Gabby Douglas Comeback Thread (5/29/24 Withdrawn from Nationals)

[JaJa]

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.

It seems pretty obvious to me as well.

 

[RichardL]

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?

Well, she's apparently back there now, yes? The "WOGA situation" is her current training environment that she pays for. She obviously knows about these documented abuses that you're also aware of, and remains in her current training situation. I'm only holding against her the amount of drama that has been attached to a comeback that has not materialized in competition.

ETA: and by "pay for" I mean financially rather than emotionally or physically, because I don't know the extent to which the latter two are true, while the former certainly is.

 

[Laura722]

If USAG just published this on Monday to bar Gabby from being invited (via her petition) to camp, that's really shitty and a horrible look on them (as if they look any worse), drama or no drama in regards to Gabby's training situation.

It's also weird to me how some people complain that Gabby is always drama when her comeback attempt how been so low-key and she's only done a couple of interviews. She's not on social media daily and wasn't even engaging in it again until a few months ago. But yet, she is somehow a big distraction to other gymnasts.

 

[KristyJ]

Also there's the COVID angle to this. She wanted to compete and show her readiness, but I am pretty sure noone would want to encourage an athlete to bring COVID to the meet. I get that we're a few years since people took the pandemic so seriously but that seems to be worth a possible consideration.

 

[MrSixkiller]

Well, she's apparently back there now, yes? The "WOGA situation" is her current training environment that she pays for. She obviously knows about these documented abuses that you're also aware of, and remains in her current training situation. I'm only holding against her the amount of drama that has been attached to a comeback that has not materialized in competition.

ETA: and by "pay for" I mean financially rather than emotionally or physically, because I don't know the extent to which the latter two are true, while the former certainly is.

We don’t know why she left, and we only heard from the Liukins that she left. We don’t know what happened. In the absence of any information, I will ALWAYS take the side of a gymnast over a coach with a documented history of abuse.

The Covid situation is not drama. It’s Covid.

I’m not putting her on my Olympic team at this point, but for some reason only Gabby would attract this level of doubt.

 

[Passion]

There are only four senior national team camps between 2023 Worlds and the 2024 Olympics. This current April camp is the final senior camp until September. The three previous camps were held in November '23, January '24, and February '24.

Senior gymnasts who competed at Winter Cup or who have attended a camp since Worlds but were not invited to the April camp due to the new criteria:

Zoey Molomo - Winter Cup, Nov camp, Jan camp, Feb camp

Lexi Zeiss - Winter Cup, Nov camp, Jan camp

Tatum Drusch - Winter Cup, Nov camp
Myli Lew - Winter Cup, Nov camp
Lacie Saltzmann - Winter Cup, Nov camp
Audrey Snyder - Winter Cup, Nov camp

Gabby Douglas - Nov camp
Ashlee Sullivan - Feb camp

Chloe Cho - Winter Cup
Nicole Desmond - Winter Cup
Annalisa Milton - Winter Cup
Malea Milton - Winter Cup
Brooke Pierson - Winter Cup
Michelle Pineda - Winter Cup
Brynn Torry - Winter Cup
CaMarah Williams - Winter Cup
Kelise Woolford - Winter Cup


Juniors not invited to April camp who competed at Winter Cup / attended a camp since 2023 Worlds:

Ally Damelio - Winter Cup, Nov camp, Jan camp, Feb camp
Maliha Tressel - Winter Cup, Nov camp, Jan camp, Feb camp

Charleigh Bullock - Winter Cup, Jan camp, Feb camp

Isabella Anzola - Winter Cup, Nov camp
Harlow Buddendeck - Winter Cup, Feb camp

Celia Frith-Carvalho - Winter Cup
Daisy Lesperance - Winter Cup
Camie Westerman - Winter Cup
Trinity Wood - Winter Cup

----
Zoey Molomo has the most reason to feel aggrieved by this new criteria. She's attended every camp, competed AA at Winter Cup finishing just .2 tenths out from 12th place, still scored high enough AA to qualify directly to Nationals, and then finds out a week before the April camp that she's not invited back. She outscored Suni Lee on both UB and BB at Winter Cup. No camp invite. She can compete at Nationals, but she can't participate in this camp.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

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.

By the same token, changing the criteria a few days before the camp is also odd and potentially distracting to other gymnasts, no? We already know that USAG has had a problem with failure to set out and communicate these things in a timely fashion in the past, and we know how the athletes felt about it. It's a bad thing for athlete welfare. Criteria for anything need to be very clear and athletes need to not only know about them well in advance but also feel confident.

If I were one of the athletes @Passion has just listed, I'd be furious and gutted. And if I were someone who thought they might want to petition at some point in the future, I'd be worried.

 

[Matilda23]

Do we have any information about how Gabby looked at the November team camp?

 

[QuietColours]

Do we have any information about how Gabby looked at the November team camp?

From what we heard, she looked better than ever

 

[QuietColours]

Do we have a definitive answer on when the criteria were written? We know the athletes and coaches only received them a week ago, which is obviously inexcusable

 

[RedBirdie]

Even if Gabby competed at Winter Cup as planned, she wouldn't have been invited to camp. She wasn't planning to do UB, so no AA for her.

 

[irichluck21]

I wonder if the field was limited due to the sheer number of athletes that were going to be attending. It is a selection camp for two major events and so lots of athletes would be interested.

@Passion has a long list of athletes that have attended camp or competed at Winter Cup.

Chances are USAG decided they had to limit the attendees and Gabby just happened to be one of the athletes effected by the criteria. Would there be such an outrage if Memmel hadn't given that interview?

 

[Passion]

Even if Gabby competed at Winter Cup as planned, she wouldn't have been invited to camp. She wasn't planning to do UB, so no AA for her.

Although, if she had competed and done well enough to receive an assignment to Baku or DTB, she’d have been added to the National Team and could attend April camp on that basis. DTB was decided by AA placement but Jong and Esponda both got the Baku World Cup based on being the highest finishers individually on UB and FX not to decline the assignment offer.

 

[Doug1233]

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

I'd even let any past World or Olympic team member go to a damn camp if they want to go.

It's not like you'd pay all that money hauling you and your coach to a meet halfway across the country, hotels, flights, food, etc, unless you thought you had a realistic shot at making an international assignment.

Or even not. Just a realistic shot at qualifying for Nationals.

I still cannot believe that Suni Lee, the reigning Olympic AA Champion, had to hit beam at a fucking Classics meet in order to receive an invite to US Nationals a mere 2 years after the Olympics. It beggars belief. World and Olympic team members have earned a little grace when it comes to the rules.

 

[QuietColours]

What's the capacity of the training center? Are they staying in a local hotel now? Is there a standard cap on the number of participants they can accommodate?

 

[irichluck21]

Not sure about all of that, BUT maybe they wanted to cap the number of athletes competing as this isn't a training camp, it is a selection meet (camp) so maybe limiting the number of athletes doing full routines so the rotations aren't gigantic. They are doing two events in the AM and two events in the PM.

That is the only rationale I can think of.

As was mentioned, it isn't like Gabby is excluded, there are more than a dozen athletes that have done camps or Winter Cup that didn't meet the critieria.

 

[RichardL]

The Tokyo Olympic team being qualified is a strange line item because it's really only there for Suni Lee. Biles, Carey, and Chiles are otherwise qualified through other means, and McCallum and Skinner are no longer competing elite. So I guess if they had skipped that and said "previous Olympic AA champions welcome" then it would have covered Lee and Douglas (and Liukin and Patterson).

ETA: and Retton!

 

[irichluck21]

True. But then USAG is making preferential treatment to Douglas who has not competed in 8 years, where as the other gymnasts have competed, most of most recently at Winter Cup.

I do think that USAG needs to make exceptions for ALL World and Olympic medalists and alternates/team members.

 

[Beamer]

One important question that I haven't seen asked or answered in this thread is:

Who is on the athlete selection committee that wrote these rules for who could qualify to camp?

 

[irichluck21]

Alicia Sacramone, Jessie DeZiel, and Tatiana Perskaia