2026 Winter Cup (Feb 21-22)

[RedBirdie]

I frankly thought it very strange that the world team members, who are automatically qualified to nationals, would be dropped from the national team if they didn't compete at Winter Cup. Glad someone came to their senses.

 

[Passion]

Men's Senior National Team
Crew Bold
Taylor Burkhart
Brandon Dang
Asher Hong
Patty Hoopes
Josh Karnes
Danila Leykin
Riley Loos
Brody Malone
Yul Moldauer
Kameron Nelson
Dante Reive
Frederick Richard
David Shamah
Parker Thackston
Donnell Whittenburg

Men's Senior Development Team
Sasha Bogonosiuk
Jun Iwai
Preston Ngai
Nathan Roman

American Cup
Asher Hong
Danila Leykin
Yul Modauer

Antalya World Cup
Brandon Dang
Patty Hoopes
Donnell Whittenburg

Cairo World Cup
Crew Bold
Patty Hoopes
Parker Thackston

Osijek World Cup
Brandon Dang
Kameron Nelson
Donnell Whittenburg

DTB Pokal Team Challenge
Asher Hong
Josh Karnes
Danila Leykin
Yul Moldauer
Kameron Nelson

Full 2026 Senior Men’s National Team Presented by Xfinity determined; men’s international assignments announced following Winter Cup • USA Gymnastics

Following Winter Cup competition Saturday, the full 2026 Senior Men’s National Team Presented by Xfinity was announced and the U.S. men’s program also selected athletes to represent the country in international competition this spring.

usagym.org

 

[BB12]

To be fair, the scoring at American Cup may be similar to tonight's.

But the international field for AmCup isn't weak. They may regret not having that 2nd floor score.

True. Hopefully it's more realistic then American Cups of the past.

Esponza would be a prime candidate for a World Cup if they didn't axe them. I'd have love to see how her floor stacked up.

 

[Puffin]

What was all the whining about on the broadcast that FIG/WG had deliberately changed the COP to stop the US winning?

 

[MaryClare]

What was all the whining about on the broadcast that FIG/WG had deliberately changed the COP to stop the US winning?

Betty Okino basically said during the juniors broadcast that the new cop was to make it more of a level playing field because other countries can’t tumble like the US can.

Which to an extent is true. But then china has teenagers from provinces no one has heard of who have UB routines that would anchor the US in a TF.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

It’s really a five alarm fire at this point for the USAG WAG Program. LA is going to be fine because of veterans returning, but 2029 is going to look very 1997 for USAG.

 

[RichardL]

I see a lot of young US gymnasts who will capitalize on the new rules and not destroy their bodies learning a double double that they can never properly land without causing permanent damage to their bodies. This will be a win win unless Biles or Carey wants to compete again and cause drama.

 

[Aizheng]

At least the likes of Rose and Hardie have a foundation to build upon. But most of the juniors and newer seniors just look so out of their depth. I’ve said this for a couple of years now. Many people are all oh isn’t it great that juniors look like juniors now. Well no, they don’t. They aren’t doing good basics with ease, they are struggling to do even very average elite difficult

I completely agree with that. To me, it looks like gyms are still trying to get girls to gain skills as quickly as possible and have not adjusted especially early training.
There seems to be an 11-year old in junior elite now. To my mind, that should be forbidden. She needs to survive 5 years of junior elite before she’s even eligible for senior. I think if senior stays at 16, we should have juniors be a minimum of 13 years (turning 14 this year) so that no one has more than 2 junior elite seasons.

All that pounding for very little gain…

 

[Aizheng]

I see a lot of young US gymnasts who will capitalize on the new rules and not destroy their bodies learning a double double that they can never properly land without causing permanent damage to their bodies. This will be a win win unless Biles or Carey wants to compete again and cause drama.

Is that really what we’re seeing currently? I hope this will be the case, but it seems many US coaches are still stuck in the “as much difficulty as possible” area. DIfficulty has been reduced, but since E has not increased, to my mind, it’s more of the national team not being able to do more difficulty than strategic decisions.

 

[BB12]

I completely agree with that. To me, it looks like gyms are still trying to get girls to gain skills as quickly as possible and have not adjusted especially early training.
There seems to be an 11-year old in junior elite now. To my mind, that should be forbidden. She needs to survive 5 years of junior elite before she’s even eligible for senior. I think if senior stays at 16, we should have juniors be a minimum of 13 years (turning 14 this year) so that no one has more than 2 junior elite seasons.

All that pounding for very little gain…

100% this. There is no need for a child that age to be training elite skills and competing at that level. Work on their technique and learn challenging age appropriate skills but the amount of hours that child will be training to be a jr elite would not be considered safe and it's almost guaranteed they will have life long physical issues because of it. Not to mention the social+mental issues that will come along with it.

 

[MaryClare]

I see a lot of young US gymnasts who will capitalize on the new rules and not destroy their bodies learning a double double that they can never properly land without causing permanent damage to their bodies. This will be a win win unless Biles or Carey wants to compete again and cause drama.

I don’t. Very very few of these girls have the potential for high e scores as seniors