Yea, me neither. I would like to trust Alicia Sacramone and Chellsie Memmel to pick the fair team like they did at Worlds last year but I have some…
The Olympians! With Russia out there is about a 000 1% chance the US lose the Gold medal this time. Even if Simone falls apart again, the overscoring of gymnasts like Jade Carey will prevent what happened 4 years ago from happening again. I am convinced that BFF’s Marta and Nellie Kim colluded to lowball US gymnasts like Grace Mccallum and Jordan Chiles and even though they lost by a lot, it wouldn’t have happened if the form of the Russian girls was as nitpicked as everyone on the US team sans Jade Carey’s was. Jordan Chiles is the only US gymnast without a lot of form issues. Her scores should have represented that, but they didn’t. In the past, the Russians have complained about Nellie Kim favoring the US but that changed in 2021. Guess what I think about that?
So… Will Marta and Nellie do the same thing in 2024? There aren’t any Russians but Brazil has a two-headed monster that could compete with the best US gymnasts if only they had a third. It’s possible just not probable, so….
Pick your pre, every meet Olympic team.
Here are your contenders…
Simone Biles- Shilese Jones- Leanne Wong, Skye Blakely- Joscelyn Roberson (Your 2023 world team)
Kayla Dicello, Jordan Chiles, Tiana Sumanasekera, Zoe Miller, Kaliya Lincoln, Katelyn Jong (Your 2023 Pan am team)
Hezly Rivera (overscored Wogaette) Kieryn Finnell, (Izzy Stassi (injured) Reese Esponda (Dark horse) (Juniors turned Seniors)
Suni Lee, Gabby Douglas (comebacks)
Jade Carey (Judges on crack)
Lexi Zeiss ( Injured walking)
The real contenders are the Pan Am /World teams and Suni Lee but there is always a dark horse that comes out of nowhere like Reese who is training some crazy stuff on floor. Gabby Douglas is always a contender with the judges ignoring her mistakes and the few things she has shown have looked great but there have been like 3 things and remember that Amanar hit at camp lies from last year? Oh, and Grace McCallum has thrown some stuff lately that makes people think she is coming back.
The first two are pretty much locked bearing injury. Simone and Shilese. So you build from there. That usually means a third AAer. And a Vault/Floor and Bars/Beam specialist.
Don’t count out the juniors. The US judges love Hezley Rivera but she will need to upgrade to be in contention. Reese is throwing triple-backs in training on floor. She only vaulted a 4.2 at Nationals last year but if the AAer had two vaults they may skip a VT/FL specialist and take someone with a super routine like Maroney’s Amanar. Or a super Zoe Miller bar routine.
Does anyone have any ideas? Someone has to have some thoughts?
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