Let's talk about Jordan Chiles

[Doug1233]

They need to stop going for D dance elements that don’t get credit and further get hammered for execution.

 

[irichluck21]

Which Tom knew about at the 2019 Junior Worlds…

 

[Big_rock_show]

Jordan also earns some grace in the eyes of the viewers because of her attitude, I think. She looks absolutely thrilled to be there and shows joy to be representing USA and determination as a competitor. Someone who is proud of their performance is harder to criticize, in my opinion.

 

[RedBirdie]

Clearly the US elite compulsories need to be overhauled. It blows my mind that gymnasts that lack good basics–dance and acro–are able to pass and qualify elite.

 

[Passion]

Sam Mikulak would have to disagree. He’s gotten a lot of hate over the years for looking too happy during competitions while making mistakes.

 

[choclatechip45]

Well, Jordan did medal so that might be the difference.

 

[rlayt]

Sam Mikulak would have to disagree. He’s gotten a lot of hate over the years for looking too happy during competitions while making mistakes.

Sexist attitudes about competition harm men too. A lot of our hairy knuckle dragging idiots think real men get upset about not being number 1 all the time.

 

[Doug1233]

Well, Jordan did medal so that might be the difference.

She didn’t medal by virtue of her own performance though, to be blunt. I’m sure her AA contribution was beat by every other AAer in TF, perhaps except for Verkest from Belgium. None of those medaled.

 

[RedBirdie]

Jordan finished 9th of 12.

1. Melnikova, 56.065
2. deJesus dos Sanots, 55.966
3. Urazova, 55.331
4. McCallum, 55.166
5. Murakami, 54.865
6. Kinsella, 54.565 (tie broken on e score)
7. Alice D’Amato, 54.565
8. Asia D’Amato, 54.232
9. Chiles, 53.965
10. Tang, 53.699
11. Heduit. 53.599
12. Verest, 51.198

 

[Doug1233]

Thanks for the fact check!

But looking at that list - she was pretty lucky to medal.

 

[choclatechip45]

if the US Women didn’t medal they would have blamed her. I’m glad the attitude has changed from when people thought Sacramone cost us the gold.

 

[rlayt]

Or Mattie Larson.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

I’m guilty of blaming Sacramone, but I wasn’t even 20 yet at the time. I’d like to think I’ve grown since then.

 

[mnesiptolema]

Really? I saw lots of happiness and celebration during both men’s TF and AA these last few days, including from gymnasts who made mistakes. It was really fun to watch, the atmosphere was competitive without being conflictual.

Not disagreeing with you as I don’t know much about MAG, just observing that perhaps things are changing?

 

[Doug1233]

I wonder how Sacramone feels about what happened.

I think I read that she even received death threats. How times have changed. Jordan has been praised!

 

[Passion]

Sam has always appeared happy in competition. But there’s been a lot of complaints over the years (by people in the gymnastics community!) that he’s not taking things seriously enough, if he would just focus more, etc. because he has gotten very close to medaling in the AA at international competitions multiple times, only to lose it with mistakes/falls. Sam has always outwardly smiled and given the impression that he was laid back and okay with it, and in the past he’s gotten a lot of hate for it.

After 2013…? I can’t remember which Worlds but the one where he was filmed dancing through the competition. He said he was told by “the powers that be” afterwards that he had to knock it off and act more serious.

Basically I just don’t think people are sparing Jordan because of her happy demeanor, because that’s specifically been the source of a lot of the hate Mikulak has gotten over the past decade. I think people just weren’t paying enough attention to Jordan, because they’re still watching the Simone Show.

 

[makam]

It might also be that Sam got the hate because it was so clear that if he could just have that perfect day, he could be in the medals. Like, Brody Malone is a fine, steady gymnast, but he doesn’t seem to have that spark that could launch him into the top tier. Sam did. While Sam constantly got people’s hopes up that “today is the day” and then it wasn’t. No one was expecting anything really from Jordan (the press just being how she was Simone’s sidekick and had re-found her love of the sport and not anything about how she was a future star or whatever) and the US had already basically lost by the time she competed.

 

[blake]

They would do good to emphasize fluidity/carriage in the BB/FX compulsories. The FX routine doesn’t even have music?! No wonder nearly every US athlete looks like a robot out there. Or maybe they need to judge them as harshly as the Montreal BB panel.

Wasn’t there a gymnast last quad who physically could not do a bridge/backbend or something like that?

 

[JaJa]

Basically I just don’t think people are sparing Jordan because of her happy demeanor, because that’s specifically been the source of a lot of the hate Mikulak has gotten over the past decade. I think people just weren’t paying enough attention to Jordan, because they’re still watching the Simone Show.

men and women are judged very differently when it comes to this sort of thing.

 

[gymskatefan]

NBC did not show ANY of Jordan’s qualifications falls or mistakes and pushed this narrative that she didn’t even know she was supposed to compete and had never prepared for doing bars/beam, so people thought of her as some sort of hero pulling a routine out of her ass to save the team. Also, her floor fall was near the end of the competition which had been pretty much set in stone by then.

Her being upbeat and happy was seen more as remaining positive so the other girls didn’t melt down further and her post-finals interviews have been seen more as fierce defense of Simone, so she got a lot of leeway there that people weren’t focused on her actual performance.