2024 Winter Cup

[RichardL]

Please bubble-wrap Simone Biles and set her up in an attic studio in Montmartre where she can patiently await the Olympics without any threat to her person by bad coaching decisions!

 

[KristyJ]

I think it's a bit early to blame bad coaching decisions? We don't know what caused the injuries. Especially since they, you know, actually pulled their athletes out. A truly bad decision, and one that was common in the past, would be to have them compete anyways or not believe them.

 

[Ginger]

Quite interesting IMO.
Coach Jess Graba added, “The whole reason we’re doing Winter Cup is so that we can go to Baku and get the skill named because Suni really wants to get that out of the way. Get it out of the way, so it’s not a question mark going into the spring.”
I know we all want Suni to end up being a part of 2024 olympic team... but looks like she and her coach take it one day at a time.

https://olympics.com/en/news/suni-lee-baku-world-cup-gymnastics-code-of-points-new-skill-element

 

[Ginger]

More about Suni, from Scott Bregman's Twitter

 

[RedBirdie]

Relevant to almost nothing, since she's no where close to even making Trials, but I missed that Nicole Desmond switched to WCC recently. She was with parkettes last year.

 

[RedBirdie]

Gabby will do vault, beam, and floor. Suni bars and beam. Trinity will compete AA.

USA Gymnastics' Winter Cup kicks off U.S. Olympic Year • USA Gymnastics

The USA Gymnastics domestic season kicks off with the 2024 Winter Cup February 23-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.

usagym.org

 

[Hatsumomo]

No bars for Gabby? When that will be the primary event TPTB would be looking at for her Olympic chances? And selfishly, the event I was most looking forward to seeing her perform?

 

[JaJa]

Gabby will do vault, beam, and floor. Suni bars and beam. Trinity will compete AA.

USA Gymnastics' Winter Cup kicks off U.S. Olympic Year • USA Gymnastics

The USA Gymnastics domestic season kicks off with the 2024 Winter Cup February 23-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.

usagym.org

What sense does that make?

 

[Laura722]

No bars for Gabby? When that will be the primary event TPTB would be looking at for her Olympic chances? And selfishly, the event I was most looking forward to seeing her perform?

She might explain her rationale later in the week to the media. I'm just thrilled she's competing again. We know she has the skills on UB.

 

[RedBirdie]

I figured with Gabby publicly stating she wants some spring international assignments and that's a big reason why she's competing at Winter Cup, she would do AA. Very strange, imo.

 

[Laura722]

I did forget she mentioned wanting assignments. She should show UB in podium training at least.

 

[RichardL]

Utterly bizarre to show vault and floor but no bars. Maybe she's still working out routine construction. We definitely don't need to see her doing a FTY, or even a DTY for that matter.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

I wonder if it is a shoulder injury or something. We all know what Valeri did to Ohashi’s Labrum forcing her to do the Ling and Healy.

At any rate, we should get a good idea of her level based on the other three events.

 

[QuietColours]

She was at camp a couple of months ago, so national team staff should have an idea where she is. Still playing with routine composition or just not quite having it consistent would seem likely to me--she knows the weight of how good her comeback is is going to come down to her bars. I have to imagine she'd do bars in regular training, at least? Even if she chose not to do it in front of cameras and media

 

[RichardL]

She was at camp a couple of months ago, so national team staff should have an idea where she is. Still playing with routine composition or just not quite having it consistent would seem likely to me--she knows the weight of how good her comeback is is going to come down to her bars. I have to imagine she'd do bars in regular training, at least? Even if she chose not to do it in front of cameras and media

I just feel like we've seen no real videos of tumbling or vaulting, so I'm expecting her to be middle of the pack on those events, and hopefully she hits beam with her new mount series but otherwise it seems like an odd note to start on. But she will likely prove me wrong on Saturday.

 

[RedBirdie]

Podium training starts today, but you can only watch if you subscribe to FlipNow. I believe today is senior men only.

 

[Jerkin]

Utterly bizarre to show vault and floor but no bars. Maybe she's still working out routine construction. We definitely don't need to see her doing a FTY, or even a DTY for that matter.

I mean, if she is feeling anything at all physical when performing UB then it's not bizarre at all.

Clearly the main benefit of this event is just for her to wet her feet again get back into competition after 8 years. She needs to be ready at classics, not now. Unless she looks really bad there are enough international competition over the next few months to justify giving her more competitive opportunities so that she can find her feet.

 

[RichardL]

Of course, yes, this is all true, but bars has not always been super consistent for her, so I'd love to see her have as many opportunities to hit a routine for a score as possible. But I totally agree that she shouldn't risk it if she's not ready, or if the routine construction isn't there yet. But I will maintain that there is no reason for her to be vaulting!

 

[RedBirdie]

Gabby's vault technique was always suspect before, I'm VERY curious what she looks like this weekend. Valeri isn't exactly known for his ability to coach vault.

 

[RedBirdie]

I was hoping maybe someone somewhere watched junior women podium training, but I haven't seen anything on twitter. And I'm too cheap to pay $6 to watching it.