Tom Forster resigns

[ArnoldRimmer]

This is not a discussion that should actually exist. We ought not to have the opportunity to discuss whether retrospectively communicated petition criteria made a difference or not.

 

[onodian]

This is all the more reason to move the limp-wrist-lip-sync to our highest priority

 

[Doug1233]

She would have been able to refocus her training

I just don’t buy this.

How much “refocusing” could she have done?

It wouldn’t have made any difference.

 

[Doug1233]

By not informing her of the actual requirements, she was robbed of her agency.

Tom wasn’t required to go around to each gymnast telling them in advance what they needed to do to make it to Trials.

 

[QuietColours]

I’d say that is exactly what the NTC should be expected to do. Especially if “what they need to do” is different from what is documented in the official petition documents.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

This would never happen on Jack’s watch.

 

[Doug1233]

I mean, is what Addison Fatta needed any different from what Shilese Jones needed to make the Olympic Team?

At some point, the answer is just the same: “I’m probably going to pick the top 4 AA unless there’s a gymnast that falls outside of the top four who is top three on 2 or 3 events”. You don’t need to be having tailored conversations with every single Elite in the USA. There are WAY to many variables to be giving fixed, binding criteria to every single gymnast, about every single selection for every single meet.

Re: making Trials - that too is obvious. It’s Tom’s choice. Tom was stupid to make his inner musings public. But I’m sure they weren’t binding even on himself.

Imagine if he had said “you’ll go to trials if you come
Top 3 on bars and beam” and Morgan came 4th and 3rd. Does she get tossed?

This whole conversation is getting way too granular.

 

[irichluck21]

I disagree. If she had known she had to be top three, I bet it would have affected her training–she may have chosen to spend more time or only compete beam, for instance, and the increased training focus might have resulted in better consistency. Or she may have looked at that requirement and compared it to the amount of pain she was in and how far behind she was in her recovery and chosen to bow out on her terms.

She should have been informed of what was required of her. It should have been in the petition documents AND the NTC should have made sure she knew. Either where the information was, if it were properly documented, or communicated the expectation if it wasn’t.

I mean you can’t attend an interview and come up with some ridiculous criteria of why someone wasn’t invited to trials and not realize that same individual is super into social media and not going to “stay silent” as they were in the past.

As much freedom and relaxed positive environment that Tom gave the ladies it also played against him. Specifically in this scenario.

We all know full well that Tom pulled that out of his ass for the interview. Instead of being the “bad guy” and actually earning Hurd’s respect by being honest…he had to play the good guy and go all “well she had to be top 3 on _____ and didn’t do that so we had no choice!”
He rightfully got called out on it.

 

[irichluck21]

I just don’t buy this.

How much “refocusing” could she have done?

It wouldn’t have made any difference.

Either way it was after the fact so it made no difference.
We cannot say it would or would not have.

The point is Tom made up some BS criteria to defend actions and Morgan called him out on it.

She has every right to do so. Though the decision was already made. Morgan has every right to say “would have been nice to know” since it was some criteria that she was supposed to meet (according to Tom) but was unaware of.
Not to mention that there was no documentation of what non-AA athletes had to do to qualify to Olympic Trials. It was not as if there was a "2 event gymnasts will need to score a 50.000 over two nights of nationals on their two events to be invited to Trials.

This point continues to evade you.
Hurd did not deserve to go to St. Louis and would not have made the Olympic Team due to injuries and missed training time. Sad and unfortunate. We all know this.

Tom needed to put on his big boy pants and state that her performance did not warrant an invite. It is sad but every Olympics there are heart breaks and injuries that derail someone’s potential Olympics. Instead he went the route he always went which was “I am not the bad guy here!” and made up some bullshit story for the press.
Who knows…maybe he was following orders from USAG/Li Li.
Either way he was wrong for it.

 

[irichluck21]

I mean, is what Addison Fatta needed any different from what Shilese Jones needed to make the Olympic Team?

It was the same as both athletes were doing AA.

Morgan was in a different scenario. She was coming back from injury and was hoping to have more training time and repetition. If the "top 3 been fully legit and communicated to her she could have said “well I should pass on this and heal up for NCAA.” or "Let me hold off on FX right now and focus on BB, then go all out at Trials in a few more weeks when I have trained the events more.

For all intents and purposes, Hurd was too injured and there was no way bars was coming back for Tokyo.
That said, she could have had a legit push as a balance beam specialist and tried for the +1 just for balance beam HAD it been communicated to her previous to Nationals.

 

[Doug1233]

Here’s the job description:

https://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=26843

 

[makam]

Wonder what the compensation package is for the job. The requirements are incredibly limiting the pool of potential candidates as you would expect. The person who is both totally knowledgeable of the code, good with the media, willing to travel internationally constantly and who isn’t a dumpster fire of a person…might not exist.

 

[RedBirdie]

The High Performance Director must demonstrate a high level of organizational, communication and leadership skills. This position also demands a strong understanding of the highest level of gymnastics as well as proven experience with National Team athletes and coaches at National and International levels.

If the goal is to make sure no one can fill the position, tremendous job, bravo. I don’t know a single elite coach with stellar communication and leadership skills. They all have this ugly little habit of think communicating and leading is “yell louder and threaten some more.”

 

[QuietColours]

It wouldn’t have to be a coach, necessarily. ‘Proven experience’ could also be a judge, choreographer, or medical professional who has worked at the high level. But it still isn’t a big pool

 

[Caledi]

I really think this role would be great for a NCAA coach + Brevet profile (Jenny Rowland and Liz Crandall come to mind, but there might be others?). Coaching skills, leadership skills, experience putting together teams, knowledge of the code. With none of the baggage that a lot of the current elite coaches have. I doubt any of them would want it, though, especially given what happened with Rhonda Faehn.

 

[Jack]

I love that there is a job listing that anyone can apply to. I’m going to print out my post history here and call it a cover letter.

 

[choclatechip45]

I agree Tom should have kept his mouth shut and Morgan had every right to be upset. I just don’t think her knowing would have changed anything.

 

[MRR]

A surprise but not a shock: Grace has a knack for competing at like 70% of her potential. She does the absolute bare minimum to make the team, gets to Worlds or Olympics with performances that are uneven but somehow not a disaster to where you would obviously replace her.

Despite not doing much of anything on floor and competing her worst DTY of the year in TFs, she made sense for Tokyo main team on beam alone. Her missed CR in prelims still scored 0.2 from Skinner’s best effort, and she was never going to succumb to an 11 like Chiles. The 13.6+ in TF still wasn’t great, but plenty good enough for the job needed.

Chiles is an interesting case, though. There have been swan dives in the past from Trials to Olympics—Ray, McCool, Sacramone—but Sac was necessary for a Rudi alone and Ray/McCool were all but officially locked. Chiles doesn’t really fit into either category, and while I’m not suggesting it was realistic to shaft her nor predict how Tokyo would go, with a crystal ball do you still take her? Her hit scores don’t stand out: an AA total of her best routines sits 0.5 lower than Carey in prelims. And her misses went far, far off the rails.

One thing’s certain: Chiles and Skinner on a main team with BOTH competing beam was never going to be a good idea.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

For me, it’s more that the competition has been so weak over the last couple of years that even having given pretty patchy performances both in selection and competition, most of us still feel Grace made sense in both 2019 and 2021. The absolute most you can say is that there were legitimate arguments against taking her. It took a lot of unmet potential elsewhere for that to happen, even in a pretty flawed setup. On paper, it really shouldn’t have done.

In terms of Jordan, knowing what we do now and with a totally free hand, I’d want Leanne instead. She was fantastic on the big stage, albeit with much more lenient execution scoring. My issue there isn’t whether I feel in retrospect that there was anyone better available, rather that I don’t think the committee could’ve got away with it.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

‘Be available for media requests’.