USAG pulls partial funding for FISU athletes

[OnoNoKomachi]

USA Gymnastics Pulls Partial Funding for the 2023 FISU University Games

On May 6, 2023, USA Gymnastics announced the five-man roster for the 2023 FISU World University Games – Landen Blixt, Taylor Christopulos, Josh Karnes, Fred Richard, and Ian Skirkey. Just under two months later, their ability to compete in China was put in jeopardy. According to four sources...

www.neutraldeductions.com

Because they had unexpected expenses as so many guys registered for classics and they had to rent the arena for an extra day.

Nothing like planning ahead.

 

[RedBirdie]

Jesus. What a cluster.

 

[Passion]

That’s a well written article that does a good job explaining what happened. I encourage everyone to follow the link and read it but for those who don’t: USAG is still paying for hotels and on-site expenses for the team in Chengdu but couldn’t afford the plane tickets to China. The athletes bought the tickets themselves so the full team is still going to compete.

 

[RedBirdie]

Yeah, but going to athletes 3 weeks before departure and saying “Yeah, so…we’re not covering airfare. Because it’s $10,000. Wanna go? Good luck scrambling to pull together that sort of money on no notice!” is still an incredibly shitty move.

 

[rlayt]

It doesn’t sound like they had many options if their school or parents couldn’t afford it. I’m not aware of any other ways to pay for it.

“The timing of this decision left athletes and coaches scrambling to find funding for flights from their respective athletic departments just three weeks before they were scheduled to depart. Some institutions were able to provide funding and some were not, meaning that some athletes and coaches had to self-pay. “

 

[OnoNoKomachi]

If USAG had planned ahead for the amount of men registering for Classic none of this would have happened. It appears they had no idea how many men would actually sign up.

This is like something I would have done. I’m not better than these people, but part of their job is to be better than me.

This also sucks for people who made travel arrangements for Classics expecting to see MAG - and now they can’t.

10,000 $ is a lot of money. Luckily the athletes signed up for this who needed it were able to come up with it. Not everyone could. Most people in the US probably couldn’t.

 

[RedBirdie]

The Men’s Directives are posted (2023 Core Hydration Classic • USA Gymnastics). Looks like they anticipated up to 48 registrations for MAG. Just an amazingly bad job at anticipating how many would sign up. But when you have an open competition…any male over 18 could register. How did they not think this might happen?

BTW $175 entry fee x 170 gymnasts=$30k in fees alone.

 

[Passion]

There were only 47 seniors and 11 juniors at the 2022 US Classic for MAG.

Around 40 senior MAG at both the 2023 and 2022 Winter Cups too.

 

[irichluck21]

USAG had scheduled the event, but then had open registration, so they scheduled not knowing how many would attend. It was just over all bad planning.

US Classic, now that men are able to attend, has become a mini-nationals. Hopefully moving forward they will anticipate a larger registration.

 

[Rich]

Maybe they should have had a score minimum for men to compete.

 

[OnoNoKomachi]

Previously I think the guy had to be at least Junior Elite to compete. That requirement is gone.
I don’t think there ever was a qualifying score.
USAG may have to rethink that.

 

[Passion]

Junior Qualification to U.S. Classic
Junior athletes wanting to compete in the U.S. Classic will fall into one of the three following categories:

• Athletes who competed at 2023 Development National Championships in the JE division and did not meet the qualification standards to qualify to the 2023 U.S. Championships

• Athletes who qualified to 2023 Development National Championships in the JE division but did not compete due to medical reasons.

• Athletes who did not go through the Development National Championships qualification process due to medical reasons.

Athletes should meet the following standards to participate in the 2023 U.S. Classic and attempt to qualify to the 2023 U.S. Championships:

1. Athlete must qualify as a Junior Elite athlete.
2. If the athlete competed in the JE division of the 2023 Men’s Development Program National Championships but does not earn a U.S. Championships spot due to ranking, said athlete can register for the U.S. Classic without needing to file a petition or prove JE status.
3. If the athlete has already qualified or petitioned into the JE division of the 2023 Men’s Development Program National Championships, but was unable to compete due to injury, said athlete may file an injury petition using a provided link. Said athlete does not need to upload scores to prove JE status.
4. If the athlete was unable to compete at 2023 Men’s Development Program National Championships due to injury and did not qualify or petition to the 2023 MDP Nationals in the JE division, he may file an injury petition to the Chair of the Men’s Program Committee, which must follow the same procedures as outlined in the 2023 Development Nationals Qualification document.

4a. If the athlete is in the 16 year-old age division and has not competed the Level 10 Technical Sequences yet due to injury, and can show registration as a L9 JE in the 15 year-old age division from his previous competitive year, he may still petition to the U.S. Classic via the process outlined above, but he will also need to include videos of his technical sequences to be scored. This score will be combined with submitted optional scores for the petition.

1. All injury petitions and technical sequence videos are due to the Chair of the MPC, via email by June 9, 2023 and must contain all required documentation as stated in the petition section of the 2023 Development Program Qualification document.

Meanwhile the Senior MAG qualification requirements could be summed up as:

1. Be a US citizen
2. Pay the entry fee
3. Be 18 or older

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

Is it too late for me to register? I’ve been working on a double turn on my kitchen floor and a Kramarenko vault.

 

[Passion]

Is it too late for me to register? I’ve been working on a double turn on my kitchen floor and a Kramarenko vault.

Unfortunately the deadline to register was June 23rd. Get that double turn nailed down for next year.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The words piss up and brewery come to mind.

I expect if any of the selected athletes genuinely couldn’t pay, the fanbase and a GoFundMe would’ve done the rest. But still, what a mess.