I think the bigger issue is, how do they fix the broken junior pipeline? Even if you could woo back Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles, and get Shilese Jones healthy and Skye Blakely looking like it's June 2024, that's just delaying the reckoning.
Al Fong and Valeri Liukin are going to break their athletes and saddle them with terrible routine construction.
The 2007-2009 gymnasts seem incapable of making the leap to the truly elite level. Caylor might have finally done it, but we'll see if she's able to sustain this sudden glow-up or turns back into exhibit 6,345 of "promising junior with unfulfilled potential."
Of the current juniors, you have Crain, who is cursed with Fong, Bullock, and Moreau--and she's Texas Dreams so I'm not holding my breath. None of the other juniors scream "Future star!" And the junior pool seems to shrink every year.
Hopes isn't working. If anything, it's harming the elite program by producing gymnasts who chuck difficulty at the expense of learning proper basics and technique. You all have read my rants on Hopes before.
I watch compulsory girls and very few of them can really swing bars. I can't really explain it, but they're all so stiff. Sure, their legs are together and toes pointed, but they don't swing. And if you can't swing at the lower levels, you'll never swing bars as an elite. To say nothing of the incredibly stiff movement and presentation they have on floor and beam. There's no fluidity. They hit the choreography, often very sharp with their chests shoved out and eyes staring straight ahead, but there is no elegance, no sense of this gymnasts knows how to move with grace and purpose, and certainly not the slightest hit of artistry.
And don't get me started on using Xcel to skip compulsory levels.
