MyKayla Skinner Olympic participation

[glamafonic]

Hey! I didn’t say she liked them all. I said she liked some. There were screencaps of her liking a couple. And I also said that I think she was probably just liking all the tweets mentioning her positively (and that she liked nice ones about Grace too!). It was just funny considering the 2016 debacle.

In all honesty, I think she’s legitimately happy with just getting a spot. Would she have preferred the team proper? Of course. Who wouldn’t prefer an as-close-to-guaranteed-as-you-get Olympic Gold Medal to 50-50 shot at maybe a silver or maybe no medal at all. But she said not too long ago that she’d happily accept the +1 and I think she has.

I will not however be held to this if she’s suddenly salty in her next vlog lol.

 

[lovegymnasts]

Someone being beyond extra on Twitter

congrats to miss gabby douglas on making the individuals

i knew you could do it

 

[Doug1233]

Can this be our new website artwork haha

 

[Doug1233]

 

[Puffin]

View attachment 1286

I don’t understand her point - she constantly contradicts herself

• in 2016 it was unfair according to Skinner because they didn’t take the top from trials (and failed to forget her multiple bb falls at nationals)
• in 2021 where they adopt her previous demand of top 4 at trials …she thinks this is unfair as well
  sooooooo basically what she is asking is that USAG implement team selection in the manner that is most advantageous to Mykayla Skinner

What would she have done differently.? I’m not sure that top 4 from trials was set in stone as I think that Simone could have had a bad trials and still been selected

I thought that Tom took her over Riley because she was an AAer

 

[RedBirdie]

Someone make her stop talking.

 

[rlayt]

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Who can blame her for not wanting more transparency? It was confusing af and by the end of last night, half of us were all discombobulated because we were expecting gymnast with the highest VT+FX total to make the team because Tim wouldn’t shut up about it

 

[RedBirdie]

Why the hell would anyone ever listen to Tim, let alone take what he says as gospel?

 

[makam]

Tim “I don’t see any mistakes in that vault! No deductions! (as a gymnast makes several visible error)” Dagget? That Tim? Why wouldn’t anyone listen to him!

 

[tsarinajen]

I agree with Mykayla that there should have been more transparency as for what Tom was looking for.

HOWEVER, the four-year fans were out and ate that crap up that was fed by NBC and irresponsible “journalists.” At least NBC muzzled the figure skating announcers after the 2002 Olympic debacle. Frankly, USAG should have done a better job (laughs, I know) about what the announcers wanted to contribute to. This isn’t their first rodeo, and they know about that stupid board on their opinions. A simple we could very well take the top four, and that should have muzzled NBC or at least giving them the right to volley back at NBC right now. And Tim should have to apologize for being a know-it-all idiot who actually knows nothing. At minimum “my opinion” should have been used during the broadcast, same thing if Nastia chimed in.

 

[tsarinajen]

And I don’t think there’s anything she could have done differently. She didn’t want to work on her basics and try to clean up her execution which could have given her the couple tenths to make the team. She didn’t want to change her tumbling.

 

[glamafonic]

Yeah, I don’t think she’s out of pocket for wishing there had been more transparency. If he didn’t say much more to the coaches/gymnasts than he did to the press, then she’s right. He gave vague indications he would consider the top scoring team and then just went AA rank order.

Now what exactly those people on Twitter are on about is beyond me because there’s nothing she could’ve done differently in any case. It would’ve been idiotic to drop UB/BB when Jade was already on the team. All she could do was what she did, which was try to make top 4 AA.

 

[KathySantoni]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. I know that Mykayla is not perfect as a human or in her gymnastics however the amount of immature and misplaced criticism that she receives on this board and the Gymternet is totally unnecessary.

 

[Gymmama]

Wishing for more transparency is not the same thing as calling it an unfair decision. Almost everyone on this board has wanted the same thing about this decision. All indications seemed that the team with the highest scoring potential would be picked and wanting to know why that changed is a fair thought.

 

[ucrgirl]

It would be hard to set transparent standards for the fourth person on a four person team. The necessary qualities will be determined on the strengths and weaknesses of the “top two or three” on the team. taking Suni and Jordan meant you needed a strong vault and floor back up and you probably better plan in beam since you don’t know how Jordan scores internationally.

My point is you only really know what you need the fourth person’s gymnastics to be when you have decided on 1-3.

Granted, we’ve known sine day 2 of nationals that there was only one spot left on the four person team unless Suni’s ankle/Achilles gives out. But even a bad sprain—with no tumbling allowed—might not force her off the team because no one replaces her on bars. (Whereas Mykayla’s vaults are replaceable by Simon, jade or even Jordan to a lesser degree.)

(The need for a solid AAer iver a flashy specialist is why grace consistently makes teams without being top three in any event.)

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Mykayla talking about this is entirely legitimate. If anything it’s a positive.

She has every right to speak about her experiences of the process. We now have a situation where essentially the only two gymnasts who were actually being selected as opposed to selecting themselves have said they didn’t understand what criteria was being used. We also know, because he has told us himself, that the NTC has struggled to understand aspects of both Olympic qualification procedures and implications and the actual code. And he has said different things at different points along the way. Can the athletes concerned actually have faith that he has sufficient understanding to be able to guide and coordinate? The evidence for that is patchy at best.

Even in the best case scenario that Tom, despite his known deficiencies, did accurately and consistently convey to the gymnasts all the information they needed inbetween badgering the FIG about the roster for US Olympic Trials, there’s at minimum a problem if they haven’t been fully enabled to understand it. If it’s going to be the case that there’s a limit to how much transparency in the process there can be, and I wonder how long that can actually last in the current climate, then be transparent about that. So people know what they’re getting into.

And he hasn’t exactly helped himself with the integrity of the process comment. Frankly I wonder whether some of the athletes haven’t picked up on Tom’s limitations for themselves. We know at least one of them is very online. It wouldn’t take much of a delve to find some of the more clearly spelled out criticisms. Must be quite something to know your Olympic chances are in the hands of someone who didn’t understand an issue as fundamental as the evaluation of dance elements until several years into the Code.

 

[emmade]

I thought I had a handle on the team structure until hearing that the +1s would be first in line to be replacement athletes for the actual team. Therefore, it was going to be imperative that an AA’er was the additional +1. I think if Riley knew that only AAs were going to be in contention for the additional +1, maybe she wouldn’t even have bothered with trials, or maybe she would have pushed herself to do the AA. I hope she knows that she isn’t staying home because of the fall on day 2. Regardless, she is grappling with the devastation of missing out on the team, but it sounds like she has very solid support around her and I hope that she gives Worlds a crack if she is healthy enough.

 

[Passion]

 

[JaJa]

I think you are entirely correct on this.