2023 Xfinity Nationals Senior WAG Day 2 discussion

[RichardL]

Love reading through this thread. To me I don’t see how anyone is discounting Blakely or Wong for the team. I mean anything can happen at selection camp – Wong for example took herself out of the running in 2019 by falling on a DTY of all things, without which she would’ve made the team over McCallum, and then of course self destructed on beam at 2021 Trials, without which she would’ve made the team over McCallum (and I love Grace tbh) – but this is a very secure and solid team with those four at the core. For my part, I would add Chiles or Carey and call it a day, based on how they look at camp.

 

[RichardL]

Actually crunching line-ups it’s really hard to see what Wong would do on a team of Biles/Jones/Blakely. This core team is just that strong.

Someone will do floor in TF instead of Blakely, so that could be Wong, Carey, Roberson, Chiles, Lincoln. One of them could also replace Blakely on VT if needed. But otherwise that core is just so strong that it makes the selection of the other two kind of a non-starter. Neither will add that much to the team total, so I guess the goal should be potential medalists and maybe one solid AAer as a replacement for anything that might go awry.

 

[Aeris]

It’s already been said - Lincoln scored a full point higher than Wong on FX day 1. Her top score is .35 higher and her average score is .5 higher. Lincoln has shown 3/3 routines in recent competition with 14+ score, Wong has shown 1/3.

A better AA result is not important if the person in question isn’t a medal contender or top team score contributor, and Wong is not at this point. The men’s team just left off their highest scoring AA (without the national bonus system) and it was the correct decision.

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

Weren’t there rumours in 2016 that he dating one of his athletes? Or am I mixing him up with Greg Marsden?

I think (heard from a 3° party) that he (Christian) ended up marrying (is in cohabitation with ??) the mother of one of the athletes he was coaching.

 

[RichardL]

Fair enough. I do think they should bring medal contenders if adding any team members past Biles/Blakely/Jones. I just think Lincoln is around equal at highest scoring potential to at least Jones and Wong. But higher scoring potential, yes. And she’s gorgeous on the event. No problem at all seeing her there. I just don’t feel like leaving Wong off the team after her performance this weekend, and she’s a World EF medalist on floor so it’s not like banking on her performance has no precendent.

 

[RichardL]

Am I insane or did Jong do a full-twisting double back for her two first passes just with different techniques in terms of twisting timing? And both from basically a short jog, the same energy I conjure to answer the door when tacos are being delivered. But those two skills cannot possibly be different in the current COP right? And if not, then WTF? Her double double was one of the best things about her program.

 

[FrolovasDoubleLayout]

I see Silivas, then full twisting double, 1.5 bwd + front full and double pike.

 

[RichardL]

This first pass is a half-in half-out:

 

[Aeris]

Ideally I’d put Wong on all the teams, in terms of talent and work ethic and how visually pleasing her gymnastics is, but she’s just not pulling the scores she should be able to. The specificity of the code creates all kinds of traps and missed opportunities, routine construction isn’t intuitive. We’re used to the top 3 AA in WAG always getting a spot on the team, but I don’t think it should necessarily be that way.

 

[RichardL]

Oh I definitely agree. But I think Wong is a better choice than the single-eventers right now, especially because she is very well-regarded internationally. She was almost world AA champion in 2021, if not for some costly mistakes on beam. And I regret rooting for McCallum in favor of her during the last quad. So maybe I’m compensating lol…

 

[crdubb17]

No, it’s a double double. Try watching it in slow motion.

 

[RichardL]

oh my god, you’re right! THANK YOU.

 

[Denn]

@RichardL

 

[Denn]

Blakely’s vault is totally Chengable. We’ve seen much worse laidout Pods turn into Chengs



I would even say that she has better technique on that vault than on her DTY

 

[Rich]

but blakely was 2nd on bars and beam. Its hard not to take that

 

[Sasha]

Does anyone know the status of Chiles’ second vault? If she got that back, I imagine that it could improve her chances for Worlds.

 

[blake]

I noticed during the broadcast that she’s twisting quite early off the table on the DTY. It was better last year.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Andrade has a long history of protecting her body on the leg events, from downgrading to omitting events entirely. I would say she is more likely than not to show up with the Cheng, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t.

At any rate, USAG has never concerned themselves with the rest of the world when choosing their teams. They are going to send the best shot at a medal, regardless of what the rest of the field looks like. There just isn’t precedent for the nuanced way of looking at things in the way that we talk about them here. I know we wouldn’t send one of the vaulters and would prefer to send Wong, but I would seriously doubt USAG would look at it the same way.

 

[makam]

So I like Jade Carey and didn’t put her on my teams for obvious reasons (though I guess I could have her as an alternate) but man, how is she dismounting beam with a double tuck and still struggling with the landing? I know they have worked on minimizing her automatic deductions on beam but gosh, with her tumbling ability it is so crazy to me that a double tuck is the best she can do and there hasn’t been any upgrade. Heck, she’d downgraded from the double pike she used to do.

 

[rlayt]

Speaking of Jade again, I was just thinking about how I liked her Paint It Black routine. That music suited her better than the music she’s using now. She hit the beats better with her Tokyo routine too.