British WAG (and MAG!) talk

[glamafonic]

Gutted for Becky and absolutely fucking furious at BG. Left their only realistic chance for a medal at home after fucking torturing her AND using her to qualify a full team when she very well could’ve qualified on her own. Fuck off.

 

[ucrgirl]

It’s also the damn FIG. Why did they think four person teams were a good idea? There should be five gymnasts on the British team.

 

[Gymfan93]

4 person teams really only benefit the USA (or another country with loads of good AA options who are stronger on one or two events) anyway. It was obviously never going to be good for top-eight programmes who rely on specialists to boost their scores. France, GB, Netherlands etc all have/had to decide if they want to prioritise team or EF chances.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Hmm, I’ve seen this said a few times, and while GB are probably the most fucked by this format, I don’t think that’s the explanation either.

There isn’t a sensible gymnastics case for leaving Becky off the 4 person team, so the fact that she would fit even better on a 5 person team doesn’t necessarily tell us anything. BG have shown that they’re willing to tailor the selection procedure to disadvantage her, hence the timing and the 2024 medals part. If it had been a 5 person team, because of her having spoken out they’d still have had exactly the same incentive to try and prevent her becoming a household name. I suppose there comes a point when teams are so big that it’s essentially impossible to exclude Becky, but I can’t see that 5 gymnasts is it.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Louis has waded in.

Louis Smith MBE on Twitter: “@BritGymnastics I don’t think people’s frustration is with the gymnasts in fact the nation applaud every athlete who trains their heart and soul out! And to be fair and kind by your words is actually the reason for your backlash. Weather you think your in the right or not!! Transparency needed” / Twitter

He’s got a point…

 

[Stacey]

The day has come where I agree with Louis Smith

 

[Doug1233]

The spelling errors in here I just can’t.

 

[ucrgirl]

BG have shown that they’re willing to tailor the selection procedure to disadvantage her, hence the timing and the 2024 medals part. If it had been a 5 person team, because of her having spoken out they’d still have had exactly the same incentive to try and prevent her becoming a household name.

You are probably right. Time and time again we see the lengths organizations will go to to cover up allegations of abuse. (I was reading a non-gym example last night.) Still, the abuse coverup always seems too crazy too be the full explanation and my brain starts looking elsewhere for the answer.

It is crazy that a sports organization judged on their ability to bring home Olympic medals would leave their only medal contender at home because they fear the bad press they will get if she wins a medal. But we have seen the world work that way before.

 

[Gymfan93]

I don’t want to believe there is malice involved, but I can’t think of a logical other explanation for not even making her third reserve. In the case of having to sub anyone else in, you may as well sub in the person with the chance of making an EF, because the team would be in danger of not even making team finals.

 

[Doug1233]

She literally should have been pick #1.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Come on. Just this once.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I agree. Explaining to my family, I said it’s like if USA left Biles off the team lol. Whatever

 

[rue_des_plantes]

Okay, but what is it with these “newspapers?” Is it like we have in the US, but all the garbage is in print media instead of cable news TV?

We don’t really have much of a tabloid culture here, so people see things that look like real newspapers and assume it’s legitimate. I’ll see the biggest bullshit on social media about Trump coming back to power or the US is planning an invasion, and it’s people in Florida or Texas linking The Mirror and Daily Mail as their source. “See? An actual newspaper said it!”

It got to the point where a significant number of Americans were using The Mirror or The Sun for 2020’s election coverage and all of Trump’s legal contentions or whatever were being liveblogged. FFS

 

[Caligym]

Apologize if this has been discussed before, but does anyone know if the Downies have a link to another nation on their fathers side? Any chance they could pull a Danusia and eventually compete for another nation? How sweet would it be to see them on a podium with another nations flag flying and anthem playing?

 

[MaryClare]

Why would that be sweet?

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Presumably because BG have shat on them so comprehensively. I’d certainly get a chortle out of it.

 

[Bob]

There’s a big petition going round on change.org asking for the selection procedures to be reviewed.

Sign the Petition

Independent review into selection process for British Gymnastics Olympic team selection.

www.change.org

 

[RichardL]

I’m sure none of this attention is going to be helpful for the four gymnasts preparing for Tokyo, especially since none of them have ever been to the Olympics before. Becky would have been such a leader and a real grounding force for this team. What a shame.

 

[RichardL]

And only Kinsella has gone to Worlds!

 

[Doug1233]

She’s never done very well though…