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

 

[IratePanda]

Early in the broadcast, Trinity and Paul said something that made me question my memory, if not my sanity. They clamed that Bullock had won UB at every competition she entered in 2025. That didn't seem right. I was pretty certain she didn't win UB at Jr. Worlds. I just checked, and sure enough, Milana Kayumova was the UB champ in Manila . Perhaps they meant US competitions? Still, how hard is it to fact-check and get things right?

 

[hmmmm]

From some of the videos I have seen of the elite compulsory qualifying- that would be a good place to start. I was a bit horrified to see the quality that was passing for Hopes/elites.

Many are not even high scoring level 9/10's and it shows- aura of self doubt and shattered confidence.

Then you have this comment from WCC coaches in regards to how a qualifier went (their athletes all passed)

 

[makam]

Still, how hard is it to fact-check and get things right?

When you apparently do not prep or homework before sitting down in front of the mic? Pretty hard, it seems.... guess the powers that be feel that since anyone can have a podcast, anyone can do sports commentary. Don't make me wish for Al Trautwig to return, USAG...

 

[RedBirdie]

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…

That's Audrey VanGrissven, and fwiw, she'll turn 12 in April. I agree that it's way too many years as a junior elite. I will also say her basics and technique are very good, which is a nice change of pace from most US juniors. She also does rather low difficulty, as is typical of Pacific Regin gymnasts. That's the only thing that gives me hope that she won't end up broken and retired at 15.

 

[Passion]

guess the powers that be feel that since anyone can have a podcast, anyone can do sports commentary.

It was meant to be an opportunity to gain experience in media. Yes they were awful, and I don’t want to hear Paul Juda’s voice again any time soon, but they weren’t meant to be professionals.

USA Gymnastics Creator Program launches second season • USA Gymnastics

USA Gymnastics on Thursday launched the second edition of the organization’s Creator Program, designed to give current and former gymnasts an opportunity to expand their experience and audience in the creative space.

usagym.org

2026 USAG Creator Program • USA Gymnastics

usagym.org

Christian Marsh wasn’t bad on the MAG stream, when Juda let him get a word in.

 

[FlipSkippy]

Is that a bible reference on Hezley’s leotard, front RHS

Yes. I believe she has her own line of leotards and they have the bible reference on them. That's why her leos are different from the rest of her WOGA team.

 

[MaryClare]

Yes. I believe she has her own line of leotards and they have the bible reference on them. That's why her leos are different from the rest of her WOGA team.

Since at least 2024, Hezly has a deal with GK where as WOGA are supplied by OZone. In 2024, GK would basically make her a very similar leotard to woga’s. I would imagine that her wearing something completely different is part of the tradition that’s emerged that Olympians don’t have to wear the team leotard. We saw that quite a bit last quad where Jordan and Simone wore completely different leotards from the rest of the WCC team

 

[Sasha]

So, if you buy a leo from Hezly's line does it come with the bible verse, or is that an add-on?

 

[MaryClare]

So, if you buy a leo from Hezly's line does it come with the bible verse, or is that an add-on?

They don’t appear to have anything other than her signature and the GK logo. I wonder if GK have her wearing it to promote something they might offer as an add on. I can see how it would be pretty popular.