Vanessa Zamarripa

[Hatsumomo]

This video reminded me of Vanessa Zamarripa and I had completely forgotten about her beautiful Cheng she performed in 2010. One of those flash in the pan gymnasts like Kayla Williams. Now she’s a stunt actress and had a minor role in The Book of Boba Fett.

 

[Doug1233]

that was a beautiful Cheng

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

I always forget she was the first. Wasn’t there something about her having considered making a run at worlds in 2010 but Marta telling her it wouldn’t happen? I definitely remember speculation about her doing it in summer that year.

 

[irichluck21]

Marta wanted Zamarippa to train elite more and come to camps. IIRC, Zam didn’t attend any camps, showed up at Cover Girl in July and qualified to Nationals and a month later where she was 2nd on vault (Cheng and FTY) 7th UB, and 8th AA.

Marta liked the Cheng but said it was not consistent enough yet, and she didn’t have a strong enough 2nd vault to consider for Worlds as she would like not be used on the other events. That said, Marta did invite Zam to World Team Trials to get experience and Zam declined.

Bross, Larson, Sacramone, Raisman were essentially locked onto the World team.
With this team, UB was a glaring weakness. With a 5.3 SV routine, despite strong execution, Zam was not going to make the team for this event over Caquatto, Davis, Sloan all of whom had 5.9-6.0 start values on bars.

Not sure why she didn’t at least accept the World Selection Camp invitation as she had always planned to continue elite and has aspirations to make the 2011 Worlds Team and then make a run at London Olympics.

Then her achilles went at the end of 2010 and that was the end of elite for her, even though she had stated she would return to elite, she never did.

 

[blake]

Maybe one too many horror stories of the Ranch? She didn’t have the clout like Memmel to skip camps.

 

[irichluck21]

She didn’t have the clout like Memmel to skip camps.

She didn’t skip camps IIRC. She decided to make a run for elite in May and then Cover Girl was in July. She was named to the national team in August and invited to World Team Selection Camp. Marta told her that she needed to build difficulty in her other three events to be in consideration for major international teams. Technically, attending the Selection Camp would have been Zamarippa’s first camp invite as she had never attended them before/wasn’t invited.

 

[RedBirdie]

Maybe one too many horror stories of the Ranch? She didn’t have the clout like Memmel to skip camps.

And Marta was absolutely livid Chellsie didn’t go to camps in 2011.

 

[tempest]

just think that the Cheng could have been another Humphrey

Is the piked khorkina 2 named a CHeng as well?

 

[blake]

I thought it was a thing throughout her career once her dad started coaching her?

 

[Puffin]

I remember reading reading on various boards at the time that Zamarippa did not enjoy her experience of the National team culture from her time at nationals. Coming from NCAA/UCLA into the peak Martha team experience - the rumour was she found it draconian and lacked any enjoyment that she usually found in gymnastics and decided not to pursue elite any further.

 

[irichluck21]

the rumour was she found it draconian and lacked any enjoyment that she usually found in gymnastics and decided not to pursue elite any further.

That is interesting and I would love to read the sources provided on those boards.
All the other interviews I read, Zam seemed enthusiastic about continuing elite and had planned to make a run at 2011 Worlds and then eventually 2012 Olympics.

She had to have understood the difference of elite vs NCAA. World teams were limited to 6 and Olympics limited to 5. It was not UCLA where there were 19 athletes on the team and gymnasts competing only one event. Zam would have defintely gotten named to 2010 Worlds if the Cheng was secure and she had hit it multiple times in camp and competition. Not just two at Nationals (She Lopezed at US Classic IIRC) day 1 was great with a step out of the lines but night 2 was super crunched and I think her knee was down (essentially a fall).

With the other events not up to difficulty for a World Team, Zam’s only impact on the team would be vault and even that was a new vault and was hit once and missed once.

How #1 Ranked Vanessa Zamarripa Responds to Expectations​

Vanessa Zamarripa | FloGymnastics | Gymnastics

Vanessa Zamarripa

www.flogymnastics.com

Apr 16, 2013

UCLA 5th year senior Vanessa Zamarripa is the favorite to win the 2013 NCAA All Around title as she has been ranked #1 nationally for most of the season. Zamarripa has a special, effortless quality to her gymnastics that will be missed at the collegiate level. However, Zamarripa is not abandoning the idea of returning to elite after this weekend’s national championships.

The Latest from Training

UCLAVanessa Zamarripa is planning to return to elite. We’ll see. Her gymnastics is so easy to root for, but she will have a tough road from now until next fall. I’m encouraged that she&…

balancebeamsituation.com

Vanessa Zamarripa is planning to return to elite. We’ll see. Her gymnastics is so easy to root for, but she will have a tough road from now until next fall. I’m encouraged that she’s training for it now, but in 2010 she was not up to the level of competition on beam and floor. Three years and an Achilles tear won’t make it any easier to be competitive there. Specializing on vault and bars may be a prudent choice depending on her goals.

If she is serious about making a Worlds team, 2013 is her year because she could conceivably be selected solely for vault, especially if no one else is vaulting two viable vaults. Even to make the team as a vault specialist, though, she’s going to need to get the Cheng back (and make it consistent) and upgrade to a DTY to be worth taking. We haven’t seen more than a Yurchenko full from her in competition, so we can’t just assume a DTY. That vault program is not a given.

January 11, 2011
http://66.210.158.14/index.php?opti...sa-zamarripa-usa&catid=3:interviews&Itemid=56

IG: When do you think you’ll be ready to compete the Cheng Fei vault again?

VZ: I guess it all depends on how things go, but the doctor said that, when I recover, I’ll be just as good as, or even better than, before. There’s no setback to this injury.

IG: What kind of feedback have you received from (U.S. national team coordinator) Marta Karolyi and the other U.S. team officials?

VZ: They seemed really concerned about my injury. Kathy Kelly (USA Gymnastics’ Vice President of Women’s Program), for example, emailed me and was wondering how I was doing, and wanted me to let them know my recovery process and see how I’m doing with it, and just keep them up-to-date.

Recovering from a torn Achilles, Zamarippa provided commentary at the Pac-10 Showcase held Jan. 9 at UCLA.

IG: Do you plan to return to Elite?

VZ: Absolutely. There’s not a doubt in my mind. I definitely still want to pursue that, an[COLOR=#][COLOR=#]Text[/COLOR][/COLOR]d compete internationally and do everything I can do.

IG: Having to miss the current NCAA season and wait till summer to start training again, how are you staying motivated?

VZ: I look at my teammate, Brittani McCullough. She tore both of her Achilles’, and to me she’s really inspiring because she came back really strong. She ended up being the NCAA floor champion (in 2010). What also keeps me motivated is that it’s something I’ve always wanted to do since I was young. Something like this (injury) is not going to get in the way of me pursuing my dream.

IG: How did you adjust so quickly to Elite competition last summer, after a long NCAA season and no experience at the Elite level?

VZ: When I compete, it’s just gymnastics, no matter where I compete or what it’s for. It’s still the same thing. So when I competed individually again, it wasn’t that big of a difference to me.

IG: Besides vault, how much do you think you can contribute to the U.S. team?

VZ: I would definitely love to contribute on every event. When I competed at Classic and Visa [U.S. Championships], all my other routines except for vault were basically my college routines, so I didn’t really do too much upgrading. So once I do, I feel I can contribute a lot.

IG: What advantage do you feel you have as a collegiate gymnast competing Elite?

VZ: I guess a lot of people feel that, once they come to college, they have to choose between Elite or college. Or maybe they feel they’ve passed their prime, because girls are usually at their best when they’re about 16. I feel that, when they come to college, they think they’re not good anymore. But that’s not true. We have more experience when we’re in college, and I think that puts us at an advantage.

I am just curious about the legitimacy of the rumor as anything officially from Zamarippa all indicated that she was planning on continuing elite and seemed to understand that she needed more difficulty to make an international team.
First was to continue in 2011 (until achilles injury) and then again after graduating from UCLA and was even thinking of 2013 Worlds run.