200 Days!

Today marks 200 days until the opening ceremony in Rio and last week marked 6 months until USA names their team at trials!

I for one, am pretty stoked for the coming months. All of the competitions leading up to the trials and then of course, those themselves should be very intense but very awesome.

Six months...a lot can happen in that time so take this prediction with a grain of salt but I will hereby make a guess as to who will be on our team for Rio based on past performances and future upgrades.

Drumroll....

Simone Biles!!! (Duh)

Aly Raisman!!! (Lest she falls apart a la Worlds again)

Maggie Nichols!!! (Unless she gets Hollie Vise'd which is actually very possible)

Bailie Key!! (Leaving her off the Glasgow team was a terrible headgame but I still thinks Marta likes her)

and...

...last of all

 my girl Norah Flatley!!! (She has to be there, or I'll storm the floor mat at Trials!)

Alternates: Kyla/Gabby/Laurie

I'm sure I'm wrong but I this is more the team I *hope* is named. I actually hope for Kyla to be on there too, I guess she'd replace Norah or Bailie. Now that I look at it, this team is set just about everywhere but maybe weak on bars, though Norah will probably come out with many upgrades. I just don't know...there are a lot of different combos that could happen.

We shall see. 

My Expectations for Worlds

Alyssa Bauman: Only girl besides Desch who I think could be chosen as alternate but I still doubt it. No finals for this one

Simone Biles: If she competes like her usual self, she has that second all around title in the bag. Same with vault and floor really. She could easily sneak in a medal on beam too.

Madison Desch: I think she'll probably end up as alternate, unless one of the others is hurt or performs badly in training.

Madison Kocian: Maybe (but probably not) a medal in bar finals but that all depends on how the other athletes perform. Hopefully she stays healthy but I have a bad feeling.

Ashton Locklear: I imagine she'll compete just bars and do a decent job but not the amazing routine we saw at Classics. Definitely a medal for her if she hits.

Mykayla Sinner: She'll make the vault and possibly floor final. I hope to the heavens that she doesn't medal on floor because her form is truly atrocious. She most likely has the vault silver or bronze unless she messes up...but come on, that Cheng?? It's an insult to Cheng Fei, it truly is.

Kyla Ross: She won't do her upgraded pass on floor to play it safe. All-around silver is possible for her again but both WOGA's and Locklear can challenge her bars, not to mention Queen Aliya. She could make finals in all but vault and floor but I don't see her being quite as successful as last year.

Overall
All-Around: Gold and silver/bronze
Team: Gold or silver
Vault: 2 medals
Bars: 1 medals
Beam: 1-2 medals
Floor: 1 medal

World's Team Predictions

(This was originally posted on my personal blog before making this one :)

Last week at school I was so very bored and so I came up with my predictions for the US Team.
Here was my original list:

Simone Biles (duh)
Kyla Ross (duh)
Mykayla Skinner (say it ain't so...)
Madison Kocian (because WOGA)
Alyssa Bauman (because who else is there)
Alt: Desch, Locklear 

Vault: Ross, Skinner, Biles (backup Bauman)
UB: Kocian, Bauman, Ross (backup Biles)
BB: Kocian, Ross, Bauman (backup Skinner??)
FX: Bauman, Skinner, Biles (backup Ross)

Hmm...seems alright?? Then I remembered Locklear! The girl who came from nowhere and has better form than the WOGA's. So I might just switch Bauman for Locklear. But then we run into a problem for FX and possibly beam because apparently Marta doesn't like to use her there. So here is a revised list with Locklear:


Simone Biles (duh)
Kyla Ross (duh)
Mykayla Skinner (say it ain't so...)
Madison Kocian (because WOGA)
Ashton Locklear
Alt: Desch, Bauman

Vault: Ross, Skinner, Biles (backup Kocian?)
UB: Kocian, Ross, Locklear (backup Biles)
BB: Kocian, Ross, Locklear (backup Skinner??)
FX: Ross, Skinner, Biles (backup Kocian)

I'm pretty positive it has to be one of these two teams. I have this weird soft spot for Maddie Desch because she was so promising as a Junior and can't seem to reach her potential as a Senior. If she would just tighten up those floor landings and learn to stay on the beam...
We shall know by the end of next week!