So I was really pleased with NBC’s live trials coverage for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and am wondering if they are airing Women’s live tomorrow night. More fun than awating the live scores on USAG. But here is what I am thinking about coming into Trials…
How Performance is Effecting Each Spot for the Olympic Team:
With spots one two and three occupied by Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, and Alicia Sacramone first we need to consider that we are using the three remaining spots to fill four gaps in the Team Final; 1 VT, 2 UB, and 1 FX.
Which next brings us to Chellsie Memmel, who is also in my opinion a lock now. Chellsie’s first priority is filling in one spot on UB. And next, I think she may be the 3rd spot on floor. I would put her in over everyone available. She is capable of a high SV, and can bring a high score. So Chellsie with this I believe Chellsie makes hte VT/FX team member to simply a vault specialist position. Even if Chellsie has a reliable DTY, we can have one that is cleaner via Samantha Peszek, Ivana Hong, Bridget Sloan, Mattie Larson and a few other key names we all know of. Chellsie is also capable of taking the 3rd beam spot away from Sacramone; she has a high SV (granted she makes all the connections) and who else has landed a punch front with one foot off the beam and doesn’t wobble? (Aarhus 2006, Team Final). But all of that won’t be decided until prelims Beijing, as Chellsie will definitely preform beam in Qualifications.
So Memmel’s addition to the team now leaves (again in my opinion) 1 VT and 1UB Gap, and two spots left to fill.
Spot number one is between Bridget Sloan and Shayla Worley. There are pros and cons to both. Bridget is healthier than Shayla currently. Shayla however, has world championship experience and we know that she can score decently in the international field. Shayla REALLY needs to NOT WITHDRAW and compete this whole weekend. Though she only may do bars and beam, her spot on the team is based soley on bars and nothing else. Same with Bridget. I do not believe Bridget’s DTY on vault is a factor; that is the final spot to be established on the team and that is for the remaining vault position. If Shayla stays healty enough to compete only bars, and performs GREAT during Trials then I think she will get the spot over Bridget.
The final spot is for vault only, though I think this position is also the offical backup on floor as well. Peszek and Larson I believe are the two this spot comes down to. POSSIBLY Hong. Peszek is the one with international experience and I think she will prevail. Going clean and consistent on floor I think would lock her in place on that team. But she has endurance/consistency issues with floor. IF and only IF Peszek bombs vault then do I see one of the super dark horses being included. This is where gymnasts like Brittany Ranzy and Amber Trani come in. We can’t forget Mohini Bhardwaj’s performance at Trials in 04′!
This is what I predict, and the alternates will follow this pattern: Whoever doesn’t make it in the Worley/Sloan and Peszek/Larson spot is who will be the alternates…maybe Jana Bieger but I don’t know.
On another note, Chellsie is filling in the awesome spot of sentimental faves that make the competitions so exciting. I am really hoping she will do AA in Beijing. I would love to see her and Shawn in it. I am wondering if she would purposely be sat out of vault in prelims to keep the AA Shawn/Nastia. Even if either of them fell, they would still qualify, but with Chellsie in there a mistake could put her in. It would be so cool though. Would that happen? In my opinion that would be an awful thing to do to her. First off, even if Chellsie has only a 1.5 yurchenko it shouldn’t matter for prelims. And Chellsie has been around the longest. She has the best story to tell and has come back from the most issues (injuries). She very well may not qualify to AA Finals but she has earned her right to be able to try.
Well that is all for now with the random thoughts.
Tags: Alicia Sacramone, Amber Trani, bridget sloan, Brittany Ranzy, chellsie memmel, ivana hong, Jana Bieger, Nastia Liukin, olympic trials, predictions, Samantha Peszek, Shawn Johnson, shayla worley
June 20, 2008 at 9:45 pm |
Nastia also hurt herself and made a very strong come back from last year. I like Chessle but i personally dont’ think she is as good of a gymnasts as Nastia
June 20, 2008 at 11:05 pm |
Chellsie is a better gymnast then Nastia is every aspect but form. IMO
June 20, 2008 at 11:22 pm |
I don’t agree with you on that! Maybe at one time yes, as of today Nastia beats Chellsie on every event
June 21, 2008 at 1:12 am |
nastia needs to get it together on bars to be at the top!!!! ugh
anyway, nastia beats out chellsie by more than one point (even with a near-fall, you can call it a fall cause she gets .5 for the squat and .3 for the step)
even of nastia or shawn falls during prelims, chellsie’s score will not be high enough to qualify
im sorry but i think nastia deserves this way more than chellsie/shawn especially after all the crap she went thru last year
June 21, 2008 at 11:43 am |
Catherine-
I just looked at the post and my writing is a bit choppy (I wrote that incredibly late!)
What I mean to say is that Chellsie deserves the right to compete AA in prelims. I am not debating who is the best at AA. Just that there is no reason to not include Chellsie in Beijing Prelims in AA along with Nastia and Shawn. It definitely would be difficult for her to qualify, but I really think she at least deserves a shot.
Sorry if that didn’t make sense!