Event 2025 US Nationals Senior Women Day 2 (Sunday, August 10, 2025)

[irichluck21]

Yeah and the only reason that Biles didn't win the 2012 AA title was due to (ironically) her lack of difficulty on floor!
She was in 3rd behind Priessman by .800.

Biles only had a floor D score of 5.5 with "simple" tumbling:
Double layout
1 1/2 stepout to double pike
back 2 1/2 twist

Wild how she went from those passes one year earlier and showed up in 2013 with Chusovitina, Double layout (Biles 1 at Worlds), Back 2 1/2 into front layout, tucked full in.

 

[RedBirdie]

yes, 2012 AA was Priessman, Desch, then Biles.

I also looked at junior podium pre- and post-10 codes: 89% (2000-2005) vs. 43% (2006-2023), and pre-and post Biles going senior: 69% vs. 37%

 

[irichluck21]

Priessman had a floor D score of 6.3 on night 1.
That's the .8 right there.
She was credited with 6.0 on night 2.

Remember when Lexi was supposed to be Wieber 2.0?

 

[MaryClare]

Priessman had a floor D score of 6.3 on night 1.
That's the .8 right there.
She was credited with 6.0 on night 2.

Remember when Lexi was supposed to be Wieber 2.0?

I always had my doubts about Priessman. Even if MLT had managed to keep her healthy, I never saw MLT as a top tier elite coach under the open code. She’d hit her ceiling with Priessman by the time she was 14, whereas she was a competent enough coach of Hundley whose elite achievements were what was expected

 

[irichluck21]

Priessman was just injury prone. Her time at LSU was evident of that.

 

[cftmoonlight79]

She is a wonderful coach these days. I've had the pleasure of spending many level 10 Nationals rotating with her.

 

[MaryClare]

Priessman was just injury prone. Her time at LSU was evident of that.

Hmm I’m not sure it can solely be put down to that. It’s kind of like saying Texas dreams gymnasts are just injury prone, even when they get to college

 

[QuietColours]

Yeah and the only reason that Biles didn't win the 2012 AA title was due to (ironically) her lack of difficulty on floor!
She was in 3rd behind Priessman by .800.

Biles only had a floor D score of 5.5 with "simple" tumbling:
Double layout
1 1/2 stepout to double pike
back 2 1/2 twist

Wild how she went from those passes one year earlier and showed up in 2013 with Chusovitina, Double layout (Biles 1 at Worlds), Back 2 1/2 into front layout, tucked full in.

Aimee Boorman was excellent at managing Simone's difficulty.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Aimee Boorman was excellent at managing Simone's difficulty.

It’s really hard to find fault with anything Aimee did with Simone.

 

[navyblue]

A Junior National title these days amounts to: who has high enough D scores at age 15? And not much else. It's almost a negative indication of who might survive until the next olympic cycle for eligiblity.

It was interesting to hear (via Gymcastic) that Lavi Crain's coaches at GAGE apparently pulled her out of junior nationals simply because she wanted to save her energy for Pan Ams -- I guess the prestige of a national title has diminished, as her US Classic results made her the clear favorite to win.

Obviously, not every gymnast has this goal, but if we look at someone like Lexie Priessman, it's hard to imagine that she wouldn't be aiming for the 2016 olympics, given she was doing an Amanar at age 13. So it's hard to fathom the need to unveil that type of difficulty on a risky apparatus like vault, and then presumably attempt to maintain it for 6 more years.

I get this is all armchair coaching on my part (maybe Priessman was aiming for a TTY someday!), but I do think that conventional wisdom and strategies have changed now with Lavi Crain or Jade Carey who basically compete a downgraded vault for the entire quadrennium and didn't even bother upgrading at the olympics.

 

[MaryClare]

A Junior National title these days amounts to: who has high enough D scores at age 15? And not much else

Sorry, but that’s not the case at all. The difficulty shown by the top juniors today is far lower than 10-15 years ago. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen, but that’s where we are.

I personally am not overly enthused by this, because what I’m not seen are easier but super polished routines, well performed and ready to be upgraded. What I am seeing are low e scores and gymnasts who are inconsistent and poorly prepared.

 

[Hatsumomo]

I personally am not overly enthused by this, because what I’m not seen are easier but super polished routines, well performed and ready to be upgraded.

And this is ideally what junior elite should be. Of course, this would also be predicated on the idea that gymnasts progress through the lower levels with solid basics, so that junior elite is spent preparing for senior elite. Charleigh Bullock is a great example of that; she has a UB routine that will be valuable and she'll be senior next year. That routine should already be polished and ready for any upgrades to be EF-competitive for 2026 Worlds. Instead, we're sitting here hoping that will happen.

 

[RichardL]

And this is ideally what junior elite should be. Of course, this would also be predicated on the idea that gymnasts progress through the lower levels with solid basics, so that junior elite is spent preparing for senior elite. Charleigh Bullock is a great example of that; she has a UB routine that will be valuable and she'll be senior next year. That routine should already be polished and ready for any upgrades to be EF-competitive for 2026 Worlds. Instead, we're sitting here hoping that will happen.

I basically all sentiments on display here. A junior athlete should be allowed to be inconsistent with the more difficult skills, but I would hope she would still be performing them for experience.

Ashley Postell in 2001 is a good example of this. Granted her senior success was limited to a World beam title and then a sickness withdrawal from 2003 Worlds (nothing to sneeze at in the grand scheme of things) but she was really figuring it out as a junior.

The video below is a home video I shot at age 17 in a recording I circulated at the time among the video sharing group at OOBNess. So funny to see it still the major record of this and other routines.

 

[RichardL]

Also my videos of her in 2000, the quintessential junior trying hard things to see how they would work on the bigger stage; I say "oh" when she falls at 0:31, then clearly skipped her triple full dismount for an Omelanchik vault by a WOGA gymnast lol:



And here on the floor you hear me lamenting her fall on the beam in the opening moments of her floor routine that also opened with a fall: