Russia: Remove BILES And We Will Easily Beat Them!

[lovegymnasts]

Interesting…

Rodionenko: Remove Biles and we will easily beat the US team

Both Russian men and women left the European Championships with a collection of medals of different colors. Valentina Rodionenko told MatchTV she was very happy with the results despite some mistak…

eng.gymnovosti.com

 

[Doug1233]

Ooooooh. I mean, she’s not wrong!

 

[mnesiptolema]

She’s not? (Genuine question. I don’t recall the Am. Classic scores vs. Euros).

If Simone were to be whisked away to Fairyland in a golden carriage for the duration of the Olympics, what U.S. team would you propose and what’s the certainty level they’d come out on top?

And, just for fun, how would the giant Chinese scores from the last couple of days factor into a Bilesless team competition?

 

[JaJa]

Yea, well…we do have Simone. So too bad.

 

[tsarinajen]

Let me start by saying I don’t agree with Valentina. However, one could argue, it would certainly be interesting to see how well USA competed knowing they didn’t have Simone to potentially bail them out. Almost all of the seniors haven’t competed without that cushion. You can also counter that with Russia isn’t known for consistency.
And we’ve yet to see any evidence of Tom Forester being able to pick a winning team without Simone. So I’ll just say, let’s check back in 2022 assuming Simone really retires.

 

[blake]

I mean, easily is a hilarious exaggeration, but this is more grounded in reality than the usual nonsense coming out of her mouth. We haven’t seen a team competition without Simone since 2012. I imagine removing that 3+ fall cushion Simone gives the team would affect the mental game of the US girls in some capacity. It would require Russia to hit 12 for 12 (and 3 for 3 on BB!) though. You might as well ask a river to not flow towards the ocean.

With such coaching legends as Tom Forester, Dan Baker, and Tammy Biggs on the NTC staff, it’s no wonder the current juniors look weak. A magic 8 ball could probably make better routine composition decisions than any of the NTC staff.

 

[glamafonic]

This is saying a bunch of nothing. Everyone knows that Simone gives the US a massive cushion and other teams would be able to challenge them if not for her.

Valentina is delusional, as usual, to say that Russia would beat them “easily” without Simone and beyond that it’s a pretty pointless thing to say in sport. “If you didn’t have your best athlete, we’d beat you!”

No shit. Take away Melnikova or Listunova from Russia and see how well they do against the team behind them??

And, just for fun, how would the giant Chinese scores from the last couple of days factor into a Bilesless team competition?

Since they’re inflated domestic scores they wouldn’t factor in lol. But China could definitely challenge as well.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The point she appears to be making, badly and with a fair portion of delusion, is that an athlete of Simone’s quality is a complete game changer. For this reason, she’s completely different to the likes of Melnikova, who is good but not great and whose US equivalent is someone like Hurd or McCallum. Basically, having Simone skews everything, in a way that is not true of Listunova, and that isn’t really a reflection of anything about the programme she’s competing for other than luck. Certainly USAG have done nothing to deserve her.

However, she’s wrong to claim Russia would easily beat the US minus Simone. It would actually be a pretty even match, there being nothing much to choose between the chasing pack Americans and the current Russian stalwarts, and would come down to who hit best on the day. Like in 2012…

Also, Valentina is really not the person to be making this point considering she mismanaged the late 00s/early 2010s generation so badly. Russia had the goods to win the team title in London, and in the 2013-16 quad they got big scores and did very well on the rare occasion they actually turned up. They could’ve won several more titles than they did, and while no Russian athlete could’ve challenged Simone in the AA, they had the talent to push the team a lot closer at least in 2014 and 2015. But the programme was incredibly badly run. Which is why the person who was incredibly badly running it might want to sit this one out.

 

[Dympie]

Yes It would certainly open up the medal race if Simone wasn’t a factor. But she is. She still has to make it there without injury or illness and the team still needs to perform without major disaster so the game is not over yet. But hard to see a different team on top of the podium with a healthy, top-of-her-game Simone Biles included.

 

[alattejava]

Without Simone, Russia has a chance to beat the US, but it won’t be easy.

It sounds like there are going to be some lean years for Russian WAG though.

 

[JoseM]

Biles is the most valuable player of Team USA. Keep Biles !! Its that simple.

José M.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I think next quad China is going to reemerge as the dominant force in WAG, bold prediction. Although I suppose their crossways beam combos won’t work because they need to hit split before turning, yeah? Seems more difficult, esp in connection.

But also if Biles is considering hanging around till Paris then !!! USA it is

 

[irichluck21]

So eve if you remove Biles from the 2019 Worlds results and you use qualification results from McCallum on BB, Eaker on UB, Lee on VT, and McCallum on floor the USA still wins by 1.5
That is with counting a fall on UB from McCallum, a fall on BB from McCallum, and a fall from Suni on BB.
Even WITHOUT Biles and WITH 3 falls, the US wins easily.

Not sure how Valentina thinks the Russians NOW would win without Biles. Didn’t all 4 Russians fall off BB in qualifications at Euros? With Melnikova falling again in the AA?

Delusional.

 

[makam]

The interesting thing, with the +1s being able to compete all 4 apparatus in qualifications, we’ll have two different data points to see what would happen if Simone wasn’t on the team. Take her scores out and put Jade’s in. Take her scores out and put INSERT_NAME_OF_USA_GYMNAST’s scores in. Two different team permutations to see if Simone is really carrying the team or just carrying them on a victory lap.

 

[Doug1233]

And also - the prelims scores will show if Tom did indeed pick the right 4 people for the main team…

I still cannot believe that Tom put Skinner on the 2019 Worlds team over Morgan Hurd because he was clinging so tightly to the AA Trials rankings. She fell on a toe on! Have some fucking common sense Tom!

 

[irichluck21]

Well on any given day a majority of these ladies would rank differently. So Olympic prelims doesn’t really have any impact on whether Tom picked the correct team or not. Anyone can have an off day or make a small error. Look at the 2012 Olympics for example, Wieber was clearly necessary for that team but also got 2 per’d and she was the reigning AA champion.
Raisman had an off day in TQ in Glasgow but was an obvious pick for the team.

 

[Clint]

 

[Doug1233]

Delusional

hmmm

 

[Doug1233]

However, she’s wrong to claim Russia would easily beat the US minus Simone

Maybe we shouldn’t doubt Valentina again haha

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Suspicious premonitions aside, I’m still not having Valentina gobbing off until she’s won enough to even out all those years of mismanagement. How many more do we reckon, two? Three?