The Balance by Aimee Boorman

[RedBirdie]

SEVEN toe-on skills!

 

[crdubb17]

Dowell also fell in podium training on her Ezhova. So that didn't help her cause at all.



USAG cut out the fall from the video.

I hate the WTC with a passion, but thank God for the root skill maximum.

 

[crdubb17]

SEVEN toe-on skills!

Haha beat me to it

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

It's GAGE, I'm grateful they didn't have her doing incomplete dance elements up there.

 

[QuietColours]

The book is back at the library now, so I can't grab the quote, but it was interesting phrasing there--essentially, it sounded like the plan was always to compete only three athletes, and the announcement of Brenna as the alternate was simply way earlier then they expected the decision to be made. It wasn't "Martha decided McKayla would compete in the all around and Brenna would be the traveling alternate, instead of McKayla competing vault and floor and Brenna competing beam and bars." It was "After Brenna failed to complete her vaults, Martha decided to announce at the training hall that Brenna would be the traveling alternate."

I do have to imagine that they would have been leaning that way in general if the plan was to compete three AAers, but the decision wasn't supposed to be made that early, and Aimee thought it was inappropriate to base it on Brenna's vaults in the temporary training facility where everyone was having trouble.

 

[QuietColours]

The toe on to handstand before dismount giants is just weird, too. It's an isolated element leading into giants. I guess she wasn't comfortable going straight into KCH - giants after going back up to the high bar?

 

[KristyJ]

SEVEN toe-on skills!

And kip-cast-handstand after almost all of them

 

[irichluck21]

Not to derail the thread, but is Dowell the only American gymnast to be benched at 2 Worlds?

 

[RedBirdie]

And kip-cast-handstand after almost all of them

KCH toe-on tkatchev variation. KCH toe-on tkatchev variation. KCH toe-on tkatchev variation. DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOPPPPPPPPP!

 

[Passion]

"World Championship competition involves a much higher level of intensity, not just because of the exceptional level of performance, but also due to the length format. Participants from most countries arrive in the host city a week or two early to get acclimated to the time change and climate. About a week before the competition was scheduled to begin, our team traveled first to the Netherlands for a few days of training at Flik-Flak, a facility about an hour south of Amsterdam. Practice was going great until we went to vault. The vault runway was set up so the athletes had to sprint toward a brick wall. All of the American athletes were big vaulters and could get extreme distance while they were flying through the air, so running toward the brick wall was intimidating. Their fears of going too far on their repulsion were legitimate. All of the gymnasts started holding back on their power, making sure they didn't collide with the wall. This was obviously causing the quality in the vaults to go down, with most of the athletes under-rotating and sitting down (winding up on their butts). Brenna was having a particularly hard time and wasn't able to complete any of the vault assignment. Martha was incensed. Instead of telling Brenna that she would be fine when we got to the official practice gym in Belgium, she decided in that moment to make her a reserve athlete. Up until that point in time, nobody knew who was officially in the lineup. Brenna ended up not competing at all.

We left the Netherlands all feeling down about what had happened to Brenna and fearing Martha could easily make the same decision about any of the team members. The next stop was our destination city of Antwerp, where the practice facilities had opened up. Teams from all over the world started training on the official equipment, in separate venue from where the competition was going to be held. In the training facility, the equipment is a little stiffer, and a little more stable, with everything mounted directly on a concrete floor. Brenna was expected to train full routines alongside her teammates, just in case someone became injured or ill. I can only imagine how crushing this was for her, but she was a great teammate despite her disappointment."

 

[Sanzhirovka]

Several weeks later she sent a thank you to Martha--she doesn't look up to or admire her, but she did learn from her: Periodization for elite gymnasts, how to be discriminatory about skill choices, how to trust her instincts

That is very interesting.