The Final Countdown!!

Well, tonight is the nigh folks!! The World's team announcement is drawing ever near and I can't wait to finally find out who will go to Glasgow. The picture above is from yesterday's first night of camp competition. Everyone looks pretty happy, what could this mean?? 

As far as final predictions go, I suppose I'm going to stick to my initial one. Perhaps because I think it's most likely or perhaps because I don't like to go back on my word! Here it is: Biles, Douglas, Key, Nichols, Raisman, Kocian Alt. Skinner.. 

Now, in a perfect world I'd replace Douglas with Dowell but I just don't see that happening. 

We will know soon enough!

Nationals Night Two

Ahhh now I can breathe.

Simone was in beast mode. Beautiful beam dismount, stuck Lopez vault, stuck bars dismount, classic floor. So naturally, despite that one fall on floor, she won by 5 points. Seriously??? This girl is a champ. Can I say that I think she should add a full twist to the Biles move on floor? She definitely has room and power.

Coming in second was Maggie Nichols! She has to be sooo proud of herself, What improvement she's had. Her Amanar looked great, especially on day two. It's funny, in person, her tumbling looks so light and effortless bu tit doesn't quite translate that way on TV. I think the loud booms from everyone's landings doesn't help. They're much more magnified during broadcasts than in the actual arena. Anyway, Maggie deserves a spot on the World's team for sure. That being said, her form isn't so great and I'm a bit of a stickler about those things.

Third was Aly and she looked back to her usual self despite that scary vault. I'm torn with thinking she needs the high D-score from the Amanar but also knowing that it's done so poorly, maybe she's better off with a nice clean DTY. But even with that she still wouldn't score as well as a crappy 2.5 so oh well. I don't really love her floor routine right now. The tumbling is great of course but the choreo and music isn't as engaging as it was in London. Maybe they can tweak it a little.

Then we have Bailie and her tuxedo. This girl is growing on me. I think I can get behind her quiet gymnastics and steady form. She sort of reminds me of vintage Kyla Ross with her lower difficulty but nice execution and consistency. So yeah, I've decided I'm rooting for Bailie Key. And she had a beautiful bar routine

Gabby looked slightly better on some events on night two and slightly worse on others. Her beam was a mess of balance checks and tentativeness but her landings on floor were improved. I still hate that floor routine, something just isn't right about it. Maddie K, Ashton and Bailie can beat her on bars so she really isn't anything special there right now. I wouldn't put her in Glasgow just yet.

I barely saw Madison Kocian because the stupid NBC broadcast only showed like five of the athletes. Made me miss the blasted livestream. They showed her bars and beam. Bars looked a little worse than night one and they took out the standing full from her beam which was a safe move.

Oh Mykayla Skinner, that leo. Good grief, someone needs to tell this girl that Ireland and Scotland are not the same land. Honestly, it's just embarrassing at this point. Her vault is so ugly with that block, sorry I can't give it up. But her floor landings looked nice and she was solid on beam so good effort for her. At 7th place, I don't see her on the World's team.

 Kyla. Sigh. Same issue on bars, headcased vault and a shaky floor. That beam helped a bit but overall a disastrous night for her. Ugh, I so want her to get it together but maybe her body is just tired and needs a break. She's been training elite for so long. It's such a catch-22 with her. If she doesn't upgrade, she hits nice watered down routines but has such a low D-score it's hard to break into the top ranks. If she does upgrade, she barely hits despite having that higher D-score. I don't know the solution because I think everyone is tired of seeing the same routines she's been competing since 2012.

Brenna Dowell had a great first half of her bar routine and then got tired of something and bombed the end. But she hit all the other events so I'm a bit pissed that she wasn't named to the NT. Headgames I guess, Brenna is always the resident punching bag. If she can become consistent on bars and gain some difficulty on floor, I really think she's a contender but sadly, I see her as being alternate again.

Rachel Gowey had a nice showing, even if it was just bars and beam. Did she do the AA at pan ams? I don't know. I hope she hasn't hurt her ankle again. But she did have a great bar set night one and her beam looked solid.

Didn't see much of Bauman or Dennis so no comment there but both were named to the team so they must have done alright.

I'm going to do a leotard post this week so stay tuned!

Pan Ams Selection Camp

From USAG: The eight members of the Pan Am training squad are Nia Dennis, Westerville, Ohio/Buckeye Gymnastics; Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan./GAGE; Rachel Gowey, Urbandale, Iowa/Chow's Gymnastics; Felicia Hano, San Gabriel, Calif./Gym-Max; Amelia Hundley, Fairfield, Ohio/Cincinnati Gymnastics; Lauren Navarro, La Verne, Calif./Gliders; Emily Schild, Huntersville, N.C./Everest Gymnastics; and Megan Skaggs, Marietta, Ga./Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta.

That's 8 girls for 5 spots...hmm. If the past is any indication, none of these girls really have a shot at Rio, at least the ones who end up making the team. If that is indeed the case, then I want Gowey home because I'd like to see her as at least a Rio alternate (and I selfishly want to get to watch her at Classics :).

I actually have no real predictions about who will make the team because I have a feeling that it will be heavily based on performances at this camp. We'll see!

USA Gymnastics News

Aly is back!

She, as well as Gowey, Douglas and Nguyen have been added to the  national team. I'm really excited about all of this because I'm a big fan of Aly's and Rachel Gowey as well. I haven't seen too much of Nguyen to make an opinion on her but I've heard she's quite a contender. As far as Douglas, I'll have to believe it when I see it. One thing I love about this Aly video is that she's being honest, with both herself and her fans. I don't think that Gabby has completely done that this past year.

Anyway, does Aly look great or what?? I love the new series on beam and her bars even look better. I know a lot of people are hoping she trains a second vault and I agree. I can see her getting her Amanar back and maybe trying for the Rudi like Sacremone did. Both have similar body types so I think it's quite possible that Aly can pull it off.

There won't be any camp this month so nothing new or exciting in the USA gym world. Once my semester is over, I plan on doing some posts that reflect on gymnastics of the years ago. Stay tuned!

If Only, If Only

Last night I was getting sort of sad that the worlds team is so ho-hum. I was on my ipad and decided to type out the team that I wish could be there but can't because of injuries or getting unfairly passed over. Here it is:

Simone Biles
Brenna Dowell (in place of Locklear)
Rachel Gowey (in place of Bauman)
Maggie Nichols (in place of Kocian)
Lexie Preissmen (in place of Skinner)
Kyla Ross

This team would have been much more interesting and worthy. If only, if only!

Podium training starts today! I have a ton of work to get done so I can't watch but I think it's eing broadcasted live on Universal Sports or USA gym.