2023 Pan Am Gymnastics Championship (Worlds Qualifier) May 26-28

[Caligym]

They named the USA men’s team. Assume Karnes decided didn’t want 2 assignments?

 

[Passion]

There were a lot of guys there but it was hard to follow, I only ended up watching two rotations. Brody Malone and Riley Loos were holding the phones/cameras that they streamed the events on, it was split screen with two events at a time. The full stream is archived here:

The results and the team announcements are here:

U.S. men's program sets rosters for 2023 Pan American Championships, World University Games • USA Gymnastics

The USA Gymnastics men's program on Saturday announced rosters for the 2023 Senior Pan American Championships in Colombia and the 2023 World University Games in China.

usagym.org

I added their names for anyone who doesn’t watch that much MAG.

^ Donnell Whittenburg is the travelling alternate going to Pan Ams

^ Matt Cormier, Kameron Nelson non-traveling alternates for University Games

 

[Passion]

Lol oh that’s funny because as I was doing the pictures I had closed the article and opened it again and I was like I could have sworn Taylor was the alternate but now it says he’s on the team. I thought I had misread it the first time.

 

[gymfan]

Richard had the highest AA score in the trial. Donnell’s performance in Cairo World Cup probably made the committee decide to place him as alternate.

 

[Caligym]

Wonder why Richard isn’t doing Pan Ams…I would have thought that to be the more prestigious/desirable assignment?

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Same. But perhaps he or the committee wanted to prioritise him being in front of judges from multiple continents? I’d still prefer Pan Ams because it would be a more fun experience, but I can see how a wider range of judging exposure might be desirable.

 

[irichluck21]

Really disappointed USAG hasn’t lured NCAAers to even just do this meet for one last hurrah.

Maybe they are just too tired from NCAA season, but the NCAA athletes didn’t have a problem doing this one in the past.

Suni, Jade, Jordan, Leanne, and Kayla all fit the criteria, but maybe they all are focused on Worlds and Olympics and not some small meet such as this.

Otherwise Torrez, eMjae Frazier, Eaker, Karis German would be eligible.

Maybe USAG doesn’t want to put the effort into obtaining FIG licenses for NCAA athlete for just one meet?

It is a shame that FIG requires the University Games athletes to hold FIG licenses, it was much easier before they took over and mandated it.

 

[MaryClare]

Cost.

They can’t even afford to send as many national team members overseas as they’d like to

 

[irichluck21]

Cost.

They can’t even afford to send as many national team members overseas as they’d like to

They are sending a men’s team and have for years, so it isn’t cost.

Once the FIG got involved and required FIG licenses, it prevented many athletes from attending.
USAG sent teams in the past, and that was when they weren’t required to have a FIG license.

Maybe this will change as we see more NCAA WAG keep open the opportunity on renewing their FIG license.
Not an issue with MAG because nearly every top NCAA athlete also has a FIG license.

IF USAG is serious about keeping NCAA athletes also in elite WAG, they will need to create more options for the college athletes to compete at. This is one of them.

 

[MaryClare]

Yes. Clearly it’s budgeted for within MAG funding, it won’t be for WAG and the extra money isn’t there.

Maintaining FIG licences is easy enough, it’s a simple administrative task but again, there’s cost involved. I imagine that USAG only maintains licences for those who are on the national team when they come up for renewal. The rest are presumably just allowed to expire

 

[irichluck21]

it won’t be for WAG and the extra money isn’t there.

Which is silly if USAG is serious about investing in NCAA athletes/former elites.

 

[MaryClare]

Oh I agree. The US would absolutely dominate the university games. But it’s of no real benefit to the program, which is probably why they won’t spend money on it. The majority of gymnasts who attend the university games have to self fund (or their university does), but they are not sent there by their national governing bodies. As far as I’m aware, only China is. Even in Russia the selection of athletes and the cost is the responsibility for the academic sports association and not the RGF (which is why there have sometimes been unusual selections)

 

[irichluck21]

At this point, the athletes themselves could fund themselves with NIL money!

 

[MaryClare]

They could, but I doubt anyone wants to go that much.

 

[Passion]

Didn’t USAG just cut the delegation to Jesolo and cited money as the reason? They were originally going to send a full team, not just two juniors.

 

[MaryClare]

Yes they did. Quite last minute

 

[RedBirdie]

It was such a last minute decision that the selection procedures had already been distributed to national team members and published online.

 

[gymfan]

I feel the USA University Games team needs the strongest AAer, as they will bring one event specialist (Ian Skirkey). Bringing one event specialist in MAG means teammates need to contribute more in other 5 events.

Also, Japan MAG and WAG are sending A team to University Games as well. I feel it’s gonna be a great experience for Richard to compete with them.

 

[RedBirdie]

Sydney Barros is there representing Puerto Rico.

 

[irichluck21]