Gymcastic. Thoughts?

[Sparklesmom]

I hope she does what she wants and what makes her happy. If that means quitting the sport totally, so be it. Life is too short to be miserable and in pain for gymnastics. At the same time, I hate that she is potentially having to make these decisions OR rehab from a potentially bad injury with people like Gymcastic speculating and discussing her the whole time. She still is a minor, and it feels gross to. me that she was discussed in this way. JMO.

 

[navyblue]

And yet… here we all are discussing Konnor’s elite career in further length, documented on the internet in a more durable way than a Gymcastic episode… Jessica essentially just blurted out a half-formed thought, failed to elaborate on whether it was her own interpretation as opposed to true insider knowledge, then fumbled into the next topic. As is her norm. (a controversial norm, to say the least, which we’ve already discussed at length).

All that said, I dont see why this conversation ought to be verboten or why her being a minor is relevant. She is the reigning national champion of a TV-broadcasted sport, and there’s nothing inherently wrong about wondering about the future of her individual career as well as her contributions to the overall American program (which we can all agree is catastrophically floundering!! jk).

But let’s cut to the heart of things – the real reason why we care is because we would mourn the loss of some of the most beautiful and technically proficient elite gymnastics – especially on beam – that we’ve seen in the past decade. That, and, the Gymternet overall is an absolute sucker for a fallen angel narrative – someone who, tragically, didn’t “fulfill their potential” in the very specific and limited ways we tend to define success (=olympic gold only!)

 

[navyblue]

I just listened to this weeks Gymcastic and it absolutely does sound like Jessica is sure she’s quit.

It’s funny you say this, because I can hardly imagine the sensation of Jessica herself being absolutely sure of anything being true.

But yeah, having literally just posed a critique of Olympic-centrism a few seconds ago, I definitely fell into that same trap listening to Gymcastic a week or so ago. Jessica was making some point about Valeri Liukin’s pattern of coaching failures, excluding his own daughter (which, sorry that’s a really damn big exception!). Spencer countered with Rebecca Bross’ list of accomplishments which include 6 world medals (!) in addition to a national title. Before Spencer dropping this knowledge, I’d been nodding along in agreement, casually casting hexes on behalf of Vanessa Atler, and so yeah, a little perspective is always good! Even though it was indeed very sad watching Bross’ abortive bars routine at Olympic trials, etc.

 

[rlayt]

It’s really easy for me to hear something then fall into that narrative. I’m trying not to!

I think it would be a terrible waste if Konnor quits and if she does I hope it’s what really is best for her. It’s sad to regret something years later you did when you were young and stressed. But gymnastics is very hard.

 

[Doug1233]

Totally on board with Memmel being head. But I doubt she would want it. It’s a lot of pressure and going by the track record of prior head coaches, no one has really ended on good terms with the public…

Oh how wrong I was!!

 

[rlayt]

 

[Rich]

great. I am shocked at Jessica’s behavior to create a rumor

 

[Gymfan93]

Yikes, it sounds like people are jumping to huge conclusions all over the place.

 

[Yarotska]

Miss Jessica gonna learn that this new generation is not to be played with.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Jessica owes a public apology and she needs to learn journalistic integrity. I know we now live in an era of the 24/7 news cycle where even reputable journalists don’t bother to stop and verify anything in order to race to be the first one to break a story and clickbait sites that straight make up shit to get clicks and views, but Jessica isn’t competing against TMZ, CNN, or the NYT. She could have waited and done the work to confirm or debunk any rumor of Konnor quitting elite before saying anything. Now she’s caused a lot of issues for Konnor. This is how Jessica and Spencer destroy the tenuous trust of the gymnasts and lose access.

It’s bad enough Jessica has so little knowledge of the sport that I equate her with Internet “chefs” who just use food to gain fame and money but know nothing really about cooking or baking.

 

[Gymfan93]

The cinitia interview is this one:
My Spanish is is pretty much non-existent so I won’t attempt to transcribe, but according to the comments, it was a question about Catalan Independence.

 

[cuuf]

So let me get this straight, some athlete goes on social media, posting all kinds of weird cryptic crap. Talking heads comment on it. The athlete then claims it’s all a joke and you talking heads need to STFU?

Konnor obviously is learning her way in this world, and while it is certainly the TikTok generation, she would be better served to learn as a semi-high profile athlete that discretion is the better part of valor. Everything she says publicly is going to be dissected by talking heads that follow the sport AND hacks like us on message boards.

I know people have strong opinions about gymcastic but Konnor shares some responsibility too.

 

[Yarotska]

I think it’s disingenuous on Gymcastic’s part to put these thoughts behind a paywall of “behind the scenes” exclusives. And people love to defend journalists but honestly I don’t care what journalists do for the most part, I do think it’s in bad taste to profit off of someone’s struggles with motivation or mental health by making it “subscribers only” content.

 

[Doug1233]

Jessica’s stomach must have dropped when she saw that…

Her whole schtik is about well-being and mental health and athletes first etc etc. I wonder how she will address it on the next show.

 

[onodian]

I’m a Spaniard and i was fully pre-cringing watching the interview, cause this whole independence referendum subject was VERY controversial back then, but she does a pretty decent job of shrugging it aside. I would say there’s no “girl, bye” vibes, she’s more like “that’s not the region I’m from so what shall i say?”

 

[irichluck21]

Her whole schtik is about well-being and mental health and athletes first etc etc. I wonder how she will address it on the next show.

Yep. She really hit the hypocritical wall here IMO.

She wasn’t being vague about it either she upfront said that Konnor quit elite.

There definitely needs to be some sort of apology.

 

[Doug1233]

There definitely needs to be some sort of apology.

Jessica typically isn’t very good at those, when it needs to be an actual, serious, non-wheezing-her-way-though a jokey-type apology.

 

[Doug1233]

Seeing as Konnor now is not, in fact, quitting elite, perhaps we should migrate my thread there into here - seeing as now it appears to have just been a classic Jessica Gymcastic-type rumor…?

 

[MaryClare]

I don’t understand why a well known gymnastics media operation wouldn’t just contact Konnor or her gym and ask for a statement or clarification in relation to recent social media posts?

 

[MaryClare]

Haha this is such an American thing. In Europe we really, really don’t discuss territorial disputes. Also this is like asking Alice Kinsella how she feels about Scottish independence. Dunno mate, I live in Birmingham