Recent content by JaJa

She did indeed dabble in both. Nothing came of either. McKayla was an extraordinary athlete who , I believe, was completely broken by her experience with Nasser and perhaps others . . . .

Thats a big assuming -- but yes, an outsider was a good idea. Key factors will be if he is smart enough to figure things out and if he is well intended and highly motivated to steer USA Gymnastics in the right directions. But overall I agree. This could be good -- even if he does look like a...

I know for fact that this is absolutely the case. So I would give Melnikova a good deal of grace. (people unfamiliar with the former Soviet Union countries do not understand how extremely repressive they are)

I really, really, really wish we would just take politics out of sports. It defeats the higher purpose imo.

I do not think it is possible to love the sport and not appreciate Russian gymnastics.

Anyone who has achieved a high level of success in any extremely difficult, competitive field understands that being “happy” just can not be a primary objective. That there will be possibly long periods of grueling work, stress , lack of sleep etc etc. that there must be an extremely high...

100% agree

I always had the impression that Ponor was an angry, hostile, aggressive person.

That is the more reasonable approach. Except that I kinda knew there was going to be a drop in performance and thus dominance right about now. I am just not at all surprised.

there may be some truth to that

and the US WAG was dominant before Simone. So Simone is not really the issue.

I think it is very clear that this is true. Extremely high expectations, lack of coddling, hard work and some commensurate pain are not synonymous with abuse. They just are not.

I actually pretty much agree with this

Right. And that's the thing. When a gymnast has that kind of unanticipated, almost meteoric rise expectations get blown up out of proportion.

You're right. I was just hoping for a podium. But, you are indeed right.