I think we forget the flash point of how awful the US looked in 1995. Moceanu won one medal and otherwise they were completely shut out except for an extremely narrow margin for the team bronze over Russia that is rarely remarked upon because no one wants to blame Khorkina for that floor...
Roberson is obviously doing the Cheng because what other chance will she get? I think I'll wake up to either the news of her world title or some kind of medical disaster.
I am a huge fan of Melnikova and I can still believe that some of the scores were ridiculous lol. I would've been happy with Wong winning because of hitting 4-for-4, but Melnikova is the best gymnast competing this season, full stop. Still laughing so hard that it was another Melnikova/Wong...
Yeah, agreed! But I guess the conflicts with the NCAA schedule (and the top elites choosing to compete in college vs. the spring elite meets) means that it's mostly a B-team attending these. Jayla Hang and Ashlee Sullivan competed internationally quite extensively this year and only made it to...
And my point about all of this was to push back a little bit at criticisms of the US developmental program, which so far has been turning out juniors who are actually focused on basics rather than showy D scores. People keep talking about Addalye VansGriven as some kind of cautionary tale as a...
Well yes, definitely! But I feel like this was my point! I made the joke about geriatric talent: the whole possibility of a long career has now been opened up, and the gymnasts should be leveling up (metaphorically) along their own timelines. Caylor at 17 is basically being debuted on the...
It's funny in this thread that we're still talking about athletes who were seniors as far back as 2017 (Carey, Chiles) and 2018 (Jones) and 2019 (Wong), as well as gymnasts who were eligible for Tokyo (Blakely). What a difference from, say, 2012, where Raisman was the veteran who had been to...
Petisco is the only gymnast who can knock Caylor out of FX finals. If that doesn't happen, I will find my post from selection camp where I predicted Caylor into BB and FX EFs :)