Worlds 2021- WAG prelims

[Sasha]

There’s been a lot of dissection about whether that’s when she was diagnosed or when she was sick, etc., but I’m just going with “very recently”, and yeah, probably a huge interruption in training.

Even then, I’m feeling kinda “ehhh” about Konnor’s future. The gym change, the surgery and COVID definitely have to factor into her performance level, and she does seem happy and well, EXCEPT when she’s competing. I’m not concerned about her coming back from these physical setbacks, but I question whether she’ll develop a big match mindset. I dunno. I’d love to see her succeed. I’m also not holding my breath.

 

[RAFIKI]

Also, if you recall in London, Marta was in the stands and literally SCREAMING at Mihai to file a protest for Raisman’s beam. Should she have remained silent? It would have cost the bronze medal.

She also shouted from the stands at Kayla Williams’ coach when he forgot the runway mat for her DTY (2009 worlds EF). That was a case of an inexperienced coach though (at least at worlds level). Wonder if Kayla would have noticed to alert him?

 

[JaJa]

He was in the stands. It is also 2021 smart phones/smart watches/iPads can receive messages.
Being in the stands didn’t stop Marta from telling Mihai to file a query.

Mihai would not have filed that inquiry without Marta’s howling at him. If I recall he didn’t even realize that as a possibility. But whatever else people think about Marta, in many ways she did her job. Tom is ridiculous. Basically a nonentity.

 

[Doug1233]

Tom is ridiculous. Basically a nonentity.

I am literally no Tom fan. I think basically anyone could do his “job” with even a rudimentary knowledge of gymnastics. 90% of his role is being the public face of the head of the team. PR. And he’s leaving that all to this “Annie” person. So I do not know what even the point of him is.

But timing a one-touch? By passing the blame to Tom you are essentially infantilizing three senior international elite coaches with like, a century of combined experience. Tom should not have needed to mansplain the one-touch rules to those coaches prior to the meet. And neither should he have had to resort to screaming from the stands.

We shouldn’t be praising Marta for what she did re: Aly. We should be roundly blaming Mihai for being so fucking CLUELESS with respect to his own fucking gymnast that Marta had to resort to screaming across the arena.

 

[Sparklesmom]

okay that vault was terrifying. And the bizarre technique off the table is yuck. I know lots of y’all just love her but eh I’m not a fan. Granted I have a foul taste in my mouth for Russians due to the Russian coaches my kid had for years but I just don’t see the draw in her. She keeps balking on that beam series and her split angles are not there. Plus her legs just always look kind of bent to me. As for the one touch thing with Kayla, my L10 was literally horrified that was able to happen at WORLDS. I asked her how they do it in JO and she informed me that since day one her coaches (and there has been more than one gym) time the girls and practice the touch/ warm up. They check their times with the official timer too. So how it happened on this stage when you don’t see this in little level 3 meets is literally beyond me. I am glad she hit it cold but as a parent I would be PISSED at the coach for this flub. Like FURIOUS.

 

[GymnaSTICKS]

I wonder if it was less that they weren’t paying attention, and more that they thought either the time from the hard fall did not count (admit I didn’t see it. Was she down for a bit?) or that someone would turn a blind eye to the overtime.

 

[RAFIKI]

or that someone would turn a blind eye to the overtime.

This was my first thought…they wanted to settle Frazier down and didn’t think they’d be called out on it and disadvantage DiCello.

 

[Gymfan93]

Not sure where else to post this… Hatakeda Hitomi (4th AA in quals) injured, so may be out of AA. Hopefully she is OK, it sounds fairly serious.

 

[RedBirdie]

She’s out, it sounds bad.

 

[Doug1233]

Oh no, that’s awful.

Really really hoping it’s nothing long term.

 

[Sasha]

Oh goodness I was really hoping the spinal board was a cautionary measure … that’s terrible.

 

[irichluck21]

I don’t know what the regulations are at worlds this year, but I have ALWAYS been prohibited from having my phone on the competition floor.

Not anymore, coaches and athletes all have their phones. Laurent was on his Apple Watch in Tokyo

 

[irichluck21]

Are we really at the point where we are blaming Tom for not yelling from the stands, instead of blaming the 40 year veteran coach of several Olympians who was literally on the floor with a stopwatch in her hand?

All parties are to blame. I don’t know why you keep thinking I am only focusing on Tom when I have made myself quite clear.
All three coaches are at fault and Tom is also at fault as NTC. This should not have happened. Two coaches decided to let their athletes take longer for one touch warm up. That is unacceptable.

I understand USAG wants to be “athlete centered” but not at the expense of other athletes.

There needs to be more structure and leadership so this type of scenario doesn’t happen.

To me it screams the coaches don’t value Tom or respect his leadership. They would never have done anything like this under Marta.

 

[irichluck21]

I wonder if it was less that they weren’t paying attention, and more that they thought either the time from the hard fall did not count (admit I didn’t see it. Was she down for a bit?) or that someone would turn a blind eye to the overtime.

The judges are there for a reason. A quick consult with the judging table would have given them the answer.
Either way, Strauss and then Fong made decisions they shouldn’t have. I still don’t understand Hill allowing it to happen.

 

[JaJa]

All parties are to blame. I don’t know why you keep thinking I am only focusing on Tom when I have made myself quite clear.
All three coaches are at fault and Tom is also at fault as NTC. This should not have happened. Two coaches decided to let their athletes take longer for one touch warm up. That is unacceptable.

I understand USAG wants to be “athlete centered” but not at the expense of other athletes.

There needs to be more structure and leadership so this type of scenario doesn’t happen.

To me it screams the coaches don’t value Tom or respect his leadership. They would never have done anything like this under Marta.

Exactly correct.

 

[JaJa]

How awful. Praying.

 

[JaJa]

I am literally no Tom fan. I think basically anyone could do his “job” with even a rudimentary knowledge of gymnastics. 90% of his role is being the public face of the head of the team. PR. And he’s leaving that all to this “Annie” person. So I do not know what even the point of him is.

But timing a one-touch? By passing the blame to Tom you are essentially infantilizing three senior international elite coaches with like, a century of combined experience. Tom should not have needed to mansplain the one-touch rules to those coaches prior to the meet. And neither should he have had to resort to screaming from the stands.

We shouldn’t be praising Marta for what she did re: Aly. We should be roundly blaming Mihai for being so fucking CLUELESS with respect to his own fucking gymnast that Marta had to resort to screaming across the arena.

Ever hear of comparative negligence? Just because the coaches screwed up does not mean that Tom is blameless here. When Mihai overlooked the chance to ask for an inquiry and almost blew Aly’s chance to medal Marta was there to pick up his slack. Mihai screwed up, Marta stepped up to the plate. This time coaches screwed up, Tom sits there doing nothing. Get the difference? Just because one party is wrong does not make another party blameless.

 

[Doug1233]

Just because one party is wrong does not make another party blameless.

Sure.

I guess I’m looking from the perspective of the Gymcastic tweet that first raised this issue.

Tom’s name was in the tweet. None of the three coaches were.

I appreciate that the discourse on WWGym is 10x more intelligent and nuanced than can be found on Gymcastic, so I suppose I might be slightly clouded by my frustration over the “gymternets” constant immediate “blame Tom for everything” response.

In my eyes, Tom’s only negligence can be that he didn’t scream from across the arena while watching Kelli Hill with a stopwatch in her hand on the floor. If we are looking at a “comparative negligence” analysis, this is a 99% to 1% issue.

I don’t buy the “Tom should earn Marta level leadership respect” argument for THIS error. I don’t think Kelli’s respect (or lack Therof) of Tom’s leadership and management abilities had one iota to do with her ability to count time. Unless your argument is that Kelli felt she could be a slacker in her role because Marta wasn’t watching her like a hawk. If that’s the case - then again - isn’t that a reflection of Kelli’s professionalism rather than a fault of Tom for not being intimidating enough?

 

[Doug1233]

Ever hear of comparative negligence?

Cmon, you can do better than this

 

[JaJa]

Cmon, you can do better than this

Apparently not.