Simone’s Yurchenko Double Pike

[Doug1233]

90% of getting skills back is physical conditioning. If Simone can get a gymnastics body back that allows her to safely compete a YDP, then almost by default she will be able to compete AA for USA. It would never be a case of “learning a YDP and that’s it”.

 

[irichluck21]

I know that but I am just saying that she could literally do vault only and be named to the Paris team, the other events are easily covered with excellent routines.

 

[Hatsumomo]

Physically, Simone would be fine. It’s more mentally that gives me pause in how quickly she can put serviceable routines together and if she wants to just put some watered-down routines together to get on the Paris team. I personally don’t think she should go for the YDP because I have the not totally founded opinion that it contributed to her twisties.

 

[irichluck21]

I disagree that the YDP is what caused her twisties. She wasn’t going to do the vault until event finals and she hit it in podium. The plan was to leave it out of team and the all around IIRC. Plus she did a double pike dismount off beam in event finals. I didn’t see flipping as the issue but rather the twisting skills.

 

[Hatsumomo]

I said it was a not totally founded opinion. Just like my opinion that the Cubs winning the 2016 World Series thrust us into the dark timeline.

 

[Doug1233]

I always did find it curious that, of all the vaults in her arsenal, the one she competed while suffering with twisties was the Amanar!

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Oh God, I still think that, too. I was rooting for Cleveland all the way because I was born in Ohio.

 

[tempest]

I’m curious why she was planning on doing the amanar instead of the CHeng especially since Russia and the US were so close after prelims

 

[Doug1233]

Maybe she chose to. It was her easiest vault.

 

[makam]

Which you gotta admit, is a pretty hilarious statement by itself. 99% of gymnasts can’t do it and it was her easiest choice…

 

[MRR]

According to Tom the twisties were not affecting her Amanar whatsoever until the one-touch of the team final. She was hitting excellent 2 1/2s in the back gym minutes before the team marched out. Her full-in was the problem.

The plan was the Y2P for the AA, not EF. Which was incredibly risky given her small margin over Andrade and Lee in prelims (a bad day, of course), but EF was out of the question with no one-touch.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

To be honest, I feel like not retiring to “stay relevant” wouldn’t really apply to someone like Simone. She’s almost in “Serena” territory (obviously not quite, but she’s on first name terms with the American public). I don’t think retiring would substantively affect the commercial opportunities available to her.

I don’t think it does straight away, but the further you are from competing the fewer the opportunities are going to be, in the long run. With someone like Simone who’s in a different category, it’s about that longer term. You want to delay it.

I’m curious why she was planning on doing the amanar instead of the CHeng especially since Russia and the US were so close after prelims

Using Simone’s Amanar score from prelims rather than the Cheng that was counted towards the team total would’ve closed almost half of the gap between the US and Russia, so I think that may have been part of it. Sounds counter intuitive given that the Cheng is usually her higher scoring vault, but it looked at the time like the world’s most bankable 15.4. After all, when was Simone ever going to miss that Amanar?

 

[Doug1233]

Did anyone do an analysis of the scores with Simone’s prelims scores?

Would USA have won gold even with Chiles’ bombing floor?

 

[RedBirdie]

Replacing Simone’s vault, Jordan’s bars and beam, and Suni’s floor with Simone’s scores from pelims, the US still would come up short.

 

[MaryClare]

People seem to forget that the US were over a point behind Russia in prelims

 

[Doug1233]

the US still would come up short

Would the difference between Jordan’s floor in prelims and in TF enough to bridge the gap?

That could have been a really rough night for Jordan if Simone had competed, and hit, and the US got the silver solely because of her floor. That would have been a real ASac moment.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Not with the prelims scores. Because of Russia tanking beam, the US theoretically could still have won despite Jordan’s floor, but it would’ve needed Simone to be on absolute top form. They could only have one of Jordan’s floor and Simone’s problem.

The difference between Russia’s score and the planned routines in TFs without Simone is 60.564. I think the spreadsheet had Simone somewhere in that region for her podium training routines, but we really are talking lights out even for a gymnast of Simone’s quality. If Russia had stayed on beam (don’t laugh) or even just counted the one fall, no chance. If you sub Jade for Grace it potentially gets more interesting.

We have run through quite a few of these scenarios on here before but I can’t find the thread.

 

[Hatsumomo]

I don’t think it does straight away, but the further you are from competing the fewer the opportunities are going to be, in the long run. With someone like Simone who’s in a different category, it’s about that longer term. You want to delay it.

That and Serena was in the game for 20-some odd years and stayed on top that entire time. That is significantly harder to do in gymnastics. Chuso has been able to go to nine Olympics and be a career gymnast because she hasn’t been part of an A-tier team since 1992 and isn’t expected to take home gold medals every single time. As it stands, if Biles makes the Paris team, she’ll be the first (and only other) US gymnast since Dominique Dawes to make three Olympic teams.

The lifespan of a gymnast is significantly shorter in terms of longevity in the sport itself and commercial opportunities. I would say Simone is the first gymnast since Mary Lou Retton to be a true household name with those who don’t follow the sport, but is she going to able to carry that for the next 40 years like MLR? There’s also the fact that the narrative is Simone pulled out of team finals and screwed the USA out of a guaranteed gold. We, the actual fans of the sport, know that the gold was not a guarantee against a revived Russian team and we also know and understand that the twisties was putting Simone in a lot of danger if she continued to try and compete. But which narrative will NBC and all the news outlets go with in the lead-up to Paris? Simone is going to have to battle that for her commercial interests.

 

[irichluck21]

I would also say that after vault, Lee, Chiles, and McCallum had to respond immediately to what was likely a shocking moment of Biles balking and the aftermath. They had to refocus right away, but there was likely some uncertainty right after Biles left and of course Chiles finding out she had to do bars and beam.

I know that Jordan fell on floor but had she been focused solely on floor exercise and not having had to do bars and beam, which she was not expecting if her routine would have been different.

As it was, the US team knew gold was lost after vault and they they had no chance at anything but silver at that point. Even though Russia did make it interesting after beam falls.

 

[Doug1233]

and the planned routines in TFs without Simone is 60.564

Yes but a 58 with a prelims Jordan on floor?

My point is that, but for Simone’s withdrawal, the US would have lost the team title only because Jordan bombed floor.