I personally love Morgan. My DD is a huge fan and has been for years. But in reality, all of these ladies have been in the sport long enough to know how it works. You want to be at Trials? You be undeniable. Thats what it takes. Winning. Hitting. Being so good that it is not a question. Sadly due to many factors, that didn’t work out for her. But come on, how could she NOT understand that? I can’t understand why any of these women, these National Team Members would have needed to have this spelled out for them. Want to make the team? Win.
Everyone is agreeing that Hurd didn’t have the performance that she needed to make it to Trials.
That is not where the issue is. The problem was Tom’s response on why she was not invited to Trials. He gave an excuse: (she didn’t finish Top 3 on an event). If that was specific criteria set by Tom then Hurd should have been informed. This goes against USAG’s criteria established previously.
. Athletes may qualify to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s
Gymnastics, through the following methods:
• The top eight (8) athletes in the combined All Around rank order at
the 2020 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships will qualify to the
2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Gymnastics.
• Based on their ability to be competitive (as outlined in Section 2.2)
for a slot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team, the Athlete Selection
Committee may add additional athletes from among those athletes
who competed in the 2020 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships
or petitioned athletes (see 1.4.) to attend the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team
Trials – Women’s Gymnastics.
It specifically states “ability to be competitive for a slot on the US Olympic Team”.
Why was Zoe Miller, Addison Fatta, Ava Siegfeldt invited to Trials? None of these 3 had any chance at making the team, what made them more competitive for the team over Hurd, a 5x World medalist?
None of these 3 athletes were ever going to be top 3 on any event. How is Hurd being held to those expectations but not these three?
The only set in stone stipulation is top 8 in AA rank go to Trials:
Biles, Lee, Chiles, Malabuyo, Wong, Carey, McCallum, Blakely
If “top 3 on an event” was one of Tom’s expectations, here is who else qualified: Skinner (2nd VT), McCusker (2nd UB), DiCello (2nd FX)
So why were the rest invited?
All Tom had to do was state that the routines that Morgan performed did not demonstrate that in her current situation (coming back from injury) that she was not in competitive shape to make the Olympic Team. That stays in line with USAG criteria.
Tom and USAG could have invited Hurd to Trials to compete one last time but also give her a few more weeks of training.
They didn’t have to though and the decision is justifiable and correct. But Tom once again mucked up an interview and went off script. This was not the only time that he made up stuff on the spot for interviews only to have USAG go “Yeah. No Tom that isn’t the case.”
The constant conflict between Tom and the higher ups was unacceptable. It just made him look incapable and not qualified for his role.
