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"I'm pissed!" America's Cup Gymnastics (Spoilers!)
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Posted by: JohnJr

Darn, darn, darn! Poor Blaine. :(

Jason, my man, still looking good! I wish they would have shown his rings exercise, that is always one of the highlights of the show for me. They probably didn't because of Blaine's injury.

3 flips and a half twist off the horse for that one Romanian dude. He ended up what, 20' away from the horse?! Great vault!

Carly Patterson rocked for the women. It was great when on the floor exercise they were saying "If she sticks this, she wins" and then she does one of the best stick landings I have ever seen. Exclamation point!

Chelsie Memmel continues to impress.

Weird stuff going on in the Hamm world. If I had been their coach I would be devastated too.

Where was Holly Vise?

What were ya'lls thoughts?

-John

Posted by: laria

Hollie Vise was not invited to it. She's not much of an all-around gymnast anyway. Tasha Schwikert was supposed to compete, but she was injured yet again, and replaced by Courtney McCool, who did a pretty good job. Chellsie throws lots of hard skills but her form is atrocious.

Posted by: Gene S

This was on Saturday correct?
Tivo caught it on a wish list, but when I played it, it was basketball. Hopefully it will be shown again on ESPN or something.

Posted by: JohnJr

There's something about Courtney McCool that I just don't like. Well, I'll be honest about it, I think her head is not proportioned to her body. It may have been her hair-doo. She just does not strike me as the gracefull "line" that the announcers kept complementing her on. First time I have seen her, she may grow on me.

Chellsie is nothing but a winner, from what I can see. Has she fallen from an apparatus in a single major competition? I just don't see how you can call her form atrocious. It does take the announcers calling out form breaks to me for me to notice them 80% of the time, but on things like making the landing, and performing the skill, she is as good as anyone. She may give away a tenth or two on form, but I'll take the consistency, any day.

I'm surprised that you say Hollie is not an all-arounder. I really thought she was. I take it she is particularly weak on an event? Which one(s)? I've always like her.

I had forgotten Tasha. That Cuban girl that did so well at the (was it Worlds?) I guess will be a specialist too in Athens.

-John

Posted by: JohnJr

quote:
Originally posted by Gene S
This was on Saturday correct?
Tivo caught it on a wish list, but when I played it, it was basketball. Hopefully it will be shown again on ESPN or something.

I think it was on Saturday.

The title is probably listed as "Visa America's Cup Gymnastics" if you make TiVo try and find it for you again.

-John

Posted by: JohnJr

Well, one more gripe about Courtney McCool. Is anyone else still using double/triple twists in their floor exercise? I think not. Only the "swan," but she is retired from real competition now, at least hopefully.

I don't think her difficulty was even close to the others.

-John

Posted by: JohnJr

Which reminds me... the other new girl last night. With the sleepy eyes. I think she messed up her triple turn mount on bar, but then she turned around and did one of the best triple turns I have ever seen on floor. Gorgeous.

-John

Posted by: Chippy

quote:
Originally posted by JohnJr
There's something about Courtney McCool that I just don't like. Well, I'll be honest about it, I think her head is not proportioned to her body. It may have been her hair-doo. She just does not strike me as the gracefull "line" that the announcers kept complementing her on. First time I have seen her, she may grow on me.

Chellsie is nothing but a winner, from what I can see. Has she fallen from an apparatus in a single major competition? I just don't see how you can call her form atrocious. It does take the announcers calling out form breaks to me for me to notice them 80% of the time, but on things like making the landing, and performing the skill, she is as good as anyone. She may give away a tenth or two on form, but I'll take the consistency, any day.

I'm surprised that you say Hollie is not an all-arounder. I really thought she was. I take it she is particularly weak on an event? Which one(s)? I've always like her.

I had forgotten Tasha. That Cuban girl that did so well at the (was it Worlds?) I guess will be a specialist too in Athens.

-John

Courtney McCool has no neck. I heard someone say that she looks like a Pez dispenser, and I totally agree. Plus, she was extremely tense during the entire meet, and I think that contributed to her neck issues.

Chellsie Memmel's form is atrocious. Look at her skills in slow-mo if you still have the American Cup on your Tivo. Her feet are almost always flexed instead of being pointed. Her double Arabian on floor exercise (her second pass) was so cowboyed, it was ugly to watch. Chellsie may be consistent, but she tends to chuck very difficult skills without paying attention to details. Hopefully she can clean up her form issues before Trials.

Hollie Vise can't vault to save her life, and she's very poor on floor exercise, too. She has absolutely no power. In fact, Marta Karolyi (National Team Coordinator) didn't give Hollie any international assignments because she wanted her to stay home and work on her power events. It's a shame, because Hollie has very nice lines on bars and beam, her specialty events. In fact, she may get left off the Olympic team in favor of a different girl who can work bars and beam and still bring in a decent score on floor and/or vault.

I think the Cuban girl you're thinking of is Annia Hatch, and she actually didn't perform at Worlds because she tore her ACL during training a day or two before the competition was supposed to start. She's still trying to recover from her injury and may not make it back in time for the Olympics.

This is shaping up to be an incredible year for women's gymnastics in the US! So many great gymnasts and so few berths on the Olympic team! Can't wait for the next NBC broadcast.

Posted by: Chippy

quote:
Originally posted by JohnJr
Well, one more gripe about Courtney McCool. Is anyone else still using double/triple twists in their floor exercise? I think not. Only the "swan," but she is retired from real competition now, at least hopefully.

I don't think her difficulty was even close to the others.

-John

I'm not sure what you mean. Lots of gymnasts still use twisting elements in their floor routines. And when you refer to "the swan," are you talking about Khorkina? She's not retired from competition yet; she's supposed to be back in Athens for her final Olympic games.

I agree with you that McCool still needs to up her difficulty a bit, though.

Posted by: Chippy

P.S. JohnJr, I think it's cool that as a guy, you're interested in artistic gymnastics. :up: Most of the males I know wouldn't be caught dead watching a "froufrou" sport like gymnastics.

Posted by: JohnJr

To be honest it is kind of embarrasing, as a guy, to like gymnastics. But, I always have. Truly an amazing sport. I can point other guys to Jason Gaston and just watch their jaws drop, however. :D

I guess it was only wishfull thinking on my part that Khorkina was gone. ;)

Thanks for clearing up the McCool proportion thing. It's just a little disconcerting and probably another reason she is being showcased to the international judges.

I think I did leave it on the TiVo, so I will go back and look at Chellsie's form more critically, especially looking at the things ya'll pointed out. It's better I am surprised now than when they announce the team and alternates.

I agree it's going to be a great year, culminating with the Olympics! :up: :up: :up:

-John

Posted by: JohnJr

Funniest part of the show last night... they had just shown Morgan Hamm on the Horizontal Bar, his best event, I believe. Smooth, complex with intricacies, lots of bonus combinations.

Then the Romanian gets up. They say, "There is an easy way and a hard way to get bonus. He does it the hard way." :D

He proceeded to do some awesomely scary releases. :)

-John

Posted by: JohnJr

Ya'll have me thinking about the team all-around now. Didn't they change the rules where now they do not drop the lowest score? Also, do all members of the team now have to compete on all events? Can there be specialists, anymore?

-John

Posted by: laria

There can be specialists, but in case of an injury, it's better to have specialists who are pretty decent on their non-specialty events. I am a fan of Hollie's but her vault is very weak, and while her presentation on floor is nice, she is a very weak tumbler. She had a growth spurt recently (I remember hearing about it last summer), and I don't think she's regained her power from before that, not that it was a whole lot to begin with. I would rather see her in Athens as the bars/beam specialist, but I bet it will be someone like Courtney Kupets, who is better on floor/vault, assuming she gets those back in time after her injury.

Courtney McCool really does have no neck, and her shoulders look so tense. I hate her hair-do as well...I find the bun detracts from her line. She has nicel form though...straight knees, pointed toes. As the other poster mentioned, Chellsie flexes her feet a lot, cowboys her tucked tumbling, etc. Her dance is not really that pretty to watch, either. And for a fairly powerful girl, she really has no amplitude sometimes. I am always afraid she is going to hit her head on the beam when she does her barani. I give her credit for landing her skills and her consistency, but I don't know how well she would score at the Olympics.

As for twisting, lots of girls still do a twisting pass. :) Triple twists, 2.5 to front layout, and front twisting passes are all fairly common passes. In the Visa Cup, 6 out of 8 girls did at least one twisting pass. Terin Humphrey performed two twisting passes (front 1.5 through to 2.5 and a triple), Carly performed one (2.5 to front layout), Elena Gomez performed two (2.5 to front full layout and a triple), Monette Russo performed one (2.5), Chellsie did one (2.5 to front layout), and finally Courtney McCool's passes were all twisting (2.5 to front full layout, triple, and front double). I don't remember if Monette Russo's was actually televised. I remember all the USA ones and Gomez's were, though.

Posted by: faerie

I love gymnastics. I took lessons when I was younger and even though I didn't do very well, I loved every minute. Now I'm simply reduced to watching it on TV =)

What is a good website to keep up to date on gymnastics? I haven't found one that shows what's coming up as well as who's currently competing.

btw - Blaine Wilson, besides being a fantastic gymnast and team leader, has to be THE hottest gymnast ever. *sigh* that was my teenage girl moment =) and now it's over!

Posted by: Chippy

quote:
Originally posted by JohnJr
Ya'll have me thinking about the team all-around now. Didn't they change the rules where now they do not drop the lowest score? Also, do all members of the team now have to compete on all events? Can there be specialists, anymore?

-John

In team preliminaries, the format is 6-5-4, which means 5 gymnasts compete and only 4 scores count, so they can still drop the lowest score during prelims. However, during team finals, you're right in that the format is now 3-3-3, which means only 3 gymnasts compete and all 3 scores count.

Posted by: Chippy

quote:
Originally posted by faerie
What is a good website to keep up to date on gymnastics? I haven't found one that shows what's coming up as well as who's currently competing.

I read a couple forums religiously: OOBN and GGMB. OOBN is pretty much PG-rated and is safe for all ages. I'd be a little cautious about visiting GGMB, though -- while they have a ton of great information on that site, their discussions can get quite racy and may contain inappropriate and objectionable material.