2020 Event Finals Day 3 MAG PB/HB WAG BB (Tuesday, August 3, 2021)

[MaryClare]

I love that Guan listed Simone as her idol. Which I thought was strange, until I realise that she was 8 years old when Simone first became world champion…

 

[Jack]

… of all the finals to show 6 routines, they chose THAT one?

 

[Seyonne]

Ha! They are showing six on beam as well.

 

[JDB]

And the high bar final is yet another victim of the no-warmup rule.

 

[formerly_odessa]

Youd think at some point SOMEONE would say, geez the finals kinda suck without a warmup…but that takes common sense.

 

[gymskatefan]

We did see six on beam, which was probably the most so far.

In the interview afterwards, Simone did say she experienced one of her biggest triggers while in Tokyo.

 

[anon65539698]

I love the front handspring front tuck connection on beam

Me, too, it’s currently my favorite skill. I would especially like it if landed with arms up.

 

[rlayt]

The Taylor Swift message: #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) Tweeted:

https://t.co/80OMD6hI9X

 

[gymskatefan]

Simone had a longer sit-down interview with Mike Tirico ~20 min before the end of the primetime broadcast.

• It was a lot of pressure being the face of the Games, but she was ok with that. What stressed her out was being told she was the glue of the team because she didn’t think of herself that way. So if she had a bad practice, everyone else would have a bad practice. If she had a less than positive attitude, everyone else took on the same tone.
• Michael Phelps and Naomi Osaka reached out to her in private during the last week which helped her
• She’s relieved she’s going home in one piece, which she wasn’t sure would happen
• She had to be medically cleared by both the USAG doctor and the FIG doctor (didn’t know the latter had one?), as well as by the Team USA sports psychologist to compete on BB

I blame Tom for the first point. :roll_eyes:

 

[cats]

That mindset is the story behind every problem this quad.

2018 superstar senior class all quit or injured? No big deal, we have Simone back!

Eaker and Wong get totally Fonged? Oh, and they should be perfect matches for the Tokyo pen? No big deal, we have Simone.

2021 new seniors all experience failure to launch? One of the most anticipated new seniors is so stressed out by the political situation at her gym that she’s developed a vomiting problem? No worries, and definitely no need to intervene on Konnor’s behalf. We have Simone!

Huge injury rate during selection? Eh, that’s an individual coach problem. Morgan is a has-been! Riley is whatever, we don’t need another bars routine and we were over her after that rhabdo situation. We have Simone and Suni!

Simone is having tumbling trouble and messing up in training and warmups? No worries, she’ll be fine because she always is. Let’s not warm up our alternates. We definitely won’t take her out because… then we won’t have Simone and that is bad.

At the end of the day no one expected Simone’s situation, but they had to have the #5 and #6 ranked AAers do AA in TF while #3 and #4 sat in the stands, waiting to win individual medals in vault and floor while the team counted misses there. I take nothing away from the huge rally for silver, but but man, that really tells a story.

 

[ucrgirl]

I blame Tom for the first point. :roll_eyes:

I am so curious about the decisions Tom made. It wouldn’t shock me to hear that the situation devolved very quickly after prelims and that at some point before finals she expressed doubts and he said “don’t worry. you’ll be fine. We need you.”

 

[gymskatefan]

Let us all be real, there is zero chance on earth TOM would ever have been the one to make the decision and be held responsible for taking Simone off the team for her health and safety. Nor did he bother to acknowledge his strategic failures or take responsibility for overly pressuring her. Instead, she had to humiliate herself and then defend herself on the world stage.

Jordan was also a weak link in TF, but there was zero chance Tom was going to redo his team composition at that point either.

 

[ucrgirl]

True. Taking your star athlete out of the Olympics would have been a big decision for someone who avoids decision making at all cost.

 

[Big_rock_show]

Finally getting to watch Simone’s press conference, she’s REALLY well-spoken. I love how she uses her words so confidently. It’s not just the generic “I just wanted to do my best…” she also talks about disappointments and is candid about what she’s gone through the past week. I appreciate that.

 

[Big_rock_show]

I also think Tom is scared to death of Simone. She could break his career into tiny pieces if she aired her grievances about him. And he knows there are plenty of grievances.

 

[Big_rock_show]

I am so curious about the decisions Tom made. It wouldn’t shock me to hear that the situation devolved very quickly after prelims and that at some point before finals she expressed doubts and he said “don’t worry. you’ll be fine. We need you.”

THIS!!! I have been much wondering if Simone’s “I need to do this for myself and not for anyone else” comment came from this type of scenario.

 

[rlayt]

It worried me that Simone had to be everyone else’s rock. Where other people were allowed to show their emotions she always had to be the one pulling them together, comforting them. And people were like “oh she’s okay she’s Simone”. There’s a point where people need to be their own cheerleader and not pull off the strength of others.

 

[RedBirdie]

At the end of the day no one expected Simone’s situation, but they had to have the #5 and #6 ranked AAers do AA in TF while #3 and #4 sat in the stands, waiting to win individual medals in vault and floor while the team counted misses there. I take nothing away from the huge rally for silver, but but man, that really tells a story.

Except that the #3 ranked AAer wasn’t ever really an option for the team because that would have meant throwing away a spot entirely and only taking 5 gymnasts to Tokyo. And it was an entirely defensible decision to not place #4 on the team because #5 beat her at Trials and was the steady, experienced international competitor that you want for a lead-off role. #6 was going to the Olympics, full stop, given she hit every single routine leading up to Tokyo.

Gymnasts 3 and 4, BTW, could not be substituted into team finals, so the whole thing is moot.

 

[dweiss324]

You know, call me crazy, and I’m not sure how much the “team captain” role ever really mattered, but I thought Mykayla would have made a great team captain this time around. Older, very experienced, team cheerleader, and solid, and she would have had her heart 100% in it for the team. At first I thought “I’m sure it’s fine that Simone’s the team captain”, but now in retrospect and hearing her saying all that, it could have been really nice to have someone else shoulder that load and give her a break. But obviously that would have required a national staff that wasn’t petrified of not winning gold or making hard decisions, and it would have made for a different call for the 4 person team.

I’m not sure how much any of us really thought about the team composition if you were forced to take her out of it. In many ways, i think the fans’ all carried the same assumptions, that “she’s Simone, of course she’ll be great, of course she’s got this”.

 

[MRR]

I believe Skinner was the team captain, without being on the team (however that is supposed to work).