US WAG Olympic trials Night 2 (LIVE DISCUSSION)

[Puffin]

cats:

Was he talking about getting clarity on that notion that Jade might be able to decline the WC spot while still allowing the US to pick up a different +1 via PanAms?

Nope. That would actually be reasonable.

Believe it or not it was in response to someone asking about the impetus behind Jade competing at Trials even though she’s already qualified and has an injury. He said that since the FIG “wasn’t responsive” when he asked for guidance on whether…a US gymnast should compete in a domestic US competition…he just let Brian Carey and Jade do whatever.

I don’t think that FIG have any say over US team competitions/decisions … that’s what Tom’s paid to do.

 

[RichardL]

We’ve been saying that Tom might just take the 5th best AAer for ages now, even as we knew that that wouldn’t be the wisest move. But then here he goes and does it, at least based on the Trials scores. I don’t think Skinner is being brought for VT. I think she’s being brought as a backup AAer, as weird as that sounds to most of us whose eyes can barely handle watching her on anything but vault.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The US doesn’t really have such a gymnast though, do they? Riley is a one eventer of dubious health who tanked 50% of her routines and could get 2 per’d out by Simone anyway if she isn’t completely on. Nobody else really ticks the box.

In that situation, with at least two possible beam medallists on the competing team already and there not being a viable, consistent UB/BB threat, there’s a degree of sense in picking either an AAer or someone who could win a medal the US might not be in the running for depending on Jade’s injury.

Obviously there’s a discussion to be had about whether solid AAer might be better…but I get the principle. Honestly I think if there were a viable new senior there, someone who’d finished top 8ish and had another couple of years before NCAA became a factor, I’d maybe advocate taking them for the experience and looking to 2022. Someone like Shilese but if she were two years younger.

 

[gymgirl2018]

Leanne should have gone. I’m sorry but Graces selection keeps getting sneakier and sneakier in my eyes. Leanne is a part of the highest scoring team. Leanne can when she hits win event final medals. Both Grace and Leanne are inconsistent. Grace had someone from her gym on the selection committee. Toms media interviews.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Did she really? I didn’t know that. Who?

 

[makam]

I actually think they are writing Jade off for any medals. She hasn’t done VT/FX on both days of any competition all year. And her FX was watered down. So she might not actually be in the running for any medal and they are hedging their bets with Mykayla who while maybe can’t get an FX medal, is certainly in the running for VT with how improved her vaults have been.

God knows if Jade’s spot was free to be given away, it would be gone based on her last few competitions.

 

[gymgirl2018]

Jessie DeZiel

 

[Hatsumomo]

And that can be blamed on the stupidity of the decision to try and go for a spot on the core team instead of resting on the enviable laurels of having a confirmed Olympic berth. She could have been resting herself to go to Tokyo fresh and ready. Like who TF makes things HARDER for themselves?

Instead, she’s dealing with injury and now risking getting 2-per’d out of finals.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The more I think about it, the more I reckon the wisdom of this decision depends massively on how Jade’s injury is. It’s possible Tom is just refusing to do any strategic work and picking the top 5 for the easiest life. It’s also possible they know Jade isn’t the medal shoo in she was, and are therefore sending what may very well be the US’s best remaining individual medal prospect by a long way. Because Mykayla’s not likely to crash either of those vaults, and if Jade were removed as an obstacle, the odds are very good that she’d get at least bronze.

I think both of these are probably more likely than the rumour going round that Tom was doing it on purpose to punish Jade.

 

[Caligym]

Don’t think you can describe taking the top 4 AA gymnasts from the competition held to select a 4 person team “sneaky”. Call it lazy, dumb whatever iteration of that you wish, but it was the opposite of sneaky.

 

[Passion]

2nd overall - but 3rd highests on day 1 when Jade was vaulting and outscored her (talking about vt1 only)

Skinner Day 1
1st VT: 15.133
2nd VT: 15.233

Skinner Day 2
1st VT: 15.266
2nd VT: 15.200

Carey Day 1
1st VT: 15.200
2nd VT: scratch

Carey Day 2
1st VT: scratch
2nd VT: scratch

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Yeah as it stands now, I’m not confident in Carey besting Steingruber and Murakami (and Yeo if South Korea sends athletes) on VT. Thus going all out with Skinner makes sense to me.

McCusker would likely make UB EF, but she’d need a lot of f*ck-ups from others in order to win a medal. Skinner just needs to make it out of prelims and silver is all but sewn up…

I also feel like all of a sudden everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room that is Wong’s disastrous composition. Watch all five triple full beam dismounts Wong has done this summer and tell me that you want her to continue training this skill. Any day she could tear her ACL on that. Her whip + 3.0 on floor has also given her lots of issues in training. She excelled at Trials other than the Night 1 Beam routine, but she hasn’t proven to be reliable. McCallum has.

 

[Puffin]

Puffin:

2nd overall - but 3rd highests on day 1 when Jade was vaulting and outscored her (talking about vt1 only)

Skinner Day 1
1st VT: 15.133
2nd VT: 15.233

Skinner Day 2
1st VT: 15.266
2nd VT: 15.200

Carey Day 1
1st VT: 15.200
2nd VT: scratch

Carey Day 2
1st VT: scratch
2nd VT: scratch

That’s what I’m saying - Jade and Mykayla only went up “head to head” on 1 vt (day 1 -vt 1) and Jade was the higher scorer.

 

[RedBirdie]

Jessie DeZiel competed from TCT back in the day, but has no affiliation with the club currently. She and Grace also never overlapped. Jessie is also fairly new to the selection committee, so all the previous times Grace was selected for teams, that was with zero “connection” to her gym.

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

There’s zero logic in looking at those vault scores and deciding Carey is more useful on a team than Skinner.

 

[Seyonne]

Carey is lucky. If not for wisely going the World Cup route and securing her own spot, the other plus one would have been Eaker or Wong (possibly Riley).

 

[irichluck21]

“Sneakier” and “sneakier” is bogus.
McCallum is a two time World team member and has competed all around in qualifications at Worlds and two events in team finals in 2018 and 2019. She also finished 4th all around at Trials.

Everyone is concentrating on vault, when the US has such a strangle hold on that event with Biles there and Chiles having arguably the best DTY in the World.
Literally Suni, Chiles, and Biles could be used in team finals across each event and still win hands down.

McCallum is like Gabby in that she can do all around in qualifications and be used on any event in team finals, even if it ends up “just” on vault. McCallum’s consistency on beam this year is also great considering that in 2019 it was beam that was the weakest and most inconsistent.

It’s highly disrespectful to accuse Jessie DeZiel of cheating and pushing for her “clubmate” because she is athlete rep. As was made clear by Tom, the difference between McCallum and Skinner was tenths. Skipping over McCallum to put Skinner on the team then leads to who gets the +1, with McCusker bombing day 2 there were no viable options, so default goes to selecting both McCallum and Skinner. McCallum makes the better team option because of her better bars, beam, and floor.

 

[irichluck21]

Not necessarily.
Carey watered back at Nationals and Trials due to injury, but also because she had the luxury to do so.
Had she not had the +1 she wouldn’t be able to take it easy. Carey’s Amanar on night 1 was done very well and superior to Skinner’s. She didn’t show a Cheng so, hard to compare.
But has she done full difficulty it could very well have been Skinner on the main team with Carey as +1 and then Eaker or McCallum for +1

 

[ucrgirl]

McCallum makes the better team option because of her better bars, beam, and floor.

Yes. And someone on the Olympic team always end up injured so you want to make sure those events are fully covered. You will need the option of the fourth person doing more than vault.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I think the point with Suni and vault isn’t that the US need a better score than she can supply, it’s that given her injury it would be nice to be able to rest her on at least one leg event.