I have interests other than music and babies. Really I do. Like football. My sister-in-law asked me to name the 50 states the other day and when I could only come up with 49 I asked if the missing state had an NFL team located in it. Once I had a ‘yes’ I figured out the elusive state in less than 30 seconds. I love football and I love that my husband and I can enjoy it together. But I also love gymnastics and figure skating, sports that he definitely doesn’t dig as much. Because I can’t discuss my thoughts on the recent Visa US Gymnastics Championships with him I’ll have to type them out here. If somebody actually reads this and understands it, let me know—we will be friends.
First off, I was only able to watch the final night of the women’s competition, because I don’t believe in paying Universal Sports my hard-earned cash to be able to tune in for a spotty online connection. Based on what I read, it sounds like it was an extremely sloppy night of gymnastics anyway. The few bright spots included Jordyn Wieber and Shawn Johnson demonstrating consistency and displaying a toughness that belied the other competitors. Night two proved to be a much cleaner competition, but not without some frightening and head-scratching moments.
Uhh…Valerie?
Let’s talk about Rebecca Bross for a minute. Our national champion, and best international gymnast that we’ve boasted during the last quadrennium was clearly competing at less than her best this past weekend. Ankle surgery less than a year ago has hampered her consistency and it showed on night one with three falls. Bross was on track for a much better performance Saturday night, but dislocated her knee landing a double-twisting Yurchenko vault. Which leads to my first topic of discussion:
Why in the HECK did she even attempt that vault? She hadn’t been landing it in practice. She didn’t land it in warm-ups. Her main rival, Jordyn Wieber, had already vaulted and landed a beautiful 2½ twisting Yurchenko, so she wasn’t going to make up any lost ground score-wise. There was no mathematical way Bross was going to repeat as national champion. With the world selection camp just a few weeks away, and the world championships after that, you don’t need or want to peak at Visas. Bross’ international record speaks for itself—an invitation to the selection camp was in the bag and protecting her body should have been her and her coach’s number one priority.
Instead she attempted a vault that hadn’t happened all week, landed in a position that made every single one of us cringe, and eliminated herself from competition for the foreseeable future—most likely through the rest of the year. I have the utmost respect for Valerie Liukin and what he’s done with the WOGA gym…WOGA has produced back-to-back Olympic all-around champions and launched itself to the forefront of elite gyms in the United States. But that was a boneheaded move. Bross can consider herself extremely fortunate that “all” she did was dislocate a kneecap and that we’re not talking reconstructive surgery for a torn ACL/MCL/etc. But in the meantime, the US Selection Committee has to unhappily figure out NOW how they replace their second-best all-arounder for the world championship team.
Not-so-smart Nastia
Which leads me to my next pondering…Nastia Liukin on the Selection Committee? Really? I mean, Liukin is a perfect addition to that committee in another 4+ years, but she hasn’t ruled out coming back to gymnastics next year. (She admitted this openly during the national broadcast.) Additionally, half of her former teammates from the 2008 Olympics are competing for spots on this year’s world team and I’m sure there are a lot of people wondering if she can remain unbiased in her recommendations. If she is even remotely considering a comeback for next year Liukin should stay removed from any political or administrative responsibilities in USA Gymnastics. Let me clarify by saying that I think the chances of Liukin making a full comeback next year are very slim. She’s already won the biggest prize in women’s gymnastics and has nothing to prove. But she is the reigning Olympic silver medalist on the uneven bars and the US team’s weakest event, by far, is uneven bars. If Liukin decided to return just on that event, her chances of making next year’s Olympic team would be high.
Comeback Kids
As so often happens the year before the Olympics, the wizened members of gymnastics start dreaming about returning to the grandest stage in sports. The Olympic bug matures from pupa to adult the year before an Olympic games and, while it bites many, few victims actually make noticeable impacts that late in the four-year cycle. This year we saw Chellsie Memmel, Alicia Sacramone, and Shawn Johnson all demonstrate their intent to be on the 2012 London team. Here are a few thoughts on their chances…
Memmel is one of the most consistent, determined, rise-to-the-challenge athletes I’ve ever seen. If she’s healthy. Unfortunately, Memmel’s career is dotted with horribly-timed injuries. She missed the 2004 Olympics entirely and was only able to compete on one event in 2008. She’s back once again, at the age of 23, because she hasn’t done the Olympics “right” yet. If she’s healthy, she could content for the all-around competition, with huge individual strength in her uneven bars set. But she was unable to complete her bars set on night two due to a tweaked shoulder, and the United States will have to weigh carefully if they even take a chance putting the injury-prone, ever-aging Memmel on an Olympic team. With Bross gone she will certainly make the world team, pending health, but the Olympics are a much weightier proposition. If Memmel is placed on the Olympic team you can guarantee that there will be a lot of people praying that she actually makes it to and through the games, and that they have some really solid alternates in the bullpen.
Chance of making world team: 85%. Chance of making Olympic team: 50%
Sacramone is the best vaulter in the world right now (although I wouldn’t be surprised if her title was stripped this year by fellow American Jordyn Wieber) and her power on floor exercise makes her a valuable addition to the team. However, she fluctuates between mental resilience and mental meltdown. If she’s on, she’s fantastic. If she’s not (and that can vary from event to event, not just from competition to competition) it can be catastrophic, as evidenced by her two, famous, devastating falls in the finals of the Olympic team competition in 2008. The best moment for Sacramone at Visas was her night two floor routine…first time she’s stayed in bounds with no falls in over a year. Worst decision? Keeping that front-pike beam mount, which seems to be a sticking point between Sacramone and Martha Karolyi. If you want to compete on balance beam at the Olympics Alicia, lose the mount.
Chance of making world team: 95%. Chance of making Olympic team: 90%.
And then we have little Miss Shawn Johnson, who looks way too young to be training for her second Olympics. Johnson’s comeback is less than a year old, and her first competition just over a month ago. She has a long way to go in start values and getting all four events back (she opted out of floor at Nationals), but wow…she looked good. Her beam routine on night two was every bit as rock-solid and consistent as she was in Beijing. She has a brilliant coach, one who earned my respect by keeping Johnson healthy and consistent for two years leading up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Since then, Johnson completely shredded her knee in a skiing accident and is in the midst of learning to trust her landings. With each dismount this past week she gained confidence. While her start values aren’t as high as many of the other gymnasts vying for spots on the World team, she deserves to be considered, especially when you consider her past experience and unshakeable nerves on the international stage. She could be great once again.
Chance of making World team: 60%. Chance of making Olympic team: 75%.
Golden Girl
I would be remiss if I didn’t at least touch briefly on the brilliance that was Jordyn Wieber this past week. Wow, wow, wow. She’s the “it” girl right now, and with the Russians Mustafina and Komova injured, the heavy favorite heading into the all-around at this year’s world championships. Wieber could legitimately contend for individual medals on all four events and is particularly strong on beam and vault. She has that extra something that made Miller, Patterson, Liukin, and Johnson great. If she can STAY HEALTHY (such an impossible task in today’s era of gymnastics) she could give the United States their third consecutive gold medal in the Olympic all-around competition next year.
Chance of making the world team: 98%. Chance of making the Olympic team: 95%.
And there you have it. A very long-winded account of the Visa National Championships. If I write about US gymnastics in the near future it will probably revolve around the Karolyi regime and the plusses and minuses of the current selection process system. But I’ve typed enough for a small college paper at this point and should return to “more important things” like my job or something. If you actually made it through this entry, you get a gold medal. But be careful and don’t get injured mounting the podium.
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