2024 Swiss Cup - Zürich

[irichluck21]

Well and Wong will finish her NCAA eligibility on the spring as well, if LA28 is in her sights I could see her continuing through the quad. She would turn 25 in 2028.

 

[MaryClare]

Well and Wong will finish her NCAA eligibility on the spring as well, if LA28 is in her sights I could see her continuing through the quad. She would turn 25 in 2028.

How is Leanne Wong only 21? I feel like she’s been around forever

 

[makam]

She wouldn't be crazy old the way gymnastics is currently trending but unless she finds something that sets her apart, I just don't see it happening for her. She's a generally steady gymnast with lots of good qualities that a country with a shallower talent pool would be thrilled to have, but she always seems to get outshone in the US.

I don't know what she needs to do to make it happen, but more of the same is not a winning strategy unless it is another injury-fest (and even that wasn’t enough this last time).

 

[RichardL]

Wong made every World team this quad, so she was doing something right. And she's a Worlds event finalists on every event but bars, which is a nice badge to have. And her last-ditch effort with the Cheng this summer to make the 5-gymnast almost worked! But her best chance was to be the fourth gymnast in Tokyo, and she took herself out of the running with that beam disaster at Trials. If you give her the 2nd-day score for day 1, she goes .5 ahead of McCallum and easily makes the Olympics.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Let’s be honest, Wong lucked into making the 2022 and 2023 worlds teams due to injuries in 2022 (where she only did bars in TF) and the regression of Chiles and Carey in 2023 (where she bombed beam, her only planned event in TF). She has no standout event that would truly contribute in a TF scenario in an Olympic year.

I highly doubt the Cheng would not get the 2 point deduction internationally, it was given initially at Trials before mysteriously disappearing.

I do think, however, a coaching change would do her a lot of favors and make her a contender. Obviously Al Fong isn’t going to get her where she needs to be, but she did look better under him than she did under the Florida coaches, who haven’t been able to upgrade any of her sets except for a dubious Cheng.

 

[Hatsumomo]

A coaching change would be a good play for her. It's like the pieces are there, but nobody can put them together in a way that makes her an indispensable team member. At 21, I hope she doesn't feel so beholden to GAGE to stay with them. Otherwise, she'll be starting from behind again in 2026 -2028, especially when/if the veterans start returning.

 

[RichardL]

I wasn't claiming that she has made herself inherently worthy of making past or future teams, but just pointing out that she competed at every Worlds this quad, was an AA silver medalist behind the Olympic bronze medalist from mere months prior, and then was an Olympic alternate for the second time. There's reason to believe she doesn't see what we see.

 

[rlayt]

I wonder where she would go. WOGA? Pacific Reign?

 

[Hatsumomo]

WOGA’s not much better for routine construction. Where she’d go if she decided to change gyms is a good question though.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

It is quite interesting what the success she found squeezing onto major teams at the last moment has done for Florida's recruiting. I really wouldn't attribute their coaching to her success (although they seem like great people and have been very accommodating of elites). They can't even coach the most talented roster in the country to a national championship, I'm not sure why gymnasts think that it will translate to elite. I'm still not entirely sold on the fact that it can actually be successful doing NCAA and Elite at the same time based on what we saw from Chiles and Carey in 2023 and then 2024 with the adjustments made.

 

[RedBirdie]

I'm shaking my head, because some things at USAG never change. The WAG elite calendar was updated October 21 and still doesn't show Swiss Cup.

 

[Passion]

Matiev Askhab of Austria is injured and will be replaced with Ricardo Rudy.

 

[Passion]

USAG finally announced it today

 

[Passion]

Leanne Wong heads to Swiss Cup, looking forward to another chance to represent Team USA and her final collegiate season​

By Scott Bregman- 04 November 2024

U.S. gymnast Leanne Wong’s busy 2024 season isn’t quite over yet.

The two-time Olympic alternate and University of Florida standout competed from January to April in the NCAA before turning her attention to a series of three events that determined the U.S. team for this summer’s Olympic Games Paris 2024.

This Saturday, the 21-year-old has one last stop in her busy year: the Swiss Cup in Zurich, Switzerland.

“Having another opportunity to represent Team USA… it’s just been super honoring since 2017,” Wong told Olympics.com on Monday.

At the Swiss Cup, Wong will be paired with men’s national team member Fuzzy Benas, who competes collegiately for the University of Oklahoma. It’s a non-traditional event that doesn’t require athletes to compete on all four events.

That has allowed Wong a bit of downtime between the Games in Paris and the ramp-up that comes ahead of her senior season for the Gators.

“It is kind of a fun competition, and I thought it would just be something different that I’ve never done,” said Wong. “It’s not a typical four-event meet format, so it’s like, ‘Alright, let’s do it.’”

That’s the approach Wong has taken for so long: balancing the demands of her studies at Florida, where she’s pre-med, with a popular line of signature bows that she and her family make by hand, along with her competitive duties collegiately and around the world for Team USA.

She’s a three-time world team member, having helped the U.S. squad to back-to-back world gold medal wins in 2022 and 2023.

Leanne Wong on her future in elite gymnastics: "We'll see"​

Her senior season starts in January, and she expects to graduate in the spring. Then, she’ll take a gap year to finish a few remaining pre-med requirements.

From there, it’s still up in the air.

“I wouldn’t say I really have a plan,” Wong admits. “Kind of just taking it day by day, and meet by meet. I’ll just enjoy my last season in college and this meet before college, and then go from there.

“Med school is always going to be there,” she says later. “It’s just about enjoying the journey and not getting too ahead of yourself.”

Is that her leaving the door open to elite gymnastics? Only time will tell.

“I don’t know,” admits Wong about her future in the sport. “I guess, like, you can never just close the door. So we’ll see. I don’t know… like even Gabby Douglas, she never closed the door.”

https://olympics.com/en/news/leanne-wong-heads-to-swiss-cup-looking-forward-to-another-chance-to-represent-team-usa-and-her-final-collegiate-season