2020 Women's Artistic Team Final (Tuesday, July 27, 2021)

[Denn]

It’s funny you say that because I have mentioned to several people the idea that she maybe should have withdrawn earlier and taken the individual spot instead to align to her goals.

I felt that way about Viktoria Karpenko, too.

 

[Kara]

She may have wanted to take the individual route, but would USAG have even allowed it? There was no plan beyond Simone leads the team to gold. It would be nice to think that someone would be looking out for what was best for Simone mentally, but this is USAG, and the reality is even if Simone knew ahead of time that leading the team was too much pressure, they may have said you go on the team or not at all. In hindsight it may have been better for the team to not have had Simone on it, but this is USAG we’re talking about. They have yet to show they have the best interests of any of their athletes in mind. I also can’t even imagine the media and public outrage over how selfish of Simone it would be to abandon Team USA and go for individual glory.

 

[KristyJ]

By USAG’s own rules they would have had to

Life would’ve been very different for Jade Carey though

 

[Denn]

Yeah, what @KristyJ said. Even if their rules weren’t as clear, I can’t imagine USAG turning down 3-4 individual medals. And she’s Simone Freaking Biles — immensely powerful in voice, reputation, respect of the community, and financially powerful, too.

 

[Gabriel]

What’s the story on Karpenko?

 

[daniTS]

Has Tom been seen or heard from yet?

 

[Gabriel]

I think he was asked for an interview after the completion, but declined.

 

[Kara]

I was more thinking if she had decided this summer that she’d rather go the individual route. Would USAG have given her the second individual spot? They wouldn’t have had to. Now obviously with a reasonable organization one would think, of course, they’d want the individual medals, but this is USAG we are talking about. I just don’t think it’s that cut and dried that if Simone said no to a team spot she’d be allowed to compete as an individual. And of course this is all assuming Simone didn’t want to be on the team. In hindsight we can obviously see what happened, but up until podium training everything seemed fine; none of us can know what exactly happened, or when things really started to go wrong. I guess I just can’t imagine a scenario where Simone would have gone as an individual.

 

[KristyJ]

That’s fair.

And yeah, we don’t know when things started really going sideways for her.

I just watched the press conference and it took me a bit of time to place my finger on what her demeanor reminded me of. And then I realized- it reminded me of two times- when I left a job that was unsafe, and when I left my abusive ex. Those decisions weren’t without struggle, but my initial reaction both times was relief. If I had to give a press conference three hours later I may have sounded much like Simone in that I would likely have been “nonchalant” in comparison to expectations.

 

[Kittentoes]

I don’t like to go too much by what people “sound like” in regards to pain. I tend to shut down first, and mask second. I can sound absolutely chipper. I’m sorry, please just believe me if I ever say I’m hurting. So Simone, omg, I’m so sorry.

 

[onodian]

Sorry to bring it back a bit but I’ve been reading a lot of disappointment on chiles and what not, and I just want to say, when she went up to do beam I thought she would colapse. That was an incredibly gutsy performance and yes she did falter on floor but this is a nightmare scenario and so let’s cut these girls some slack.

Man you got me defending these us women instead of doing listunovas choreo in my kitchen like I really want to

 

[RAFIKI]

Yeah I think Chiles on beam was the US performance that most impressed me. Much kudos.

 

[onodian]

And also, as much love as I have for uzarova, that bb was not good. Tentative as shit all through. Although I now have regained some much needed respect for what these women do everyday, so, you go vlada

 

[Gymfan93]

Thankfully, even the BBC didn’t think it was worthy of a breaking news phone alert, because THAT would have really made me angry.

 

[Gymfan93]

Yikes. He could have just made a statement like “under difficult circumstances they did a fantastic job, we are very happy with this result” and “The welfare of our athletes is our top priority” would have done nicely, too.
Avoiding media is not a good luck for a NTC.

 

[Dex]

Danush….l.

 

[RedBirdie]

For fun, I broke down e and d scores from team finals to see how each team stacked up.

Teams are ordered by their OVERALL finish.

Execution scores only

Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	Total
ROC	27.199 (1)	25.699 (1)	22.832 (5)	24.998 (1)	100.728 (1)
USA	27.032 (2)	24.766 (2)	23.732 (2)	22.566 (8)	98.096 (4)
GBR	26.932 (5)	24.465 (3)	22.466 (6)	24.533 (3)	98.396 (2)
ITA	26.465 (6)	24.099 (4)	23.208 (4)	24.366 (4)	98.138 (3)
JPN	26.949 (4)	23.033 (8)	24.132 (1)	23.566 (6)	97.680 (5)
FRA	27.000 (3)	23.699 (70	22.365 (7)	23.800 (5)	96.864 (6)
CHN	23.666 (8)	23.766 (5)	23.699 (3)	23.365 97)	94.496 (8)
BEL	26.132 (7)	23.732 (6)	21.399 (8)	24.832 (2)	96.095 (7)

Difficulty scores

Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	Total
ROC	16.6 (1t)	19.0 (1)	16.7 (3)	16.5 (2t)	68.8 (1t)
USA	15.8 (6)	18.5 (2)	17.5 (2)	17.0 (1)	68.8 (1t)
GBR	16.2 (4)	17.3 (6t)	16.4 (5)	15.9 (6)	65.8 (5)
ITA	16.2 (4)	17.4 (5)	16.0 (7)	16.0 (4t)	65.5 (7)
JPN	15.4 (8)	17.1 (8)	16.6 (4)	16.5 (2t)	65.6 (6)
FRA	16.6 (1t)	17.7 (4)	16.1 (6)	16.0 (4t)	66.4 (4)
CHN	16.4 (3)	17.3 (6t)	17.9 (1)	15.8 (7)	67.4 (3)
BEL	15.8 (6)	17.9 (3)	15.6 (8)	14.5 (8)	63.8 (8)

For individuals who did all 4 events, execution was de Jesus dos Santos, Melnikova, Urazova, McCallum, and Kinsella. D scores went Melnikova, Murkami, de Jesus dos Santos, Chiles, McCallum. I have individual event breakdowns if anyone wants those.

 

[Gymfan93]

I’d be interested in seeing the individual breakdowns, please!

 

[ucrgirl]

Yikes. He could have just made a statement like “under difficult circumstances they did a fantastic job, we are very happy with this result” and “The welfare of our athletes is our top priority” would have done nicely, too.
Avoiding media is not a good luck for a NTC.

He has had a day to get his thoughts in order (or have someone draft a statement). He needs to make a statement 1) supporting Simone (she’s very tough and if she says she shouldn’t do it I trust her) 2) explaining why he is glad she fought hard to try to compete 3) how grateful the USA is for her example and many things she has accomplished 4) explaining that gymnastics is dangerous 5) and that the US values athletes as individuals not just for the medals they win.

All of that might not be true (especially no. 5) but people are attacking her unfairly and there should video footage of him defending her to the American public. They owe her that much at least.

 

[RedBirdie]

Vault

Execution	Difficulty
Chiles	9.266	Vaelen	5.8
Melnikova	9.2	Friess	5.8
Sugihara	9.183	Akhaimova	5.8
De Jesus dos Santos	9.100	Zhang	5.6
Friess	9.100	16 tied at	5.4
Urazova	9.066
Jen Gadirova	9.033
Jes Gadirova	9.033
McCallum	9.000
Akhaimova	8.933

Bars

Execution	Difficulty
Derwael	8.700	Lee	6.8
Melnikova	8.633	Derwael	6.7
Lee	8.600	Listunova	6.4
Urazova	8.566	Melnikova	6.3
Tang	8.500	Usazova	6.3
Listunova	8.500	De Jesus dos Santos	6.1
Kinsella	8.366	Lu	6.1
Chiles	8.266	Hatakeda	6.1
Morgan	8.233	Tang	6
Asia D’Amato	8.200	Alice D’Amato	6

Beam

Execution	Difficulty
Listunova	8.500	Lee	6.2
Derwael	8.266	Zhang	6.1
Maggio	8.175	Listunova	6.0
Hiraiwa	8.166	Lu	6.0
Jen Gadirova	8.100	Tang	5.8
Murakami	8.033	Murakami	5.8
de Jesus dos Santos	7.966	Alice D’Amato	5.7
McCallum	7.966	McCallum	5.7
Lu	7.966	Kinsella	5.7
3 tied at	7.933	3 tied at	5.6

Floor

Execution	Difficulty
Derwael	8.566	Murakami	5.8
Listunova	8.466	Ferrari	5.8
Jen Gadirova	8.400	Lee	5.7
Ferrari	8.300	Listunova	5.7
Murakami	8.266	Chiles	5.7
Urazova	8.266	Melnikova	5.7
Melnikova	8.266	McCallum	5.6
Verkest	8.266	De Jesus dos Santos	5.6
Jes Gadirova	8.233	Jes Gadirova	5.6
2 tied at	8.100	2 tied at	5.4

All Around

Execution	Difficulty
De Jesus dos Santos	33.266	Melnikova	22.8
Melnikova	33.265	Murakami	22.7
Urazova	33.231	De Jesus dos Santos	22.7
McCallum	32.866	Chiles	22.6
Kinsella	32.765	McCallum	22.5
Asia D’Amato	32.632	Tang	22.5
Alice D’Amato	32.465	Urazova	22.1
Murakami	32.165	Alice D’Amato	22.1
Heduit	32.099	Kinsella	21.8
Chiles	31.965	Asia D’Amato	21.6