Kim Kelly: “She took my spot!”

[Hatsumomo]

 

[Hatsumomo]

If Skinner still holds that grudge 30 years later, it would be far more pathetic than Kelly because Skinner got her chance to compete as an Olympian. She also had the perfect storm work 100% in her favor where after being 2per’d out, Simone withdrew from FX and VT and Carey and Yeo biffed VT, leaving it open for Skinner to medal. So Skinner got to compete at the Olympics and win a medal, which is far more than Kelly can say. And if Skinner ever got that ego under control, she’d realize what a massive gift she got because her Olympics was supposed to end at qualifications and be the only American gymnast going home with zero medals.

I would also add that there’s a large difference between meeting the qualifications for an Olympic spot and having that ripped away vs. not even being in the running for the final spot (Marta herself said it was Douglas or Locklear) because Raisman’s return made Skinner redundant. And as much as it makes my acid reflux act up, Raisman had the better gymnastics.

 

[flappergirl]

This happened while I was a gymnastics fan and I had read the selection criteria. It said that petitions were allowed and the selections would done by committee, and that past international results would be considered. Since Kim Kelley had a terrible track record compared to Betty Okino, the choice was obvious to me beforehand.

Someone needed to have made sure Kim’s expectations were realistic. So at the time I blamed the Strausses. But to still be spewing negativity towards Betty now, thats all on Kim.

 

[irichluck21]

Can’t have this happening in Barcelona.

Kelly did well at a few domestic meets, but had a history of underperforming internationally.
She competed at Worlds in 1989 and was the 6th ranked American in the AA. 5 of her 8 scores were dropped. Her optional bars and floor had to count because Johnson fell on both, but even then the scores were barely higher (Kelly UB 9.400, Johnson UB 9.362).
Her compulsory vault also counted 9.650 over Chelle Stack who went 9.637.

So it was definitely not the best competition for her.

 

[makam]

Oh, geez. I remember seeing that roitine before but you forget what a trainwreck it was until you watch it again. The nicest thing about it was the leotard.

I don’t tweet but posting that video with a “this you?” would be next-level mean girl…

 

[Hatsumomo]

It seemed like she could put it together enough to be considered or picked for international meets, but ended up underperforming. And she had no qualities that would have anybody overlook the possibility of another Chunichi Cup disaster.

As an aside, I do dig that Kim Zmeskal and Betty Okino are still friends.

EDIT: Somebody on Reddit put together Kelly’s track record and yeah, even if it weren’t already established procedure that top 6 at Trials only got you to the camp, I wouldn’t blame anybody trying to find a loophole to prevent Kelly from being on the Olympic team:

1989 Chunichi Cup - 13th AA with low scores on every event

1989 Tokyo Cup - fell on vault

1990 Cottbus Cup - 26th AA with multiple falls on beam

1990 USA vs. East Germany - fell on bars and beam

1990 U.S. Olympic Cup - she actually hit and finished 3rd

1990 Chunichi Cup - last place AA with falls on bars and beam and FOUR falls on floor

1990 Tokyo Cup - fell on vault

1991 USA vs. Romania - fell on floor and cost the U.S. team the meet

1991 Catania Cup - 18th AA with 2 falls on beam and a fall on floor

Kim didn’t fare any better at domestic meets:

1990 U.S. Nationals - fell on compulsory bars and optional bars, beam, and floor

1991 U.S. Nationals - fell on optional beam

1991 U.S. World Team Trials - fell in compulsories and optionals

1992 U.S. Nationals- fell on optional bars

 

[MaryClare]

Wow. So most of her competitive career was spent on the mat

 

[dweiss324]

I think I’d still be in denial too if that was my career track record. Wow

 

[irichluck21]

1992 Olympic Trials was the meet of her life. She got absolutely lucky for placing as high as she did.

 

[RedBirdie]

She’s lucky she even made the 89 worlds team. She had a poor nationals, but hit well enough at Trials, combined with a lot of people who placed above her at nationals having a terrible trials.

 

[Hatsumomo]

She was doing good continuing to get international assignments despite underperforming or imploding at each one. She can never say she wasn’t given the opportunity to show what she could do.

 

[dweiss324]

I’m sorry but that chunichi cup disaster has to be my favorite floor performance of all time. It has never failed to cheer me up. Her falling out of her first spin so dramatically, I can 100% relate.

 

[Bob]

totally agree the original clip is only surpassed by the edit someone did with different floor music.

This one!



I always wondered how the US put such a routine out.

 

[Angelika]

Nooooo! How could they use Anna’s lovely music to that clod hopper of a routine!

 

[Bob]

you have to admit it is quite genius though!

The leaps are class. Seriously I could do better.

 

[onodian]

Seriously I could do better

let’s start to get some EVIDENCE of these things, people

 

[Caligym]

I had never seen this and it is absolutely mesmerizing, hard to believe it’s actually real! It’s like she accepted a dare from someone to go out there and get the lowest execution score in the history of gymnastics.

 

[Passion]

I always wondered how the US put such a routine out.

IIRC at one point she said she was sick when she got to Japan and was competing with a fever.

 

[Doug1233]

That full in wasn’t even close. Surely she wasn’t making them in warmups, so god knows why her coach let her perform it.

 

[RedBirdie]

I mean, Donna Strauss, so…