Gabby Douglas Comeback Thread (New goal: LA 2028)

[makam]

Like, I don't know what some of y'all Negative Nancys have against Gabby, but if we want to root for her comeback, we can. If Laurie Hernandez announces tomorrow that she is making a comeback, I'm going to root for her too. You aren't going to change my optimistic hopes for the athletes to have a great outcome with negativity. And if they don't invite her to camps which are required for competitions, well, obviously we aren't going to see whatever routines she has to compare her with the other contenders.
So, I'm just going keep hoping for the best.

 

[MaryClare]

This isn't a petition straight onto the Olympic team.

It's a spot at a camp.

Let the Olympic All Around Champion go, if she wants to.

One of the criteria for camp is Toyko team members. They could easily have changed that to previous olympians to get round it

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Being the AA Champion 12 years ago and winning Team Gold 8 years ago is not relevant to what she is capable of today. It just is not, and should not afford her any entitlements to Trials or camps for that matter.

So Mykayla Skinner is relevant? She hasn’t touched an apparatus since Tokyo and would be invited to camp under these guidelines.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

2. We are so incredibly close to getting to witness 3 Olympic AA champions competing against each other.

I'm honestly surprised USAG aren't trying harder to make this happen, for commercial reasons alone. It's not like changing the criteria would've been a huge adjustment. While I respect that people can reasonably differ on the question of fairness, it doesn't seem like that's our explanation for the federation's actions here.

 

[Hatsumomo]

It's a goddamned training camp. For the ones demanding she show full routines to be "relevant", where the fuck else would she do it? Instagram? Exactly for whose benefit would that be? Aside from our own and we have exactly zero say in anything despite those acting like Gabby needs to prove herself to be worthy. She's not petitioning to Trials; she's not even petitioning to Nationals, so the Moceanu comparison is off-base. She's asking to go to camp where she can show the people who actually matter what she can do and possibly get an international assignment.

 

[MaryClare]

I'm honestly surprised USAG aren't trying harder to make this happen, for commercial reasons alone. It's not like changing the criteria would've been a huge adjustment. While I respect that people can reasonably differ on the question of fairness, it doesn't seem like that's our explanation for the federation's actions here.

Yep.
USAG/ their sponsors should be PAYING Gabby, Simone and Suni to show up. Do they not realise how huge one shot of the 3 of them at camp would be?! (I know Suni declined)

 

[makam]

Yep.
USAG/ their sponsors should be PAYING Gabby, Simone and Suni to show up. Do they not realise how huge one shot of the 3 of them at camp would be?! (I know Suni declined)

Even the ability to say something like "we left 2 Olympic AA champions at home, thats how hard it was to make this team" is a major flex. (Assuming Suni and Gabby don't make it but Simone does. Or however it falls out.)

 

[JDB]

I'm honestly surprised USAG aren't trying harder...

I'm not. It's the level of competence I've come to expect from post-2017 USAG.

 

[lovegymnasts]

She had the sameIt's a goddamned training camp. For the ones demanding she show full routines to be "relevant", where the fuck else would she do it? Instagram? Exactly for whose benefit would that be? Aside from our own and we have exactly zero say in anything despite those acting like Gabby needs to prove herself to be worthy. She's not petitioning to Trials; she's not even petitioning to Nationals, so the Moceanu comparison is off-base. She's asking to go to camp where she can show the people who actually matter what she can do and possibly get an international assignment.

She had the same opportunities to do this as everyone else. Two months before nationals is not the time to show, for the first time, what you can do.
I guarantee there a ton of gymnasts who think going to a national training camp is a dream come true but like Gabby they have to earn it first.

Unpopular opinion
Honestly, I expect something to happen and she misses the last qualifying meet (think the most likely to happen) or she bombs like Suni.
I was in no way shocked when she missed the one meet she signed up for...not shocked at all.
She keeps dropping bread crumbs and not delivering the loaf.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I'm not. It's the level of competence I've come to expect from post-2017 USAG.

Mmm fair point.

 

[Kara]

It seems pretty obvious to me that something is going on with Gabby, likely related to the Winter Cup debacle, that drove USAG to make up last minute rules to specifically keep her out of camp. Not going to get into ridiculous speculation, but something is very off here.

 

[MaryClare]

Further to what I said previously, I’d just like to add that USAG really are f*cking idiots. They have an extremely realistic opportunity to get every living Olympic AA champion since 1976 together in one room (they all live in North America other than Amanar)

 

[RichardL]

I agree with everyone else who says they'd love to see what Douglas can do. But the weird Winter Cup covid situation + leaving WOGA temporarily (??) all feels super odd and distracting to the gymnasts who are legitimately following protocol and positioning themselves to try to earn a spot at Nationals and Trials. My sense is that the generosity toward what Douglas is doing has been diminished by all these weird moments that the press has latched onto, and if I were a current national team member trying for a spot that much of Reddit already says is Gabby's by default, I'd be annoyed as well, especially if my governing body broke the rules for her after all of this.

 

[MaryClare]

I agree with everyone else who says they'd love to see what Douglas can do. But the weird Winter Cup covid situation + leaving WOGA temporarily (??) all feels super odd and distracting to the gymnasts who are legitimately following protocol and positioning themselves to try to earn a spot at Nationals and Trials. My sense is that the generosity toward what Douglas is doing has been diminished by all these weird moments that the press has latched onto, and if I were a current national team member trying for a spot that much of Reddit already says is Gabby's by default, I'd be annoyed as well, especially if my governing body broke the rules for her after all of this.

Yes it’s distracting and yes it’s unnecessary drama. But Gabby has been quiet about it and not sought any media attention

 

[RichardL]

Yes it’s distracting and yes it’s unnecessary drama. But Gabby has been quiet about it and not sought any media attention

Very fair!

 

[Passion]

It seems pretty obvious to me that something is going on with Gabby, likely related to the Winter Cup debacle, that drove USAG to make up last minute rules to specifically keep her out of camp. Not going to get into ridiculous speculation, but something is very off here.

From the outside it could look like they were targeting Douglas, but when it comes to USAG, this quote says it best:

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

I have no idea what the real reasoning was behind this criteria for a random April camp, but it could be any number of things besides a Douglas block. Maybe they wanted to keep the numbers low since they’re streaming the competition, or something to do with how many gymnasts would be in a rotation, or they wanted camp shorter to fit into school break schedules. Maybe they’re playing a long game to get more gymnasts at the American Classic (which they then can also charge $$ to stream.) Maybe the ASC is just being lazy and wanted less gymnasts to have to sort through for selection, or twenty different people submitted petitions to attend and they just mass declined all of them. Who knows, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone at USAG didn’t think things all the way through.

ETA: Remember last year when the MAG team to the University Games suddenly had to pay their own way to China because too many MAG gymnasts registered for US Classic and USAG had to use the money set aside for airfare to rent the arena for another day at the last minute instead? Just quintessential USAG!

 

[Passion]

In response to the posts saying Douglas needed to earn her spot at this camp, the problem is no one told anyone what they needed to do to earn their spot at this camp until six days ago. That is just an unacceptable amount of notice.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable for anyone who has been invited/going to camps for the past six months to think they might be able to go to this one. There’s been strict criteria for qualifying to World/Olympic selection camps in the past but I don’t recall there ever being this level of restriction on a mid-season national team camp before. Athletes have always been able to send in videos / petition to training camps. It’s literally how you start getting invited to them.

If USAG wants to change the rules and suddenly have no petitions that’s fine, it’s their ball game. But they need to communicate such a drastic change to the norm BEFORE the season begins, not a week before camp.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

I agree with everyone else who says they'd love to see what Douglas can do. But the weird Winter Cup covid situation + leaving WOGA temporarily (??) all feels super odd and distracting to the gymnasts who are legitimately following protocol and positioning themselves to try to earn a spot at Nationals and Trials. My sense is that the generosity toward what Douglas is doing has been diminished by all these weird moments that the press has latched onto, and if I were a current national team member trying for a spot that much of Reddit already says is Gabby's by default, I'd be annoyed as well, especially if my governing body broke the rules for her after all of this.

It frustrates me to no end that people still think only Gabby is to blame for the WOGA situation when Valeri has YEARS of documented abuses. Can we seriously not hold it against her?

 

[rlayt]

USAG is guilty time and time again for busting out criteria on the fly. Not announcing to everyone or in time for people to plan.

 

[makam]

USAG is guilty time and time again for busting out criteria on the fly. Not announcing to everyone or in time for people to plan.

And, since they have a monopoly, it's not like the coaches can leave for a better league.