 6… girl bye

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    • As she should. And FYI they didnt call them just lazy , but STUPID! Left that part out. People cried about Martas process, people complained pre Marta about the process, NO ONE is going to be happy. The team will be fine. You wont please everyone.

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      • Tom is better than Marta in the non-abusive department, but that’s doesn’t mean that the criticism of his team selection process isn’t absolutely valid. This team is a prime example of why. You’re taking Skinner and Carey onto one team, where you can’t even use one of them in TFs on their key events regardless event finals. You gained nothing, and essentially created a throw away spot for someone like Carey where worlds doesn’t even really matter nearly as much for her because her Olympic spot is guaranteed. I mean imagine if Sunisa had a meltdown on floor while still doing exactly what she did on Bars and Beam, causing her to still proved herself on the events she needed even if her AA score ended up being really low. You’re telling me that it would have been justifiable to leave a gymnast that has potential to become a world champion on two events just because she had a fluke error on an event they didn’t need? And that would’ve been fine? Look at what the men did. They created a systematic and objective selection process that still took into account all of their competitions this season, while placing emphasis on gymnasts that can’t necessarily do AA, but still fill in the gaps on key events. Bela was heavily criticized for his selection process in 2000 for not working and leaving essential gymnasts (Atler) at home. Toms process is the exact same. He is a different dancer doing the same routine, so yeah he does deserve criticism where it’s due.

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        • Let’s be clear. Skinner and Carey were taken for vault not floor. There are about ten Americans who all score about 14 on floor. Unless you are Simone, a good floor score is necessary but not sufficient to make the team. Every single person who made the team has at least one event on which she can realistically score 15. Jade and McKayla were both taken for vault and both of them can and will vault in TF.

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        • Also we don’t know that Tom took the top six because they were the top six. It also happens to be the highest scoring team considering only the trial. It is also the team that has the most potential medal contenders.

          Ultimately people are salty because they like Morgan Hurd and do not like Skinner. As far as I can that is 100% of the outrage people are feeling.

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  6. I think what’s also important is the fact that overall the athletes seem proud of themselves and Forester has helped with that. So despite the team selection this year, USAG is still headed in the right direction. That being said, it definitely hurts for these gymnasts to travel to meet after meet after meet throughout the year and build their resume and reason just to find out that zero of it mattered if you didn’t hit selection camp

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    • I think now everyone pretty much needs to learn that trial is the ONLY thing that counts. that;s including us fans. Right or wrong. Let’s get that down as a fact from now on. However, to get to the trial, you at least have to do somewhat well at nationals in something to get an invite… so there’s that to say that you can’t just show up and do well in just 1 meet.

      2nd fact: It’s 99.9% based on AA ranking from now. esp since from now is 2020 tokyo and nothing else….

      So we all need to to establish this among ourselves so we don’t be like oh surprised….

      now as for day 2 of trial, that should be considered as the 0.1% components of your score. i.e, in this case if grace completely bomb all of her bars and hurd or wong somehow kill all of their bars, then that 0.1% might be good enough to get hurd or wong back on the team

      Now, the unofficial word is that grace somehow did very well in bars on day 2 and hurd didn’t.do so well again….. If that is the case, then the current selected team is dead on correct…

      hopefully someone can enlighten us with some more insider info on this..lauren?

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      • Tbh, I didn’t think putting three vault finalists on one team was a good idea. Either McKayla or Jade are probs gonna have to be alternates or Kara or Suni will have to make a choice between who gets to try for all around.

        Morgan…didn’t look like she peaked this year…I think she needs some more time. So I think the team pick was mostly fair.

        But yeah, it would be nice to hear about day 2. I wish WAG had been as organized as MAG. All of the scores came out quickly, day 1 and day 2 comp counted, etc.

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        • Why would you leave a 15+ vault score behind to take Grace for bars? I see no reason to let Eaker attempt to qualify all around. She hasn’t proved consistency yet and doesn’t have the difficulty to medal even with a fall.

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        • I am somewhat of a skinner fan. Even saying that i would still say you cant completely discount out dark horse mccallum… If she can consistently score 14.4+ on bars she could displace skinner..

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  7. If Grace can hit 4/4 then that would be a perfect match for this situation. With hit routines, she’s good competition for Suni and gets the US around the issue of who’s trying for All Around. Grace and Kara can easily outscore Skinner or Jade for All Around so I don’t see why they’d have either of them do All Around……unless they end up having one of them do All Around (that would be yet another twist I didn’t expect).

    On a side note, Forester isn’t going to worry about consistency for this year’s team. If on official selection day, Kara outscores Grace and the others, she’s doing All Around.

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  8. I’m pretty out of it, so could be totally missing something… but does anyone know the status of Laurie Hernandez? Didn’t think she’d officially retired and after doing a quick google search, all I found is that she’s still training but has yet to compete … any insight on 2020?

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    • She’s taking the age old route of pretending to try and qualify for the next Olympics to keep her instagram count and income flowing, but hasn’t shown any real interest in making a comeback that would amount to much.

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      • Or she was a serious gymnasts for most of her childhood who is now going through one of the hardest things for any serious gymnast to do- decide when it’s really over. If the freedom and opportunities and lesser stress of the outside world are worth more than the thrill and glory of competing on the top stage. I don’t think Laurie’s comeback is calculated any more than Nastia’s was. Laurie probably does want to come back and it will probably take her time to figure out if she wants it enough. In the past, multiple gymnasts tried comebacks that didn’t amount to much competitively in the end, and they did it before there was twitter and instagram and likes and decent money to be made from being a gymstar. It’s a huge part of being an elite gymnast- deciding when to definitively say goodbye. Sometimes you decide you’re not up for it in the end, but there’s nothing wrong or insincere with wanting to believe you could and trying to go for it, even if eventually, you realize you’re not up for it.

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    • I love Laurie and believe she is training….sort of. I think she is keeping her sponsors happy and her name in the conversation. But posting a video of a bhs-loso-loso on beam does not a comeback make. I see no way that she comes back and is competitive, especially with how deep the US team is now. If she were showing full, competitive routines I might think differently. I suspect there will be some “injury’ next spring that will cause her to “retire”.

      I wish her the best but that ship has sailed IMO.

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  9. 1) How confident are we that Grace is the alternate? Not because of her AA ranking at the trial, but because she is a TRUE AA’er, and can provide 4 serviceable routines if anyone (including Simone) were injured. It seems the safest to me, but *shrug*

    2) IF Grace is the alternate, then Spencer might be right, and taking Carey & Skinner means one is going to be left off their signature events, since nobody can imagine the US only putting 2 gymnasts up for AA in quals… (right? RIGHT?!)

    2b) But what if the US plans on putting Simone, Suni and Kara up in the AA, and, based on “criteria X and Y”, Jade and Mykayla each get to compete ONE of their signature events in quals to try and make the finals? It doesn’t make much sense, to bring 2x identical specialists to each only compete one event. BUT…

    2c) Would this strategy (assuming Skinner lands her Cheng and medals) make Mykayla eligible for the apparatus WC circuit, and the US could employ Italy’s strategy of ending the WCs with gymnasts in the 1-2 positions?

    I know it’s complicated, but when it was pieced together that is what Italy was doing w. Ferrari and Mori, I have to admit, it’s a pretty good strategy to really shore up the spot against fluke injury AND give a bit more freedom in the 4-person team selection (e.g. Jade could get named to the team, and the forfeiture of the WC spot would transfer to Mykayla).

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    • THANK YOU for voicing the questions that I’ve been keeping inside. This is why I’m not actually sure that Grace will be alternate. The team makes more sense with her as long as she’s hitting during podium training. If she hits during podium training she might also end up trying for AA instead of Kara.

      For 2c, is your thought that Skinner and Carey would both qualify world cup spots? Would that fill both specialist spots or just one spot?

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      • Re 2c – it could go a number of ways:

        i) Jade and Mykayla could go 1-2 (in that order for vault), guaranteeing the nominative spot for the US (should Jade get injured, or named to the 4-person team for Tokyo).

        ii) Jade could win floor and Mykayla win vault (I don’t see Mykayla winning floor so let’s just use one example because the inverse of this situation would also be true)… then there would be a tie-breaker (which I’d have to look up) and the US would still have their nominative spot and the other athlete would be available for the 4-person team.

        Regarding Grace being or not being the alternate – if she hits during podium training she may be on the team for the bars routine, but I can’t see them having her do AA over Eaker at this point, but it would solve the “who competes vault and floor in quals” dilemma as Carey or Skinner (likely Skinner based on #s) is more likely the alternate in this scenario.

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        • Re: the World Cup nominative spot tiebreaker if Mykayla won vault and Jade won floor.
          The first tie-breaker is whoever has the most points, I believe. Points are awarded based on your placement at each meet. For example, Jade has 85 points on vault from her 3 World Cups. That’s two 1st-place finishes (worth 30 points each), and one 2nd-place finish (worth 25 points). Jade has 76 points on floor from her 3 World Cups (one 5th place finish and two 1st places).
          SO. If Mykayla went to three world cups and placed first on vault on all three, she would have 90 points on vault. That would beat out Jade for the World Cup vault title, AND her 90 points would also beat the 76 points Jade used to win the floor title. So Mykayla would have the nominative spot.
          (She wouldn’t have room for error, but it’s actually very doable for her, if she got a chance to go to World Cups)

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    • Interesting and great point about getting Mykayla eligible for World Cups. But I have doubts the USAG thinks things through that much, unfortunately. Plus, the criteria they laid out was strategized to prevent more athletes from being eligible for the World Cup route, so I’d be surprised if they now tried to get another athlete eligible. I think Tom would be for it, but not sure if he’d think of it with everything else he’s handling.
      As for all the comments from many about it not making sense to have so many good floor workers on the team if we can’t put them all up- I don’t really understand it. If Jade and Mykayla contribute to the top team score by vaulting, why should they be punished for having another good event? If it’s okay to bring Morgan just for bars and nothing else in team finals, why isn’t it okay to bring Jade and Mykayla just for vault? Would it sound better if they were only good vaulters, but not good floor workers? It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like saying, well, the best team would include you vaulting, but since you’re also good on floor and we don’t need THAT, we’re not going to take you at all. Be worse on floor next time so we don’t feel we have too much there.

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      • I agree with you that bringing specialists on the events that score the highest is actually very smart… but I do question the strategy of using both specialists in quals effectively eliminating the 3rd AA gymnast. We know Simone and Suni are going to vault (for the AA), but if Mykayla and Jade both vault (to net the team the highest score in quals and/or to qualify to EF) that means the US is only putting Simone and Suni up for the AA, I know Simone has a huge cushion and Suni’s star is rising, but this seems risky with there being sooo much depth in the US.

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