Sunisa “Suni” Lee was my fave junior a couple of years ago and now she’s your Senior, Silver, All Around, medalist. It will be interesting to see what this bar routine scores on the International stage.
Riley McCusker had a shaky first day but probably would have been part of , The comeback kids from day one of the competition if she didn’t withdraw after allegedly throwing up twice on day 2. Her best score came from day one on beam (14.500)
MY GIRL, LILLY Lipeatt, FINALLY made the Junior National team after royally being nitpicked to death by the judges on night one. She clearly had better routines night 1 but her scores went up on day 2. It’s the beam judges I have the biggest issue with here but I’m going to celebrate her at least making the Junior National team this year instead.
All the haters can suck it. If you’re not impressed with what she accomplished in only 2 months of training, Elite after spending 5 straight months competing every weekend and only falling once then you’re showing your hidden agenda(*)
I’m not blind . I know she needs to work on a lot ( form, technique, leaps etc..) but with a full season of training Mykayla is going to make this interesting.
NO ONE expected her to finish 4th at the Olympic trials in 2016. No one expected her to come back and do as well as she has this last 2 months. She freaking willed herself through hitting 2 bars routines when she couldn’t get anything to work at all on bars, two weeks earlier. You can doubt her being able to make this comeback but don’t doubt her will to try.
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I wonder what the power gymnasts of the 90’s like Simone Amanar would have been able to do with the floor Simone Biles gets to tumble on. (Don’t whine at me, Simona, did an Amanar on the old vault. I think she could do some amazing tumbling if the equipment of today existed in 96)
Simone doesn’t have to upgrade. She has a 3 point lead on every person competing today so it’s extremely admirable how she still succeeds at upping the anti. She is pretty much guaranteed Vault and Floor Gold and the Olympics aren’t til next year. All she needs to do is stay healthy.
The Shade ( Lordy Lord. I am becoming fluent in millennial)
These judges are not judging what they see vs name. I understand scores go up but some of these judges are still drinking the Marta, kool aid way of judging for favorites and she’s not around to blame anymore. I guess you get better international assignments when you play the game. Right Anna Li ? ( Ooops looks like that ship may have sailed.)
NBC doing a side by side comparison between Simone and Skinners vaults is is as bad as sticking the camera in gymnasts faces who didn’t make the 2004 Olympic team. Sure it’s not personal, Tim. I mean you took the girl that finished third and compared her to Gymnastics version, of the Tonka Truck of power, instead, of the girl who finished second (and has worse form than anyone but Paeska) but lets pretend it wasn’t done to Mykayla on purpose.
NBC is bad enough ( who needs to watch gymnastics when you can interview a College gymnastics coach who retired so she wouldn’t be called out for giving fake scholarships and promote a gymnast who isn’t competing at Nationals and hasn’t been an elite in 5 years) instead of SHOWING ROUTINES OF REAL GYMNASTS doing ACTUAL GYMNASTICS? This complaint sounds familiar. Oh yes, I make it EVERY year. EVERYONE makes it every year
Nastia ‘s voice is like listening to nails on a chalk board. She’s been doing commentating for at least 4 years now, it’s ridiculous how she hasn’t improved at all. Her voice is 100% phony. It’s like she had someone prepare what she should say before the competition even started. I usually don’t watch her commentate anymore but USA-Gymnastics gave me no choice, geo-blocking the International feed so we are forced to listen to her.
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The Have Nots, College here we come
Can we talk about how Gabby Perea made it through an entire Nationals without getting injured? Unfortunately she fell on bars during night oneandnight two ( her best event as a junior) but hopefully she stays healthy ( relative term, I know) and comes back next year and is the surprise of 2020.
Faith Torrez is a Future College National Champion on beam if she stays healthy. (Bank on it) A few leap issues aside I can’t believe this routine merited more deductions then Eaker nearly falling.
My favorite leo (Night 1) and beam routine of Nationals goes to Emily Lee. I guess she and Faith can duel for the beam title in College whenever they get there. Lordy, Lord, don’t let either end up at UCLA.
I’m sorry, Shilese Jones, Aleah Finnegan and Sloane Blakely, NBC, doesn’t think you merit being seen on their fabulous network but we had to interview Miss val and talk about Katelyn Ohashi. That’s way more important then watching the actual gymnasts competing at the ACTUAL competition. Gee this sounds familiar……
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The comeback kids
After having disastrous routines night 1 and looking like their 15 minutes of fame was up, The come back kids laughed at your notion and came back with a vengeance.
Grace McCallum, uncharacteristically fell twice making me wonder if she was going to be Natasha Kelly’d out of contention before the Olympic season even started. Morgan Hurd fell on floor after trying to throw in a double layout after a botched tumbling pass( which didn’t work out well.)
and Leanne Wong looked like a completely different gymnast then the girl who won Junior Nationals last year and the American Cup to start the season..
All 3 of them had other idea’s and competed admirably to finish, 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectfully. Grace Mccallum would have finished second without the two falls on day 1.
IMO,
These were their best routines on night 2 Morgan on Floor. (Completely underscored IMO) Grace on beam…. and Leanne on…
Which doesn’t have commentary which means, NBC, didn’t even bother to show it. WOW. This was beautiful.
I am not the biggest Morgan Hurd fan on the planet but it would really suck for her to do so well the first two years of the quad only to be left off the Olympic team. IMO, I think if she doesn’t make the team, USA-Gymnastics will most likely give her the extra AA non team member spot. Unless she totally tanks next year. Have I mentioned 4 member Olympic teams suck banana’s ? The US should be able to field 2 or 3 teams a piece. ( At this point I think Russia should get 2 teams, also)
Trinity Thomas came to play with an upgraded Biles on floor unfortunately she fell on it , night 2. Her beam and bars aren’t competitive enough to merit a place on the World team with all the talent coming up in the ranks but to come back after competing College all season long is very impressive.
Lowering the start values on Jordan Chiles routines is called common sense. Something her last coaches didn’t seem to have. It was nice to see her hit her routines even with the lower start values. I can’t wait to see what she build on for next year.
Sorry Jade Carey fans but the only reason she was third after night one was because so many other people made huge mistakes. That was corrected on night 2.
Before Nationals I thought Kara Eaker had a shot at making this Olympic team but after this Nationals I don’t believe that anymore. Too many other gymnasts bring more to the table then one event. If this was a 5 member team she might fill the role Gabby was unfairly anointed in 2016 but with only 4 members it shouldn’t be enough. I see them taking 3 All Around gymnasts and a 4th gymnast will fill the role of the weakest event of the 3 AA gymnasts. That person should be able to do all 4 events in case of injury. Luckily for this Olympic team Simone covers all 4 events on her own.
Part 2 coming soon.
Feel free to share your opinion on NBC commentating. I mean it’s so bad I didn’t think it was possible to GET WORSE and what do you think about the comeback kids? Or The poor girls that work their butt’s off all year training elite being ignored so they could interview Miss phony and talk about Katelyn and her fake ” viral” video planned by a publicist.
Her Vault is freaking perfection. No one gets her height. Her bars were messy, beam was a bit cautious and her floor as bouncy as ever but she can’t be beat when she hits. The funny thing is she seems to be spending a lot of time out of training and still wins by this much.
Mykayla has a way to go but for a girl who just started back doing Elite after spending an entire season doing NCAA with a meet a week she looks amazing. She didn’t have the energy for a last pass on floor which is why the score was so low ( some messy landings and OOB) but her Amanar looked great (a little over-rotated) and she stayed on beam. IMO, She had the best vault of the meet next to, you know who.
Found her a bit underscored here compared to what I thought she would be getting especially on bars. Thought her beam was lowballed compared to others. Floor was messy and overscored if she was competing outside the US.
The Bridget Sloan of 2019. Just keeps on hitting. Her first pass on floor was very short. Anyone else think her form is improving? She’s my dark horse for next year.
I didn’t watch floor yet but felt her beam got hammered. Her bars were overscored. Watched floor. No double double. Only a 5.1 start value. Still nursing an injury?
I might do a blog for the Senior competition but honestly, they blocked the US fans from watching the International feed and it will be a cold day in hell I sit through, Nastia or whatever College has-been they decide to commentate on the Olympic channel. There is no mention in any of these articles where the actual competition will be seen or I’m missing it. My computer vin isn’t working. It’s all glorious here in “title town”
Somewhere in the middle of Texas, Marta and Bela are drinking their Ţuică , in tea cups, playing with their Llamas, mildly amused at the fact the US team at Junior Worlds only finished third and no US gymnast won an AA medal.
The USAG Article above says Event Finals will air live on the FIG Youtube channel. Looks like Flo Gymnastics owns the rights to the Team and AA. Though I read somewhere it was only certain Countries.
Piibunina’s Weibo account might have videos so check the channel out.
For those interested in College gymnastics this is a meet for you. The best thing I came out of watching this meet was Skye Blakely’s Arabian on beam and Olivia Hollingsworth’s parents being two centuries late having a kid because her name sure sounds like it could have been a great name for a character on Dynasty or Falcon Crest in the 90’s.
There were two Sienna’s competing ( Sienna and Ceina) and heck even a throw back to 80’s Soap Opera’s in Nola Matthews. ( She had to have been named after Nola Reardon, right? Well I guess there is the nick name for New Orleans…
If I ever become a Night time soap opera I am using this meet to come up with my characters names. Why am I talking names you ask? Cuz I was that bored watching College gymnastics. You know how that annoys me.
P.S.- I missed Mya Witte on beam and can’t find it so if you do watch and can point out the time so I can watch it I would greatly appreciate it. 🙂
Now I feel like watching old Guiding light episodes with Nola and Quinton.
Who wants to laugh? After watching the meet it has been taken down for copyright. USAG had it’s own meet deleted. That’s kind of funny.
