Gymcastic. Thoughts?

[RAFIKI]

I think it’s more about the statement from Tom at nationals saying he would be going with the highest scoring team and then not doing that. Plus the change in attitude on the +1 being an AAder and his lack of clear explanations/willingness to answer questions in press conferences. I wonder what the coaches and athletes think of his communication skills? For all we know he might be much straighter with them.

 

[makam]

I always found the highest scoring argument odd. What does it matter if you win by 5 points or 3 points (except maybe to Marta’s ego in Rio)? Or 5.5 points or 5 points? You want full coverage in case of a disaster so you aren’t putting Mohini up on beam for the first time in months, or whatever. Mykayla might add some tenths on vault but if she starts tanking her fx due to her ongoing foot issue (or goes back to falling on that back full tuck on beam), she’ll lose more tenths than she earns. At least as an individual she is competing for herself and can succeed or fail on her own terms. And since she gets to rotate with the team in qualifications (right?), she’ll get just as much screen time as the others.

 

[QuietColours]

As I recall, Tom never actually said he was taking the highest scoring team; he said they had a program to determine that team and they’d be using it in their considerations, and the gymternet as a whole just ran with it as Tom saying he’d take the highest scoring team and not go rank order.

Ultimately, and per usual, it seems like communication on what were the most important factors and how the committee was going to weight things was a complete disaster, both to the media/fans and to the athletes.

 

[irichluck21]

Everyone screaming about transparency and going rank order for YEARS.
Now Tom goes rank order and it is a huge issue.

No matter what team Tom picked he was screwed by not going rank order he would have been criticized and by going rank order he is criticized.

One feedback should be that moving forward into the next quad, the criteria for making teams NEEDS to be set out way ahead of time. state exactly what meets are being looked at, will an athlete get to drop one score, how to make it fair for athletes that can and do compete the qualifying meets compared to those that cannot compete them all, petitions criteria, etc.

 

[makam]

I think setting out criteria is smart but almost impossible. There will always be exceptions. BG set out their criteria and then found a way around them. You can go on rank order, average scoring permutations for a high scoring team but there will always be gymnasts coming back from injury, gymnasts well on their way to injury, flukey routines, biased judging skewing results… Basically, the numbers are not the whole story.

Obviously it does no one good to have the team be picked on the coordinator’s whims but stating “these are the criteria we will use, no exceptions” can hurt just as many gymnasts as the current system. Like, if they said they were straight up averaging Nationals and Trials scores, Grace should have just given up after Nationals. Mykayla with 2 beam falls should have too.

 

[rlayt]

I’m really disappointed in Gymcastic. I’m not a fan of them promoting the theory that Tom is punishing Jade. Isn’t there enough drama without manufacturing it ?

 

[dweiss324]

I was someone here who brought up the “what if…” Of giving skinner the +1 to screw jade over. I don’t actually believe it now, tom just literally went down the ranks. Hope I didn’t start a war but also not mad about it

 

[RedBirdie]

I’m really disappointed in Gymcastic. I’m not a fan of them promoting the theory that Tom is punishing Jade. Isn’t there enough drama without manufacturing it ?

Par for the course, though. Remember the endless screaming just a few weeks ago about how Tom screwed over Morgan (he did not) and all the “GROWN ASS WOMEN” posts? They love the drama.

 

[Puffin]

Gymcastic seem to have lost the plot recently

 

[ucrgirl]

Gymcastic should have a new byline. What we lack in nuance we make up for in outrage.

 

[Gymmama]

I think it’s just too difficult to have specific criteria in an objective sport with so many variables. Especially when those variables can change from week to week. At the end of the day, a committee is going to have to make a decision based on the current needs knowing that not everyone will be happy with the decision. While everyone may not agree with the fourth and individual spot, this was not a left field or suspicious decision. There are just as many reasonable arguments to take Grace and MyKayla as there are for Leanne and Riley. At this point it’s just personal preference as to what people think are the best choices. Grace is a solid AAer that can be used as a lead off on any apparatus and while MyKayla’s other events are shaky, everyone agrees that her vaults are solid and the scores were deserved and Olympic medal worthy.

And Gymcastic’s reasoning doesn’t make sense. If they put MyKayla on the main team, she would still challenge Jade for a team final spot. I have a feeling they would be just as outraged if MyKayla was skipped over entirely as a fifth place finisher. Outrage and drama are what sells and it gets more people to listen to their podcast. I thought they would be happy to have so many grown a** women representing USA. I just can’t with the drama and inconsistency from them, especially Jessica.

 

[esta]

They need Uncle Tim and Blythe Lawrence back to bring them back on track. And, where’s Spanny? I miss the original hosts.

 

[irichluck21]

Who else was in the running for the +1 based on results. Eaker maybe?
Skinner makes the most sense because she was 5th at Trials and is a medal contender on vault.
Just because Jade went the individual route doesn’t mean they can now exclude anyone for vault.

Do I agree it didn’t make sense? Yes.
Had I said Skinner was redundant before Trials. Yes.
But with multiple injuries leading up to Olympic selection and inconsistency of athletes, Skinner proved herself and took advantage of all the withdrawls and falls of others.

 

[irichluck21]

I get that criteria can have its issues too.

But USAG set forth criteria to qualify to Nationals and also to qualify to Trials.

My thoughts were more along the lines of Tom talking out of his ass and then USAG saying something different or doing something different.

Tom said that Jade was ineligible for 4 person team, USAG back peddled.
Tom said they were still looking at petitions. USAG had already made the decision.
Tom said they were taking the highest scoring Olympic team, then he back peddles.

Do I think selecting McCallum over Skinner makes sense. It totally does. Also, McCallum is the highest scoring team if you look at 4-4-3. She would provide higher scores on bars, beam, and floor than Skinner, who was propped up by one vault, that was ,4/,6 higher than McCallum’s start value.

 

[Alinxz23]

I think the lady is too emotional and often has her facts wrong and the guy comes across too smug.

 

[rlayt]

Jessica is self-admittedly driven by emotion rather than logic. And she just repeats herself when confronted with logic.

I love having a gymnastics podcast I can listen to on drives to do errands but I frequently disagree or smh when listening.

 

[Doug1233]

Ok. I’m watching their latest episode.

Following Spencer’s discussion about Suni’s intelligent decision to remove her double tuck in her floor routine, Jessica then praised Skinner for her beam routine construction because it eliminates unnecessary elements in order to increase her execution score.

What am I even listening to?

 

[rlayt]

They love Skinner. It’s like they never watched videos or watched Skinner when they praise her gymnastics. Props for her grit and determination but she literally wasted time training multiple things that were never going to be good enough to compete. Like that illusion. Same old story as always with her and her E scores tell the story too. She would have done better cleaning up.

 

[Caligym]

Good for her in constructing a routine that will at least get an E score higher than the D score, I suppose? Because you know with Skinner throwing a 6.5D routine that would get 6.4E was absolutely an option. Grading on the Skinner curve she made smart choices!

 

[Doug1233]

It’s just like - for Jessica to pick SKINNER as an example of intelligent beam construction, out of the literally hundreds of athletes she’s been watching with her own eyes at the Olympic Games, which we have essentially paid for her to go to, just blows my mind.