MyKayla Skinner Olympic participation

[RedBirdie]

Maggie finished 3rd at nationals that year, and Baumann beat Skinner as well. I always figured Skinner would have been the alternate rather than Maddie Desch.

 

[irichluck21]

You might be right about that.
But Skinner was nearly guaranteed a vault medal in 2014 and her floor in comparison to the others.

Baumann would have been fine, but other than beam would have not been used in team finals and potentially not used at all if Nichols went above a 14.033 Baumann had in qualifications. Skinner on vault and floor is essentially replaced by Nichols in this scenario.

VT (Baumann, Kocian) Ross, Nichols, Biles
UB (Biles, Ross/Nichols) Ross/Nichols, Kocian, Locklear
BB (Kocian, Nichols/Baumann) Nichols/Baumann, Biles, Ross
FX (Kocian, Baumann) Ross, Nichols, Biles

 

[KathySantoni]

If she hits Beam in qualification she could be in the mix.

 

[irichluck21]

Skinner won’t get the E score on beam internationally that she did domestically.
It is not even going to be close. Even if she hits beam she is not passing two of McCallum, Chiles, Lee, and Biles.

 

[Caligym]

She hit beam night one at trials and still finished 5th.

 

[Doug1233]

With a beam score which would have made her European Beam Champion ahead of MDJDS and Wevers!

Totally legit!!

 

[Concorde]

With a beam score which would have made her European Beam Champion ahead of MDJDS and Wevers!

Totally legit!!

It should be noted that even with USAG scoring that Skinner’s E score was still lower than what either of those two routines received. She would win because of the higher D score.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

According to Jonas on social media, she’s doing the Simone tour.

I thought this would probably happen. It’s a pretty sensible commercial decision for both her and Simone.

 

[KristyJ]

Been lurking for various reasons, but partly because so much “discussion” seems to have simply been blasting on various gymnasts. Generally its a small handful of people who comment frequently, but the extremely negative tone has been chasing me away from the boards. I can’t be the only one.

Finally saying something here because it’s gotten awful in this thread. It was also dreadful in the nationals/trials threads with people posting comments about wanting to vomit if certain athletes were chosen. Yes, Mykayla has form issues and has made some very questionable social choices in her past. She also seems to rise to the occasion in big competitions. I’m not a stan for any gymnasts, really, but neither am I willing to just tear apart most things we do.

The tone of these forums is chasing people away, y’all.

 

[rlayt]

The goal of message boards is to discuss not to fawn and praise. The only athlete I see getting criticism for their personal choices is Skinner and she gets less criticism than she did before. Less than on the old board. Sometimes if you have a personal investment in an athlete the discussion of their flaws, weaknesses and gaffes can bother you on a personal level. You might want to try to feel less personally offended.

I’m afraid vomiting isn’t off limits,

 

[rue_des_plantes]

Were FIG judges tearing Kara Eaker apart when they gave her a 13.466 for a hit beam routine, or were they being nice about it? Does it matter, as long as it’s a space or format where the gymnast isn’t reasonably expected to see their name and their work dissected, unlike Twitter where people tag them?

I think forums are better for both passionate and nuanced discussions about gymnastics compared to social media. The anonymity is safer for speech and people who participate in the sport, and I haven’t seen personal attacks against gymnasts here or anybody wishing anybody else harm or ill will. I also feel like having paroxysms either way in response to somebody’s gymnastics is a pretty common leitmotif for the whole gymternet. I feel physiologically great when Simone does her double-double off beam.

Agendas, bias, perhaps some unconscious concern trolling or bad faith takes sometimes, sure, but I’m not seeing the personal attacks, flamethrowers set to maximum, and the dozens of sock puppet accounts that characterized The Forum Era . Nobody’s work is immune from criticism here. Simone’s UB and BB both got trashed very recently, for instance.

 

[KristyJ]

I never said it was “off limits.” I said it was driving people away and creating an unpleasant environment. I do not feel personally offended. I simply dislike wading through dozens of negative comments (about any gymnast out there). I did not imply any personal attack in my comment. I am saddened that the reply I received was a personal attack that implied I am too invested in a given gymnast.

Edit to reply to the comment that landed while I was typing- I don’t think judges “tear apart” gymnasts with low scores. Being a judge I actually think it the duty of judges in general to take the deductions that are there because they give the athlete accurate feedback; to not give the deduction out of kindness (or even if one disagrees with the rules) would actually be less kind. This is a different sort of negative feedback than that which is common on these boards, and the proof of such is available simply by reading through various threads.

It is 1000% fair, for instance, to note that MyKayla’s switch half on beam incurs a minimum deduction of a tenth every time, and quite often three tenths split + toe point+rhythm. That is very different than saying you’d vomit if she lands on the team.

I can clearly see that these comments are not wanted here. I will go back to lurking.

 

[KathySantoni]

I agree. It seems to be part of the culture of this board to drag Mykayla as much as possible. It’s annoying, has become old and comes across as pandering due to white guilt.

 

[irichluck21]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Unfortunately when you do things in your past, you can never fully escape that.

This board is very mild to what you see on Twitter and other message boards.

There is one message board that has a name filter for Skinner.

 

[KristyJ]

For what it’s worth, I do recognize that we’re better here than other places on the internet. It’s why I joined WWGYM years ago. I just can’t with most reddit threads. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to be slightly less awful to an athlete though, and I’ve been sad that we seem to have gotten meaner of late. I really really hope the athletes don’t read these boards.

 

[irichluck21]

Since it is so old, and it’s pandering to white guilt, and it’s annoying, why are you still here?

No one is forcing you to read the threads…

 

[irichluck21]

I am pretty sure that gymnasts don’t since they seem mostly into social media like IG and Twitter. I am sure they have seen some stuff, as Skinner mentioned in the Golden documentary.

After all she is the one that saw all that negative stuff posted about Gabby. She even decided to RETWEET several.

 

[rue_des_plantes]

Cool, lol. You do this on every forum, and it’s always caping for sloppy American gymnast(s) in the name of positivity/anti-negativity culture or whatever.

0.2 CV granted for then clicking Like on a garbage post about how criticizing Skinner is caving to white guilt, but I’ve seen enough already. See ya

 

[rlayt]

One person’s unpleasant environment might just be ordinary reality for most people. Who are you speaking for besides yourself? Lots of people have been criticized. I don’t love seeing criticism of Simone’s flaws but I acknowledge that she has them and it’s the right of people to say they see it , pick it apart, talk about being sick of her dominance and even wish she would make huge mistakes so others might contend. That is the way of the Internet. That’s people!

 

[Caligym]

Talk about making me want to vomit…this comment made me nauseous