ArnoldRimmer
Defender
- Feb 5, 2021
- 4,708
- 7,661
This is an interesting summary. There are some of these things Tom couldn’t influence, for example I can’t see how even allowing Morgan to petition further was going to result in her being ready for Tokyo, but the big picture is of a coach who wasn’t doing much. Too much taking the easy road.
And while he certainly wasn’t alone in assuming the Simone show was going to take care of everything this time round, and none of us saw this specific sequence of events coming, I’d say it was the majority take on here that there were underlying issues being stored up for the future. Gymnastics fans knew the get Simone to do a 59 AA set in TFs and wait for Russia to tank strategy was going to stop being viable for the US, we just thought it would be next quad.
Re the Jade question, it would be interesting to know whether Tom would actually have had the option of including her on the team and forfeiting an Olympic spot if he’d wanted to. Whether USOC would allow it, and whether he ever actually asked (I think I might be able to guess the answer to the second question already). I can see why it would’ve been difficult to get away with, particularly in the context of USAG domestic overscoring and creating a narrative that the US were all but guaranteed the gold. But I wonder whether there was a procedural position or not.
It always felt like the approach with Jade was that USAG were hurriedly trying to think of ways to keep her out of the team following the poorly drafted rules, rather than considering what would strategically make most sense. Knee jerk and arse covering.
Now I think it would’ve been legitimate to take the view that the odds of the US missing out on the team title, even in a covid situation where anyone can drop out, were low enough that it was legitimate to want more athletes to maximise the number of athletes with individual medal chances instead, for example. Particularly before Trials showed that the US barely had any, outside the core. But ideally it would have been a decision USAG were allowed to make, wanted to make instead of default to and one that they made based on full discussion and a strategic approach.
And while he certainly wasn’t alone in assuming the Simone show was going to take care of everything this time round, and none of us saw this specific sequence of events coming, I’d say it was the majority take on here that there were underlying issues being stored up for the future. Gymnastics fans knew the get Simone to do a 59 AA set in TFs and wait for Russia to tank strategy was going to stop being viable for the US, we just thought it would be next quad.
Re the Jade question, it would be interesting to know whether Tom would actually have had the option of including her on the team and forfeiting an Olympic spot if he’d wanted to. Whether USOC would allow it, and whether he ever actually asked (I think I might be able to guess the answer to the second question already). I can see why it would’ve been difficult to get away with, particularly in the context of USAG domestic overscoring and creating a narrative that the US were all but guaranteed the gold. But I wonder whether there was a procedural position or not.
It always felt like the approach with Jade was that USAG were hurriedly trying to think of ways to keep her out of the team following the poorly drafted rules, rather than considering what would strategically make most sense. Knee jerk and arse covering.
Now I think it would’ve been legitimate to take the view that the odds of the US missing out on the team title, even in a covid situation where anyone can drop out, were low enough that it was legitimate to want more athletes to maximise the number of athletes with individual medal chances instead, for example. Particularly before Trials showed that the US barely had any, outside the core. But ideally it would have been a decision USAG were allowed to make, wanted to make instead of default to and one that they made based on full discussion and a strategic approach.
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