2023 Xfinity Nationals Senior WAG Day 2 discussion

[MRR]

I have little doubt Andrade will try a Cheng at Worlds: she only needs it once a year. Tend to agree with your latter paragraph, though. Tom would take top 5 AA and call it a day, but there is (I hate to say it) incentive to look into Roberson when AAers 2-5 all have solid, redundant DTYs. I don’t even think her bars hurts much, at least in comparison to Chiles, whom she can outscore or match on the other 3 events. With an alternate ready to sub and good UB sets from the first 4 athletes, there’s minimal risk of the routine being needed.

Ditto Carey, I guess, though in her case it’s UB where she can hang in there while beam tanks her (even in Tokyo).

 

[Rich]

How close do you think Shilese is to Andrade this year?

 

[makam]

Ooh, now that is a fun mental exercise. Start a new thread? Rescore Shi’s best routines vs. Rebeca’s from her nationals and sub in either last year’s FX or any she has done this year (has she done any other comps this year?)

 

[navyblue]

I had 8.4 for Biles on floor so 8.6 isn’t THAT unreasonable.

It’s not unreasonable at all. When the best tumbler in the world has miniscule landing deductions on 4 tumbling passes (like 3 tenths on 4 passes) there’s no reason to shy away from an E-score like that even if it “seems” too high. The most recent world champion on floor went 8.2 sliding around on every single pass and landed hunched on half of them. Sorry, not to call you out in particular, but it’s a pet peeve of mine when people think judging is somehow more correct when it yields a lower score. When you tumble like Simone and have the kind of landings she did on night 2 it should be a pretty sizable margin above what most others are scoring. Even accounting for some artistry marks.

 

[navyblue]

Ring jump looked rough to me, but I’m not good at eyeballing those

Looked… not her best. IDK about ‘rough’… but, like this

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

A Blakely Cheng would lock Wong for a spot, imo, if she isn’t already locked. And I think a Blakely Cheng also makes Chiles’ chances much better–I’d rather use her on UB/BB/FX than Roberson or Carey

I’d love to see Blakely compete AA in TQ at Worlds because I think she’s 3rd best in the country at the moment, but if she didn’t do floor I wouldn’t be too disappointed. Her dance is lackluster

 

[navyblue]

Gallardo is/was cancerous and a horrible coach

I’m getting confused about the many veiled references to Shilese’s old coach, is there anywhere I can get myself up to speed? Is this abuse terrain or simply bad coaching terrain?**

 

[navyblue]

When inverted, she was already piked quite a bit before passing through vertical, resulting in the downgrade.

Another aggravating choice with regard to layout positions. Skye Blakely’s recent vault downgrade is just straight-up wrong IMO – perhaps Lew’s is not, but what is the precise amount of pike that is allowed? I had thought you had to be piking 90 degrees or more past horizontal?

Apologies to anyone who’s heard me rant about this before but this judging scenario creates an absurd paradox wherein, Lew is now getting a ‘pike down’ deduction from an E-panel who is blind to the fact that the D-panel has deemed this skill a ‘double pike’ (which it is obviously not – but if we are treating it as such, should not get that deduction)…

Lew’s downgraded DLO:

Blakely’s downgraded Lopez:

 

[rlayt]

A former staff member accused him of sexual harassment for one thing.

He wasn’t a good coach for another. He coached Gabby before Trials when she didn’t look so good. Gabby switched from Kittia ant Buckeye to Christian at Buckeye and for “better spotting” is the reason she gave. Gabby never talked a lot about that. She went on to Camp and looked much improved for the Olympics. Marta took credit for that.

And when Gallardo left Buckeye Shilese went with him. She didn’t improve while she was with him. I remember people saying her routines didn’t show a sense of understanding the code. There were rumors about inappropriate things but they vary. There’s no substantiation on that.

 

[cftmoonlight79]

So does Future Gymnastics Academy still exist? That was the gym he opened.

 

[Yarotska]

I’m not sure, but he was at worlds for some reason and Gymnastics Canada hired him after the competition, much to the gymnasts’ dismay.

I had thought you had to be piking 90 degrees or more past horizontal?

I believe it’s 135

 

[irichluck21]

I’m getting confused about the many veiled references to Shilese’s old coach, is there anywhere I can get myself up to speed? Is this abuse terrain or simply bad coaching terrain?**

There is a recent thread here that rehashes a lot: Reddit - Dive into anything

Amongst the sexual allegations, Gallardo was not great at routine construction.

When Kittia had disagreements with Gabby and Natalie about training plans and a lack of motivation for intense training, Gallardo saw an opportunity and swooped in promising Natalie that he could coach her to the Olympics. Kittia was attempting to follow Marta’s training goals for Gabby. But she was missing training time due to appearances and commitments she made. Remember the Douglas family had their reality show going and also Gabby was a brand ambassador for several products including Post It’s. Natalie, as Gabby’s manager often got involved and it caused a strained relationship between the three of them.

“A stronger spotter is preferred” was the excuse used. But essentially Gallardo took advantage of the whole situation just so he could be an Olympic coach and pad his resume.
He had been planning to open his own gym and essentially backstabbed Kittia. As an opportunist he was clearly aware of Gabby’s name and reputation and wanted to advertise it for his new gym. The Futures website has OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL COACH plastered on the home page.

We saw what happened to Gabby in the lead up to the Olympics. There was a noticeable difference in her gymnastics once Gabby was selected and under Marta’s supervision and guidance. Marta was not in favor of Gabby working with solely Christian and not with Kittia. IIRC the NBC broadcast mentioned that Marta didn’t think it was a good idea.

From what I understand with Shilese is that Christian promised Shilese that she would make the Olympics.
He needed another high profile elite for his new gym and Shilese had previously worked with Christian at Buckeye. Once Shilese didn’t make the Olympics she blamed him for the outcome.

Unsure if Futures is still open but Gallardo is the national coach/performance director for Canada. Multiple athletes spoke out against him being hired.

 

[RedBirdie]

I’m not sure, but he was at worlds for some reason and Gymnastics Canada hired him after the competition, much to the gymnasts’ dismay.

He was at worlds because Gymnastics Canada paid for him to be there. His hiring was a done deal. The gymnasts did not want him there and tried everything in their power to convince GCG that they shouldn’t hire Christian, and at the very least he should not attend worlds with them since he was not officially part of the delegation.

 

[navyblue]

Thank you for this thorough response! So I guess to summarize, he’s a professional grifter. Gotcha.

 

[irichluck21]

So I guess to summarize, he’s a professional grifter.

From what I understand from both a former coach and a former gymnast at Buckeye, essentially yes.
He also knows how to manipulate.

 

[RedBirdie]

We actually had a thread than contains links to screenshots of documents related to the whole mess of Gymnastics Canada hiring Christian. I had forgotten that WAG coaches, not just the athletes, asked Gymnastics Canada not to send Christian to Worlds. Wow.

Has Christian Gallardo moved to Canada? Women’s Gymn

I was speaking with a friend who went to the Elite Canada competition in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and they told me that Christian Gallardo was on the floor in team Canada kit speaking with coaches, athletes and judges. I know that Canada has been searching for a new national team coach for a while (and that Peggy Liddick had applied to hold the position at one point) and I am wondering if he is now the new national team coach. I thought he was living in the states and owned a gym - Future Gymnast…

 

[navyblue]

I’ll try!

• 1.Chuso: leg separation (-0.1), upward bounce/hop (-0.1)
• 1. Combo pass w Silivas: flexed feet (-0.1), foot shuffle (-0.1)
• 1. Wolf turn: body shape a little insecure/off-axis (-0.1), precision on landing cuz she overshoots the double turn (-0.1)
• 1. Leap combo: on god hers is the only adequate Gogean in the world (0.0). (Did we decide you’re allowed to do a little turning hop out of any leap or is the imperative to “stick” your leaps now to avoid landing control deductions?)
• 1. Biles: soft knees (-0.1), hop forward (-0.1)
• 1. Switch 1/1: body position as her split just barely reaches 180; but does she adeptly skirt landing control deductions with her little 360 cat jump? (-0.1)
• 1. DLO: soft knees (-0.1), small hop (-0.1)
• 1. (Artistry) Corners variety: she’s got her little turning kick into corner #1, but #2 and #3 are simply arm waving choreo to give her a moment’s rest before starting (-0.1)
• 1. (Artistry) Footwork: well… she’s not not giving us ballet-level relevé which I could care less about but could be undesirable to WTC? (-0.1)
• 1. Expressive engagement?: She’s giving smiles and a hint of mischievousness, but is it somewhat at random/ “according to the style of the music?” (-0.1) You know what, let’s change this to be according to how well the gymnast is doing because if we’re honest, Simone is smiling when she nails a pass and giving us an artistic grimace when she flies out of bounds, and I love it.

= 8.6

Looking at this on the whole it’s definitely the best choreography we’ve seen from Simone combined with some of her most secure tumbling and high DV, so I think her dominance on this apparatus will really be unmatched on this sprint to Paris.

 

[MRR]

I would add precision to the Gogean; she really whipped it around. The splits and amplitude looked better than day 1, however.

She also has a subtle arm swing after the Biles, when she brings her heels down. Extremely picky and I would prefer to call it part of the choreography

This is also my favorite floor routine of her career. She should keep it next year.

 

[ucrgirl]

Well, it sounds like she’s only has trained five weeks since the NCAA season. Maybe with more training…

 

[RedBirdie]

That seems less than ideal. I wonder why such little training.