US National Championships, June 3-6, 2021

[irichluck21]

Except Forster has stated that the +1 is going to be an all arounder.
Unless McCusker can produce all around at Trials in a few weeks.

 

[Jack]

This is literally the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Why would the +1 need to be an AA athlete? Tom’s incompetence knows no bounds.

 

[irichluck21]

In case they need to use the +1 as an alternate.

I don’t know why they couldn’t select Carey instead.

ETA- I wouldn’t take McCusker- perpetually injured.

 

[tsarinajen]

Is Suni landing like that to protect her foot?

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I think she’s landing like that because she can’t rotate it enough with that height.

In 2019 at her peak she cleaned it up a lot, but she struggled with the DTY in 2018 and the staggered landing seemed somewhat of a learned technique to prevent her from putting her hands down in front of her.





I was in the arena for 2018 Nats, and I remember being nervous about her DTY. Really if she’s up to par on the other three events (or even UB and BB alone), there’s no reason they shouldn’t select her if she can only manage a FTY by Trials, but again it all comes down to top 5 AA I guess. Blah.

 

[RAFIKI]

Argh that sucks for Riley and also selfishly I was really curious to see how the gym move had affected her floor work.

I know you can use the +1s as reserves, presumably you can also bypass them and go to your actual alternates? If so then a hurt Lee or McCusker would be fine as +1s (even for Tom).

 

[tsarinajen]

I wonder how many petitions/extras they’ll take to trials. Chellsie mentioned in her YouTube video this week, there might a petition route. I don’t see the harm in giving Suni and Riley two more weeks to heal.

 

[ucrgirl]

Agreed. Jade will be a plus one athlete and she does AA. It should be fine to have a plus one athlete who just does one or two events.

 

[RAFIKI]

On GymCastic they said that there are provisions for five alternates in the selection procedures

 

[Kittentoes]

Sylvia Plum. Sylvia Plath Leo’s would be a lot darker.

 

[irichluck21]

Alternates up until they leave for Tokyo.

Alternates will not be allowed to enter Tokyo. So once they are there its the 6, so if anyone from the 4 gets injured its Carey or the +1 up until the roster deadline.

I am sure they will pick 5 alternates in case, one for each competing member to replace them on said events. Carey cannot be replaced by anyone.

 

[RedBirdie]

The selection procedures allow for petitions to Trials. https://usagym.org/PDFs/Pressbox/Selection Procedures/w_20olympics_0423.pdf

b. 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 2021 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 2021 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships or petitioned athletes (see 1.4.) to attend the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Gymnastics.

1.4.2. Petitions into the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Gymnastics:
Petitions will be considered by the Athlete Selection Committee (see Section 2.3 for committee details), in consultation with the Vice President of the Women’s Program, for any member of a previous Olympic or World Championships Team and from any athlete who has competed at either the 2021 American Classic, the 2021 US Gymnastics Classic, or a national team international competitive assignment that took place after the conclusion of the 2019 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships. Petitions will be evaluated using the same criteria listed in the 2020-2021 Women’s Rules and Policies found here: https://usagym.org/pages/women/pages/rules_policies.html

In order to be considered by the Athlete Selection Committee for entry into the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Gymnastics, petitions must be submitted in writing to the USA Gymnastics national office as soon as practical after the athlete becomes aware of her inability to participate in the process described above, but no later than the conclusion of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships. All petitions will be resolved and communicated at the conclusion of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Championships.

One could even hypothetically petition to the Olympic Team.

1.4.3. Petitions onto the 2020 U.S Olympic Team:
Any member of a previous Olympic or World Championships Team may petition directly onto the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team. In order to be considered by the Athlete Selection Committee, petitions must be submitted in writing to the USA Gymnastics national office as soon as practical after the athlete becomes aware of her inability to participate in the process described above, but no later than the conclusion of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Gymnastics.

A successfully petitioned 2020 U.S. Olympic Team athlete will be required to demonstrate readiness at the 2020 Olympic Games Team Preparation Camp noted in Section 9.

 

[RAFIKI]

A friend had a theory that it the excessive number was in case of coronavirus infection/contact tracing taking out the entire team. That would be crazy but it could very well happen to some team across all the Olympic sports.

More than ever before the timelines will really matter for replacements (any team). Not many countries near Japan will want to accept visitors so long flights will be required for the majority of countries if anything happens during training.

 

[Jack]

And then it begs to ask the question is the +1 just going to the #5 AA athlete? Or is Tom going to actually look at this with nuance, a skill he has shown he is not capable of grasping?

 

[RedBirdie]

The selection procedures say the +1 spot is supposed to go to someone with the potential to win a individual medal.

Now, what the selection procedures say and what Tom actually does…

 

[Passion]

Haha, thanks I fixed it.

 

[irichluck21]

Well realistically, the 5th best AAer in the USA has potential to win an AA medal.

With Biles, Carey, and Suni on the team VT/FX event finals are for sure covered. UB event finals is likely covered with Biles and Suni. Heck, BB event finals might be covered with Suni and Biles.

Biles “should” qualify to all 4 event finals and Suni and Carey could very well split the other event final slots.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

I was thinking something more along the lines of Pavs’ 2008 floor EF leo. The tragic end to the routine…

 

[ucrgirl]

It is true that the 5th AAer could possibly win a medal. It is more likely that their Olympics is over after qualification and they go home with no medals–not even the team medal. That seems really sad to me.

It would be more interesting if the 5th athlete had a true chance at making the bars final if Simone messed up or the floor final if Jade falters. They might still be the only female US gymnast with no medal, but at least they would get to compete more than once.

 

[MRR]

The idea of having up to 5 alternates is asinine, and likely immaterial as there is no way additional athletes will be allowed in Japan or neighboring countries. The committee can name a Teresa Kulikowski if they must, but she won’t travel. From July 5th team compositions are declared, so my understanding is the only alternates for the main team are the +2, and substitution of a +1 onto the main team means the spot is lost.

It’s worth noting that Tom’s comment about +1 gymnasts doing AA came before Carey set foot in a World Cup, so we don’t know if he has evolved on the issue. I sense not, though, or at least that it won’t matter because everyone will push for AA at Trials anyway. With injury concerns surrounding Lee, McCusker, and Hurd, the top ranking AAers from Classics would make for very vault-heavy lineup. Chiles/DiCello/McCallum give you solid DTYs and perhaps better, but also leave you thin on bars, so it’s quite a statement to leave off your top scoring routine there. Lee as the 5th AAer at Trials will still have the same training plan and individual medal opportunities for Tokyo as a main team member, so you might as well go with the highest scoring lineup that includes her.

McCusker’s bars at Nationals could tell us a lot, though. This could put Tom at a crossroads: McCusker has consistently appeared among his favorites, but he seemingly has no concept of a specialist even with a gymnast in front of him who is a suitable complement to Jade (and few others are, really). Again, though, I can’t see her not putting everything on the line to do AA at Trials, ankle be damned.