Welcome to the live blog for the U.S. women at podium training at the 2019 World Championships, held in Stuttgart, Germany!

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3:31 pm. It looks like Jade FINALLY got the series before the feed cut away but like…that whole situation is giving me a panic attack.

I think that’s all for today, peeps! I’m still previewing individual competitors, and should have a team preview tomorrow or Thursday. Then I’ll worry about MAG previews after that.

HAVE FUN CHOOSING AN ALTERNATE, TOMMY!

3:30 pm. Grace with a fall now, and here’s Jade again for just a bhs loso, which goes well.  Walks back to her starting point for her flight series, and does a bhs loso layout…and another fall. Sis…

3:29 pm. MyKayla just did the switch + switch half on its own and got the BEST split position on the switch half I think she’s ever had. She just has to take that mindset of “this is the only skill I’m doing” into a full routine version of that series and she improves her score pretty well.

3:28 pm. Jade off a third time on the bhs loso layout. That’s all she did on her final turn. 😦

3:27 pm. I also didn’t see Kara’s entire second set, but she looked slightly more confident on some skills than she did on the first round. Simone also golden on her second set.

3:23 pm. The U.S. gals are hopping back up to finish last-minute fixes. I did see that Jade fell again, but thought MyKayla looked a bit better. Grace as a bit bobblier on round two, as was Sunisa just now…but nothing detrimental.

3:19 pm. So, podium training has cleared exactly zero things up for me. I’d say Grace made herself super useful on beam, but her bars still make me nervous. Jade, who just fell again, did the most for making me think she should NOT compete. But again, this is one training session out of a series of sessions over the past week, so…it won’t come down to just this one.

But either way, it’s still clear to me that Simone, Kara, and Sunisa are absolutes, and the other three are question marks. It’s so close and could go either way with those three. I think it’s just gonna come down to who they can trust the most on their expected events in a team final.

3:18 pm. Simone Biles with a triple wolf turn, super quick, arms are wild. Front aerial to split jump to straddle jump, good. Bhs loso loso is solid. Switch leap to switch half to back pike, excellent. Side aerial, perf. Transverse jump is the only real ‘issue’ and it’s super minor. Absolutely insane double double, stuck. DAAAAAMN.

3:16 pm. Kara Eaker starts with her switch leap mount to split leap, full Y turn, front aerial to split ring jump to back handspring, skips out of it. Lovely so far. Side aerial loso, good. Switch ring to bhs to Korbut, good. Switch to switch side, lands it with her feet staggered and has a huge wobble. If her skill that literally doesn’t even count into her routine screws her up I will riot. 2.5 dismount with a big step back.

3:14 pm. Sunisa Lee, the beginning looked good, I wasn’t typing but she hit everything with minimal errors. Layout series went very well. Split leap to switch half to back tuck, a bit of a pause before the tuck. Side aerial loso, little slide back. Switch ring is great. Split ring jump, also good. High set into her double tuck, but chest still a little low on the landing.

3:13 pm. Grace McCallum with her fancy ass mount. Triple wolf turn and double wolf turn are both solid. Transverse half jump, and then side aerial loso loso, both looked clean, just a bobble at the end of the latter. Front aerial. Sissone to full turn. Double pike with a lunge back. Tom’s happy with that.

3:11 pm. MyKayla Skinner with a candle mount, REALLY holds it this time! That compared to July is like MIND BLOWN. OOF, then she’s WAY off on the tuck full, hard fall where she hits her back against the side of the beam. Side aerial to split jump to straddle jump. Switch to switch half to back tuck, the switch half is rough and at like 120 degrees max but the switch leap wasn’t too bad. Full L turn to full spin is great. Full-in dismount, chest slightly low but solid.

3:09 pm. Jade Carey up for her more complete set now. Hit her opening into jumps and then a bhs loso layout, missed a foot and fell. Split leap to side aerial. Another fall that we couldn’t see because the camera person is like “where’s the best place to stand? directly behind Sarah Jantzi with the camera aimed at her back?”

Almost falls on three separate leaps/jumps, and an iffy full turn as well. Double tuck with a step. This was…not it.

3:05 pm. The U.S. moves onto beam now. Jade’s working it, just had a fall on something but it’s still early stages/not full routines so I’m not paying super close attention.

3:04 pm. Rotation time!

3:01 pm. We just saw one second of Thais Fidelis on beam and then cut away.

2:57 pm. Last but not least is Sunisa Lee. Nabieva to Pak, missed connection to the Maloney to Bhardwaj but both segments were fine on their own. Aggressive into the van Leeuwen. Blind full to blind change to piked Jaeger, it looks like she’s working backup options in case her full-difficulty routine doesn’t work out. Hit the dismount. Great job.

2:56 pm. Simone Biles opens with her Weiler half into the Maloney to Tkachev, good. Armine is blocking the camera!!!! Toe full is better this time, to piked Tkachev to Pak. Good handstand before the van Leeuwen. Fabrichnova, EXCELLENT. Damn.

2:55 pm. Moment of truth for Grace McCallum. Weiler half is clean, to Maloney to Tkachev, much better that time. Downie to Pak, just slight ankle separation in the latter. Good on the van Leeuwen. Toe full, a little late, to full-in, hop. Another one that was MUCH better. Breathes a sigh of relief.

2:54 pm. Kara Eaker, Church to Pak and van Leeuwen are good. Clear hip to clear hip full, gets it, more aggressive in the toe half, YES! Into the Jaeger. Good girl. Double layout clean with a hop back. Great improvement ALL around in that routine from Kara. It’s when she holds back that she struggles but that was fab.

2:53 pm. Jade Carey’s going again, starting with her Ray, sloppier legs that time, blind change to Ezhova, Maloney is a little low, to Bhardwaj, some leg separation. Van Leeuwen is pretty solid. Clear hip to blind full, and a good full-out. Jade actually looks tighter than both Kara and Grace on this event right now.

2:52 pm. Skinner back up for a Weiler half to Maloney to Tkachev, then a big Ray to Pak. Van Leeuwen with scissor legs, blind full to Fabrichnova with a hop. I love that she fights through that so well.

2:51 pm. Sunisa Lee does the Nabieva to Pak to Maloney to Bhardwaj pretty fearlessly. Van Leeuwen with minor leg issues, blind 1.5 to piked Jaeger, there we go! Just does a layout dismount for this turn.

2:50 pm. Simone Biles time! Weiler half to Maloney to Tkachev, arched over on a handstand before a messy toe full, but into a big Church to Pak, nice. That toe full will ALWAYS be the death of me. Van Leeuwen, super high Fabrichnova but she’s weird on the landing and has to correct before hopping back.

2:49 pm. Grace McCallum with a Weiler half to Maloney to Tkachev, butt-scraper, but gets it over. Downie to Pak, a bit rough, van Leeuwen, some ankle form to note, misses her toes on her toe pirouette the first time, the second time she can only get it to a toe half and comes up short, falls.

2:48 pm. Kara Eaker up now with a huge Church to Pak, arches over on a handstand after and has to do an extra handstand, van Leeuwen, clear hip to clear hip full, again with some little things, comes up short on the toe half and comes off. She just looks nervous and rushed, tbh.

Back on for her double layout, short with a lunge.

2:47 pm. Jade opens bars with a big Ray, Ezhova, Maloney to Bhardwaj with some split legs, and a van Leeuwen, lots of little things throughout but not as severe as MyKayla’s struggles.

2:46 pm. MyKayla on bars is MyKayla on bars, struggling with the form as usual, but getting it done.

2:45 pm. Sunisa just warmed up a blind full to blind change to Jaeger, which is either a preamble to her doing the 1.5 to Jaeger in a minute, or she’s changed it to that…but I’m going to assume she’s keeping the 1.5 and this was just her way of getting to it.

2:42 pm. Starting out bars with some basics, so I won’t be too chatty about those.

2:39 pm. We’ve been on a rotation break for 900 years. The U.S. up next on bars!

2:33 pm. Just as I said that we cut into a closeup on bars, so yay!

I didn’t really see much of what they did, though. I’m double-teaming work and this stream.

2:32 pm. Weird wide shot where I can kinda see half of beam. Sze En Tan up now but not really doing much, just walking through her routine. Can also see bars in the background, but we’re too far away to know what’s happening with Brazil.

2:31 pm. Simone Biles is here to show us how a Cheng is DONE. Damn. HUGE. Really no complaints from me aside from the bounce back. Also, while she gets a ton of distance, the height isn’t like, Simone-levels of explosive? But like, who DOES get a ton of height on a front layout? And Simone’s front layout height is better than most back layout height.

Amanar for the second vault is perf, just a big hop forward.

2:29 pm. Jade Carey’s turn! Cheng, some wild legs in flight, but mostly solid on the landing.

Second vault for Jade is the Amanar, a bit buckled on the landing, and then she propels up out if it with a lunge forward.

2:28 pm. MyKayla Skinner’s back for vault number two, does an Amanar, and kinda runs out of it, looked like she wanted to over-rotate it a bit to make up for it perhaps being short at other times. Gotta find that middle ground.

2:27 pm. Grace McCallum goes for another DTY, and it’s excellent.

MyKayla Skinner follows that up with a Cheng, MUCH better and tighter throughout. Great landing.

2:26 pm. Sunisa Lee with another DTY, soft knees but better in that she had a stronger sense of air awareness and wasn’t so…floppy? in it. Just a small hop back.

2:25 pm. I missed both Jade and Simone at the end of that rotation, but Kara’s starting us off again for round two. Another 1.5 where her knees are better than they have been, but still considerably tucked. Hop forward.

2:24 pm. Grace McCallum with a pretty solid DTY, then a stuck Cheng from Skinner, though her knees are a bit soft in that one.

2:23 pm. Kara Eaker just hit a Yurchenko 1.5 with a bounce forward, knees looked better than we’ve seen recently.

Then I think it’s Sunisa Lee with a big but slightly rushed DTY.

2:19 pm. Rotation break! The U.S. moves to vault. Lots of timers happening at first, which I won’t get into blogging.

2:17 pm. That looked like Maia Fishwick who was struggling with the double front on bars, by the way…she fell twice that I could see, but got it in the end.

2:15 pm. That’s Sze En Tan in the magenta on bars for Singapore, and she looks good! And yes, if you were wondering, that’s Anna Li as her coach. Sze began training at Legacy Elite a couple of years ago, and she’s improved vastly. She’s also committed to Stanford. We stan a queen.

2:13 pm. U.S. lineup thoughts are strange because it seems they just put up the girls in the order they’d go if they were allowed to have six gymnasts compete in qualifications. Kara going first is a bit odd considering her floor scores have been higher than basically everyone’s in recent sessions, but in a four-up three-count lineup, I can see her as the lead-off so it’s possible they’re just testing her in that lead-off position.

2:12 pm. Yeah, there’s really nothing happening on beam. Someone in the background on bars just sat a double front.

2:11 pm. Break in the action now as the U.S. moves to vault. Looks like Finland is still on beam so I’ll try to chat about them but we’re a bit far away and I can’t really see who’s up.

2:09 pm. Simone Biles opens floor with the most causal triple double in the history of man. Hop back. Biles to stag is great. Front layout full to full-in, just a hop to the side year, looks like overall she has more control on those landings than usual, though she’s still hopping. Just not as severe. Double double with a hop back. Just Simone being Simone.

2:07 pm. Time for Jade Carey! Damn, competitions would go SO fast without judges. Moors, in contrast to Skinner, hers actually looks a bit looser than normal, whereas Skinner’s looked tighter. They end up almost breaking even. Full-twisting double layout is a bit wild with a bounce back OOB. Double double, I always love her kick-out of it. Front tuck through to double tuck to finish. A bit more rushed than I’d like to see from her at this stage, knowing what she’s capable of.

2:05 pm. Sunisa Lee opens with a double double, solid. She goes slow into her double layout which makes me think it’s gonna be a little short but it’s absolutely fine. The rest is great. So far, her landings were the strongest out of the four who have gone.

2:03 pm. MyKayla Skinner with the most laid-out Moors I think I’ve seen from her. Front tuck through to full-in, low ish but good, just a bounce on the landing. Double double, her chest just a bit down, and she finishes with a triple full, a bit wild on the landing because of course our girl almost over-rotates it, but good work.

2:02 pm. Grace McCallum opened floor with a double double, still not fully certain of that landing but it’s more upright and if anything more over-rotated than it looked at trials. Her second pass was also good, and the landing on the tucked full-in was fab. Finishes with an open double tuck, her feet are a bit wild, but it was a great routine.

Courtney McGregor with a hit bars set in the background! She looks great.

2:01 pm. Kara Eaker just finished floor, which looked really good. So confident and solid. The last two passes were a bit weak, in that she kind of tucked her legs in the front full coming out of the 2.5, and then her double pike landing was pretty buckled, but I’ll forgive her because the rest was gorgeous.

Also gonna try to talk about gymnasts NOT from the U.S. when I see them in the background, but so far I think we’ve only seen a Finnish gal’s shoulder on beam.

2:00 pm. Podium training has just started, and Simone Biles just landed the first triple double “on a world podium” according to USA Gymnastics. My stream hadn’t started yet but I’LL TRUST THEM.

1:58 pm. I’ll start off by saying that I apologize I haven’t been able to follow ALL of the podium training for every session, but I’m not in Stuttgart yet and am a busy adult human with a full-time job where I have meetings about things like national security, so like, sorry gymnastics, it’s just podium training, which means literally nothing.

BUT, the U.S. podium training is being streamed, and I know that a lot of you have asked for thoughts on U.S. podium training, so this is my compromise.