Chellsie Memmel is part of the Tour of gymnastics for one reason and one reason only, she took it as a bribe to stop criticizing USA-Gymnastics for their long tradition of screwing over their ex Champions. (Money talks) Apparently that bribe worked so well USA-Gymnastics has decided to try it out on Alicia Sacramone.
Alicia Sacramone did an interview with Red Eye Chicago and talks about a job offer she has from USA-gymnastics. I guess we know why she has kept quiet about what went on at Trials.
Nastia being told she would be on the team if she hit day two of Trials is a fact. I find it hard to believe this is the only secret hidden agenda that happened.
As far as I am concerned Alicia should have been an alternate on the Olympic team. Rumor has it that Alicia was none to happy with the way things went down at Trials. Her mothers cryptic tweets about “Karma” only add to the mystery of deceit that hopefully one day will leak out. Until then, we speculate.
If I had to garner an educated guess I would say Alicia was told not to do floor by Marta. An event that would have helped her make that Olympic team. IMO, all hell might have broken lose if Alicia hit floor to go with her beam and vault and she was not named to the team over Mckayla and her inconsistent ways.
I would also say Alicia was promised a real shot at the Olympic team that was clearly never going to happen. Pretty much proved when Alicia wasn’t event named alternate. (Look what beat her out?)
Another scenario that Jas pointed out in the comments section that I totally forgot about was the upgraded vaults Alicia allegedly” had. What if Marta told her she didn’t need those to make the team so she didn’t attempt them?
What do you think?
What is your relationship like with gymnastics now on a day-to-day basis?
So I just retired from competition. Now we’re on this tour for three months. Other than that, I stay involved. I do choreography and then I coach as well. So that’s how I’m staying involved in the sport, but I also might take a job with our federation for USA Gymnastics. So once this [tour] is done and things calm down and we go into the new year, I’ll see what kind of opportunities that has. But it’s different now, I don’t know. … I went to the [London] Olympics and did media work, and it was just so different being an athlete and then working at the event. I think it’s more stressful for me to watch the girls compete than be the one competing, because [the outcome was] always in my hands. I know what I can do and what I’m capable of. But watching them, you’re just so stressed, going like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m freaking out!” But they did so well, so it was a lot of fun.
Gymtruthteller's Blog 
October 12, 2012 at 2:54 AM |
aha! makes a lot of sense why alicia has stayed quiet since trials, and also why USAG didn’t make a big deal of her retirement.
so i guess this is their way of “making up” for allegedly leading her on about london…
October 12, 2012 at 2:57 AM |
have also read suri cruise wants to be the next gabby douglas. can you imagine a USAG with tom cruise involved?! like it wasn’t already shady enough.. hah.
October 12, 2012 at 3:00 AM |
I don’t believe Suri would gravitate towards Gabby of all people and who the hell lets their 6 year old stay up to midnight?????
October 12, 2012 at 3:55 PM
My sister does. My niece stays up all night watching movies with her. But that’s a whole other story in and of itself. And my niece is in gymnastics too, lol.
October 12, 2012 at 3:15 AM |
I’ve said it before but had Alicia taken McKayla’s spot it would have messed with Marta’s whole London prelim plan of having Gabby, Aly and Jo duke it out for the AA spot. Out of a 5 person team of Gabby, Aly, Jo, Alicia and Kyla who do you leave off beam in prelims. While she was once the biggest head case on beam, post comeback you never missed once. Plus internationally she scored well with lower difficulty (since she actually moved her body as opposed to stiff arm waves.) I guess they could have left Kyla off but she was kind of the perfect leadoff who also scored well internationally. But without doing that Marta would have to explain why she was removing either one of the two anointed to duel it out in the AA from the all-around or the national and trials beam champ who had delivered at the past two world championships on the apparatus.
October 12, 2012 at 3:19 AM |
According to Tim Daggett Marta was thinking about leaving Gabby off beam in prelims (that interview show someone posted about before. I forget the name) I don’t believe him but that is what he said.
That would mean Mckayla would have been used on beam? That would have been fun.lol
There is no way it ever would have happened.
Marta’s plan sucked.
October 12, 2012 at 3:46 AM
Marta sucks!
October 12, 2012 at 7:24 AM
i still can’t understand why mckayla isn’t better on beam. she’s certainly graceful but seems to lack fluidity. does she have a low d-score for it?
October 13, 2012 at 1:04 AM
Her day 2 beam at trials was great. Best she ever did and NBC did not show it
October 12, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Actually she hits her connections more than the others. Her beam is out of a 6.0. Her legs are bent a bit on her LOSO’s, pretty sure they would deduct for that, but it was ignored on gymnasts back in the day.
It’s a moot point because she wasn’t able for beam in the end. BUT I do think she could get it up to a better standard.
October 12, 2012 at 3:16 PM
I think McKayla has more potential on beam. And has a nice floor given the right day. She also didn’t have a lot of time to train and hammer out her issues between her concussion and injuries. Alicia given her only two events didn’t quite fit the bill this time. Maybe with floor added she would’ve given McKayla a run for her money.
October 12, 2012 at 4:02 PM
I still think ASac got robbed. If Marta had told her not to do floor then I can totally see where ASac now sees the overall strategy of Marta just wanting her ignored.
If Marta had her way, Nastia would have been on that team over Kyla. That’s what I think at least. Then you’d have Jo, Gabby, and Aly duking out the AA and Nastia would do bars and beam and McKayla would do vault and floor.
The biggest missing piece of that whole puzzle was floor. There were not enough good floor workers. Jo and Aly were locks for that but McKayla was too inconsistent, Kyla did not have enough difficulty (and I think that was Marta’s intention so she could leave her in favor of Nastia and not give Kyla even the slightest chance of beating Gabby/Aly/Jo in the AA), and Gabby’s floor was hit or miss as well. In fact, I’m still shocked at Gabby’s floor scores in London. I know she upgraded but the increase from Tokyo to London was just unreal.
So there we have it. If ASac had a solid floor she would have been a real threat and almost a lock, given her solid vault and even beam. And if Nastia was going to be gifted a spot, there was just no real room for ASac since Marta obviously really had to have McKayla.
If I were ASac I’d say f*ck you USAG and do a tell-all. That organization needs to be blown up. Maybe she’ll be crafty, land that job, and blow it up from the “inside” lol.
October 13, 2012 at 2:28 AM
With all this it makes me wonder what USAG has planned for Katelyn in the next quad. Hope they have a back up plan if she peaks. Which brings me to scam, Im predicting Kyla will be give the second spot. I hope Russia brings Musty and Komova to scam if they’re in shape. Romania shows up with Iordache and Bulimar, and China shows up with Yao and a new senior.
October 12, 2012 at 4:58 AM |
YES THERE IS A GOD!! I KNEW KARMA WOULD COME KNOCKING ON GABBYS DOOR! PLEASE READ THIS! SMOKING GUN ALERT! The shady scoring from London is all laid out on Bleacher Report! Apparently they wanted all the fanfare to die down first. Ok…you’re welcome!
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1367532-expert-judges-gabby-douglas-shouldnt-have-won-london-olympics-gymnastics-gold
October 12, 2012 at 5:12 AM |
Lets hope the stars and the moon align I order for Gabby’s AA Gold is taken away? We can hope can’t we?
October 12, 2012 at 5:18 AM
Never gonna happen, but yes, we can dream. Maybe it’d be more fun letting her keep it when everyone knows she shouldn’t have won. I still don’t think she should have made the finals.
October 12, 2012 at 7:28 AM |
i still wish musty had beat both gabby and vika. or better yet they let jordyn compete and have a musty/jordyn top two.
October 12, 2012 at 7:53 AM
I was totally rooting for Mustafina to win it all, but I knew there was no way it was going to happen. I’m hoping for a 2013 Mustafina/Ross/Iordache AA showdown.
October 12, 2012 at 12:54 PM |
There is no way she would be stripped of that medal, but yes, it is nice to dream.
The only high score she got that night that I agreed with was vault, since out of the 4 gymnasts NBC showed vaulting, she did do pretty well there.
My question about London is, if she truly was wrongfully overscored, what would the judges’ incentives have been? I can understand in the USA that judges would overscore her (Marta hype!), but I thought at the OLYMPIC GAMES she would have her ass handed to her in the form of scores that reflect what she is actually doing (ie…hard to watch gymnastics).
I so much wanted Musty or Komova to win…and never even wanted Gabby to get even a toe close to the podium. I still can’t believe things ended up this way!
October 12, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Yeah it all blows my mind too. I had totally just figured that the Olympic judges would hand it to Gabby and she’d be in for a rude awakening. Turns out I was in for the awakening…sigh.
October 12, 2012 at 5:29 PM
I think the Gabby debacle runs alot deeper than an Olympic medal. It illustrates the massive corruption of international competition. It’s anyone’s guess as to who gains by Gabby’s win?
October 12, 2012 at 5:53 PM
They really need to find a computer-based system for judging. In all honesty, every year it’s a big debacle, “so and so” should have won, yada yada. Last time it was Komova vs. Jordyn. They just need to make things fair all around and find a way to let a program/computer judge. It’d be funny because I’d bet my paycheck the podium would be COMPLETELY different in many competitions from what the “expectations” are. It would also allow for lesser-known gymnasts to compete on a more even playing field, because let’s be honest Ponor (and I love her) made event finals in London on beam AND floor because of who she was, NOT because of her quals performance.
And Gabby wouldn’t have made the AA either.
Why the more experienced judges scores’ weren’t counted is beyond me, but at the end of the day the blame should be on FIG for allowing this crap to happen year over year and the overall code.
Something needs to change.
October 13, 2012 at 1:53 PM
Sanity I laughed so hard at “turns out I was in for the awakening”. I think we all felt that!
October 12, 2012 at 5:51 AM |
I also wonder if maybe that Alicia was told if she hit at Nationals and Trials that she would be on the team if she could have the front handspring double or floor by the Olympics or maybe she already had the FHS double or floor but Marta told her not to do them and to save it for London but she never intended on putting her on the team because it would mean she would have needed to leave Gabby off beam and maybe floor too and she wouldn’t have been in the AA
October 13, 2012 at 1:07 AM |
That was also a rumor I totally forgot about. Alicia had new vaults but she did not do them. What if Marta told her not to do them so she would not show u Mckayla. Alicia could have won vault over Izbasa with her two usual vaults
October 13, 2012 at 5:10 AM
Yeah I think she probably had the vaults and was told not to do them to save herself for London because I don’t think Alicia would have showed up and put all that effort into a comeback after her achilles tear if she knew she couldn’t beat Maroney on Vault and also ASac comes across as the kind of person that doesn’t go down without a fight to me I have a feeling that if she hadn’t torn her Achilles she was planning on doing the FHS double or Amanar or both at Worlds and would have likely won the Vault gold especially since Maroney’s second Vault at the time only had a SV of 5.6 I’m sure ASac was ready to go ballistic on Marta and USAG after Maroney sat her second Vault lol
October 12, 2012 at 6:34 AM |
I think Marta made her mind up for eternity about Alicia on the night of team finals in Beijing. Can’t even sugar coat it….ASac choked all over that arena.
I like ASac and I’ve said this before but I understand why Marta wouldn’t want to risk her laying another egg on the biggest stage, especially with five other fierce, competent gymnasts ready to go.
As for USAG offering hush money and jobs to disgruntled vets….obviously that’s shady as hell.
October 12, 2012 at 7:32 AM |
alica’s comeback was clearly the most legit. her gymnastics was great at trials especially given her injury and her age. i must admit despite that i still sort of thought “eh, she had her chance (twice) for a team gold and blew it, what if it happens again?” (2004 trials and 2008 team finals) which isn’t very fair i suppose given shawn and nastia screwed up floor in TF too but i guess the beam eff up was more dramatic. id be surprised if marta didn’t hold it against her though, she seems like she’s got a memory like an elephant and would hold a grudge.
October 13, 2012 at 1:05 AM |
I agree but to lie to Alicia and make it seem like she had a shot. There was no reason for that. Just shut up. Don’t go out of your way to build her up for revenge.
October 13, 2012 at 6:33 AM
i agree GTT- if she was really and truly misled (and it seems like a high possibility she was) that is pretty damn awful and spiteful. the only slight silver lining is with alicia she’s messing with an adult. when she did it to hollie (and others) she was messing with a kid’s dream, which seems even more awful to me.
i wonder if the day will come when a gymnast/coach takes the risk to ignore marta’s “advice” and trust their gut to upgrade (like we all wish kyla did) or to perform near or complete competition ready routines (like possibly alicia).
the politics of this sport still blows my mind.
October 13, 2012 at 1:57 PM |
You know Marta’s mind was made up in Beijing. Wouldn’t have mattered if Alicia won every event of this past quad…I still don’t think there was any chance in hell she was going to be on that team.
And maybe Alicia knew that and that’s why she came back. Who knows how nasty Marta was to her after TF…so maybe her comeback was partially a way to irritate Marta And show her she won’t be “bullied”.
October 12, 2012 at 6:39 AM |
Oh and go Tigers!
October 13, 2012 at 1:04 AM |
The Tigers need to take out the Yankees. IT HAS TO HAPPEN
October 13, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Yes, yes it does. I’ve got tickets to Game 3. 🙂
October 12, 2012 at 7:57 AM |
Someone should devise a Moneyball type system for choosing a gymnastics team and let a spreadsheet decide it all.
October 13, 2012 at 1:03 AM |
Moneyball does not work. The A’s are a great regular season team and they choke in the playoffs. Just like they did this year.
It would not work in gymnastics either because judges are idiots and imagine taking Nationals scores and having them matter? Marta would just overscore those she wants.
In theory some of moneyball works but it doesn’t matter how many guys walk if there is no one behind them to drive them home.
October 13, 2012 at 9:34 AM
I think the other problem with the Moneyball method is it requires too much time. It would only work in the playoffs if the series were like 19 games, haha.
At some point I remember you saying that USAG is successful in spite of Marta. She really does get in the way of letting success happen sometimes because she gets petty.
October 12, 2012 at 8:15 AM |
I wouldn’t have used Alicia either. As good as she was during Nationals. She was a two apparatus gymnast. Why she didn’t do floor is beyond me. Bross should have done floor too. But she or she was told not to so she didn’t. Her fault. Her vaulting is good especially for event final but would have been worthless during team finals simply because four gymnasts could already pull off amanars.
There is a case for her being named an alternative. Li had to be an alternative thanks to her Uneven Bars. Price too could do Uneven Bars and had an amanar. Finnegan who I loved could do beam and floor (and actually I think international judges would have rewarded her).
So meh I am fine with what the Americans decided.
Also I like Mckayla Maroney and all but she is vastly overrated. She has a great amanar and has pulled off one or two great Mustafina vaults. She also has an impressive 3.5 twist on floor. But that is it. Her Uneven Bars and beam are gross and she has never pulled off a clean performance on floor. Had she been around prior to 2001 she would have been toast or the fifth all-rounder for the team.
October 12, 2012 at 8:16 AM |
and ewww I wish I could re-type that as my writing is crass.
October 12, 2012 at 2:56 PM |
I’m fairly sure her floor at jesolo was without error.. could be wrong though!
October 12, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Actually you are right in that she completely nailed the third pass in Jesolo and leaped out of it, but for her first pass she only did a triple and totally overrotated it, huge steps to the side to control it.
She did a floor at Trials that was without error. I saw stills of her takeoff and landing of the third pass and it was the EXACT same spot, just barely in bounds. It’s the one she got a 15.2 for.
October 13, 2012 at 6:40 AM
ah, yes you’re right catherine! thanks! 🙂
why that third pass was kept, i have no idea. only if she was consistent with it, maybe. also i always wished she did the grande jete throwing her head right back (is there a gym name for this dance element on floor or do they use ballet names? im so bad at names!) rather that the simpler one.
October 12, 2012 at 12:59 PM |
I feel like USAG likes to keep their enemies close and keep their mouths shut. Alicia seems the most likely to someday write a bitchy tell-all and rip them apart…so why not give her a job so she can be under their thumb all day? Same with Chellsie…eventually she would have leaked what happened regarding her retirement, so why not pay her a lot and pretend to “celebrate” her accomplishments and put her on the magical Kelloggs tour? Maybe they are smarter than we think.
October 12, 2012 at 2:03 PM |
USA Gymnastics has a long tradition of putting “criticizing” coaches and ex-gymnasts on the payroll to shut them up. I can think of several who like Chelsie were once vocal in their criticism of Marta/USA Gymnastics but now either say nice things or are just silent because their livelihood is tied to USA Gymnastics in some way. Gym owners, coaches, gymnasts, judges – everybody knows to toe the line whether they will admit it or not. Even the NBC announcers know their jobs depend on staying in Marta’s good graces. As obnoxious as Tim and Elfie are in criticizing gymnasts right and left — half the time for no good reason — notice how they never criticize Marta. They also know who Marta’s favorites are at the moment (can you say Gabby or Nastia) and do not criticize them.
October 12, 2012 at 2:23 PM |
Hmmm if asac likes coaching theyre apparently looking for a WAG head coach in Australia. Seems they want Peggy Liddick out.
October 12, 2012 at 3:01 PM |
ooh! love getting aussie gym news!
people were pissed that she chose “experience” over higher scoring younger girls, which backfired majorly as the veterans royally screwed up.
with musty’s coach drsma id love them to bring out alexandrov for a quad just for entertainment/curiosity purposes!
October 12, 2012 at 3:05 PM |
It’s how they do it. There will be no obstacle to Peggy re-applying. Sure FIG do the same, sort of.
October 12, 2012 at 3:03 PM |
I want Alicia to be a commentator, not a coach. I don’t think she has the patience or mindset for a top coach, but could be wrong.
I don’t think she should have been alternate. Beam..who cares about beam, they had 4 routines which would score just as well or higher, and 1 which would barely have been below. Vault, again extremely deep there. They needed bars and she didn’t have them, so Anna Li was needed, and Ebee for backup. And no floor, so Sarah and Ebee were the obvious contenders for that as backup. She did not have time to get floor back, end of, and she was very unreliable on floor in the first place. Who would risk that in TF..again?
October 12, 2012 at 3:40 PM |
There was no way after Beijing that Marta was putting ASac on the team. She could have scored 17s on beam, vault and floor and it would not have mattered. What would have happened had she been on the team over Maroney, Jordyns injury would have come out sooner. Lineups as follows. Vault, Wieber, Raisman Asac, Douglas. Bars Wieber, Raisman, Ross, Douglas. Beam Asac Raisman Ross Wieber / Douglas ( probably dependent on who was hitting in practice) Floor Asac, Raisman, Wieber, Douglas…. and then who knows about team finals. She’s such a headcase, she headcased out in 2004 and then again at the olympics in 2008. I kind of have to agree with Marta that she had her shot. I am even coming around to the idea that because Chellsie is always injured someone healthy would have been better…. Nastia would have taken Kylas spot if she had been able to hit. ASac was the backup in case Maroney was injured. As for Alternates Anna Li was the backup for Ross. EBee and Finnegan could have subbed for any of the other girls except Maroney quite successfully. Marta didnt really need 4 amanars, she only needed 3 for team finals. Marta doesnt care about 4 solid routines she cares about 3 solid routines. That was obvious in 08 when she didnt replace Chellsie with Jana Bieger and again when neither Jordyn nor Maroney were pulled due to injury. She looks at it as a 3+ backup…. not as a 4 with backup…
October 12, 2012 at 8:11 PM |
I agree with this totally.
October 12, 2012 at 9:25 PM |
i really and truly contend that marta would have put Aly up on bars in TF before she used Anna.
October 13, 2012 at 12:43 AM
probably.. she used anna li to befriend gabby at camps and help her. And Marta doesnt like her mom at all thats for sure…
October 13, 2012 at 2:15 AM
I keep reading snippets about Marta hating Ana li’s mom. Something about her mom telling secrets to china national team before Beijing Olympics? Sounds juicy. Oh how I pray someone releases the ultimate tellall book. I have a feeling it will come from someone you least suspected.
October 13, 2012 at 2:36 AM
The rumor is that Marta thought they were spying for China in 08. It’s typical Marta BS
October 12, 2012 at 9:15 PM |
So McKayla’s going to perform with that on her leg?
https://mobile.twitter.com/McKaylaMaroney/status/256854524650745857/photos
October 13, 2012 at 1:04 AM |
Haven’t seen anything about her performing. Looks to me like she’s probably just signing autographs, shaking hands and kissing babies.
October 13, 2012 at 1:15 AM
Haha, I bet the only thing she could do is sit in the rings at the end.
October 13, 2012 at 3:16 AM
Is McKayla running for office? That’s what you made it sound like…funny!
October 13, 2012 at 1:09 AM |
McKayla seems to teach Shawn how to be sassy in Mambo dance. Maybe we can see her scene in DWTS rehearsal clip.
October 13, 2012 at 3:15 AM
Shawn looks like a little chipmunk next to the other girls. And how did Nastia not horn in on this photo-op? LOL!
October 13, 2012 at 3:24 AM |
The real question is why do these gymnasts have boots on? It’s freaking October and aren’t they like in Texas?
October 13, 2012 at 3:32 AM
I think it is im Des Moines, Iowa tonight.
October 13, 2012 at 3:34 AM
Hardly boot weather.lol
Currently: 50°F
Cloudy
61°F | 48°F
October 13, 2012 at 3:40 AM
Especially for Jo being from Michigan. Isn’t she the one wearing the boots? The picture isn’t showing up well on my phone.
October 13, 2012 at 3:45 AM
I think they all have boots on except Shawn with no shoe’s and maybe Mckayla.
October 13, 2012 at 9:15 AM
It’s always boot weather when you are from Michigan.
October 13, 2012 at 10:02 AM |
More pics of Shawn and Derek in Tour in Des Moines. Were they performing Mambo?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121012/SPORTS/310120082/1003/
October 13, 2012 at 4:27 AM |
Another pic from today…all wearing boots. By the way, my daughter wears her UGG boots year-round…she has quite a few pairs. I think it’s nuts but its what they do. LOL!
https://mobile.twitter.com/McKaylaMaroney/status/256899624105820161
October 13, 2012 at 4:29 AM |
Look at Shawn’s stomach in that last photo I posted. She’s resting her hand right on it! Normally black top & leggings are slimming?
October 15, 2012 at 3:38 AM
Really? Unnecessary.
October 15, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Thank you Alex…. And gymmom I thought you said previously all your kids were grown, and now your daughter wears uggs all the time?? I dont know of too many grown women that wear uggs all the time…
October 15, 2012 at 8:55 PM
She said grand daughter didn’t she?
October 13, 2012 at 6:43 AM |
theyre actually supposed to be slippers (worn indoors only!) .. it’s funny how much of an outdoor footwear trend they seem to be in the US with the youngins!
October 13, 2012 at 12:31 PM
UK and Scandinavia too 🙂
October 13, 2012 at 6:14 AM |
Here’s a recap of the kelloggs your stop in Des Moines Iowa. Chow was honored at a private ceremony before the show. Steve Penny/USA Gymnastics presented him with his own Gold Medal. Shawn, Gabby & many of his young gymnasts were in attendance at the ceremony.
The fierce five were spotlighted in the show with Gabby being introduced last. There were 5000 people at the Des Moines stop in an arena that holds more than 11,000.
Shawn & Derek dropped out of performing in a large group number because they “didn’t have time to learn the tour number” due to having to rehearse their Mamba dance for Mon night on DWTS. They did sign autographs & they danced a portion of their Mamba and then left the stage.
So, there you have it. I read about it on the Des Moines Register website, but not everyone can access that site, so I summarized it here.
It sounds like the fierce five performed in the show quite a bit more than usual at last night’s show.
October 13, 2012 at 9:17 AM |
I bet that’s what they will do in Boston and Detroit too.
October 15, 2012 at 4:05 PM |
Dereks back is hurt so they are limited in what they can / cant do. If I were them, I wouldnt risk doing a group number and hurting his back worse.
October 13, 2012 at 11:16 AM |
OMG this is fucking creepy.
October 13, 2012 at 11:35 AM |
i know there is a dora gymnastics show so they are spruiking the doll for $$ but LOL at the dora doll randomly being in the shots all the time with it’s permanent creepy grin haha.
October 14, 2012 at 11:19 PM
My niece wants that doll for Christmas. I will not buy it now because Nastia is in the commercial.lol
October 13, 2012 at 11:04 PM |
Why didn’t Dora get to ask a question? She sat there the entire time.
October 13, 2012 at 11:09 PM
Dora was speechless! LOL!
October 15, 2012 at 4:06 PM
There was an interview on the Fisher Price site with Nastia about parenting…. like she has a kid? Or knows anything about parenting? Or is even comfortable around small children? Ridiculous… and I didnt like Dora before and now I like the toy even less…
October 15, 2012 at 6:10 PM
That is so ridiculous! I LOL’d at the thought of her giving parenting advice.
October 13, 2012 at 11:31 AM |
off topic but what’s happening in the US media with lance armstrong? supporting him or crucifying him? a former aussie cyclist/now team director has quit his job and admitted to the scandal so it’s a little dramatic here in the news.
October 13, 2012 at 11:32 AM |
i should say ALLEGEDLY admitted. haha.
October 13, 2012 at 1:09 PM |
It’s been all over the news here too.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeCBn4o0_ejfarTj3zvs7zQ0eZyw?docId=CNG.1ff7ce3c7fc9fe00fdbf3aa93e07fe6e.3f1
October 14, 2012 at 12:41 AM |
Brenna Dowell won the Mexican Open. She had more difficulty then anyone else in the field and was the only one to throw a DTY. She makes Aly look like a prima ballerina. Such an interesting, weird
contrast between her and Finnegan.
October 14, 2012 at 11:29 AM |
I figured after watching the video coverage the she had it in the bag. Although they had Anna D. As the likely winner. I don’t know how with that FTY which she almost she almost fell on when she landed.
October 14, 2012 at 11:49 AM |
the scores all seem so low from the mexican open. is it because these girls have lower d-scores than the top girls in london? i was hoping georgia rose-brown would make the top 3, saw her routines online and they were gorgeous.
biyatch – do you mean brenna isn’t a graceful gymnast compared to aly and sarah? honestly, i hardly remember brenna’s gymnastics but she’s got the clean GAGE lines and gracefulness usually doesn’t she?
October 14, 2012 at 3:22 PM
D Scores were all low. Brown was bumped from the podium because of some floor issues.
Brenna is very, very stiff. Her floor lacked any semblance of choreography, total opposite of sarah’s routine. Her tumbling is clean (and unique) but it is basically four tumbling runs and little else. Even the dance during the gala was odd. Her leaps on beam are well short of 180*, more in the 120*-130* range. Regardless, she clearly was the winner this weekend and hats off. I saw somewhere that Al Fong did an interview where he said Brenna’s goal is worlds this year and it makes you hope that the coach is setting realistic expectations for his athlete. With only 4 spots on that worlds team, the potential for any of the olympic team to come back and the 1st year seniors it would seem like more than a long shot for her to make that team.
October 14, 2012 at 10:50 PM
October 15, 2012 at 11:57 AM
thanks for posting 🙂 i definitely see what you mean – decent tumbler, not the greatest dancer though.
October 15, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Brenna looks like she could seriously benefit from pilates, and consistent flexibility. Her rigidity makes her choreography look worse than it is.
October 15, 2012 at 5:24 PM
Girl favors the front tumbling (which I like and find interesting); but she doesn’t seem to have the “essence” of a good elite gymnast. I think she’d be best on the college scene. So sue me for saying that.
October 15, 2012 at 6:10 PM |
She won? What happened to Demy? This is sort of surprising.
October 14, 2012 at 3:51 AM |
Anyone know what’s going on with Chellsie? I saw some tweets of people asking what happened to Chellsie but no one seems to know.
October 14, 2012 at 5:54 AM |
I saw the tweet she sent thanking the cast of the tour for taking care of her? Nothing else though.
October 14, 2012 at 8:09 AM
Yeah from that I woul guess that she was sick/not feeling well but when people were asking what happened to her I was thinking injury or something but if it were that I think we would have heard something by now
October 14, 2012 at 6:38 PM |
She tweeted today about performing on the your in Chicago.
October 14, 2012 at 8:21 PM |
The “tour” is on tv today. It’s so lame. I’d be embarrased and would have refused to be a part of it. Nasty Nastia looks like a hooker on Sunset Blvd. She’s really put on some weight.
October 14, 2012 at 8:26 PM |
Lol it was chessy to watch but so much better to see on tv than YouTube. You get to see all the close ups like Aly and her messy bun. You get to see things that people who had the best seats couldn’t see.
October 14, 2012 at 11:42 PM
Agree. I had two thoughts after watching it today: 1) I’m so glad I didn’t spend any money to see that live and 2) Can I get that hour of my life back?
It was super cheesy.
October 15, 2012 at 2:56 PM
I have to say watching it on tv was much worse than in person, everyone looked 10-15 pounds heavier, except Gabby who is a twig. And you didn’t even see half of the actual show. And there was no special routine or segment of Kyla that you got with the other 4 girls. It made me think of all the tours I watched on tv as a child and how much better they probably were in person vs the super cut and edited tv version.
October 14, 2012 at 9:48 PM |
I didn’t watch.
October 15, 2012 at 12:44 AM |
There was an article late last year that seemed to imply that Martha had advised/was going to advise her not to do floor, although there was no direct quote. However, Martha was quoted as saying “she would not need to learn new skills.”
October 15, 2012 at 5:36 PM |
If it’s true ASac had new vaults and a potential floor then it doesn’t make sense why she would not perform them at Trials unless Marta told her something and she relied on it (i.e., “save your difficulty for London.”) I wouldn’t put it past Marta but you’d think ASac, being an adult, going through three Olympic cycles, and seeing this sort of thing happen COUNTLESS times to other gymnasts, would know better than to trust Marta and do what she says. Same with Mihai. These gymnasts and their coaches are either just oblivious to mere fact or they are really just that easily manipulated. Anyone that follows this sport could have seen that ASac wasn’t going to be an easy nod for this team, especially with McKayla’s upgrades on vault and the fact everyone and their mother were throwing amanars. You also had a bunch of solid beamers too, and if Marta was going to leave ASac off of any apparatus in favor of her other ones during a competition like the Olys it would have been beam – like, duh.
Truth be told I was surprised ASac bothered making another attempt at coming back for the Olys after rupturing her Achilles (although I do respect her for it). I would have figured that even SHE knew the most she could hope for was an alternate position, but when she was interviewed about it her face told me otherwise when the person asked how she would feel being an alternate. She flat out said that wasn’t what she was here for but that she’d be honored (and you could tell she almost wanted to add an “I guess” at the end of that statement). So I thought to myself she’s deluding herself or was told something. But then again, if Nastia was also told something ASac again SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that she would need to go balls to the wall in order to have a chance. There was not enough room on that team for TWO specialists. So if Nastia was ultimately promised a spot if she hit, how could she justify her own position on that team? Jo, Aly, and Gabby were basically locks at that point. ASac didn’t have a floor (well, maybe she did, but maybe Marta told her to save it) and neither did Nastia. So you’d be doing 3 up 3 count with Jo, Aly, and Gabby on floor; ASac, Jo, and Gabby on vault; Nastia, Gabby, Jo on bars and likely Jo, Nastia, and either ASac or Gabby on beam. Not a bad team I guess, but still. Not any back-ups if someone goes down or has an injury.
More importantly, if ASac was just repeating her beam/vault she did in ’08 and Maroney was doing the AA at Trials, how could ASac justify a decision made by Marta where she’d be leaving Maroney at home? What ASac REALLY needed to do was beat Maroney on vault in order to have any chance – no matter WHAT Marta said to her – and she didn’t. She did the same two vaults she’s been doing for 4+ years now.
I would love to know what went down because obviously something did.
January 14, 2015 at 7:30 AM |
I don’t know whether Alicia was led on. I think given the 5 girls who made the team it was hard to put her on it. She definitely wouldnt replace Wieber, Douglas, or Raisman. She couldn’t replace Ross as the team needed a bars/beam girls, not a vault/beam girl. Putting her on over Maroney would have been hard, and nobody knew Maroney would fall in vault finals in London. I was shocked she wasn’t named 1 of the 3 alternates though.
The problem for Alicia in addition to the 5 who made it, is she wasn’t necessary for the team anywhere. She could have won vault gold in London, but she probably wouldnt have even been used on vault in team final. She might have been the countries best beam worker in 2012 factoring in all of difficulty, form, consistency, and scoring potential, but they still don’t really lose anything without her. It is a shame she wasn’t in London. She could have won gold on vault, bronze on beam, and the team gold. It was hard to put her on the team though, but I was very surprised she wasn’t made 1 of the 3 alternates.